Additional information concerning Feb. 11 test

Two additional points concerning the test, not spelled out in the preceding information, are (1) you should write all your answers in the test booklet which will be provided, but (2) you are free to make notations on the test itself. (Such notations may help you to organize your thoughts.)
The following "key" for the sample questions (handout, pp. 9-12) is intended to indicate the general sort of approach which you should take in the test. [Material in italic type is supplementary information; it is not the sort of thing which you should include in your actual answers.]
1. Xenophanes.

Xenophanes' implication is that, just as the idea of "horse-gods" or "lion-gods" is silly, so also the traditional anthropomorphic gods and goddesses of Greek mythology are rather silly - especially to the extent that immoral human actions are attributed to divinities. A good example of the latter is the story of Ares and Aphrodite in Odyssey, Book 8.

2. Homer, Odyssey. This is sung by the bard Demodokos to the Phaiakes and Odysseus.

Hephaistos.

Ares.

3. Homer, Odyssey. Lines 4-18 are spoken by Zeus to an assembly of the gods, from which Poseidon is absent.

At least on the surface, H&P's assessment is very well illustrated here, as Zeus explicitly says Aigisthos did not follow the friendly advice which the gods had given him. [Especially in view of other Greek myths, though, such as the story of Oedipus, as presented in Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, one might wonder whether the "warnings" given by the gods to Aigisthos might not actually have been a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.]

4. No epithets in "a" or "d".

Orestes (Agamemnon's son) is referred to as "valiant" in "b" and as "far-famed" in "c" and "e".

Aigisthos is referred to as "stately" in "c" and as "excellent" in "e". No epithet is used with his name in "b", although this translation uses "valiant" to refer to Agamemnon's son. The variation in translation may reflect some uncertainty about the actual meaning of the Greek epithet, which some scholars translate as "blameless" - although this obviously seems inappropriate here.

5. Hesiod, Theogony.

"Tritogeneia" refers to Athena.

Formulaic epithets are "owl-eyed" in line 3, "starry" in line 6, "eternal" in line 8, "grey-eyed" in line 10. Also, "king of gods and men" in line 13 is a formulaic phrase. [This is more than three - you need not list all five of these.]

6. Homer, Iliad. [There is no specific speaker or addressee - unless one chooses to view almost the entire poem as sung in the Muse's persona, following the initial invocation to a "goddess" in the proem.]

The specific reference to Hera and Zeus going to bed together is not, perhaps, directly relevant to Xenophanes' criticism of Homer's gods as being immoral. However, the broader contest - Zeus's more or less secret meeting with Thetis, Hera's complaint about this, and Zeus's arrogant retort to Hera - well illustrate the relatively undesirable human traits which Homer ascribes to divinities in the Iliad. Overall, this could be said to be exactly the sort of thing to which Xenophanes objected in Homer's (and Hesiod's) portrayal of gods and goddesses.

7. No. "2" also refers to the craft of Hephaistos.

The specific craft which is referred to in "2" is the invisible net which Hephaistos designs to catch and hold Ares and Aphrodite in bed together.