REVIEW FOR MIDTERM 2

Back to Syllabus.

Format and coverage

The test will cover only material SINCE the last test.

• Section I will require short, factual answers.
• Section II will require short paragraph answers. It will include important names, events and themes from the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the themes of Roman legend discussed in class and in the textbook. There will be choice.
• Section III will be ONE longer essay. There will be choice.

Trojan War facts and legend

• Real life background
  • When did Homer live? When did the war supposedly take place? What do we know about Troy, Mycenaean (Bronze Age) Greece?
  • How does the oral tradition explain how the poem could evolve all that time without the aid of writing?
• Legendary background
  • How does the Judgment of Paris lead to the war?
  • How long does the war last?
  • What is a legend? story about elite people, tied to a particular culture, time and place
  • What is a folktale? story about the little guy, tied to no particular time or place; often with magical elements
  • Who are the following and how does each die: Patroclus? Hector? Achilles? Agamemnon? Odysseus?
  • Who wins the Trojan War, and how?

The Iliad

Use your study guide as a guide to what's important.

• What portion of the Trojan War legend does the poem cover? What is the main theme of the poem?
• Know about important figures on each side:
  • Greeks: Agamemnon, Achilles, Odysseus, Patroclus
  • Trojans: Paris, Hector, Priam, Sarpedon (ally from Lycia)
• Know basic plot of quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles
• What do the gods add to the poem? What is their role? Which side is Athena on? Which side are Apollo and Aphrodite on?
• What is the basic heroic code expressed by Sarpedon in book 12 (i.e. how does/should a proper warrior-king behave)? How do Achilles' values compare to this code at the beginning of the poem? How do they change as the poem progresses, and why?
• What is a hero? How are the Greek concepts of fame(people talking about you, remembering you), honor andexcellence important to the heroic code?
• Achilles supposedly has two options, as to his fate.What are they? Does he really have a choice? How does his view of the world and himself change in the poem? (This was the subject of the writing assignment.)

The Epic of Gilgamesh

• Know the basic elements of the plot.
• Who was Gilgamesh in real life?
• Who is Enkidu? What happens to him? What does he represent?
• What is Gilgamesh like at the beginning of the poem? After he meets Enkidu? After Enkidu dies?
  • He starts to value life and fear death when Enkidu dies.
  • He travels to gain immortality so he won't have to die.
• What does he learn about death by the end of the poem? about life?

The Odyssey

Use your study guide as a guide to what's important.

• Know the basic structure of the poem
• What is a hero? How are the Greek concepts of fame (people talking about you, remembering you), honor and excellence imprtant to the heroic code?
• Know basic characters: Telemachus, Odysseus, Calypso, Penelope, the Cyclops Polyphemus, the Phaeacians (especially Nausicaa)
• What is Odysseus' character like? As a hero, is he like or unlike the heroes of the Iliad? How?
• What kinds of things do we learn about Odysseus from the following sources:
  • the stories Nestor, Helen and Menelaus tell Odysseus
  • Odysseus' own behavior with Calypso, with Nausicaa, with the Cyclops, with Penelope
• Polyphemus episode:
  • What elements does the standard folktale include?
  • How is the version in the Odyssey similar? How is it different, and why?
  • How are the Cyclopes like people of the Golden Age? How is Odysseus like people of the Iron Age?
• Odysseus' return, and regaining of his wife and kingdom, also resemble a folktale.
  • What are the standard elements of that folktale?
  • How is the version in the Odyssey similar? How is it different, and why?
• Does Telemachos grow up during the poem? What does his journey represent? Compare his behavior in Book 1 to his behavior with Menelaus in Book 4, and with Odysseus and the suitors in the later books.
• Is Telemachos a worthy son for Odysseus? Is Penelope a worthy wife for him?

Roman legend:

• Romulus and Remus legend--elements of legend and folktale
  • exposed as babies, raised by animal, then shepherds; grow up to found Rome
• Aeneas legend and Vergil's Aeneid
  • How does Vergil copy Homer?
  • How does the Aeneid differ from the Iliad and Odyssey?
  • How is real history blended with legend? Glimpse of real history of Rome given to Aeneas in Underworld