Classics 1022 Autumn 2020

Midterm Christopher Waldo

Section 1:
Short answer questions

Answer two of the following questions. Each of your responses should be 150-200 words in
length.

Do TWO of four. (40 points)

1.
What were some of the societal changes that occurred between the Bronze Age and the Dark
Age?

2.
How did misogyny manifest itself in ancient Greek culture?

3.
What influence did the Persian Wars have on the subsequent development of society in
ancient Greece?

4.
How did theater contribute to civic life in Athens?

Section 2: Commentaries on passages of text

Write a short commentary on two of the following passages. Your commentary should
explain how the passage is representative of the text as a whole and engage with the
particular language and ideas of the passage. Each of your commentaries should be 250-300
words in length.

No credit will be given for summarizing the passage or the larger work.

Do TWO of four. (60 points)

1.
Odyssey 9.364-77

‘Cyclops, you asked my name. I will reveal it;

then you must give the gift you promised me
of hospitality. My name is Noman.
My friends and family all call me Noman.’

He answered with no pity in his heart,

‘I will eat Noman last; first I will eat
the other men. That is my gift to you.’
Then he collapsed, fell on his back, and lay there,
his massive neck askew. All-conquering sleep
took him. In drunken heaviness, he spewed
wine from his throat, and chunks of human flesh.
And then I drove the spear into the embers
to heat it up, and told my men, “Be brave!”
I wanted none of them to shrink in fear.

2.
Theogony 51-68

And Zeus’ mind in Olympos is thrilled by the song

Of the Olympian Muses, the Storm King’s daughters.

They were born on Pieria after our Father Cronion

Mingled with Memory, who rules Eleutherai’s hills.
She bore them to be a forgetting of troubles,
A pause in sorrow. For nine nights wise Zeus
Mingled with her in love, ascending her sacred bed
In isolation from the other Immortals,
But when the time drew near, and the seasons turned,
And the moons had waned, and the many days were done,
She bore nine daughters, all of one mind, with song
In their breasts, with hearts that never failed,
Near the topmost peak of snowcapped Olympos.

There are their polished dancing grounds, their fine halls,

And the Graces and Desire have their houses close by,
And all is in bloom. And they move in the dance, intoning
The careful ways of the gods, celebrating the customs
Of all the Immortals in a voice enchanting and sweet.

3.
Herodotus 8.75

Then Themistocles, when the Peloponnesians were outvoting him, went privily out of the
assembly, and sent to the Median fleet a man in a boat, charged with a message that he must
deliver. This man's name was Sicinnus, and he was of Themistocles' household and attendant
on his children; at a later day, when the Thespians were receiving men to be their citizens,
Themistocles made him a Thespian, and a wealthy man withal. He now came in a boat and
spoke thus to the foreigners’ admirals: “I am sent by the admiral of the Athenians without the
knowledge of the other Greeks (he being a friend to the king’s cause and desiring that you
rather than the Greeks should have the mastery) to tell you that the Greeks have lost heart
and are planning flight, and that now is the hour for you to achieve an incomparable feat of
arms, if you suffer them not to escape. For there is no union in their counsels, nor will they
withstand you any more, and you will see them battling against each other, your friends
against your foes.”

4.
Agamemnon 1431-47

(Clytemnestra)
There’s more to hear, an oath that’s sanctified
by Justice—realized for my child—and Ruin,
and the Fury, since I slaughtered him for these:
from now on, hope won’t pace the house of fear,
as long as there’s a flame lit on my hearth
by Aegisthus, who has been my champion
this whole time, and the shield that gives me courage.
He lies here, after wronging me, his wife,
and soothing every Chryseis at Troy;
and here’s the seer of the signs, his captive,
who shared his bed; rely on her for saying
sooth—and for other services: the whore
among the sailors’ benches. Rightly honored,
the two of them: him, as I stated; her
like a swan, whose song and dance were rites of death—
his lover lying next to him. He brought
this side-dish in—but it was for my pleasure.