Exams

Exams

First Midterm Exam

Bronze Age, Dark Age
Use the BA Study Guide and the Powerpoint slide shows for review

Use this blank practice map for reviewing the placement of regions, cities, etc.

Iliad
Use the Iliad Study Guide as an aid for figuring out which names and episodes are important. The study guide lists all books, but you will need to know in detail the books highlighted on the schedule: book 1-4, 6, 9, 14, 16, 18, 21, 22, 24. You should know all listed characters thoroughly, and you should be able to spell the names correctly. As for the episodes, what is listed in the Guide is meant to trigger your memory: YOU ARE EXPECTED TO KNOW ALL EPISODES IN SOME DETAIL for the books listed. See sample questions just below for the format.

Sample Questions for the Iliad:

Quick questions:
a. Who is Sarpedon and how does he die?
b. What did the talking horses at the end of Book 19 say, who stops them from talking further, and why (briefly!) is this important?
c. Give a capsule summary of the events in books 1-3.

Passage identifications. (There will be some, but not much, choice)
1. Identify the context, that is, explain what is going on in this part of the tale, and from what part of the tale the passage is taken (for example, if you were given the lines introducing the catalogue of ships, you would identify this as the invocation to the Muses preceding the Catalogue of Ships, from early on in the Iliad [book 2]).
2. Comment on the significance of the passage,that is, how
the passage is significant in the context of the tale, and/or how the passage is more generally significant in terms of Homer's artistic aims and technique (for example, if you were given the lines introducing the catalogue of ships, you might comment on the importance of the catalogue for creating a sense of an impressively large-scale war, and you might also comment more generally on the role of the Muse in epic poetry, and the importance of memory for a bard working within an oral tradition).
Passage #1
"Dread majesty, son of Cronus — what are you saying?
A man, a mere mortal, his doom sealed long ago?
You’d set him free from all the pains of death?
Do as you please ...
but none of the deathless gods will ever praise you.
And I tell you this—take it o heart, I urge you—
if you send him home, living still, beware!
Then surely some other god will want to sweep
his own son clear of the heavy fighting too.”