Format: the exam will consist of 3 sections, i.e. (1) matching (names and terms); (2) commentaries on passages selected from your reading; and (3) an essay question.
Part I, matching: you will be asked to match items listed with a brief description of them
[ca. 35% of total exam points]
items for matching:
Homer, Iliad, Odyssey (8th century BCE)
in medias res
aristeia
apostrophe
Muse(s)
Achilles
Hector
Patroclus
Priam
Odysseus/Ulysses
ekphrasis
Livius Andronicus
Vergil, Aeneid (19 BCE)
aetiology
Octavian/Augustus
Battle of Actium (31 BCE)
teleology
Janus
Antony & Cleopatra
Jupiter
Juno
Venus
Mercury
Neoptolemus/Pyrrhus
Anchises
Creusa
Iulus/Ascanius
Buthrotum
Andromache
Dido
(narrative) focalization
Nisus & Euryalus
Palinurus
Sibyl
katabasis
Daedalus
golden bough
Sychaeus
Marcellus
Gate of Ivory/Gate of Horn
Lavinia
Turnus
Latinus
Silvia’s stag
Umbro
Pallas
Danaids
Lausus
Mezentius
Camilla
epyllion
Juturna
Part II, commentary: you will be asked to comment on selected passages with a carefully organized short answer/essay. You will be asked to do the following:
(1) identify the author;
(2) identify the epic from which the passage is taken;
(3) identify the speaker(s) of the passage (this may be the narrator/Vergil);
(4) briefly describe the specific context in which the passage occurs;
(5) write a carefully organized paragraph or two commenting on the larger significance of the passage in light of the epic’s main themes, ideas, conventions, style, its characters, its historical, cultural or literary significance, etc.
You may choose 4 of 6 passages [ca. 40% of total exam points]
Part III, essay: you will be asked to write a thoughful and coherent essay based on the following topic:
To what extent do there seem to be two conflicting voices – one "public" (optimistic) and one "private" (skeptical) – in Vergil's Aeneid? The public voice of the epic presents Aeneas's story as a national epic for contemporary Romans still reeling from the effects of civil war and hoping to see civil society reconstructed under the rule of Augustus. The epic's more private voice seems to suggest doubt about this Augustan reconstruction project, and even perhaps betrays some doubt about the "civilizing" effects of the Roman imperial project/mission in general. Where and how do these conflicting voices/viewpoints come through in the poem? In what specific parts of Vergil's epic does each of these voices seem loudest? Which (if either) voice, the public or the private, seems to you to be most convincing/compelling in the end? Be sure to cite specific passages from the poem in your response.
[ca. 25% of total exam points]