General Instructions for Responses
You may develop your own topic rather than choosing one of the topics below, as long as you discuss this with me in advance.
Choose 1 topic to write your response on:
1. Write a diary or journal entry for a minor character (not Aeneas, Dido, Turnus, or one of the main gods) in the Aeneid describing and analyzing what you imagine to be their reactions to the events they experience in the epic. Be sure to use textual evidence from the epic to support your ideas.
2. Write a diary or journal entry for a female character in Statius's Thebaid or Achilleid describing and analyzing what you imagine to be their reactions to the events they experience in the epic. Be sure to use textual evidence from the epic to support your ideas.
3. As Aeneas travels from Troy to Italy he stops in various places. He meets both fellow Trojan exiles who have settled somewhere (as in Buthrotum in Aeneid 3), and also others who are not Trojan exiles (e.g. Dido and her Tyrians in Aeneid 4) but offer Aeneas a place to live. Imaginatively putting yourself in Aeneas's place as a wandering exile – and being sometimes hesiatant to fulfill your (supposed) destiny – where would you choose to settle among the places he stops during his journey to Italy? Be sure to argue for your choice based on what we learn of this place and its settlers in the Aeneid.
4. Using Aeneas's predicament as a sometimes hesitant hero of destiny & history as a point of comparison (and drawing on the text of the Aeneid), assess an experience in your own life in which your personal desire came into conflict with what you saw as your duty to a group (for example, family, organization, employment situation, community, country).
5. Describe how you would film a particular episode of the Aeneid or the Thebaid (for example, the Fall of Troy in Aeneid 2, a battle scene, or either epic's ending) for an audience today. What thematic or aesthetic aspects of the scene and/or aspects of its characters would you want to highlight, and what cinematic techniques would you use to accomplish your aims?
6. Write an imaginative essay (in diary or journal form if you prefer) explaining why Achilles agrees to, and spends so much time pretending to be female in Statius's Achilleid. Be sure to use textual evidence from the epic to support your ideas.