Format: the exam will consist of 3 sections, namely (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:
Lucretius (ca. 94-55 BCE)
Memmius
Epicurus
materialsm
Natura
Iphianassa
ataraxia
simulacra
Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE)
carmen et error
Tomis
Actaeon
Arachne
Apollo
Daphne
Arethusa
Narcissus
Echo
Medusa
Orpheus
Pygmalion
Eurydice
Jupiter
Europa
theriomorphic
Mercury
Argus
Io
Callisto
Hermaphroditus
Salmacis
Proserpina
Semele
Scylla
Tereus
Procne
Philomela
Ganymede
Hyacinth
Adonis
Byblis
Myrrha
Iphis
Caenis/Caeneus
Tiresias
apotheosis
catasterism
Julius Caesar
Augustus
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/Lucretius/Ovid);
(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 thoughtful and coherent essay based on one of the two following topics (i.e. you will be given just one question, and so you should prepare both topics):
(1) While Lucretius's theories about the physical world obviously have been eclipsed by modern sciene, do you find anything compelling or useful in the Epicurean system of ethics Lucretius presents for human beings to live by? What is "epic" about Lucretius's poem and in what ways is it distinctly different from the other Roman epics we read this semester? Be sure to explain your answers by citing details from Lucretius.
(2) How do Ovid's individual stories that we read form a coherent whole as part of a larger poem (i.e. the Metamorphoses)? What are the Metamorphoses recurring themes and how are these themes developed in the particular stories we read? What is “epic” about Ovid’s poem, and in what ways is it distinctly different from the other Roman epics we read this semester? Be sure to cite specific examples from the stories we read in Ovid.
[ca. 25% of total exam points]