CLA 2100	Study Guide for Test One
Mainpage Syllabus Calendar

Structure of the Test

• Fifty Objective Questions (Multiple Choice, True/False, etc.) Based on Lectures and Readings. 100 pts.
• One Extra Credit Essay. 10 Pts.

A few comments on the multiple choice section. Does the study guide cover absolutely everything? No. It covers concepts from the lectures, for which you will be held responsible, and it also attempts to suggest some key points from the readings. You will remain responsible, I hasten to add, for the readings, wether or not I discussed everything in class, which I did not, because time is never sufficient to discuss all key points. My goal is not to steal points from you by means of trivial pursuit, but to encourage you to read Greek literature and to think about what you have read. If questions on a test can serve as an incentive, then I shall make use of that carrot and stick. An example might help. In my discussion of Lycurgus' institutions for the education of youth in Sparta, I neglected to discuss (because I saw that I needed to leave some time for Solon) the Spartan practice of requiring young boys to steal their own food. I would consider such a conspicuous feature of Spartan education (so unlike the precepts taught in our own schools) memorable enough to include in a question based on the reading assignment. On the other hand, even though I did mention and even explained the etymology of Lycurgus' nephew's name, Charilaus, I would not include that factoid, since I do not believe that it fosters reflection on the interesting issues of Spartan political organization.

How will the essay be graded? How will you know what to write? What am I looking for? First, I assume that, as students at the University of Florida, and therefore representing the academic best that our state has to offer, you have written more than a few essays in your time, and consequently know how to structure a formal essay. We will look for an introduction that lays out your plan coherently as well as a conclusion that recapitulates the main ideas. We will be keen of course to review the examples you have culled from your readings and which you discuss eloquently and thoughtfully in the main body of the essay. Any essay topic on the test will be listed below. You will therefore enter the room, we hope, with some general thoughts in place. The opportunity of the testing situation will help you organize your thoughts and bring them to the page. Of the thirty points the essay carries, ten will be reserved for structure and clarity of expression. The remainder will be reserved for substance, i.e. the number of examples discussed (three would be minimal) and the intelligence with which you explicate those well-chosen examples. So long as you justify your interpretation, you are free to interpret as you see fit. Dazzle us with your native wit as well as with your intimate knowledge of the readings, and we will reward you with the points that will earn you the GPA to pursue the post-graduate goals of your dreams.

Terms, Dates, Facts

N.B. These lists supplement the lecture notes, which contain additional and important information as well. You may access the lecture notes by clicking on the titles in the calendar section of the course web page.

Some Basic Epic Information

• epic
• dactylic hexameter
• blank verse/iambic pentameter
• 1200 BC
• 750 BC
• rhapsode
• Homer
• Rhapsode
• Oral/Formulaic
• Iliad
• Odyssey

The Beginnings of Greece

• 1200 BC (what collapsed?)
• Linear B (early form of Greek writing)
• rhapsode
• Bronze Age
• Iron Age
• Orality and Writing.

The Odyssey

• The hero's family:
  • Odysseus
  • Penelope
  • Telemakhos
  • Laertes
• A faithful nurse: Eurykleia
• A lover: Calypso
• Some suitors:
  • Antinoos
  • Eurymakhos
  • Amphinomos
• Agamemnon's Fate:
  • Agamemnon
  • Klytaimnestra
  • Aigisthos
  • Orestes
• Some Olympians
  • Zeus
  • Athena
  • Hera
  • Aphrodite
  • Poseidon
  • Hermes
• Telemakhos on the mainland in search of his dad meets:
  • Nestor
  • Menelaus
  • Helen
• Some places:
  • Phaiakia/Phaecia
  • Skheria/Scheria
  • Pylos
  • Ithaka/Ithaca
• Nymphs
  • Circe
  • Ino
• Adventures along the way
  • The Kikones (Cicones)
  • Lotus-Eaters
  • Polyphemus & the Kyklopes (Cyclopes)
  • Aeolus & his 12 Children
  • Laistrygnonians (Laestrygnonians)
  • Aiaia (Aeaea)
  • Teiresias (Tiresias
  • Skylla (Scylla) & Kharybdis (Charybdis)
  • Sirens
• On Phaiakia (Phaeacia)
  • Alkinoos (Alcinous)
  • Arete
  • Nausikaa (Nausicaa)
• Odysseus at home
  • Emaios
  • Argos
  • Melanthios
  • Iros

Hesiod

• Hesiod
  • Theogony
  • Works and Days
• Perses (Who was he? Why did Hesiod keep addressing him?)
• Olympians
  • Ares
  • Hades
  • Persephone
  • Demeter
  • Hephaistos
  • Apollo
  • Artemis
• Creation
• Eros
• The Separation of Heaven and Earth
  • Cronus
    • Aphrodite (ow did she come into being?)

Herodotus and Egypt

• 490-479 BC (What war took place?)
• Herodotus
• Martin Bernal
• Mary Lefkowitz
• Black Athena: The Afro-Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilization
• Not Out of Africa
• How do ancient Egyptian history and ancient Greece figure in American racial politics?

Archaic Greece

Chronology

• 8th-century BC Spartans conquer Messenia
• 594 BC Archonship of Solon in Athens
• 561 BC Pisistratus first attempts tyranny in Athens
• 527 BC Death of Pisistratus in Athens
• 510 BC Expulsion of tyrants from Athens
• 508 BC Reforms of Cleisthenes in Athens
• 499-4 BC Ionian revolt against Persians in Asia Minor.
• 490-79 BC Persian Wars
• 490 BC Defeat of Persians at Marathon by Athens
• 480 BC Naval Victory of Greeks under Athenian leadership at Salamis
• 479 BC Land Victory of Greeks under Spartan leadership at Plataea

  A few terms from our discussion of material culture:

• kouros
• kore
• pediment

Lycurgus and Solon

• Plutarch, circa AD 45-12.
• Lycurgus
• Solon
• rhetra
• Laconic
• Helots
• Krypteia
• sycophant
• Pisistratus
• Croesus (from reading, not lecture)
• Telus (from reading, not lecture)
• Cleobis & Biton (from reading, not lecture)

Essay Topics

• Odysseus meets a large number of women in the Odyssey. Discuss their various roles in the education of Odysseus as a human being. You may wish to address his various lovers, his wife, his treatment of the sexually active maidservants, his nurse Eurycleia, his encounter with ghosts (including his mother), etc.
• Why does Odysseus choos Penelope? Discuss his other options, and why you think he was so homesick.
• An important theme in Greek literature is the contrast of opposities and cultural comparison: Greeks and non-Greeks, the civilized and the uncivilized, nobles and commoners, bathed and unbathed, free and slave, men and women, human and divine, etc. Please take one such contrast and trace it through the literary works we have read thus far. Feel free to place your observations in historical context.
• Greek culture had in general a high respect for cleverness even in situations we might consider morally doubtful. Odysseus, like the gods, is, for example a master of deception. Sparta and Athens too, as exemplified in Plutarch's Lives of Lycurgus and Solon, also provide evidence for encouragement of such cunning. Please discuss examples from Homer to Solon of the rewards that could be lavished on successful liars and the moral justifications offered for such behavior in Greek literature.
• Greek literature shows a singular hostility towards stupidity, labeling it in fact a crime and a sin. Discuss examples of stupidity and the punishments meted out.
• Do the Greek gods matter? Discuss the nature of their powers and influence, and illustrate some of the ways that Greek literature and Greek civilization attempted to come to terms with these divine forces.
• Discuss Greek perceptions of divinity. They represented their gods in many ways. Discuss these representations. What did the gods look like? Did they always appear in the same guise? How did Greek gods communicate with human beings?
• Moral conduct. Greek literature addresses the question of moral conduct from many angles. We have looked at the heroic code, the education of Sparta, and the laws of Solon. Can you make general sense of these disparate glimpses? Were the ancient Greeks concerned with morality? Please discuss!
• How is Odysseus like or unlike an ideal Spartan soldier? Compare, contrast and analyze.
• The Odyssey was thought by ancient Greeks to provide lessons for life, an education, so to speak. Compare and contrast the education provided by the Odyssey with the educational system of Sparta. Were they compatible? If not, why not? How compatible, on the other hand, is the world of the Odyssey with the Athens you find represented in Plutarch's Life of Solon?