Study Guide for Exam I

Format

• cut-and-dried identifications: basic information in factual form (small credit per item, and a small component of the exam)
• passages from the ancient literature we’ve read: identify context, and discuss briefly what the passage shows about ancient Greek or Roman ideas of the cosmos and how these ideas were reflected in myths (each a medium-small quantum of credit, but adding up to a major component of the exam)
• essay: discuss a thematic question, drawing for support of your contentions on specific, concrete evidence from several ancient works we have read (the largest single item of credit; a major component of the exam)

Things to study

• the works we have read, and basic facts about who composed them and roughly when
• major figures in each story we’ve read (characters who have been at the focus of discussions in class and study questions: as you review your notes from doing the readings and from class, make a list)
• locations of significant episodes (often major cult-sites): Helikon, Mekone, Eleusis, Delos, Delphi, Troy
• concepts useful for describing some of the modalities of myths and ideas they may reflect: allegory, animism, etiology, "charter myth", "mystery religion" (n.b., however: not all myths necessarily involve these concepts, and many myths do other things too).

Note: this is a literature class, not a memorization bee. It is convenient to be able to identify major figures swiftly, by name, but it is far, far more important to be able to recognize, understand, and EXPLAIN CLEARLY how details of the stories, the actions of the characters in them, and characteristic imagery associated with those characters, reflect ideas.

Strategy: think of specific passages that illustrate important points, so that on the test you can back up your arguments with concrete evidence. Be sure you explain clearly how the passage helps demonstrate your point. What does it say? What does that mean? Why does it mean that?

• how the natural world came into existence (a couple of versions)
• how divine figures relate to the natural world
• how human beings came into existence (several versions)
• human beings' place in the cosmos: the capacities and affinities human beings have, as a species, and how they relate to divinities and to the natural world
• how sex and generation operate among immortal beings; among mortal beings; between immortal and mortal beings
• how divine beings relate to one another: what forces and considerations operate?
• how divine beings relate to human beings: what forces and considerations operate?
• contrasts between the organic versus the technological
• contrasts between the spontaneous versus the regulated
• contrasts between the self-interested and self-determined versus the socially-conscious and consensual
• entities associated with the earth ("chthonian"); entities associated with the sky
• how specific interests and concerns are associated with individual divinities: what do a given god's special concerns have to do with one another, and therefore with the fundamental conceptions that god embodies? what does a god do to protect and promote his or her interests?
• what limits do a god's powers face?
• what limits do a human being's powers face?

This file last updated 24 September 2002 by jlong1@orion.it.luc.edu.
http://www.luc.edu/depts/classics/