UCLR 100C-002: Interpreting Literature - Classical Studies Personal Voices in Greek and Roman Literature Spring Semester 2024 Dr. Jacqueline Long Monday-Wednesday-Friday 9:20am-10:10am Life Science Building 412

Study Guide for Exam 1: Lyric Poetry of Archaic Greece

Format

• short identifications: basic information such as facts & terms, and brief statements of their relevance to our studies (small credit per item, but adding up to a significant component of the exam)
• passages of translated archaic Greek lyric and of classical Roman lyric or elegy we have read: identify context and discuss in concrete specific terms important ideas in our study-material that the the text illustrates most prominently - in form or in content, by sound or by ideas or by expression, about the poet or the performer(s) or the occasion or the audience - in the context of the individual poem or fragment or of that poet's work or of other poets' works and of archaic Greek lyric and classical Roman lyric or elegy more generally (each passage-essay earns a medium amount of credit, adding up to the biggest component of the exam)
• essay: discuss a thematic question, drawing for support of your contentions on specific, concrete evidence from different archaic Greek lyric and classical Roman lyric or elegiac poems we have read (the thematic essay also earns a medium amount of credit; a significant component of the exam)

Things to study

Studying strategy: identify important ideas and identify specific passages that illustrate them; be able to explain with clear reasoning how the ideas work, what makes them important, and show with concrete evidence how the texts back up your insights.

You could be asked to identify some of the following items. Besides reporting specific information, you should also be able to state, briefly, concrete reasons why the information is important for understanding archaic Greek lyric poetry and classical Roman lyric or elegiac poetry, or poetry, or literature more generally. By recognizing why information matters, you equip yourself to understand more about it.

• the poets whose work we've read (names, rough dates, biographical information we know that relates to important ideas or techniques in their poetry)
• important figures in poems or fragments we've read (such as gods and mythological or real-life people with whom the poets show notable concern in their poetry: for example, Aphrodite, Artemis/Diana, the Muses, Zeus; Geryon, Helen, Kastor & Polydeukes; Anaktoria, Lykambes, Peisistratos, "Lesbia," Cleopatra)
• ancient Greek and classical Roman poetic forms (such as dithyramb, epinician, epithalamium, erotic elegy, funerary elegy, hymn, kletic hymn, partheneion, skolion)
• ancient Greek social practices that relate to ancient Greek uses of lyric poetry and Roman echoes of them (such as chorus, festival competition, hoplite, symposium)
• concepts used in literary analysis (such as antihero, genre, metaliterary, persona, personification)
• terms relating to social constructs that may be reflected in literature (such as androcentrism, gender, misogyny)
• structures of ideas in poems we have read (such as animal-fable, hyperbole, palinode, paradox, priamel, triad [strophe, antistrophe, epode])

• content
  • what images, visual or otherwise, are prominent in the poem? what effect do they create?
  • what emotions does the poem evoke? how? what does it do with them?
  • does the poem give a sense of a particular person speaking through the poem, either the author or a performer? how?
  • what ideas does the poem talk about? how does the poem fit the ideas into a relationship of performer/persona and audience?
  • how is the poem organized? how does that organization unfold as the poem is being delivered - how does the organization shape the audience's experience of the poem?
  • does the poem tell a story? how?
  • does the poem imply a story without telling it? how? how does this story relate to the things the poem says?
• poetry
  • to what ancient Greek and/or Roman literary form does the poem belong? how does the poem work within and/or against standard expectations of that genre?
  • what impulses, personal or divine, does the poet suggest produce this poem in particular, or poetry generally?
  • what does the poet suggest this poem in particular, or poetry generally, does to its audiences? how?
• performance
  • what, if anything, does the poem say about when or where or how it was performed?
  • how did the (probable) circumstances of the poem's performance relate to its content?
• society
  • how does the poem fit itself into the relationships between individuals and their community? what types of relationship are important in the poem?
  • how does the poem fit itself into personal relationships?
  • what conduct and what values does the poem recommend? how?
• the cosmos
  • how does the poem suggest that nature relates to human life?
  • how does the poem suggest that divinity relates to human life?
  • how does the poem suggest, or recommend, that humans understand their relationship to the natural and divine world around them?

Strategic advice for exam-writing

• Identifications come across especially clearly and convincingly when you back them up by mentioning a specific point in one of our texts that illustrates your point.
• In both passage-essays and topic-essays, be sure to explain clearly how your ideas work and why they're significant.
• Show the evidence that supports your argument and explain your reasoning clearly, logical step by logical step. Take your reader with you, in order to persuade.
• With passage-essays, you've got text right there in which you can anchor your discussion very specifically. Take advantage of this resource for concreteness and detail.
• Connect the dots: when you want to add a passage to your discussion, in support of your interpretations or for comparison, show what makes it relevant - then when you explain what's going on in it, it will also help support your central argument.
• Building on discussions we've had in class, or that you've worked out in the Exercises, and taking even further the understanding we've established together, shows how you are growing your own learning. It makes exam papers truly exciting. Education aims above all for you to develop your knowledge, skills, confidence, and the interest to claim an inquiry for yourself. Go for it!

Revised 7 February 2024 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/