1. Explain in specific detail how Phoinix’ parable of the spirits of Prayer and Ruin (9.502-14) applies specifically to what has occurred thus far in the Iliad between Agamemnon and Achilleus. What is Phoinix’ point in this parable? Does this parable represent good advice? Explain your answer.
2. To what is Thetis referring when she says to Achilleus in Book 18 (72-77): "Why then, child, do you lament?...These things are brought to accomplishment through Zeus: in the way that you...prayed for that all the sons of the Achaians be pinned on their grounded vessels by reason of your loss, and suffer things that are shameful"?
3. What point is Achilleus making to Priam when he tells the old man the story of the two urns of Zeus (24.527-50)? How does this story apply specifically to Achilleus’ father and to Priam?
4. Explain how Phoinix' words to Achilles in 9.496-501 are an example of an a fortiori argument.
5. Explain what the similarities are between Achilleus and Meleagros in the story told by Phoinix (9. 529-599). Identify and explain at least two points Phoinix is trying to make to Achilles by telling the story of Meleagros (9.524-605).
6. Trace the theme of Achilleus’ anger throughout the Iliad. Identify the crucial actions in the poem that are motivated by this emotion and the consequences of those actions. Explain how the end of the poem represents a resolution of Achilleus’ anger (include a discussion of the themes of eating and drinking).
7. What point is Glaukos trying to make to Diomedes in the "generation of leaves" simile (6.146-150)? Is the view of human life in this simile compatible with the genealogy that Glaukos outlines for Diomedes? Explain your answer. Connect the meaning of this simile with the central plot of the Iliad.
8. Explain why Pericles believes that Athens is politically, socially, and morally superior to other cities (2.37-41).)?
9. Contrast the character of the Athenians with that of the Spartans, basing your observations on Thucydides' account of the Debate at Sparta (1.66-88). Give at least three differences. What two comparisons between Athens and Sparta does Pericles make in his "Funeral Oration" (2.39)?
10. Give three different arguments used by the Athenians in their attempt to persuade the Melians to become their allies. How do Melians answer these arguments? (5.90-111). Why won’t the Athenians allow the Melians to remain neutral (5.95-97)?
11. Explain two arguments that the Athenians present to the Corinthians and the Spartans in defense of their acquisition of an empire and having held on to it (1.75)?
12. Explain why Diodotus is opposed to the death penalty for the Mytilenians (3.45-47). Discuss the role of human nature, economics and politics in his argument against the death penalty. Explain why Diodotus believes that justice and advantage do not coincide in this instance, as claimed by Cleon. What role do pity and fairness play in Diodotus’s arguments? Explain your answer. What principle does Diodotus emphasize above all others in his speech?
13. Compare the views of the Athenian empire expressed by Pericles (2.41, 43, 61-64) and by Cleon (2.37-40). Be sure to note similarities and differences.
14. What does Thucydides mean specifically when he writes: "So, in what was nominally a democracy, power was really in the hands of the first citizen."
15. According to Thucydides, why does Pericles stand out as a political leader in comparison with his successors (2.65).
16. Discuss the speech of Oedipus in 964-973 by following the directions at the end of this question: 1) Explain specifically to what he is referring. 2) Evaluate the validity of the thoughts expressed by Oedipus. 3) Explain what this speech contributes to the overall meaning of the play. Evaluate the truth of Jocasta's speech in 977-979.
17. Discuss the theme of blindness and sight in the Oedipus the King in the following passages: 300-461 and 1370-1422. What do sight and blindness symbolically represent? What literary device does Sophocles employ in his working out of this theme? Explain your answer with specific details.
18. Explain what comment the chorus is making on Oedipus' life in the final stasimon (1197-1200; 1213-14) and in the final two lines of the play (1529-30).
19. Give an Aristotelian (see the Poetics) analysis of the Oedipus the King. Be guided by the following questions. How is this play “in a dramatic, not in a narrative form?” What emotions are aroused by this play and how does Sophocles arouse these emotions? According to Aristotle what psychological purpose (catharsis) does the arousal of these emotions serve? Apply the terms peripety and discovery to the Messenger scene and explain specifically how they relate to this scene. What kind of tragic hero is Oedipus according to Aristotle (“intermediate kind of personage”)? Explain your answer. Explain the hamartia of Oedipus that leads to his misfortune (the killing of his father and the marrying of his mother). Please remember that hamartia does not refer to any moral flaw of the protagonist. It means “an error in judgment,” not “tragic flaw.”
20. Explain in detail the motivation of the servant in Oedipus the King in asking Jocasta to send him away from Thebes after the murder of Laius (758-764).
21. Discuss the meaning in detail of the choral ode in 864-910 as it specifically applies to the events of the Oedipus the King. Be sure to include the following in your explanation: the “laws” in strophe #1, the connection between “insolence” (hubris) and the “tyrant” in antistrophe #1, “ambition” in antistrophe #1, the behavior of “a man” in strophe #2, the chorus’ concern about the truth of oracles in antistrophe #2.