CS I: Classical Strains in Western Culture

Professor John Van Sickle

Final Examination

Write at home & hand in no later than the announced examination date at 2408 Boylan (Professor's mailbox. E-mail cannot be accepted).
Paper should be typed double spaced.
To prepare you must review the material read & your notes from class discussion. As you review, you must make notes of passages that illustrate the themes so that you can give a coherent account.

Warm up question: study the following passage & answer the basic questions from the PROTOCOL FOR READING: Who, Where, When, What, Why, How (that is to say, you must identify the speaker, the audience, & the context, which includes the work & its plan; you must also analyze the cultural values & differences evident here in the light of our discussions this semester:

Others will cast more tenderly in bronze
Their breathing figures, I can well believe,
And bring more lifelike portraits out of marble,
Argue more eloquently, use the pointer
To trace the paths of heaven accurately
And accurately foretell the rising stars.
Roman, remember by your strength to rule
Earth’s peoples -- these will be your arts:
To pacify, impose the rule of law,
To spare the conquered, battle down the proud.


As you write, you should remember as much information as you can from your reading & from our discussions; & you should fit the information together in your writing so as to convey a sense of connection and plan.

TOPICS TO PREPARE choose two: get evidence from Homer, Plato, Virgil, & Petronius.

(1) Symposium--What do people talk about when they get together? What can the different topics let us infer about differing norms & values:
        (a) within Greek culture;
        (b) between Greek & Roman culture;
        (c) within Roman culture.
 

(2) Pride & Shame as manifested in Achilles, Socrates, Aeneas, & Trimalchio Can you describe Trimalchio as a new type of hero?

(3) Roles assigned to women: Helen, Andromache, Klytaimnestra, Penelope; in Plato; Dido & Fortunata ("Lucky").

(4) How works of art affect the meaning of works that contain them: the "Shield of Achilles," Plato’s "Myth of the Cave," the reliefs in Juno’s temple at Carthage, the "Shield of Aeneas."

(5) Journeys to the Underworld as Clues to Cultural Difference: Odyssey, Republic of Plato, Aeneid, & Satyricon. (think of the house of Trimalchio ).