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western literature / 11.10
2016/11/25 21:00
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西洋文學概論 

(MIDTERM)

Greek Name

Position(description, keywords)

Roman Name

(1) Aphrodite

The golden goddess of Love and beauty

Venus

Ares

The god of war

(2)Mars

(3) Athena (Athene)

The virgin goddess of wisdom and invention.

Minerva

(4) Demeter

The goddess of harvest

Ceres

(5) Hades

The god of the underworld

Pluto

(6) Hephaestus

The god of the blacksmith, husband of Venus

Vulcan

(7) Persephone

The queen of the underworld

Cora

Poseidon

The lord of the Sea

(8) Neptune

(9) Artemis

The virgin goddess of hunting/moon, Apollo’s twin sister

Diana, Selene

Zeus

The lord of the sky

(10) Jupiter

 

1.        The “Ancient World” refers to (A) prehistoric culture (B) European culture before 800 B.C.E. (C) the culture of the Mediterranean Basin before 400 B.C.E. (D) the culture of fifteen B.C.E. Greece.

2.        Ancient Greeks considered their gods (A) arbitrary and capricious toward humans (B) paragons of virtues (C) representatives of natural forces (D) always benevolent toward humans.

3.        One of Greece’s greatest contributions to Rome was (A) democratic government (B) rhetoric (C) the strategy of warfare (D) mathematics.

4.        A belief system is the way a society (A) views the world and human life (B) acts for the betterment of others (C) understands the heavens (D) categorizes Nature.

5.        Latin literature began with (A) the plays of Plautus and Terrance (B) a translation of the Odyssey (C) Vergil’s Aeneid (D) The speeches of Cicero.

6.        The first Roman emperor was (A) Julius Cesar (B) Ptolemy (C) Augustus (D) Nero.

7.        In general, Rome and Romans were (A) liberal (B) conservative (C) middle-of-the-road (D) anarchists.

8.        When does Achilles die? (A) In Book 4 (B) in Book 12 (C) In Book 24 (D) He doesn’t die in The Iliad.

9.        When is The Iliad thought to have been composed? (A) The twelfth century B.C. (B) The fifteenth century B.C. (C) The eighth century B.C. (D) The third century B.C.

10.     How long has the Trojan War been going by the time The Iliad begins? (A) nine years (B) eight months (C) one week (D) the poem begins with the beginning of the war.

11.     According to legend, in what sense was Homer deficient? (A) hearing (B) sight (C) taste (D) touch.

12.     Which of the following characterized the Roman political system? (A) It separated church and state (B) It separated political power among different authorizes (C) It was an absolute monarchy (D) It did not levy taxes.

13.     The Egyptian writing system known as hieroglyphics relied on (A) an alphabet for consonant sounds (B) a system of pictographs (C) wedge-shaped characters, like cuneiform, but more elaborate (D) an alphabet for consonant and vowel sounds.

14.     One of the earliest literary texts was the Sumerian epic poem called Gilgamesh. What writing system was used to first record this epic poem? (A) Phoenician (B) Latin (C) cuneiform (D) hieroglyphics.

15.     The earliest literature took the form of (A) oral stories and songs (B) poems collected in anthologies (C) stories in holy books (D) epics inscribed on stone tablets.

1. Muse

__________Sing; Goddess, Achilles’ rage,

Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks

Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls

Of heroes into Hades’ dark,

And left their bodies to rot as feast

For dogs and birds, as Zeus’ will was done.

 

The Iliad begins with opening lines that state an invocation to the goddess. Identify the name of the goddess.

 

          

2. Chryseis

But I will tell you this: (p. 193)

Since Phoebus Apollo is taking away my ________

Whom I’m sending back aboard ship with my friends,

I’m coming to your hut and taking Briseis,

Your own beautiful prize, so that you will see just how much

Stronger I am than you, and the next person will wince

At the thought of opposing me as an equal.

 

Identify the name of the prophetess whom brought the crisis to the Achaean troop.

 

3. Achilles

Well, I’m going back to Phthia now. Far better (p. 193)

To head home with my curved ships than stay here,

Unhonored myself and pilling up a fortune for you.

 

Identify the name of the speaker (who is talking) of the above citation. After being insulted by Agamemnon’s request of a replacement war prize, the speaker threatens to return home with the Myrmidons.

 

4. Apollo

Chryses, King Agamemnon has sent me here (p. 200)

To return your child and offer to Phoebus

Formal sacrifice on behalf of the Greeks.

So my we appease Lord ______,and may he

Lift the afflictions he has sent upon us.

 

Who lifts the plague from the Greeks?

 

5. Hector

With this said, they vaulted from their chariots, (p. 207-8)

Clasped hands, and pledged their friendship.

But Zeus took away Glaucus’ good sense,

For he exchanged his golden armor for bronze,

The worth of one hundred oxen for nine.

           When ____ reached the oak tree by the Western Gate,

Trojan wives and daughters ran up to him,

Asking about their children, their brothers,

Their kinsmen, their husbands. He told them all,

Each woman in turn, to pray to the gods.

Sorrow clung to their heads like mist.

 

The above citation is quoted from Book VI of the Iliad. The soothsayer instructs _____, the Trojan prince, to pray with his mother for mercy.

 

6. morning

So the bonfires between the Greek ships (p. 215)

And the banks of the Xanthus, burning

On the plain before Ilion.

And fifty men

Warmed their hands by flames of each fire.

 

And the horses champed white barely,

Standing by their chariots, waiting for Dawn

To take her seat on brocaded cushions.

 

The above citation is quoted from Book VIII of the Iliad entitling “the Tide of Battle Turns.” What are the Trojans waiting for outside of the Greek fortifications?

 

7. Diomedes

I’m going to oppose you if you talk foolishness--(p. 216-7)

As is my right in assembly, ord. Keep your temper.

…He gave you a scepter

And honor with it, but he didn’t give you

Strength to stand in battle, which is real power

…But many a long-haired Achaean

Will stay, too, until we conquer Troy. And if they won’t—

Well, let them all said back to their own native land.

The two of us, Sthenelus and I, will fight on

Until we take Ilion. We came here with Zeus

 

The above citation is quoted from Book IX of the Iliad. It is _____ who convinces Agamemnon not to abandon the war.

 

8. Hector

Brag while you can, Hector. Zeus and Apollo (p. 242)

Have given you an easy victory this time.

If they hadn’t knocked off my armor,

I could have made mincemeat of twenty like you.

It was Fate, and Leto’s son (Apollo), who killed me.

Of men, Euphorbus. You came in third at best.

And one more thing for you to think over.

You’re not going to live long. I see Death

Standing at your shoulder, and you going town

Under the hands of Peleus’ perfect son (Achilles).

 

This citation is quoted from Book XVI of the Iliad. After being defeated by Hector and Achilles, Patroclus predicts _____’s death.

 

9. Patroclus

Mother, Zeus may have done all this for me, (p. 244)

But how can I rejoice? My friend is dead,

_____, my dearest friend of all. I loved him,

And I killed him. And the armor—Hector cut him down and took off his body.

The heavy, splendid armor, beautiful to see,

That the gods gave to Peleus as a gift

On the day they put you to bed with a mortal.

But now—it was all so you would suffer pain

For your ravaged son.

 

It is the death of his “dearest friend of all” that rallies Achilles’ return to the war. Identify the name of “his friend.”

 

10. Thetis    

I won’t have you with me for long, my child, (p. 245)

If you say such things. Hector’s death means yours.

 

Identify the name of this mother in grief.

 

11. Hephaestus

Yes, child. It’s not wrong to save your friends (p. 246)

When they are beaten to the brink of death.

But your beautiful armor is in the hands of the Trojans,

The mirrored bronze…

Tomorrow I will come with the rising sun

Bearing beautiful armor from Lord _____.

 

Identify the name of this divine blacksmith who could make beautiful shield and armor.

 

12. Apollo

Then _____ called back to Achilles: (p. 258)

“Son of Peleus, you’re fast on your feet,

But you’ll never catch me, man chasing god.

Or are you too raging mad to notice

I’m a god? Don’t you care about fighting

The Trojans anymore? You’ve chased them back

Into their town, but how you’ve veered off here.

You’ll never killed me. You don’t hold my doom.”

 

It is _____ who frequently throughout the Iliad preventing the Greeks from winning the war outright.

 

13. Hector

But it was shame and defilement Achilles (p. 268)

Had in mind for _____. He pieced the tendons

Above the heels and cinched them leather thongs

To his chariot, letting ____’s head drag.

 

In order to celebrate his victory over _____, Achilles drags his opponent’s body around the city behind a chariot. Both Trojan and Greek warrior culture placed great importance on the preservation and care of dead comrades’ corpses

 

14. Priam

Remember your father, godlike Achilles. (p. 283)

He and I both are on the doorstep

Of old age. He may well be now’

Surrounded by enemies wearing him down

And have no one to protect him from harm.

But then he hears that you are still alive

And his heart rejoices, and he hopes all his days

To see his dear son come back from Troy.

But what is left for me?

 

Identify the name of this grieving father.

 

15. Hector

The people gathered around _____’s pyre, (p. 290)

And when all of Troy was assembled there

They drowned the last flames with glinting wine…

When the tomb was built, they all returned

To the city and assembled for a glorious feast

In the house of Priam, Zeus’ cherished king.

 

_____’s funeral pyre concludes the Iliad

 

16. Odysseus

Speak, Memory— (p. 291)

Of the cunning hero,

The wandered, blown off course time and again

After he plundered Troy’s sacred heights.

                                           Speak

Of all the cities he saw, the minds he grasped,

The suffering deep in his heart at sea

As he struggle to survive and ring his men home.

 

This citation is quoted from the opening lines of the Odyssey. Identify the name this wandering hero at sea.

 

17. Calypso

…(p. 291)

Still longed to return to his home and his wife.

The nymph _____, a powerful goddess—

And beautiful—was clinging to him

In her caverns and yearned to possess him.

 

In Book IV of the Odyssey, Telemachus learns that his father was taken by the nymph for seven years.

 

 

18. Tiresias

And then he came, the ghost of Theban prophet, (p. 412)

Bearing a golden staff…

You seek a sweet as honey…

For I do not think you will elude the Earth-shaker,

Who has laid up wrath in his heart against you,

Furious because you blinded his son. Still

You just might get home, though not without pain,

You and your men, if you curb your own spirit,

And theirs, too , when you beach our ship

Identify the name of this Theban prophet.

 

 

19. Achilles

Don’t try to sell me on death, son of Laertes. (p. 422)

I’d rather be a hired hand back up on dearth,

Slaving away for some poor dirt farmer,

Than lord it over all these withered dead.

 

Identify the name of this soul that the wandering hero encounters in the House of the Dead.

 

 

 

 

20. Sisyphus

And I saw _____ there in his agony

Pushing a monstrous stone with his hands.

Digging in hard, he would manage to shove it

To the crest of a hill, but just as he was about

To heave it over the top, the shameless stone

Would teeter back and bound down to the plain.

Then he would strain every muscle to push it back up,

Sweat pouring from his limbs and dusty head.

In Hades, _____ was punished for chronic deceitfulness by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever.

 

21. Odysseus

But from the moment that godless Diomedes, (p. 1007)

Flanked by Ulysses, the mastermind of crime, 

Attacked and tore the fateful image of Pallas  

Out of her own hallowed shrine, and cut down

The sentries ringing your city heights and seized

That holy image and even dared touch the sacred bands

On the virgin goddess head with hands reeking blood--

From that hour on, the high hopes of the Greeks

Had trickle away like a slow, ebbing tide…

 

In Book II of the Aeneid, the narrator retrieves the final hours of Troy. Ulysses is the Roman (Latin) name for _____, a character in ancient Greek literature.

 

 

22. Athena

Here the words “Pallas” and “virgin goddess” mean _____, the patron goddess of Athens

 

23. Aeneas

…From now on, Dido cares no more (p. 1029)

For appearances, nor for her reputation, either.

She no longer thinks to keep the affair a secret,

No, she calls it a marriage,

Using the word to cloak her sense of guilt.

In a cave, _____ and Dido get “married”—at least as far as Dido is concerned.

 

24. Aeneas

All at once, in the midst of her last words, (p. 1043)

Her women see her doubled over the sword, the blood

Foaming over the blade, her hands splattered red.

A scream goes stabbing up to the high roofs,

Rumor goes like a Maenad through the shocked city—

 

The queen of Carthage commits suicide after _____ decides to leave her and continue on his quest. She stabs herself.

 

 

25. Juno

All the while Neptune (p. 984-985)

Sensed the furor above him, the roaring seas first and

The storm breaking next—his standing waters boiling up

From the sea-bed, churning back…

He sees Aeneas’ squadrons scattered across the ocean,

Trojans overwhelmed by the surf and the wild crashing skies.

Nor did he miss his sister _____’s (the goddess) cunning wrath at work.

_____ (the goddess) convinces Aeolus to stir the winds and seas in order to wreck Aeneas and his ships. She saves Aeneas from the storm in Book I of the Aeneid. However, Neptune intervenes to calm the seas.

1.Homeric epithet

It is usually called an epithet or a Homeric epithet, but sometimes called a Homeric epitaph, it is one of the most noticeable features of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Epithet comes from the Greek for putting (something) on (something). It is a tag or nickname that can be used on its own or together with the real name, depending on other features of the Greek language.

 

2.epic poetry

An epic poem is a long, narrative poem that is usually about heroic deeds and events that are significant to the culture of the poet. Many ancient writers used epic poetry to tell tales of intense adventures and heroic feats. Epic poems were particularly common in the ancient world because they were ideal for expressing stories orally. These works continue to be well regarded today.

3.Achilles' heel

An Achilles heel is a weakness in spite of overall strength, which can actually or potentially lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, idiomatic references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to downfall are common.

 

4.invocation

A prayer or address made to the one of the nine muses of Greco-Roman mythology, in which the poet asks for the inspiration, skill, knowledge, or appropriate mood to create a poem worthy of his subject-matter. The invocation of the muse traditionally begins Greco-Roman epics and elegies.

1.        What role does fate play in the emotional and psychological effect of The Iliad? Why does Homer make his characters aware of their impending dooms?

Homer's original audience would already have been intimately familiar with the story The Iliad tells.

Making his characters cognizant of their fates merely puts them on par with the epic's audience.

In deciding to make his characters knowledgeable about their own futures, he loses the effect of dramatic irony, in which the audience watches characters stumble toward ends that it alone knows in advance.

But Homer doesn't sacrifice drama; in fact, this technique renders the characters more compelling.

They do not fall to ruin out of ignorance, but instead become tragic figures who go knowingly to their doom because they have no real choice.

In the case of Hector and Achilles, their willing submission to a fate they recognize but cannot evade renders them not only tragic but emphatically heroic.

 

2.How does Homer portray the relationship between gods and men in the Odyssey? What roles do the gods play in human life? How does this portrayal differ from that found in the Iliad?

In the Iliad, the gods relate to human beings either as external powers that influence the lives of mortals from without, as when Apollo unleashes plague upon the Achaeans, or from within, as when Aphrodite incites Helen to make love to Paris or when Athena gives Diomedes courage in battle.

In the Odyssey, the gods are often much less grand.

They function more as spiritual guides and supporters for their human subjects, sometimes assuming mortal disguises in order to do so.

The actions of the gods sometimes remain otherworldly, as when Poseidon decides to wreck the ship of the Phaeacians, but generally they grant direct aid to particular individuals.

In a sense, the change in the behavior of the gods is wholly appropriate to the shift in focus between the two epics.

The Iliad depicts a violent and glorious war, and the gods act as frighteningly powerful, supernatural forces. The Odyssey, in contrast, chronicles a long journey, and the gods frequently act to guide and advise the wandering hero.

 

3. To what extent is the Aeneid a political poem? Is it propaganda?

The Aeneid’s main purpose is to create a myth of origins that consolidates Rome’s historical and cultural identity.

This search for origins of a race or culture is a political endeavor, in that it seeks to justify the Roman Empire’s existence and to glorify the empire through the poem’s greatness.

Yet the Aeneid is also an artistic endeavor, and therefore to dismiss the poem as mere propaganda is to ignore its obvious artistic merit.

In many of the passages referring explicitly to the emperor Augustus—in Anchises’s presentation of the future of Rome,

for example—Virgil’s language suggests an honest and heartfelt appreciation of Augustus’s greatness.

It is worth noting, however, that in addition to being the emperor, Augustus was also Virgil’s patron.

It would thus have been impossible for Virgil to criticize him outright in his work.

One can argue that Virgil may not have truly believed in Augustus’s greatness and that the impossibility of explicit criticism forced him to resort to subtle irony in order to air any grievances regarding Augustus’s policies or ideology.


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