1. Describe and account for the various roles ascribed to or taken by women in Greek mythology, in literary texts, and in the polis and family.

 2. Describe and explain the relationship between the individual and the community (or citizens and non-citizens, or Greeks and barbarians), as depicted in works of history, literature, philosophy, or art.

 3. Discuss the way Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, Euripides and Plato depict the gods. How do you explain the differences in their accounts of the gods?

 4. Discuss the effects of different systems of government (among those known to or imagined by the Greeks) on the character of a people, their capacity for sound political judgment, and their war-making ability. Consider, for instance, the relation between the development of the polis, its institutions, and hoplite warfare.

 5. Discuss the development of such concepts as dikê, aretê, timê and the changing perceptions of what constitutes a virtuous person.

 6. Defend one of the plays, poems, or works of art studied this semester in light of Plato's suspicions about imitation.

 7. What useful distinctions can you make between literary genres such as epic, lyric, and tragic drama, or between literary, historical, and philosophical texts?

 8. Describe and distinguish among the different theories of history developed and exemplified in the works of Hesiod, Aeschylus, Herodotus, and Thucydides.

 9. What relations exist between a specific work of art or literature and its institutional, historic context or the conditions under which it was produced? Consider, for example, how the Parthenon may be said to exemplify Athenian values.

10. What happens to the idea of the individual between Homer and Plato?

11. How are the conflicts of Greek political and cultural life reflected in the literary, historical, and artistic works of the fifth century? Consider in particular, the role of social and political classes and gender tensions.

12. What would Solon make of Pericles' claim that Athens had become a "school to Hellas"? How would Plato evaluate that claim?

13. What political and cultural differences did the Greeks recognize between full members of their communities--citizens--and those "others" who were not citizens? Who were those others? Did some reside within the boundaries of the polis itself? What do the Greek's atttitudes toward the "other" reveal about their perceptions of themselves and their communities?

14. Compare the conception of Eudaimoniä (Human happiness or flourishing) in four of the following: Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, the Parthenon, Sophocles, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle.

Last Modified: 5 Dec.1996