Humanities 110 Paper Topic #2. Due Date: Saturday, March 10^th, 2001, 5 p.m. in the Faculty mailboxes in Eliot.

Length: 1500 words. Write on one of the following questions:

1. To what extent does the theme of revenge in Book 6 of the Metamorphoses shed light on Ovid's sense of the distinctions between divine and human nature?
2. Compare the story of Phaethon, as used by Ovid in the Metamorphoses (pp. 23-36) with Seneca's use of the same story in "On Providence" (pp. 42-43).
3. Discuss the significance of the loss of human voice in at least three specific episodes which represent such loss in Ovid's Metamorphoses.
4. To what extent do Lucretius' The Way Things Are and Ovid's Metamorphoses share the same ethics?
5. In Book 3 of The Way Things Are, Lucretius claims that the fear of death is unreasonable. What are his arguments for this view? Are they plausible?
6. How does Lucretius' poem, The Way Things Are, represent the hero or the characteristics of heroic behavior?
7. How do Seneca's "On Slavery" and Tacitus' accounts of slaves or ex-slaves in the Annals represent various models of human agency at issue in imperial Rome?
8. How does Tacitus' biographical portrait of an emperor (choose one) represent the mutual influence between individual character and imperial office and power?
9. During the transition between the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, Tacitus writes that: "consuls, senate, knights, precipitately became servile. The more distinguished men were, the greater their urgency and insincerity. They must show neither satisfaction at the death of one emperor, nor gloom at the accession of another: so their features were carefully arranged in a blend of tears and smiles, mourning and flattery." (Annals 1.4, p. 35) Does Tacitus present any real ethical alternatives for the Roman aristocracy's relations with the emperor to the sycophancy he derides here?
10. In consultation with your conference leader, write on a topic of your own devising.