Due Date: Saturday, November 11, 2000, 5
p.m. in the Faculty mailboxes in Eliot.
Length: 1500 words.
Write on one of the following
questions:
In the Agamemnon, the chorus asserts
that:
"Zeus [puts] men on the way of
wisdom
by making it a valid law
that by suffering they
learn."
How is this proposition borne out or refuted
in each of the three plays of Aeschylus' trilogy?
If human actions are fated, what can their
moral significance be? Answer this question in relation to
Aeschylus' representation of Agamemnon or Orestes, or Sophocles'
representation of Oedipus.
Evaluate Clytemnestra's role as a mother in
the Libation Bearers, taking into account her dream, her
reaction to the news of Orestes' death, the nurse's speech, and
Clytemnestra's final interaction with Orestes.
What is the purpose of the Antigone-Ismene
relationship in the larger context of Sophocles'
Antigone?
In Art and Illusion, Gombrich argues
that form follows function in art. Choose an image from Pollitt's
Art and Experience in Classical Greece and test the
usefulness of Gombrich's theory in a detailed visual analysis of
it.
After fateful encounters with the blind
Tiresias, two successive rulers of Thebes are themselves rendered
'blind'. Compare the ways in which Creon (in Antigone) and
Oedipus (in OedipusTyrannus) react to the prophet
and the knowledge he bears.
Examine the funeral oration of Pericles
(II: 35-46) and his speech to the Athenians during the second
Peloponnesian invasion of Attica (II: 60-64). Analyze how
Pericles' defense of the Athenian empire reinforces or undermines
his commitment to democracy.
Examine Thucydides' account of the Theban
takeover of Plataea and its aftermath (II. 1-6; II. 71-78; III.
20-24; III. 52-68). What are the major issues Thucydides raises in
his analysis of Plataea, and how does his account of Plataea fit
into his history as a whole?
Analyze Pericles' and Alcibiades' views (at
II. 40-42 and VI. 16-17, respectively) about the ways private
citizens contribute to the power of Athens. In what ways do they
agree or disagree? What, in your opinion, is Thucydides' view of
the matter?
