Midterm is on Friday.  The format is 1) identifications drawn from terms in these “Dear Class” letters; 2) snippets: excerpts of text which you must identify (what work do they come from, title and author), provide some context (where in the story or argument) and significance (what is the point of the passage in terms of themes of the whole work); and 3) a brief essay of a general nature.

Here is a model Midterm (actually, it is a real midterm from 2003)

Department of Classics
Classics 201: Greek Civilization
Midterm

I. Discuss each the follow items and their significance. (1.5 points each)

1.  Homeric formulaic composition
2. isonomia
3. Kronos
4. homophrosyne

II. Choose three of the following five quotes, identify the author, and the work, the context and the significance within the work they are found and their broader significance for Greek civilization.  (2 points each)

1. "I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another man, one with no land allotted him and not much to live on, than be a king over all the perished dead."

2. Immortal Aphrodite of the painted throne,
Deceit-weaving daughter of Zeus, I beg you,
Don't conquer my heart with distress and pain,
Mistress.

3. He told Hephaistos quickly to mix earth
And water, and to put in it a voice
And human power to move, to move a face
Like an immortal goddes, and to shape
The lovely figure of a virgin girl.

4. 'Do we know, Menelaos beloved of Zeus, who these men
announce themselves as being, who have come into our house now?
Shall I be wrong, or am I speaking the truth? My  heart tells me
to speak, for I think I never such a likeness, neither
in man nor woman, and wonder takes me as I look on him,
as this man has a likeness to the son of great-hearted Odysseus'

5. "For though they be freemen, they are not in all respects free: law is the master they fear more than your subjects fear you."

III. Write an essay on the following question. (8 points)

Discuss the role of homophrosyne in the Odyssey.

In studying for the midterm, here are the identifications from which I shall draw. I simply have gathered together my "dear Class" letters. Note that you are also responsible for the power power slides.

1.1  Dear Class,

It is my experience that broad and clear understanding of a subject rests on the sure foundation of detailed knowledge.  I will expect you to be able to identify many technical terms on tests.  We covered the following last day: stratigraphy, Antikythera device, Athenian tribute lists, epigraphy (inscriptions), numismatics, tetradrachm, papyrus (pith of), papyrology, palaeography (study of manuscripts), parchment (from Pergamum, Turkey), advent of printing (1450s); Epic (Homer, Odyssey, Iliad), Lyric poetry (occasional, short poetry, e.g. Sappho), History (Herodotus, Thucydides (note spelling)), Tragedy (Euripides, Sophocles), Comedy (ancient comedy is dramatic), Rhetoric (court speeches), Philosophy (Plato in dialogue form, Aristotle in discursive prose), Scientific Writing (e.g. Euclid’s Elements c. 300BC, Hippocratic Corpus (medical, 400-300 BC), Galen (2 c. AD), Novel (usually light romances involving a young couple and their adventures); Archaic Period (776-490)  776: date of first Olympiad; 490 date of first Persian invasion under Darius; Classical Period (490-323); 323: death of Alexander the Great;  Greek Geography: Balkan peninsula; alluvial plains; difficulty of internal trade; seafaring;

On the midterm, I might offer “epigraphy” as an identification.  You should say that epigraphy is the study of inscriptions, writing on stones, e.g. the Athenian tribute lists, which detail the Athenian subjects’ contributions to the temple of Athena at Athens.

1.2 Dear Class,
We started by wrapped up Greek geography.  Athens is at the latitude of San Francisco  (37 degrees N), with similar climate: rainy winter/dry hot summer. Crops: the Mediterranean triad: grain (wheat, oats, barley), olive, grape.  Olives for food, their oil for food, fuel, lighting, cleaning the skin; prizes put in amphorae; grapes (domain of the god, Dionysus accompanied by satyrs), made into wine, a major calorie source; grain threshed on threshing floors, winnowed with winnowing fans (oar and winnowing fan in the Odyssey);  also cheese (not much milk/butter), honey, meat (served as common sacrifices).  As for the Weltanschauung (German term for “world view”) much of this is general and I won’t repeat the argument here.  But some details worth remembering are: humanism: Protagoras’ “man is the measure of all things; pessimism: the story of the ages of man (gold, silver, bronze, iron) in Hesiod’s Works and Days.  We went on to Indo-European people stretching from Ireland (speaking Celtic languages) to India (speaking Sanskrit). Greek speaking people (among the Indo-Europeans) entered Greece around 2100 BC, during Bronze Age (3000-1000 BC.) Bronze is alloy of copper and tin. 

1.3 Dear Class,

If you weren’t present on Friday, please be aware that we had a pop quiz.  We started with the Mycenaean (or Mycenean) background to the Odyssey.  We first looked at the pre-Greek Minoan (after Minos, mythical king of Crete) civilization on Crete.  We saw the palace at Knossos (or Cnossos) with its storages rooms with amphorae, the frescos of bull-jumping.  This was the civilization of the Linear A script (as yet undeciphered).  We jumped to Greece of the late Bronze Age (1600-1150 B.C.), to Mycenae, with its rich shaft graves (bronze inlaid daggers, gold funeral mask; 1600-1500 BC) and its tholos tombs (corbelled vaults, relieving triangles; 1500-1300 BC) and megaron (house design and throne room with central hearth, supporting columns and porch (later temple design).  Heinrich Schliemann had excavated here in AD 1874.  We saw the nearby Tiryns with its corbelled vault and its cyclopean walls (14th c BC).  Troy excavated by Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann.  You should be able to place Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Troy and Knossos on a map.  Linear B writing in Greece and Crete (deciphered as early Greek by Michael Ventris in 1952) showed that Greeks had conquered Crete in around 1450 BC.  Continuities between the Mycenean period and Classic in religion and politics (minus the kings).  Turned to Odyssey: aoidos (bard), oral poetry in dactylic hexameter. 
Here is the first essay topic: Proper host and guest behavior (xenia) is a major theme in the Odyssey.  Compare Odysseus and his men as “guests” of the “host,” Cyclops, with the suitors as “guests” of the “host” Odysseus.  Explain what this comparison says about our evaluation of Odysseus’ character and the moral outlook of the epic.
2.1 and 2.2
Dear Class,
We shall continue to have pop quizzes through the quarter, but your lowest scoring test will not be counted in your average. Note that we are already falling behind the schedule.  Not to worry.  We shall catch up.
We talked about the oral composition technique of the aoidoi (plural of aoidos); as with a Persian carpet, the bard builds a story by assembling tiny elements.  He doesn’t memorize the whole poem verbatim; he knows the general structure and builds up his assemblies and sub-assemblies.  Starting with epithets, which because Greek is a inflected language, need be different for different grammatical circumstances; whole lines are sometimes repeated (“rosy-fingered Dawn,…); type scenes (e.g. arrival, xenia (hospitality), etc.).  Iliad is the background of the Odyssey, anger of Achilles at being insulted by Agamemnon; areté (virtue), timé (honor), kleos (glory); properly one is honored for one’s virtue and glory for it; compare Achilles’ frank character with Odysseus’ lying character. Gods are treated differently in the two epics: in Iliad chaotic/contentious; in Odyssey simpler and more orderly.  Poseidon represented chance and painful endurance; Athene cunning intelligence (metis – note outis/metis nobody pun); Zeus supreme upholder of justice, but inclining to Athene; “hyper moron” theme.  Aegisthus, Clytemnestra, Orestes story; reasons for Telemachus’ journey (Telemachy); comparison of Telemachus’ and Odysseus’ journeys; comparison of households of Nestor and Menelaus and significance for the epic’s themes (know the details here). 

Apologue: starts with Calypso (hider) in the navel of the sea; compare Calypso with Penelope; Calypso with Circe.

2.3  Dear Class,
On Jan 15 we continued with the Apologue of Odysseus, the symmetry and order of which arises out of the needs of the oral story telling techniques.  We first looked at the Cyclops-Phaiakians (sometimes Phaeacians; note spellings).  See Powerpoint slide for list of comparison points.  Odysseus is a happy medium between the two: intelligent in his use of violence.  Underworld is the center: the furthest away from home; death, beginning of guided path home.  On either [home] and [Thrinakia] where Od. sleeps through the treachery (?) of his men. Other landfalls: Lotus-eater: danger of forgetting the nostos in drugs ( obvious allegorical significance); changeable Aeolus with 12 paired wind sons and daughters; Laistrygones: comparisons with Phaiakians.  Od. loses all but one ship.  Circe, beguiling, attractive, intelligent, like Helen a potion maker, daughter of the sun, living in the far west.  Underworld: Teiresias: advice on Thrinakia and home; Agamemnon: beware the women; Achilles: life on earth is much better; women (tricked by gods in disguise, as Penelope fears will happen to her); Circe: more information on landfalls; Sirens: attraction of the ancient lore.
Today we finished the Apologue.  Sirens as temptations of story, the lore.  Scylla and Charybdis as requiring only endurance.  The textual emendation of Aristarchus at 13.158 “but do not hide their city under a mountain” for “And hide their city under a great mountain”; Odysseus asleep on journey to Ithaca: symbolic of a transition back to life.  For other point, they are covered on the powerpoint slides.

3.1-4.1  Dear Class,
We covered pretty much what is on the powerpoint slides: the four major recognitions, their differences and their significance.  We considered homophrosyne (likeness of mind) between Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus; the increase in the supernatural order as the epic advances; purposes of telling tales, and technique Odysseus uses to gain credibility in story-telling. 
We went on to the Archaic period: all relevant terms are on the PP slides.

4.2-5.1  Dear Class,

The terms for the pan-Hellenic games are on the PP slide, except: stade (a measure of length equal to about 1/8 mile), gives its name to stadium; the eponymous victor of the stade race gives his name to the Olympiad. Funeral games of Patroklos (Iliad); victory odes of Pindar;  Early Greek philosophy: explanation of physis, or nature; explaining change with reference to one principle, e.g. Anaximenes thought air rarified to make fire and condensed to make water and earth; Thales thought (perhaps) that everything stemmed from water; Anaximander thought all of formed reality came from the Boundless (apeiron); and that hot and cold battled each other through the seasons and generated the cosmic order through their fighting.  We turned to Hesiod (again see the PP slides); background: Enuma Elish, Babylonian creation hymn, starring Marduk who battles previous generations of gods to establish order (just like Zeus); cf. Genesis, where Yahweh (God) is the only god.  Hesiod’s “Theogony” traces three generations which overcome the previous; Ouranus; Kronos, sickle, castration; Zeus, stone substitute; Titans sent to Tartarus.  Know the Olympian gods and their basic provinces or timé, and the basic aspects of cult.