Download Questions with Texts

Questions with Texts
- Homer, Odyssey 1.1-95
1. How does the poet of the Odyssey claim religious authority for his poem?
2. Mention at least 2 aspects of Greek religion as illustrated by this passage.
3. Is Aigisthos a pious man (eusebês) in the eyes of an ancient Greek? Support your
answer with a quotation from the text.
4. Is Odysseus a pious man in the eyes of an ancient Greek? Support your answer with a
quote.
5. verse 28: Zeus is ‘father of gods and men’. What is the role of Zeus among the Greek
gods and what is the difference with the God of Christianity (‘God the Father’)?
- Hesiod, Theogony 456-620
1. 456-508: mention at least two things that this story explains. Support your answer with
quotes from the text.
2. 509-572: what two things does the story of Prometheus explain? Support your answer
with quotes from the text.
3. 573-620: What characteristic of Greek religion appears from the story of Pandora?
Base your answer on the text.
4. What does the simile of the bees (598-603) say about women? Base your answer on
the text.
5. In the usual story, all evil is brought to man with Pandora’s box. Hesiod seems to
emphasise two evils only: what is the second evil, after women? Cite from text.
6. The role of Zeus. What problem is connected to his ‘human behaviour’? Support your
answer with a quote from the text.
- Euripides, Bacchae 1048-1296, 1340-1392
1. 1048-1057: which elements indicate that we are dealing here with followers of
Dionysos? Quote from the text.
2. We call something we know that the character in a play does not (yet) know ‘tragical
irony’. Give an example by quoting from the text.
3. How do we know that the ‘stranger’ is in fact a god? Quote from text.
4. How do we know the maenads, and their leader Agaue in particular, are in ecstasy?
Quote from text.
5. 1216-1296: How does Cadmus make sure that Agaue escapes from her state of
ecstasy? And at what verse only does she realize she has killed her own son?
6. v. 1348: ‘gods should not resemble men in their anger’: what criticism on the gods lies
at the heart of this sentence? Explain in your own words.
7. What is the most prominent aspect of Greek religion that comes to the fore in this
play?
- Livy, Ab urbe condita 39.8-19
Start by making a summary of the contents of the passage, then answer the following
questions by basing them on the text:
Chapter 8:
1. Compare the mentioned elements of the Bacchanalia with the Greek (Bacchic)
mysteries.
2. What did the author think of the Greeks?
3. Why were the Bacchanalia dangerous for the Roman state?
Chapter 9-11:
4. What characteristic of initiation rituals has Aebutius to perform in order to become
initiated?
5. Whom is the incident reported to?
Chapter 12-13:
6. How does the consul persuade Hispala to confess?
7. What details about the rites do we gather from Hispala’s confession?
8. What happens with Aebutius and Hispala?
Chapter 14:
9. Who are the Fathers?
10. What is the reaction of these ‘Fathers’?
11. What is the decree of the Senate?
Chapter 15-6:
12. What is the rostra?
13. Which gods have to be venerated in the opinion of the consul?
14. The Bacchanalia are not normal forms of worship. What is the danger of the cult?
15. What is the consul’s message? Write down in a few words (by a quote from the text).
16. What is the consul’s opinion about foreign cults and what was the earlier Roman way
of dealing with these cults?
Chapter 17-9:
17. What was in it for Hispalia and Aebutius?
Virgil, Aeneid 8.337-361, 608-731
The Aeneid concerns events that are usually placed ca. 1200 BCE (directly after the
Trojan war) but was written at a time when Augustus had just attained absolute power
over Rome (ca. 20 BCE). We call these the narrator’s past and the narrator’s present. In
the following passages, Virgil clearly refers to a contemporary Roman audience
(narrator’s present).
First passage, walk around the site of later Rome by Evander (Arcadian king of
Pallanteum, on the site of future Rome) and Aeneas. Underline in this passage with which
words Virgil refers to his contemporary Roman audience, or at least at a situation after
the moment of narration.
Second passage, Aeneas’ shield, given to him by his mother Venus before the battle with
the Latins. In the depiction of the scenes on the shield are again references to Rome’s
future history (the time of Augustus). This becomes clear from the tenses used. Perform
the following tasks by looking carefully at the tenses:
- vv. 608-625: with what tense does Virgil show Aeneas excitement about the shield
offered to him?
- vv. 626 and following: description of the shield. First we get the perspective from
Vulcan: which verbs (pluperfect, because the manufacture of the shield happened before
the meeting of Aeneas and Venus, which is placed in the past) indicate his perspective?
Underline them.
- after Vulcan’s perspective, the perspective shifts to a description of the shield in past
tenses: which (passive) verb marks the transition?
- then underline the past tenses; note especially where Virgil is making remarks to his
contemporary audience (narrator’s present) and where he returns to Vulcan’s perspective.
- finally, with which verb do we go back to the scene of Venus and Aeneas? What is its
tense?
Apuleius, The Golden Ass 11.9-10
1. ‘Saviour goddess’: to what period does this epithet of Isis go back?
2. Note some of the differences between the normal worshippers of Isis and the initiates,
who come next. Then say how the next group, the priests, differs from the initiates.
Apuleius, Apology 1, 25-6, 29, 42, 47, 55, 103
1. Chapter 26: What is Apuleius’ definition of ‘magic’; and what is the definition of the
accusers (and according to Apuleius, ‘of the common herd’)?
2. Chapter 42: what was actually the case with the boy falling down?
3. Chapter 55. What is another name for Liber? And how does A. eliminate the charge of
having mysterious objects in his house?
4. Which 3 main charges do the accusers lay against Apuleius?
Texts on Christians (Tacitus, Annals 15.44; Pliny, Letters 10.96-7; Passion of Perpetua
3-6)
1. What does Tacitus think of the Christians? Quote from text.
2. What does the fact that the Christians were used by Nero as scapegoats say about the
number of Christians at this time?
3. What different methods does the governor Pliny use to detect Christians in his
province?
4. Pliny’s attitude towards the Christians is altogether more positive. He condemns them
as a superstitio, but still thinks that the problem can be solved. Why do you think he
presents the case like this?
5. At the end of his letter, Pliny describes how the temples were once abandoned and now
fill up again. Why does Pliny evoke this picture, which is obviously false?
6. The Emperor Trajan in principle agrees with his governor’s methods, but has one point
of criticism: what is this point?
7. Passion of Perpetua. The first vision of Perpetua (ch. 4). How is heaven portrayed in
this vision? (give at least four characteristics)
8. Who is the man with the white hair?
9. How does Perpetua know from the vision that she will die? Is that a deliverance or a
passion to her?
10. Perpetua’s father tries to dissuade Perpetua to end up being martyred in Ch. 5: how
does he try to dissuade her?
11. Ch. 6: which two ‘methods’ also used by Pliny (in ca. 110 CE) the proconsul uses to
pinpoint Perpetua as a Christian?
12. How do the martyrs react on their conviction?
13. Perpetua’s father tries to dissuade Perpetua one more time during the trial, and the
fourth time decides to make a last desperate and radical decision on a request by
Perpetua. What does he refuse to do?