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The second hour exam will have 2 parts. Part I will be an essay question that asks you to discuss one of the important themes of the Oresteia, drawing on specific passages and metaphors wherever possible. Part II consist of 3-4 passages, which I will ask you to identify and then comment upon. For the identification you should be able to give the title and author of the work, as well as the speaker of the passage. In the commentary you should point out details in the passage that are relevent to this course, making connections wherever possible to larger themes of the Oresteia, the Greek concept of the hero, and other works we have read.Because you are now becoming well versed in Greek literature and the methods of this course, I will expect a high level of analysis on this test. Plot summary is not acceptable. Your answers should be able to reflect your familiarity with the works we have read without recourse to summary. The best answers (in the B and A range) will make interpretive arguments about the text and cite specific passages as evidence for the claims made.
Review Tips I How to Study
II Practice Passages
III Heroes we have studied
IV Gods we have encountered
V Key Greek TermsI How to study: 1) Reread each play of the Oresteia at least once. 2) As you read, pick passages out that you think I might put on the exam, and practice taking notes on them. Relate them to other works, interpret metaphors or imagery, review key terms in the passage, and above all relate the passage to the concept of the hero as we have studied it so far. 3) Study your class notes - this is crucial! 4) Follow up on the lectures by exploring the additional resources at the bottom of each lecture page on the course web site.
II PRACTICE PASSAGES: (Please do not ask me for "the answer" to these - you should review your notes from class if you are unsure about any of the passages. There are many angles from which you could approach any of these passages.)
A) I do not think he met an ignoble death. Did he not himself by treachery bring ruin [atê] on his house? 1525 Yet, as he has suffered - worthy prize of worthy deed - for what he did to my sweet flower, shoot sprung from him... let him make no great boasts in the halls of Hades, since with death dealt him by the sword he has paid for what he first began.B) So then the captain of the Achaean ships, the elder of the two - 185 holding no seer at fault, bending to the adverse blasts of fortune, when the Achaean people, on the shore over against Khalkis 190 in the region where Aulis' tides surge to and fro, were very distressed by opposing winds and failing stores;
and the breezes that blew from the Strymon, bringing harmful leisure, hunger, and tribulation of spirit in a cruel port, idle wandering of men, and sparing neither ship 195 nor cable, began, by doubling the season of their stay, to rub away and wither the flower of Argos; and when the seer, pointing to Artemis as cause, proclaimed to the chieftains another remedy, 200 more oppressive even than the bitter storm, so that the sons of Atreus struck the ground with their canes and did not stifle their tears
- then the elder king spoke and said: "It is a hard fate to refuse obedience, and hard, if I must slay my child, the glory of my home, and at the altar-side stain 210 a father's hand with streams of virgin's blood. Which of these courses is not filled with evil? How can I become a deserter to my fleet and fail my allies in arms? 215 For that they should with all too impassioned passion crave a sacrifice to lull the winds - even a virgin's blood - stands within their right. May all be for the best."
But when he had donned the yoke of Necessity, with veering of mind, 220 impious, unholy, unsanctified, from then he changed his intention and began to conceive that deed of uttermost audacity. For wretched delusion, counselor of ill, primal source of woe, makes man bold. So then he hardened his heart to sacrifice his daughter 225 so that he might further a war waged to avenge a woman, and as an offering for the voyaging of a fleet!
For her supplications, her cries of "Father," and her virgin life, 230 the commanders in their eagerness for war cared nothing. Her father, after a prayer, told his ministers to raise her - fallen about her robes, she lay face-down 235 in supplication with all her thûmos - to lift her like a young goat, high above the altar; and with a gag upon her lovely mouth to hold back the shouted curse against her house -
by the bit's strong and stifling might. Then, as she shed to earth her saffron robe, she 240 struck each of her sacrificers with a glance from her eyes beseeching pity, looking as if in a painting, wishing she could speak; for she had often sung where men met at her father's hospitable table, 245 and with her virgin voice would lovingly honor her dear father's prayer for blessing at the third libation.
What happened next I did not see and do not tell. The art of Kalkhas was not unfulfilled. 250 Justice [Dikê] inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering [pathos]. But the future, that you shall know when it occurs; till then, leave it be - it is just as someone weeping ahead of time. Clear it will come, together with the light of dawn.
C) So listen, father, to this last appeal of mine as you behold these fledglings crouching at your tomb. Have compassion on a song of lament performed by a woman and by a man as well, and let not this seed of Pelops' line be blotted out: for then, in spite of death, you are not dead. 505 For children are voices of salvation [sôtêriâ] to a man, though he is dead; like corks, they buoy up the net, saving [sôzô] the flaxen cord from out of the deep. Hear! For your own sake we make this lament. By honoring this plea of ours you save [sôzô] yourself.
D) The case is too great, if any mortal thinks that he will pass judgment [dikê] on it; no, it is not right even for me to set the penalties [dikai] for murder that is followed by quick mênis, especially since you had already performed the necessary rites, and when you came to my temple you were a pure and harmless suppliant; 475 so I respect you, since you do not bring offence to my city. Yet these women have a duty that is not to be dismissed lightly; and if they do not win this case, the venom of their phrenes will fall upon the ground, an intolerable, perpetual plague.
These are the choices: either to let them stay or to drive them away - both are disastrous and impossible. But since this case has been brought here, I will select homicide judges who will be bound by oath, and I will establish this tribunal for all time. 485 Summon your witnesses, collect your arguments, and the sworn evidence to support your case [dikê]. I will come back, after I sort out the best of my townsmen, and then they will decide this case on the basis of truth, after they take an oath that they will give a verdict with phrenes of dikê.
III Heroes we have studied: (You can review stories about these heroes with the Encyclopedia Mythica or the Greek Mythology Link)
Agamemnon
Clytemnestra
Aegisthus
Cassandra
Iphigeneia
Electra
Orestes
ErekhtheusIV Divinities we have encountered:
Zeus (in his role as overseer and ultimate arbiter of Dikê)
Athena [also known as Pallas or Pallas Athena]
Apollo [also known as Loxias]
Erinyes [= Furies], later Eumenidespathos [look up in your glossary under paskhô]
oikos
atê
dikê
tîmê
kharis
sôtêr/sôteriaAlso good to review: kleos, philos, mênis, akhos, sêma, daimôn
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