Post your answers on the homework part of your website.
Give yourself 40 minutes to do the following:
Identify and interpret four (4) of the following eight short passages. To identify, name the character speaking and character(s) spoken to; briefly note the situation. To interpret, explain how the lines reveal a main character trait, theme, or pattern. Write three or four sentences—not a long paragraph—about each of your 4 passages. Quote briefly from each one. Before you write, mark the passages and make some notes in the margin.
On page 2, there is a list of characters to jog your memory (and to help your spelling).
A) “The Trojan women raised a cry—but my heart
sang—for I had come round, long before,
to dreams of sailing home, and I repented
the mad day Aphrodite
drew me away from my dear fatherland”
B) “. . . Desire moved his throat
to hail you, but Odysseus’ great hands clamped
over his jaws, and held. So he saved us all,
till Pallas Athena led you away at last.”
C) “I find it less revolting that the suitors
carry their malice into violent acts . . .
What sickens me is to see the whole community
sitting still, and never a voice or a hand raised
against them—a mere handful compared with you.”
D) “YYY, how can I do it, how approach him?
I have no practice in elaborate speeches, and
for a young man to interrogate an old man
seems disrespectful—”
E) “Friend, let me put it in the plainest way.
My mother says I am his son; I know not
surely. Who has known his own engendering?
I wish at least I had some happy man
as father, growing old in his house . . .”
F) “If you choose to slaughter one man’s livestock and pay nothing,
this is rapine; and by the eternal gods
I beg Zeus you shall get what you deserve:
a slaughter here, and nothing paid for it!”
G) “Why has my child left me? He had no need
of those long ships on which men shake out sail
to tug like horses, breasting miles of sea.
Why did he go? Must he, too, be forgotten?”
Agamemnon Menelaos
Aigisthos Nestor
Athena (as Mentes, Mentor) Odysseus
Antinoos Orestes
Eurykleia Peisistratos
Eurymakhos Penelope
Halitherses Proteus
Helen Telemakhos
Hermes Zeus
Klytemnestra Mentor (the real one)
Some tips:
1) The practice passage test poses many challenges. You not only need to know the plot and characters in order to identify context and speakers, but you also need to read the passages closely and infer meaning from a variety of clues. You have to think quickly.
2) I suggest you spend 10 minutes reading over the passages and marking them up. Then decide which 4 of the 8 passages you want to analyze for the test.
3) Spend approximately 7 minutes per passage, analyzing (not paraphrasing) it.
4) You should identify the context, the speaker, and the person(s) spoken to in a single sentence. You are not asked to paraphrase the passages—that is, to restate what the passages say. You are asked to hone in on specific details and write a few sentences about what those details show. Here are some general pointers on how to convey the rich suggestiveness of a passage and some ideas you might not have thought of.
a. Note several important ideas and/or patterns in the passage. Draw on different parts of the excerpt.
b. Probe beyond the obvious.
c. Consider diction (word choice).
d. Remember to embed specific words and phrases from the passage into your own sentences.
5) Please post your homework on your personal website under “homework.”