Two of the following questions will be on the exam; you will write on one.
1. Compare the values that shape Aeneas' actions in the Aeneid to Socrates' ideas about justice, the polis, and the responsibilities of a citizen as we encounter them in the Apology and the Crito. What similarities do we see? What differences?
2. Some people are inclined to see the life of Jesus as presented in the Gospels as a story which is analogous to a Greek tragedy. Present as convincing a case as possible for this view, drawing on the tragedies we have read and/or Aristotle's Poetics as paradigms of tragedy. If you are not convinced by your own argument, then address the limitations and/or weaknesses of such a view. Can there be such a thing as Christian tragedy?
3. Ovid's Metamorphoses describes four Ages of Man. Which of these Ages are depicted in the Biblical stories in Genesis/Exodus? In the Aeneid? How are those depictions used in each text to reveal the values and beliefs of the two cultures? What do the stories say about the past/future of each culture in regard to the Ages?
4. Imagine that you are a Greek-speaking Christian who loves both Jesus and Plato. Your greatest ambition is to write a synthesis that reconciles the teachings of Plato with the teachings of the New Testament. As a pious Christian you accept all the teachings of New Testament, but are (somewhat reluctantly) willing to pick and choose among the teachings of Plato. Which aspects of Plato's philosophy would you include in this synthesis? Which would you exclude? Why?
In addition to the essay, . . .
. . . there will be two other sections on the exam: Short answers, where you will need to explain very briefly who or what a person, place or event is; and a Significance section, where, in a short paragraph, you will need to explain first, who or what a person, place or event is, and then, why this person, place or event is signficant. This significance can lie in the context of a text, a culture or the course as a whole.
You will have choices in all the sections.