English 102 Course Packet

Course Packet for English 102

Study Guide
Homer, The Odyssey, Books 1-4

Important Characters:
Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, Proteus, Odysseus, Telemakhos, Penelope, Eurykleia, Mentes, Mentor, Eurymakhos, Antinoos, Nestor, Menelaos, Helen, Orestes, Agamemnon, Klytaimnestra, Aigisthos

1. What is the situation in Ithaka when Athena arrives there?
2. How would you describe the relationship between Athena and Telemakhos?
3. Why does Telmakhos need Athena?
4. Why is it good for Telemakhos to go on his voyage? Consider the first description of Telemakhos.
5. Why does Telemakhos go to talk to Nestor and Menelaos?
6. What does he learn from them?
7. How would you describe Telmakhos' character?
8. How would you describe Odysseus' character?
9. What do we learn about him and from whom?
10. Why doesn't he appear in these books?
11. What is the role of Penelope in these books?
12. What is Orestes' story?
13. Why is Orestes' story given prominent place in these books?
14. What is the place of the gods in these books?
15. What is the function of portents, signs, and prophecies?
16. Look at the disguises the gods assume. What do they suggest?

Study Guide
Homer, The Odyssey, Books 5-8

Important Characters, Places, and Peoples:
Hermes, Kalypso, Ogygia, Ino, Skheria , Phaiakians, Nausikaa, Arete, Alkinoos, Demodokos

1. Where is Odysseus and what is his situation when we finally see him for the first time?
2. How has Odysseus earned Poseidon's anger and how does it work against him now?
3. How does Athena help Odysseus in Books 5-8? (Find at least 3 examples).
4. Which other women characters help Odysseus in these books? Why?
5. What qualities of character help Odysseus survive the hardships he encounters in these books?
6. In Book 7, Odysseus has to explain himself if he is to get help from the Phaiakians. What do we learn about Odysseus from his speeches in this book?
7. What information about himself does he give? What doesn't he tell?
8. In Book 8, the harper, Demodokos, sings three songs about heroes, gods and godesses. What do we learn about Odysseus from the songs and his reactions to them?
9. What is the purpose of the games and contests in Book 8? What do they show us about Odysseus?
10. An epithet is a word or brief phrase appearing before or after a name and descriptive of the thing named (usually a person or a god--for example, "grey-eyed Athena," "Alkinoos, calm in power," and "Odysseus, canniest of men"). Sometimes an epithet will appear in the place of a name (for example, "the grey-eyed goddess" for Athena and "the great tactician" for Odysseus). Look at the epithets applied to Odysseus (find at least 4 different ones). What do they suggest about his character?
11. Odysseus weeps several times in these books. What do these scenes of weeping suggest about Greek ideas of heroism? How do they compare to our ideas?
12. What are the gods doing in these four books? Why are they in the poem?
13. Look at the scenes where Demodokos appears in the poem and at the songs he sings. What do these scenes indicate about the function of the bard in Greek society?

Study Guide
Homer, The Odyssey, Books 9-12

Names of important people, peoples, gods, and monsters:
Kikones, Lotos Eaters, Kyklopes, Polyphemos, Aiolus, Laistrygonians, Kirke, Hermes, Teiresias, Elpenor , Death (Hades), Persephone, Antikleia, Agamemnon, Akhilleus, Seirenes, Skylla, Kharybdis, Helios, Eurylokhos

1. What keeps the help Aiolos gives Odysseus from working?
2. Why does Odysseus visit the underworld?
3. Who are some of the important people he encounters there and what does he learn from each of them?
4. What do Odysseus' strategem for escaping Polyphemos and the way he overcomes Kirke's power tell us about him?
5. Why does Odysseus stay with Kirke for such a long time?
6. What role do prophecies and omens play in the poem?
7. Does Odysseus seem to learn anything from his adventures?
8. Does he change? Look at his treatment of his men.
9. In these 4 books, the men are alway eating or drinking something that transforms them for better or worse. What is the significance of these transformations? (Look at the Lotos in Book 9, Kirke's wine in book 10, Helios's cattle in Book 12, for example).
10. What light do the important incidents in these 4 books shed on the two main themes of homecoming and adventure?
11. All these adventures are stories Odysseus tells the Phaikians. What kind of storyteller is he? How does his storytelling help him get home?

Study Guide
Homer, The Odyssey, Books 13-18

Names of Important People:
Alkinoos, Arete, Eumaios, Melanthios, Helen, Nestor, Arnios (Iros), Argos, Eurymakhos, Antinoos, Menelaos, Theoklymenos, Amphinomos

1. What happens to the Phaiakians for helping Odysseus?
2. Look closely at the conversation between Odysseus and Athena (pp. 237-244). What does this scene reveal about the character of Odysseus? About his relationship to the goddess?
3. Describe the character of Eumaios.
4. What is the relationship between Eumaios and Odysseus?
5. What omens and signs do we see in these books? What do they mean? Why does Homer put them in the poem?
6. What happens when Odysseus and Telemakhos meet for the first time? How do they react to each other?
7. What do they plan to do about the suitors? What is the suitors' reaction to learning that Telemakhos has returned to Ithaka?
8. What disguise does Odysseus assume for going into Ithaka? What are the reactions of some of the other characters to the disguised Odysseus?
9. We see Penelope in several of these book. What is she like? What are her strengths? Her weaknesses?
10. What seems to be the position of women in the society of the Odyssey?
11. What is the significance of Argos' recognition of Odysseus?

Study Guide
Homer, The Odyssey, Books 19-24

Names of important characters:
Eumaios, Philoitios, Melanthios, Antinoos, Eurykleia, Laertes, Dolios, Eurymakhos

1. What is revealed about the relationship between Penelope and Odysseus in their conversation?
2. How does Eurykleia recognize Odysseus, and what is his reaction?
3. Why does Penelope decide to have the contest of the bow?
4. What happens in the contest of the bow? What do the various characters' reactions reveal about them?
5. How do Telemakhos and Odysseus defeat the suitors? Who is spared in the killing and why?
6. What part do the recognition scenes with Argos and Eurykleia play in the book?
7. Do you think Penelope recognizes or suspects that the stranger is Odysseus before he reveals his identity? If so, why? If not, why not?
8. Is Odysseus justified in killing the suitors? If so, why? If not, why not?
9. Penelope tests both the suitors and Odysseus. Odysseus also tests people. Why are there all these tests in the poem?
10. What are some of the important dreams and signs in these books (19-24)? How do they contribute to the story?
11. It has been said that there are three separate stories in The Odyssey: the story of Telemakhos' education and growth to manhood (Bks 1-4), the story of Odysseus' adventures (Bks 5-12), and the story of Odysseus homecoming (Bks 13-24). How are these stories tied together? Consider plot, repeated images, themes.
12. What is a hero? How does a hero approach the world?
13. Why is The Odyssey a classic, a great book?

Study Guide
Sophocles, Antigone

Characters:
Antigone, Ismene, Eteocles, Polyneices, Kreon, Haimon, Eurydice, Teiresias, Chorus of Elderly Theban Nobles

1. Although Greek drama isn't divided into acts and scenes like modern drama, it can be divided into distinct episodes. The episodes are divided from one another by choral interludes. Before the Chorus enters, there is generally a prologue spoken by one (sometimes two) characters. Generally there is an epilogue spoken by the chorus. Note this structure in the play. How does it shape our sense of what is happening? How does it shape the representation of events?
2. Why does Kreon's decree that Polyneices should be left unburied present Antigone and Ismene with a problem? Why does Antigone feel she must bury her brother?
3. What is Kreon's view of kingship and the state? Does Kreon's action in the play accord with his own ideas of how a good government should be conducted and how a good king should act?
4. What does the dust storm suggest?
5. What is Antigone's defense?
6. How does Kreon justify his position?
7. Why does Haimon try to save Antigone? How does he go about this?
8. What are Antigone's feelings about her impending death? Why does she tell the story of Tantalus's daughter?
9. What does Teiresias tell Kreon and what is Kreon's reaction?
10. What happens to Kreon at the end of the play?
11. What functions do the choral odes have in the play?
12. Whose tragedy is it--Antigone's or Kreon's?
13. Is Antigone right to disobey the law? What is the place of civil disobedience in the play?

Study Guide
Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis.

Characters:
Agamemnon, Menelaos, Achilles, Clytemnestra, Iphigeneia, Odysseus

1. Why must Iphigeneia be sacrificed?
2. What is the role of glory and reputation (personal, military, national) in the play? Look at their effect on Agamemnon, Menelaos, Achilles, Clytemnestra, and Iphigeneia.
3. How does honor fit in with or conflict with glory and reputation?
4. What is the role of deception in the play? Who decieves whom in the play and how? What about self-deception?
5. Describe the conflict between family duties and love and the state or political duties and responsibilities in the play.
6. Contrast the image of Odysseus here with his image in Homer. What are the similarities? the differences?
7. What is the relationship between youth and age in the play?

Study Guide:
Aeschylus, The Agamemnon

Characters:
Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Cassandra, Aegisthus, Iphigeneia, Chorus of Argive Elders, Alexander (Paris), Helen

1. Why does the play open with the watchman and what do we learn from him?
2. Who are the chorus and what do they tell us about the Trojan war and their reactions to it?
3. What are Clytemnestra's first speeches about and what do they reveal about her character?
4. What does the chorus say about Alexander (Paris), Helen, and the war in the second choral ode?
5. What news does the Herald bring, and what is his perspective on the war?
6. What are Agamemnon's first speeches about and what do they tell us about his character?
7. What is the significance of the whole episode about walking on the red cloth?
8. Explain the role of Cassandra. Who is she and why is she important here?
10. Why do the people of Argos fail to warn Agamemnon?
11. How do Clytemnestra and Aegisthus justify their murder of Agamemnon and Cassandra?
12. How do the Chorus respond?
13. Why did Agamemnon sacrifice Iphigeneia? What effect did the sacrifice have?
14. Why do the people of Argos (Mycenae) fail to warn Agamemnon?
15. What is the role of the Chorus in the play?
16. Is Clytemnestra justified in killing Agamemnon?
17. Certain images come up again and again in the play: the yoke, the snare, the net, blood, the eagle, the serpent. What do these images suggest about the situation of the characters? How do these images work throughout the trilogy?
18. Three central terms to examine throughout the trilogy are revenge, sacrifice, and justice. How are they tied together? What are the differences among them?

Study Guide
Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers

Characters:
Aegisthus, Clytemnestra, Electra, Orestes, Pylades, Nurse of Orestes, Chorus of captive women

1. How does Electra feel about her father? About her mother?
2. What are some of the primary images used to describe Orestes and/or Clytaemestra in this play? What images are carried over from the Agamemnon?
3. Who are the chorus? What is the irony of their role here?
4. What is the chorus's idea of justice? What is Orestes' idea of justice? Electra's?
5. How does the chorus feel about Agamemnon? About Aegisthus? Orestes? Electra? Clytemnestra?
6. What is the role of the nurse in the play?
7. What is the role of Pylades in the play? What is his only speech?
8. What is Clytemnestra's dream, and how does Orestes interpret it?
9. What is the significance of the night/day, light/darkness imagery in the play?
10. How does Orestes feel about killing his mother after the deed is done?
11. Who are the Furies and what is their role in the play? Why can only Orestes see them?
12. Is Orestes justified in killing his mother? If so, why? If not, why not?

Study Guide
Aeschylus, Eumenides

Characters:
Priestess of Apollo, Apollo, Hermes, Orestes, Chorus of Furies, Clytemnestra, Athena

1. What does the Priestess of Apollo normally do, and what is her function in the play?
2. What is Apollo's reaction to seeing the Furies in his temple? 3. What advice does Apollo give Orestes?
4. What is Clytemnestra's role in the play?
5. What are Apollo's arguments in favor of Orestes?
6. What are the Furies' arguments against him?
7. Who does Orestes call on for protection when the Furies find him?
8. What arguments do Orestes and the Furies each make to Athena?
9. When the argument between the Furies and Orestes reaches an impasse, what does Athena decide to do?
10. Why does Apollo appear at this point and what are his arguments in favor of Orestes this second time?
11. What arguments do the Furies make to defend their position?
12. How does the jury vote? How does Athena vote, and what are her reasons?
13. How does Athena placate the Furies?
14. What are the results of retributive justice for the individual and the community?
15. Do you find the reasons for the switch from retributive justice represented by the Furies to civic justice represented by Apollo and Athena convincing?
16. Do people need a fear of retribution to keep them in line?

The Oresteia as a whole:
18. What are the differences among the three choruses and how do the choruses function in the plays?
19. What is the image of the family in these plays? What does this image suggest about Greek society?
20. Look at the images and symbols that run through the three plays: eagle, serpent, lion, wolf, yoke, net, light, darkness, seeds, flowers, planting. How do they function in the three plays?

Study Guide
Aristophanes, Lysistrata.

Characters:
Lysistrata, Lampito, Kalonike, Myrrhine, Kinsias, Chorus of Old Men, Chorus of Old Women

Prologue:
1. What problem does Lysistrata want the women to address?
2. What does she suggest as a solution, and what is the women's reaction?
3. Why do the women take control of the Acropolis?
Parados:
4. What is the Chorus of Old Men attempting to do, and how does the Chorus of Old Women foil them?
Scene 1:
5. What is the quarrel between the Commissioner and Lysistrata?
6. What finally happens to the Commissioner?
Parabasis:
7. What happens between the two choruses?
Scene 2:
8. What problem does Lysistrata face once the women are in the Citadel? How is it resolved?
Choral Episode:
9. What is the theme of this choral episode?
Scene 3:
10.. What happens between Kinsias and Myrrhine?
Scene 4:
11. What state is the Herald in when he brings the Spartan proposal?
12. What state is the Spartan delegation in?
13. What state is the Athenian delegation in?
14. What roles do Lysistrata and the statue of Reconciliation play in the negotiations?
Exodos:
15. What is the resolution of the play?
16. Explain the conflict between "family duties" and "community responsibilities" in the play.
17. Compare and contrast this treatment of war and heroism and glory with the plays we have previously read.
18. Why do the women agree to give up their control of the treasury and citadel at the end of the play?
19. Would this sort of anti-war strategy work today?

Keeping a Reading Journal

There are several ways to approach keeping a reading journal:
1. As you read, write down your responses, questions, comments. This is more like keeping a regular diary, writing a bit every day, or every other day until the entry is due.
2. Write the whole entry at once.

What should the journal look like?
Write on regular loose sheets of notebook paper; only the specific pages of each week's entry will be handed in at one time. Put the number of words for that entry in the upper right- hand corner of the first page. When it is handed back, put it in a folder or ring-binder. Keep all entries to use for studying for quizzes and exams, developing ideas for papers, etc.

What to write?
1. Use the questions that are on the study guides. Even just one question if thoroughly done will often give you 500 words' worth of material easily.
2. What are your own responses to this stuff? Who are your favorite characters? Your least favorite characters? Describe them; what are they like physically? mentally? What seem to be their motivations? Do you in any way identify with the characters and the events in their lives, or do they seem totally different? Why? In what ways?
3. Comment on style: Do you like the way the epic or play is written? Why or why not? How do people talk? What images does the poet use to describe places, people, objects? Is the language effective?
4. Plot: Do events have a clear order? Why are they arranged the way they are? If you are confused, put down your questions about events and people.

In other words, use the journal as a place to organize and clarify your own thoughts about these works.

Grading and Rewrites: Papers

GRADING: The method of grading divides the grade into five factors: thought content (TC), organization (OR), sentence structure (SS), word choice (WC), and mechanics (MH). A percentage grade is arrived at by multiplying a value indicating how well you did on each factor by a number indicating the weight of each factor and then summing the results.

The values are: The weights are:
5 = superior TC = 6
4 = good OR = 6
3 = average SS = 3
2 = deficient WC = 3
0 = unacceptable MH = 2
+ or - = +/- 1/3 of the weight (TC, OR 2; SS, WC, MH 1)

Thus if a paper receives Grading scale:
all fives: A = 90-100
TC 5 x 6 = 30 B = 80-89
OR 5 x 6 = 30 C = 60-79
SS 5 x 3 = 15 D = 50-59
WC 5 x 3 = 15 F = 0-49
MH 5 x 2 = 10 This scale applies to papers
100 and quizzes, not tests.

FOR THE RESEARCH PAPER ONLY THE WEIGHTS ARE:
TC = 4 TC 5 x 4 = 20
OR = 6 OR 5 x 6 = 30
SS = 3 SS 5 x 3 = 15
WC = 3 WC 5 x 3 = 15
MH = 4 MH 5 x 4 = 20
100

On the grading form attached to each paper you will recieve a + = good, / = satisfactory, - = unsatisfactory, to indicate how you did on various important elements of the paper such as thesis, introduction, etc.

LATE PAPERS: Late papers will be penalized one point for each day that they are late. Papers will not be accepted after they are two weeks late unless you have made previous arrangements.

REWRITES: You may rewrite your first critical paper and the research paper to improve your grade. The rewritten paper and the original have to be handed in to me within two weeks of the day when the papers were handed back. You will also have to make an appointment to discuss the paper with me before you start to rewrite it. If you rewrite a paper, the final grade for the assignment will be the average of the original grade and the grade given to the rewritten paper (thus if the grade for the original is 70, the rewrite 80, then the grade for the assignment will be 75).

Name
English 102-__
Date

Paper Format

FORMAT: All papers must be typed. They should be double-spaced with a 1-inch margin on the top and the bottom and a 1-inch margin on the left and right sides. The first page should have your name, English 102-__ (section number), and the date in the upper right-hand corner. The second and subsequent pages should have your last name and the page number in the upper right-hand corner. Make sure your paper has a title. The title of the story will not do.

PROOFREAD YOUR PAPERS: Write corrections in neatly by hand. Do NOT put your paper in a folder. Use a staple or a paper clip to hold the pages together.

THINGS TO CHECK FOR IN YOUR PAPERS: In The Bedford Handbook:

Review punctuation: The comma, Section 32 and 33, especially 32a and 32b. The semicolon, Section 34, especially 34a and 34b.

Review common grammatical errors: Sentence Fragment, Section 19; Run-on Sentences, Section 20; and Pronoun Reference, Section 23.

LATE PAPERS: Late papers will be penalized 1 point for each day they are late. At the end of the second week after the due dates, all students who have not handed in their papers must see me about whether they will be permitted to hand them in. Papers received after this date will not be accepted unless special arrangements have been made.

Editorial Checklist: The Structure

The first thing to work on is the introduction.
* Does it have five sentences?
* Does it mention the title and author of the work discussed.
* Does it lead you into the thesis? (For useful discussions of thesis, see The Bedford Handbook, pp. 26-37, particularly 36-37, and 160-63).
* Is the thesis at the end of the introduction?
* What changes would you suggest?

Next work on the body.
* Read through it quickly. Is there a particularly energetic passage?
Is another thesis suggested?
What is it?
* Now go back through it more slowly. Does each paragraph make a point?
What is it?
Is each point illustrated and developed by at least one quote? (Read The Bedford Handbook, 227-28, 468-75, 483-84, 573-81 for help on quotations).
Is each point also illustrated by other evidence from the text such as a brief account of an event, reference to symbols, or the like?
How is it related to the thesis? Each quote or example should be introduced by an explanatory sentence. After the quote, put at least one sentence explaining how it supports your point and what its connection to your thesis is.
Is this relationship spelled out? See above.
* Should the order of the paragraphs be changed?
Why is this order more effective than some other?

Next the conclusion.
* Is the conclusion at least 5 sentences long?
* Do you come to a different conclusion than you thought you would? In other words, is your conclusion different from your thesis?
If so, what is the difference?
How do you need to revise your thesis to reflect your new conclusion about the subject?
What changes need to be made in the body of the paper?
* Does the conclusion sum up the import of the whole paper?
Is each of the major points mentioned?
Does it show how they relate to the thesis?
Does it show how they relate to each other?

Using Quotations

In an analysis of literature, quotations are generally used as evidence, i.e., to support an assertion in an argument.

Elements of an argument:

Assertion: What you want to say about something, your argument.
Evidence: A fact that supports an assertion: a quotation, an incident in a story.
Warrant: What connects the evidence to the assertion, a line of reasoning.

Quotation to support an assertion:
Quotations do not explain themselves. You have to guide your readers to and through the quotation, telling them what to notice about it. Make your assertion. Explain the context of the quotation: who says it, to whom, where, when, why. Quote the passage. Explain why this quotation supports your assertion. Even if it is obvious to you, it may not be obvious to the reader.

What to say rather than "say":
declare, state, argue, tell, utter, vent, swear, acknowledge, advise, voice, give vent to, give voice to, give tongue to, pronounce, enunciate, claim, demand, assert, propose, propound, narrate, recount, report, allege, contend, maintain, affirm, deny, avow, contradict, repudiate, hold, growl, grate, roar, articulate, communicate, convey.

Samples of quotation:
1. A phrase:
In addition to using epic similes to make a description more vivid, Homer sometimes uses his similes to create a more playful effect. For example, when the naked Odysseus, covering himself only with an olive branch, pushes aside the bushes and first approaches Nausikaa, Homer compares him to a "mountain lion" (6.140) whose "hungry belly / [takes] him near stout homesteads for his prey" (6.143-44). Homer tells us that Odysseus looks just like such a lion, and then he adds that Odysseus "was driven on by hunger too" (6.147). This last addition to the description undercuts the terrifyingness of the description by bringing Odysseus down to the human level. Despite his fierce appearance, he is just a hungry man. By driving home that final factor of the comparison, Homer playfully undercuts the effect he has initially achieved with his simile.

2. A long quotation:
Homer also uses his epic similes to present a point of view that is absent from the direct description of events and thus adds depth to our understanding of the human condition. We see this when Homer uses an epic simile to describe the manner in which Odysseus is weeping as he listens to Demodokos sing of the conquest of Troy. Demodokos tells the tale from the point of view of the Achaians, singing of

how Odysseus came like Ares to
the door of Deiphobos . . .
and braved the desperate fight there--
conquering once more by Athena's power. (8.556-59)

The song emphasizes the triumph of Odysseus at that moment. His is a heroic achievement. However, during this tale Odysseus weeps, and Homer gives us this comparison:

And Odysseus
let the bright molten tears run down his cheeks,
weeping the way a wife mourns for her lord
on the lost field where he has gone down fighting
the day of wrath that came upon his children.
At sight of the man panting and dying there,
she slips down to enfold him, crying out;
then feels the spears, prodding her back and shoulders,
and goes bound into slavery and grief.
Piteous weeping wears away her cheeks:
but no more piteous than Odysseus' tears,
cloaked as they were, now, from the company. (8.560-71)

Through this magnificent simile that describes the manner of Odysseus' tears, Homer also emphasizes the other side of war. The glory of the conquest for the victor is juxtaposed to the anguish of the victim whose point of view is presented in the simile. Odysseus' tears join him to those who suffered from his triumph, the women who mourn for the husbands he killed, the women he prodded with his spear and carried into slavery. We are reminded that the anonymous enemies killed by the hero are human, men who were defending their homes from an enemy, men whose wives weep for them when they die, men whose lives have come to naught. The lives of the women and children who are left behind are destroyed as they are carried into slavery. The woman whose "weeping wears away her cheeks" can exclaim, as Odysseus does when he asks Arete for help: "My home and friends lie far. My life is pain" (7.164). Thus, by the using the simile to present another point of view, Homer unites the two, conqueror and conquered, victor and victim, hero and slave, man and woman, through their tears, the sign of their humanity, and through the suffering all humans are prey to if fate so decrees.

Works Cited
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. 1961. New York: Vintage, 1990.

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