virgil and ovid | English homework help
virgil and ovid | English homework help.
Develop an essay response (750 words) to ANY AND ONLY ONE of the following topic/questions; LABEL YOUR ANSWER CLEARLY. Take your time so that you can produce a polished final product, but DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. (In other words, don’t wait until the last minute to prepare and submit your essay. It just won’t work!) Make sure that you do label your answer clearly. Provide a title and a well-organized introductory paragraph for your essay. An effective tactic is to re-word the actual topic in that introductory paragraph, so that it becomes your thesis statement. As you then go on make a case defending the position that you have taken, be sure to use supporting evidence from the text(s) for each point that you wish to make. A summarizing conclusion should round things out. A. If one were to take sides in the debate between Creon and Antigone over whether or not Polynices’ body should be properly buried, what might the underlying issues be, how do they compare with each other, and which side, if any, should rightfully prevail? B. How is Medea’s choice of action as much affected by the fact that she is a stranger among the Corinthians as by the fact that Jason is marrying another woman? (Any response should factor in how Jason’s marriage to a Corinthian princess now makes him an insider. What, for example, is his argument with regard to how that will help Medea and their two boys?) C. How does the story Socrates tells of his life exemplify his having been an “outsider” in Athenian society for virtually all of his adult life? What pursuit particularly set him apart from his fellow Athenians? D. Why would Virgil turn to Greek history and select the myth of the Trojan War when he sets about creating a myth to justify Roman imperialism? (One should consider the nature of his new kind of hero, Aeneas.) E. How does Ovid portray the ancient gods and how is that portrayal different from Virgil’s portrayal of them? If there are radical differences, how might one account for them? F. What does Augustine think of the values that shaped Virgil and Ovid and, as a result, the Roman Empire? Specifically, what is Augustine’s attitude toward the emperor as compared to Virgil’s? To Ovid’s? If there are differences, how would one account for those differences? G. Show how Virgil, who shares as many traits with Dante as he differs from him, is an appropriate choice as Dante’s guide. Any response should reflect on the Self and the Other, whereby apparent dislocations and distinctions really can be seen to be acting as complements rather than oppositions. H. Describe, in some detail, the structure of Dante’s Hell, not only in its physical attributes, but as a moral landscape. Why does it have that very particular structure, and upon what key principle of human behavior, and of judging the severity of any particular sinful act, is it based? (Any response should take into account what factors make an action sinful in Dante’s view.)