All due dates for papers are on Thursday, and the deadline for posting is midnight: this is to allow other students and me time over the course of the week to enter their comments on your paper.
All papers except the final paper should be 3-5 pages long (= 750-1250 words); try not to either exceed or fall below the page/word limit.
Please note that no late papers will be accepted for this course. Thus, you should start working on your paper as soon as you complete the relevant reading assignment. Your paper grade for the course will be an average of all three papers, but some more weight will be given to the second and third papers. This is so you can feel free to experiment with the first paper.
All papers except for the final course paper will be posted on a Web Site, and comments will also be entered there. For instructions on how to do this, see the next entry.

Link here to the Owl of Athena WebBoard. Before proceeding, make sure that you keep a backup copy of your paper on disk and that you also make a hard copy of it! (In other words, "WebBoard ate my paper," "The server went down," "The post commmand didn't work," and the like do not constitute acceptable excuses!)

Training Session:
On Tuesday February 8 from 8-9 pm, in the ST Lab ( Science Tower Room 103, Mac Side) there will be a training session for using the Web Board. Attendance is required, since sharing work is an important component of this course, and faulty use of this web site will make sharing difficult or impossible. It doesn't take long to learn the mechanics, but there are a few important specifics that you can't figure out easily on your own. Once you've got the basics down, on the other hand, we can use the site for outside discussion of topics we don't finish working through in class, or as a sounding board for ideas and thoughts you want to float for comment and discussion.

Comments:
Everyone in the class should enter comments on all five papers posted on Thursday night. Comments should all be posted by a week following the posting of the papers (i.e., by the following Thurssday night at midnight).
Your comments need not be lengthy, but they should be at least five to ten sentences long. Whether you are critical or not, be constructive and give reasons for your agreements or disagreements with what is said.

Email me:
a copy of your paper at the same time that you post it, and I'll return it to you marked and graded.

Writing Workshop
Use the header to link to the hours and places of operation, but check before going to make sure these are current. In some cases, I may suggest in my comments on your paper that you make use of the Writing Workshop. But everyone can benefit from it!

Topics for Paper #1a (Paper number 1, Group A); due on February 10; post by midnight.
Topic #1. Write a story for Briseis, narrated in the third person. As the background notes for September 10 indicate, the ancient commentators on the Iliad tried to account for Chryseis' capture at Thebe by "filling in the blanks." In your paper, you should do the same kind of thing for Briseis, only on an expanded scale. Don't "modernize"; instead, try to construct an account that stays within the values and ideals of the text. Make use of what is said about Briseis in Book I; and take into consideration also the following passages: Book IX.409-419 (pp. 262-63), where Achilles rebuffs an appeal that he return to battle; Book XIX.63-70 (p. 490), where Achilles expresses regret for the quarrel; Book XIX.303-314 (pp.496-97), where Agamemnon swears that he did not sleep with Briseis; and Book XIX. 333-58 (pp. 497-98), where Briseis is returned to Achilles.
You might also want to check out some other vase representations of Briseis available on Perseus: you can read a description of (1) one vase in the British Museum (London E 258) and see a representation of it, read a description of (2) another vase in the Getty Museum (Malibu 83.AE.362) and see a representation of the relevant exterior with the figures identified, and look at various views of (3) a vase that is in the Louvre (Louvre G 146): exterior showing Agamemnon leading away Briseis, followed by a herald and Diomedes; exterior from the left, focusing on Agamemnon and Briseis; detail of Agamemnon; detail of Briseis. (The other side of this vase depicts the scene described in Iliad Book IX.409-419, where Achilles rebuffs an appeal that he return to battle. Here are links to: the exterior of the vase, showing Ajax on the left, Odysseus standing before Achilles, and Phoenix on the right; and a detail of Achilles.)
Topic #2. Compare the faithful wife Andromache with the faithless wife Helen, using the material in Books III, VI, and XXII. Who fares better with respect to status, power, influence and the like in the world of the Iliad? As with the first topic, try to structure your discussion so that you stay within the constraints imposed upon women in Homeric society. In other words, don't limit yourself by observing that Andromache was "just a wife" or resort to anachronisms by suggesting that she could have gone out and gotten a job. This doesn't mean you can't be critical of women's status and role in Homeric society; it means that you should try to evaluate it carefully, paying attention to nuance and details.

Topics for Paper #1b (Paper number 1, Group B); due on February 24; post by midnight.
Topic #1. On page 91, lines 478ff., Telemachus says one thing to the suitors, but the poet tells us that "deep in his mind he knew the immortal goddess." And on page 352, Eurymachus reassures Penelope about Telemachus' safety, but the poet tells us that Eurymachus spoke "Encouraging, all the way, but all the while / plotting the prince's murder in his mind..." (lines 497-98). By contrast, the poet of the Odyssey never tells us what Penelope herself is actually thinking: apparent contradictions between her words, actions, thoughts and intentions are allowed to stand without comment by the poet. This becomes particularly problematic in Books 18 and 19 of the poem, when, as signs of Odysseus's impending return become stronger, Penelope's resolve to remarry appears to consolidate itself. Write a story for Penelope in which you reconstruct the thoughts and intentions behind her actions in Books 16, 18, 19, and 21. You may choose to avail yourself of the views of later mythographers: the historian Herodotus, for example, reports that Penelope and the god Hermes were the parents of the god Pan; the mythographer Apollodorus agrees with Herodotus and adds some other details about Penelope's amorous adventures; and Pausanias reflects a variant on the tradition, reporting some details from a poem called Thesprotis (8.12.5-6). Servius (a 4th century ce commentator and grammarian) summarized a tradition that was common in antiquity: "For when he [Odysseus] returned home to Ithaca after his wanderings, it is said that he found among his household gods Pan, who was reported to have been born from Penelope and all the suitors, as the name itself Pan [="all"] seems to indicate; although others report that he was born from Hermes, who transformed himself into a goat and slept with Penelope. But after Odysseus saw the deformed child, it is said that he fled [again] to his wanderings."
Topic #2. Constrast the portrayal of Nausicaa in Books 6-8 with that of Penelope in Books 16, 18, 19, 21 and 23. (You will have to be selective in choosing your material from the latter.) In what ways does the character Nausicaa share qualities with Penelope? What qualities of Nausicaa make her a suitable choice as Odysseus' wife? What qualities of Penelope does she not share? If you choose, you can take into consideration also features of the characterization of Arete in Books 6-8, and compare Penelope with a composite of Nausicaa and Arete. In thinking about your paper, disregard the fact that Nausicaa is not, in fact, Penelope, and that Odysseus is determined to get home and recover his own wife. Disregard, too, the fact that Nausicaa is a young maiden and that Odysseus is probably 40 years old or so. (After all, Arete was Alcinous' niece: Book 7, lines 73-79, page 181.) Concentrate on developing a comparison and contrast between the two characters or character-types as they are presented in the poem.

Topics for Paper #1c (Paper number 1, Group C); due on March 2; post by midnight
Topic #1. Write a narrative dialogue (kind of like a scene in a play) which retells the account of the creation of Pandora in the Theogony and Works and Days, and which might also draw on Semonides' Poem 7. Your principal characters should be Zeus, Hephaestus, Athena, Aphrodite, and Hermes (as in the Works and Days), but you can add Prometheus and Epimetheus to the story if you want. (Consult the background notes link to the Olympian divinities to add to what you know about these deities from Homer, Hesiod, and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.) You can use the quarrel among the gods at the end of the first book of Iliad to give you some ideas about how the gods relate to each other in a situation of antagonism. You might choose to make your account one of cooperation among the gods, or to incorporate into your dialogue some elements of strife among them. You might make use also of the illustration for March 1 on the Study Questions page; and you should also consult again the kalyx krater which is on the Background page for Pandora. As with other papers of this type, be careful, on the one hand, to stay within the appropriate cultural parameters, and, on the other hand, to avoid simply retelling what Hesiod tells us. Think about your composition before beginning it, and make a selection from among all the details about Pandora you're given in Hesiod, Semonides, and on the background page. Then decide which aspects of the story will be the focus of your account.
Topic #2. In Hesiod's Theogony, the stories of a number of female divinities are elaborated at some length. Write a paper in which you compare and contrast two or more of the following female divinities, paying special attention to the circumstances under which they are born (if those are related), and to the relationship of each of the female divinities to Zeus and the Olympian realm: Aphrodite, Styx, Hekate, Athena, Mnemosyne. (Make sure that your paper is focused around the analysis of similarities and differences, and the implications of these for the meaning of the poem; don't just catalogue or list the similarities and differences.)

Topics for Paper #2a (Paper number 2, Group A); due on March 9; post by midnight
Topic #1. Compare what Persphone tells her mother in lines 406-13 with the narrative of this episode in lines 360-74. You will see that the two accounts do not precisely match. Compose a story for Persephone, narrated in the third person, in which you expand upon and fill in the details of her sojourn in the underworld with Hades from the time when she was snatched away by him to the point in the narrative when we encounter her again. Include in this account also the first stage of Persphone's reunion with her mother. What was her experience? How did she adjust to her new "home"? What was her response to Hades' proposition in lines 360-69? Might she have been inclined to give her mother a slightly different account of her experience than the one that was her own? As with the other paper topics, try to stay within the cultural world of the text. But you might also want to reflect on Nausicaa's desire to get married in Odyssey, Book 6, and on the ways in which she does or does not express it explicitly. And you might want to consider also the implications of two terracotta plaques from the mid sixth- and early fifth-century depicting Hades and Persephone as rulers in the Underworld.
Topic #2. Reflect upon the three stages of the succession-myth in the Theogony as we discussed them in class and as they were described in the Background Notes. Write a paper in which you analyze the three main stages of the Demeter hymn: (1) from the rape of Persephone until the point where Demeter finds out what happened to her (lines 1-90); (2) Demeter's withdrawal from the world of the Olympians, her sojourn upon earth, and the famine (lines 91-385); (3) the reunion of Demeter and Persephone and the reconciliations with which the poem closes (lines 386-495). How is the progression from the first to the third stage configured in this poem? In other words, what fundamental changes in the organization of the cosmos have been brought about when the poem closes? Notice also that, in this poem, the second stage is the longest and most elaborate section. How does this section function in the poem? Why do you think it is as long and complicated as it is? You will probably find it easiest to write on this topic if you divide your paper into two parts: analyze the progression from the first to the third stage in the first part; discuss the organization and function of the second stage in the second part.

Topics for Paper #2b (Paper number 2, Group B); due on March 30; post by midnight
Topic #1. Write a paper in the third person in which you imaginatively reconstruct the situation, context, and meaning of Sappho fr. 94 and Sappho fr. 96 in relation to one another. In other words, make the assumption that both fragments refer to the same set of persons and situations. Pay particular attention to "point of view," and recast either the "I" of fr. 94 or the "she" of fr. 96 (or both) so that your narrative is told from a single perspective. In reconstructing the context of the fragments, you should both use your own imagination and also draw on the knowledge of Sappho and her poetry that you have gained from your reading of all the poems that were assigned for class reading and from the background notes. As with all papers of this type, don't modernize--stay within the cultural context of the poems. And be sure also to review carefully all of the translations for Sappho fr. 31 (= Raynor 8) and Sappho fr. 96 (= Raynor 15), and consult the Barnstone translation of fr. 96 on the Lesbian Poetry Page, to which you can link here: it is the last poem on the page, entitled "To Atthis."
Topic #2.Write a paper divided into three sections: in the first part, identify what you consider to be the major differences in the translations of fr. 31 and then analyze how those features affect the overall meaning of the poem. In part two, do the same for fr. 96. (You will have to be selective in your choice of features to discuss: do not simply list or outline them; instead, explain why and how one or another difference is important to the meaning of the poem. You may find it helpful to consult the remarks about translation on the Lesbian Poetry Page [Paragraph beginning "Many translations of these fragments..."].) In the third section of the paper, compare what you infer is the situation or context for each of the poems: e.g., Who is speaking? Why? In what set of circumstances? How do men fit into the picture, if they do? Address either some of these questions or other ones that occur to you.

Topics for Paper #2c (Paper number 2, Group C); due on April 6; post by midnight
Topic #1. Using the stories of Cyrene and Apollo in Pythian 9, Alexidamas and the daughter of Antaios in Pythian 9, and Atalanta and Melanion/Hippomenes in Apollodorus, write a story of your own which culminates in marriage as the prize in an athletic competition. Your story should draw out the characters of both the male and female protagonists, and you should make use of as many details in the three myths as possible. Incorporate both male and female perspectives in your story, and stay within the cultural context to the extent that you avoid representing the marriage as a "tragedy" for the maiden. (Notice that, in Pythian 9, each woman prayed that Telesikrates might be either her husband or son.) Reconcile the maiden to marriage in some way that seems culturally approriate, but don't make her simply a passive pawn. Drawing on the histories of Cyrene and Atlanta, give her a genuine role to play in the narrative, in precisely the way that Pindar does not. If you want names that don't excessively evoke one or the other of the myths, use Telesikrates for the male and Antimache for the female. The maiden's father might also figure in the story in some way, although you can leave him out of it if you have other ideas. If you want ideas for filling out the characterization of your hero, link to the Perseus site on Athletes' stories; and you might also want to make use of this student site on Women and the Pythian Games.
Topic #2. Drawing on both your reading and on class discussion, compare and contrast the hero (including victor) with the heroine in Pindar. (You can write about the hero and heroine types, or select one hero and one heroine.) In writing your paper, you might think again about some of the questions distributed for the class on Pindar: use of epithets (descriptive adjectives), active versus passive role in the poem, "stories" of the characters, maturation aspects of the heroes and heroines, etc. These issues could provide a focus for your thoughts about the similarities and differences for the heroes and heroines, and give you some ideas about organizing your paper.

Topics for Paper #3a (Paper number 3, Group A); due on April 13; post by midnight
Topic #1. Review the passages in the Odyssey where the House of Atreus motif appears (Book 1: p. 78, p. 87; Book 3, ppp. 115-17; Book 4, pp. 140-41; Book 11, p.262-64; Book 13, pp. 298-99; Book 243, p. 474). Pay careful attention to how responsibility for Agamemnon's death is assigned by the various speakers. Compare this with the way in which the event is represented on vase paintings and in the Oresteia. You can link here to additional representations showing the scene. And you can link here to additional representations showing the death of Aegisthus.
Write a paper in which you discuss the ways in which Aeschylus has configured the characters of either Clytemnestra in the Agamemnon and Libation Bearers or Orestes in the Libation Bearers. For either paper, include some discussion of the Odyssey, but be general: do not review the passages one by one; concentrate mainly on the Aeschylean version and use the Odyssey and vase-paintings for comparison. If you write on Orestes, consider in your paper the motif of male maturation as we discussed it in class with reference to the representationof Jason in Pindar's Fourth Pythian Ode.
Topic #2. Write a story for Clytemnestra, narrated in the third person, and based on what you know about her from the passages in the Odyssey referenced under Paper Topic #1, from Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Libation Bearers, and from the vase paintings referenced above. In your paper, take either a position that is sympathetic to Clytemnestra or one that is not: defend her or condemn her, but tell your story in such a way that it incorporates both the "facts" as they appear in the Odyssey, Oresteia, and vase paintings, and your own imaginative elaboration of the details. You don't have to include everything you know, but try to incorporate something from each source, while concentrating on the Oresteia.

Topics for Paper #3b (Paper number 3, Group B); due on April 20; post by midnight
Topic #1. Write a paper discussing how Sophocles and Euripides modify and adapt the character of Electra as it is presented in Aeschylus. What is the overall effect of the changes that they introduce into the story? How do the Sophoclean and Euripidean versions compare, in your view, with that of Aeschylus? Is Electra a more or less sympathetic character in the later dramatists? What do you think is the effect of extracting Electra's story from the context which the Agamemnon gives it in the Oresteia?
Topic #2. Write a story for Electra, narrated in the third person, based on what you know about her from Sophocles and Euripides, and from what you can deduce about her from representations on vases and other media. You may also include information from Aeschylus, but concentrate on the Sophoclean and Euripidean versions. If you prefer, you can focus your story around the character as presented in either Sophocles or Euripides, adding some details from the other two poets. Consider Electra's relation to Orestes, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, and Aegisthus, but avoid making the story an exclusively family drama: think also about Electra's social role and her status as a girl and woman in her society.

Topics for Paper #3c (Paper number 3, Group C); due on May 4; post by midnight
Topic #1. Write a story for either Medea or Antigone, narrated in the third person. "Fill in the blanks" for each of them, drawing upon information in the play, on the background notes and/or links, and on what you can derive from the images in the Study Notes. Don't modernize: stay within the values and ideals of the text, and expand upon the situation as it is presented in the play. Write your story so that it answers questions about character and motive that the play doesn't fully reveal.
Topic #2. Compare Medea and Antigone as rebellious females. Whose cause is better justified? What effect does the past history of each have on the actions she takes within the play? How does each conform to or reject what are presented within the play as the social norms? What difference does it make that Medea is a stranger in Corinth and that Antigone is part of the royal family of Thebes? What difference does it make that Antigone is not yet married and Medea is a mother of two sons? Think about these or other questions that occur to you, and write a paper in which you choose two or three topics to discuss, and develop each of them fully.

Topics for Final Paper
Directions:
A. Outline
Choose one of the two topics for your group, or devise a topic of your own after consultation with me. The topic must treat at least three of the works on which you did not write a paper during the semester, and each of the three works must be from a different section of the course (Epic Poetry, Hymnic and Lyric Poetry, Tragedy).
Think about your topic and make up an outline of the themes and issues you plan to discuss. Post the outline on the WebBoard by midnight, May 6. Class on May 8 will be devoted to discussion and brainstorming about your outlines.
B. Paper
Write a paper on your topic of 7-10 pages, not counting a final page or pages on which you should include footnotes and references to your texts. Number all pages.
In your paper, avoid long quotations: summarize or paraphrase the passages you use as examples, referencing them in footnotes and concentrating in your paper on analysis and argumentation.
Allow time for reviewing your paper for spelling, syntax, and grammar with the Writing Workshop; and proofread!
Your paper should be handed in either to me or to the Classical Studies Administrative Assistant (SC 341) by 8 am on Monday, May 15.

Topics for Group A (Write on 1 or 2).
1. Discuss the ways in which young adulthood for girls is represented in literature, using the examples of Nausicaa, the maidens of Alcman's and Sappho's poems, and the figures of Electra and Antigone in the plays by Sophocles and Euripides in which they appear. Don't review each work one by one: try instead to construct a single analysis or narrative which draws on all of the works for each major theme or idea in your paper.
2. Discuss the ways in which marriage and adulthood for women is represented in literature, using the examples of Penelope in the Odyssey, and Medea in Pindar's Fourth Pythian Ode and Euripides' play. Don't review each work one by one: try instead to construct a single analysis or narrative which draws on all of the works for each major theme or idea in your paper.

Topics for Group B (Write on 1 or 2).
1. The Theogony, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, and the Oresteia all share a tripartite or three-stage structure. At the end of each work, the patriarchal organization of the cosmos or of human society is affirmed. Discuss the ways in which the first, second, and third stages are represented in each work, and analyze the logic by which the desirability and necessity of patriarchy is affirmed by each author.
2. Discuss the ways in which marriage and adulthood for women is represented in literature, using the examples of Andromache and Helen in the Iliad, Demeter, and Clytemnestra in Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Libation Bearers. Don't review each work one by one: try instead to construct a single analysis or narrative which draws on all of the works for each major theme or idea in your paper.

Topics for Group C (Write on 1 or 2).
1. Discuss the ways in which young adulthood for girls is represented in literature, using the examples of Nausicaa, the maidens of Alcman's and Sappho's poems, and the figure of Electra in the plays by Sophocles and Euripides in which she appears. Don't review each work one by one: try instead to construct a single analysis or narrative which draws on all of the works for each major theme or idea in your paper.
2. Discuss the ways in which marriage and adulthood for women is represented in literature, using the examples of Andromache and Helen in the Iliad, Demeter, and Clytemnestra in the Agamemnon and Libation Bearers. Don't review each work one by one: try instead to construct a single analysis or narrative which draws on all of the works for each major theme or idea in your paper.