2006 FJCL State Latin Forum Greek Literature

Question 1

What Greek word meaning “tragic flaw” is a requirement for a perfect tragedy, according to Aristotle?

Answer 1

hamartia

Question 2

Revelers during drama festivals would often dress up as what animal, from which the term “tragedy” ultimately comes?

Answer 2

goat

Question 3

It is likely that Greek drama has its origins in festivals celebrating which God?

Answer 3

Dionysus

Question 4

What was the term for a wedding song sung by the bride’s attendants as they escorted her to the groom’s house?

Answer 4

hymenaeus

Question 5

In which poem of Hesiod does he use the myths of Prometheus and Pandora to explain why men have to work hard and act justly?

Answer 5

Works and Days

Question 6

The ruins of a poet’s house, spared by Alexander the Great in 335 BC, were visited by Pausanias on his trip to Thebes circa 150 AD. Name him.

Answer 6

Pindar

Question 7

Which philosopher’s father was the court physician of Amyntas II?

Answer 7

Aristotle

Question 8

Which Greek orator, called “The Stammerer”, overcame his handicap by practicing speaking with pebbles in hiss mouth?

Answer 8

Demosthenes

Question 9

Xenophon’s Hellenica picks up where the work of which historian ends?

Answer 9

Thucydides

Question 10

Xenophon and Plato authored two separate works with the same name. What are the shared names?

Answer 10

Symposium and Apology

Question 11

At a dramatic festival, each playwright put on three tragedies and one different type of play, which is believed to have evolved into Greek Comedy. What type of play?

Answer 11

satyr

Question 12

In which comedy of Aristophanes does Pisthetairos propose that a city be built in the sky in order that Epops and his compatriots can hold sway over human affairs and demand tribute from the gods?

Answer 12

The Birds

Question 13

Zeus decides to aid the Trojans in battle in books 1 and 2 of the Iliad because of the influence of which goddess?

Answer 13

Thetis

Question 14

In which Platonic dialogue does an old friend of Socrates attempt to convince the philosopher to escape from prison, arguing the law that put him there is unjust? In the end, Socrates rejects his friend’s argument, pointing out that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Answer 14

Crito

Question 15

Although the plots for most tragedies lie in mythology, occasionally a tragedy would look at historical events. One example is the play Persians, a work by which tragedian?

Answer 15

Aeschylus

Question 16

In which of Sophocles’ dramas to Odysseus and Neoptolemus travel to Lemnos in order to convince a man to return with them to Troy?

Answer 16

Philoctetes

Question 17

Of the great Greek tragedians, which man won the fewest competitions, yet has left the largest body of extant work?

Answer 17

Euripides

Question 18

The events of Odysseus’ nests are told largely in flashback as he recounts his adventures to which people?

Answer 18

Phaeacians

Question 19

What was the name of the platform that was rolled out from the back of the stage to show some action that had taken place behind the scenes?

Answer 19

ekkyklema

Question 20

What Greek statesman, parodied in both The Knights and The Acharnians, was a favorite target of Aristophanes?

Answer 20

Cleon

Question 21

Which Athenian leader was the first to declare a festival devoted entirely to tragedies in the sixth century BC?

Answer 21

Peisistratus

Question 22

What was the name given to the dancing floor on which he cohorus typically performed?

Answer 22

orchestra

Question 23

Which of the great tragedians wrote a play entitled Trojan Women?

Answer 23

Euripides

Question 24

Because his plays were written in koine rather than Attic Greek, what New Comedy playwright’s work exists almost exclusively in fragments of papyrus?

Answer 24

Menander

Question 25

In Homeric Hymn XXVIII, the sudden appearance of which deity full-grown causes awe to seize all the gods and the earth to cry out fearfully?

Answer 25

Athena

Question 26

The Catalogue of Women contains accounts of women who ere loved by gods and gave birth to heroes. Who wrote this work?

Answer 26

Hesiod

Question 27

Herodotus reported hat the Pythia told which man that he would destroy a might empire if we went to war?

Answer 27

Croesus

Question 28

A principal difference between Old and Middle Comedy was the removal of what element, the “coming forward”, in which the chorus leader addresses the audience directly?

Answer 28

parabasis

Question 29

What is the time span for the period of New Comedy?

Answer 29

323 - 263 BCE

Question 30

What poet, greatly admired by Solon and Aristotle and imitated by Horace, was exiled by Pittaeus, one of the Seven Sages, and lived in Sicily from 694-595 BC?

Answer 30

Sappho

Question 31

In The Frogs, which two tragedians challenge one another to a poetry contest to determine which one of them deserves the seat of honor next to Pluto?

Answer 31

Aeschylus and Euripides

Question 32

During his aristeia in book 5 of the Iliad, what man wounds both Ares and Aphrodite?

Answer 32

Diomedes

Question 33

Satyr plays always featured a chorus of satyrs led by whom?

Answer 33

Silenus

Question 34

What is the primary topic of discussion in Plato’s Symposium?

Answer 34

love

Question 35

Whose nightmare is the impetus for the titular offerings in Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers?

Answer 35

Clytemnestra’s

Question 36

Zeno of Critium tried several schools of philosophy in Athens before finally developing his own. What was it called?

Answer 36

Stoicism

Question 37

The play in which a girl is condemned to die for burying her brother against a tyrant’s wishes was written by whom?

Answer 37

Sophocles

Question 38

What story does the Hymn to Aphrodite tell?

Answer 38

Aphrodite’s love affair with Anchises

Question 39

In which work does Aristotle state the people can be shown as better than they are in real life, or as they are in real life?

Answer 39

Poetics

Question 40

Which Greek statesman reportedly greatly disapproved of Thespis’ work?

Answer 40

Solon

Question 41

In the Panegyricus, Socrates calls for a union of the Greek city-states under a dual hegemony consisting of which two states?

Answer 41

Athens and Sparta

Question 42

Who is invited to Agathon’s banquet in Plato’s Symposium?

Answer 42

Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Socrates, Alcibiades

Question 43

Which philosopher was the first to propose the theory of the four elements?

Answer 43

Empedocles

Question 44

In Aristophanes’ The Clouds, what addiction does Pheidippides, the son of the protagonist, suffer from?

Answer 44

horse racing

Question 45

Aristophanes’ plays often ended with a lewd dance known as what?

Answer 45

cordax

Question 46

In which poet’s Attia is he transported in a dream to Mt. Helicon where he is taught by the Muses?

Answer 46

Callimachus

Question 47

Which author compares several different constitutions, including Athenian, Spartan, and Roman in order to determine the best?

Answer 47

Polybius

Question 48

In what city of Asia Minor was Herodotus born?

Answer 48

Halicarnassus

Question 49

Who are the nine lyric (melic) poets?

Answer 49

Alcman
Sappho
Alcaeus
Anacreon
Stesichorus
Ibycus
Simonides
Bacchylides
Pindar

Question 50

Although we only have fragments of their works, what two comic playwright were considered by the Greeks to be the greatest after Aristophanes?

Answer 50

Cratinus and Eupolis