Greek World 1A (2021/2022) – essay questions Choose ONE of these questions and write your essay on it

Question

Greek World 1A (2021/2022) – essay questions

Choose ONE of these questions and write your essay on it. You may not alter the title. The ‘key bibliography’ given for each question should be consulted as far as possible as part of your research, but top-quality essays will go beyond this and engage in further reading through your own research. In general, websites should be avoided when researching your essay.

1. What can historians learn about Archaic society from the Iliad and Odyssey? What methodological principles govern their use of these texts as historical documents?

Key bibliography:

Cairns, D.L. (2017) ‘Homeric values and the virtues of kingship’ in F.-H. Mutschler (ed.) The Homeric Epics and the Chinese Book of Songs: Foundation Texts Compared. Newcastle: 381-409.	See ‘readings’ folder on GW1A Learn site
Crielaard, J.-P. (1995) ‘Homer, history and archaeology. Some remarks on the date of the Homeric world’ in Homeric questions: essays in philology, ancient history, and archaeology, including the papers of a conference organized by the Netherlands Institute at Athens (15 May 1993). Amsterdam: 201-288.	See ‘readings’ folder on GW1A Learn site
Morris, I. (1986) ‘The use and abuse of Homer’ Classical Antiquity 5.1: 81-138.	Available online via Jstor
Ulf, C. (2009) ‘The world of Homer and Hesiod’ in Raaflaub, K. & H. van Wees (eds.) A Companion to Archaic Greece. Malden MA & Oxford: 81-99.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Van Wees, H. (1992) Status Warriors. War, Violence and Society in Homer and History. Amsterdam.	Hard copy in library
Van Wees, H. (2002) ‘Homer and early Greece’ Colby Quarterly 38.1: 1-24.	See ‘readings’ folder on GW1A Learn site

2. How did the author of the Aristotelian Athenaion Politeia and Plutarch in his Life of Solon anachronistically misinterpret elements of Solon’s reforms?

Key ancient sources: Plutarch, Life of Solon (all of it); [Aristotle], Constitution of the Athenians (chapters 5-12). For Solon’s poems, translations in: M.L. West, Greek Lyric Poety (Oxford World Classics, 1993) pp. 74-83; M.N. Noussia-Fantuzzi (2010) Solon the Athenian: The Poetic Fragments. Leiden. For Solon’s laws, translations in: D. Leão & P.J. Rhodes (2015) The Laws of Solon. London & New York.

Key bibliography:

Gehrke, H.-J. (2006) ‘The figure of Solon in the Athênaiôn Politeia’ in J. Blok & A. Lardinois (eds.) Solon of Athens: New Historical and Philological Approaches. Leiden: 276-89.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Harris, E.M. (1997) ‘A new solution to the riddle of the seisachtheia’ in L. Mitchell and P.J. Rhodes (eds.) The Development of the Polis in Archaic Greece. London and New York: 103–12.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Kroll, J.H. (1998) ‘Silver in Solon’s laws’ in R. Ashton and S. Hurter (eds.) Studies in Greek Numismatics in Memory of Martin Jessop Price. London: 225–32.	See ‘readings’ folder on GW1A Learn site
Ste. Croix, G. E. M. de (2004) Athenian Democratic Origins and Other Essays. Oxford.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Rosivach, V. J. (2002) ‘The requirements for the Solonic classes in Aristotle, AP 7.4’, Hermes 130: 36–47.	Available online via Jstor

3. What were the strategies used by archaic tyrants to gain power and establish their rule? How did communities deal with such phenomena, and attempt to prevent them?

Key bibliography:

Anderson, G. (2005) ‘Before tyrannoi were tyrants: rethinking a chapter of early Greek history’ Classical Antiquity 24.2: 173-222.	Available online via Jstor
Andrewes, A.A. (1956) The Greek Tyrants. London.	Hard copy in library
Kõiv, M. (2016) ‘Basileus, tyrannos and polis: the dynamics of monarchy in early Greece’ Klio 98: 1-89.	available via DiscoverEd search
Kõiv, M. (2019) ‘Reading ancient tradition: the rulers of Archaic Corinth’ Chiron 49: 93-129.	See ‘readings’ folder on GW1A Learn site
Lewis, S. (2006) Ancient Tyranny. Edinburgh.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Lewis, S. (2009) Greek Tyranny. Bristol.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Morgan, K. (2003) Popular Tyranny: Sovereignty and its Discontents in Ancient Greece. Austin TX.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search

Prevention of tyranny:

Harris, E.M. (2006) ‘Solon and the spirit of the laws in archaic and classical Greece’ in J. Blok & A. Lardinois (eds.) Solon of Athens: New Historical and Philological Approaches. Leiden.

e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search

4. ‘My name is Sappho, and I surpassed women in poetry as greatly as Homer surpassed men.’ (Sappho fr. 57, Palatine Anthology 7.15) To what extent is Sappho a successor to Homer?

Key bibliography:

Blondell, R. (2010) ‘Reflections of Homer’s Helen in archaic lyric’ American Journal of Philology 131.3: 349-91.	Available online via Jstor
Bowie, E.L. (2010) ‘The Trojan War’s reception in early Greek lyric, iambic and elegiac poetry’ in L. Foxhall, H.-J. Gehrke & N. Luraghi (eds.) Intentional History: Spinning Time in Ancient Greece. Stuttgart: 57-87.	Three hard copies of volume in Main Library Hub Reserve
Dubois, P. (1984) ‘Sappho and Helen’ inJ. Peradotto & J.P. Sullivan (eds.) Women in the Ancient World: The Arethusa Papers. Albany: 95-106.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Rissman, L. (1983) Love as War: Homeric Allusion in the Poetry of Sappho. Königsheim.	One copy of volume in Main Library Hub Reserve
Rosenmeyer, P.A. (1997) ‘Her master’s voice: Sappho’s dialogue with Homer’ Materiali e discussioni per l’analisi dei testi classici 39: 123-49.	Available online via Jstor
Schrenk, L.P. (1994) ‘Sappho fr. 44 and the Iliad’ Hermes 122.2: 144-50.	Available online via Jstor
Winkler, J. (1981) ‘Gardens of nymphs: public and private in Sappho’s lyrics’ Women’s Studies 8.1/2: 65-91.	available via DiscoverEd search

5. ‘My heart urges me in two directions’ (Homer Odyssey 19.524-9) To what extent is Penelope in the Odyssey a model of fidelity?

Key bibliography:

Bolmarcich, S. (2001) ‘Homophrosyne in the Odyssey’ Classical Philology 96.3: 205-213.	Available online via Jstor
Canevaro, L. G. (2018) Women of Substance in Homeric Epic: Objects, Gender, Agency. Oxford.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Cohen, B. (1995) The Distaff Side: Representing the Female in Homer’s Odyssey. Oxford.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Dillon, S., & S.L. James (eds.) (2012) A Companion to Women in the Ancient World. Malden MA & Oxford.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Heitman, R. (2005) Taking Her Seriously: Penelope and the Plot of Homer’s Odyssey. Ann Arbor MI.	Hard copy available in Main library
Katz, M.A. (1991) Penelope’s Renown: Meaning and Indeterminacy in the Odyssey. Princeton.	Hard copy available in Main library
Lardinois, A. & L. McClure (eds.) (2001) Making Silence Speak: Women’s Voices in Greek Literature and Society. Princeton.	Hard copy available in Main library
Marquardt, P. (1985) ‘Penelope “ΠΟΛΥΤΡΟΠΟΣ”’ The American Journal of Philology 106.1: 32-48.	Available online via Jstor
Muller, M. (2007) ‘Penelope and the poetics of remembering’ Arethusa 40.3: 337-62.	Available online via Jstor
Van Nortwick, T. (1979) ‘Penelope and Nausicaa’ Transactions of the American Philological Association 109: 269-76.	Available online via Jstor

6. What do the ‘foundation myths’ of new Greek city foundations around the Mediterranean reveal about Archaic Greek society and culture?

Key bibliography:

Gehrke, H.-J. (2001) ‘Myth, History and Collective Identity: Uses of the Past in Ancient Greece and Beyond’ in N. Luraghi, (ed.) The Historian’s Craft in the Age of Herodotus. Oxford: 286-313.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Hall, J. (2008) ‘Foundation Stories’ in G. R. Tsetskhladze (ed.) Greek Colonisation. Vol. 2. Leiden: 383-426.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search (if you have trouble, type ‘Jonathan Hall Foundation Stories into DiscoverEd)
Mac Sweeny, N. (2013) Foundation Myths and Politics in Ancient Ionia. Cambridge.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Mac Sweeny, N. (ed.) (2015) Foundation Myths in Ancient Societies. Philadelphia.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Malkin, I. (2009) ‘Foundations’ in Raaflaub, K. & H. van Wees (eds.) A Companion to Archaic Greece. Malden MA & Oxford: 373-94.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Murray, O. (1993) Early Greece. London. (Read ch. 7.)	Two copies in Main library Hub reserve
Osborne, R. (1996) Greece in the Making. London. (Read chapters 4 and 8.)	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search

7. Describe and discuss the importance of the introduction of the Demosion Sema in fifth-century Athens

Arrington, N. (2014) Ashes, Images, and Memories: The Presence of the War Dead in Fifth-Century Athens. Oxford.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Barringer, J. (2014), ‘Athenian State Monuments for the War Dead: Evidence from a Loutrophoros’, in A. Avramidou & D. Demetriou (eds.) Approaching the Ancient Artifact. Berlin: 153-160.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Clairmont, C. (1981) ‘New Evidence for a Polyandrion in the Demosion Sema of Athens?’ Journal of Hellenic Studies 101: 132-134.	Available online via Jstor
Goette, H.R. (2009) ‘Images in the Athenian “Demosion Sema”’ in O. Palagia (ed.) Art in Athens During the Peloponnesian War. Oxford: 188-206.	Three hard copies in Main library, two of which in Hub short loan
Rose, M. (2000), ‘Fallen Heroes: A Rendezvous with History’, Archaeology website	http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/athens/1.html
Shear, J. (2013), ‘“Their Memories Will Never Grow Old:” The Politics of Remembrance in the Athenian Funeral Orations’ Classical Quarterly 63: 511-536.	Available online via Jstor

8. How did the Greeks commemorate their dead from c. 900-480 B.C.?

Aravantinos, V. (2010), The Archaeological Museum of Thebes. Athens.	https://www.latsis-foundation.org/content/elib/book_17/thiba_en.pdf
Avramidou, A. and D. Demetriou (eds), (2014), Approaching the Ancient Artifact. Berlin.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Banou, E. and L. Bournias (2014), Kerameikos, Athens.	https://www.latsis-foundation.org/content/elib/book_2/kerameikos_en.pdf
Eidinow, E. and J. Kindt (eds) (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, Oxford.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Knigge, U. (1991), The Athenian Kerameikos. Athens.	Three copies in Main library Hub reserve
Mikalson, J. (2005), Ancient Greek Religion, Oxford.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Ogden, D. (ed) (2007), A Companion to Greek Religion, Malden, MA.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Rawson, B. (2011), A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds, Malden, MA.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search
Shapiro, A. (1991), ‘The Iconography of Mourning in Athenian Art’, American Journal of Archaeology 95: 629-656.	Available online via Jstor
Smith, T. and D. Plantzos (2013), A Companion to Greek Art. Oxford.	e-book of volume available via DiscoverEd search