For those of you who are curious what exactly it is that I do in graduate school for Classical Studies (by the way, I'm in grad school for CLassical Studies, a.k.a. Greek and Latin Lit/Culture), this was the format for the exam I took today to show an appropriate general knowledge of the subject.

Part One: Identifications. Briefly discuss ten of the following fifteen terms [expected: one full paragraph, with reference to importance to culture, time frame if applicable, and either works written by or scholarship on cited by scholar.]

Lysias
elegy
hymn
Greek Anthology
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Ibycus
parabasis
Epic cycle
Gorgias
ktisis poetry
Cyclops
Panegyricus
Simonides
Old Oligarch
Euboian Discourse

Part Two: Essays. Write three essays, one selected from Group A, one from group B, and one from Group C. IN each of your essays, be sure to support generalizations with specific examples. Allot 45 minutes to each of these three essays.

A. Poetry

1. "Hellenistic poets were not only deeply attentive to and influence by archaic and classical poets, but also incredily innovative in terms of the type, style, and subject matter of their own works." Discuss with reference to four poets.

2. "Greek poets both contend with and pay homage to Homer and Hesiod." Discuss this assertion with reference to four poets not all from the same period

B. Prose

1. Discuss the emergence of biography in Greek literature and its relation to other literary genres with reference to four prose authors not all from the same period.

2. How do Greek prose writers engage with and/or critique the political regimes under which they produce their works? Discuss with reference to four prose authors not all from the same period.

C. Poetry and Prose

1. Greek culture is preoccupied with bestowing praise and leveling blame. Discuss with reference to two prose authors and two poets not all from the same period.

2. Greek literature regularly explores the power, dynamics, and ramifications of eros. Discuss how two prose authors and two poets, not all from the same period, portray eros and how this reflects their larger purposes.


After three hours of writing off the top of my head, I had a solid 4788 words on that word doc (thank god they let us use computers). We're also required to use a pseudonym for our tests, so the graders don't know who's work they're looking at. This is occasionally rather silly, such as when I was the only examinee taking the MA Latin Literature exam (WONDER WHO THIS COULD BE), but it's a fun tradition to pick interesting names. This time, I was Lizzie Borden. Because the exam was gonna get killed, but it may or may not have been by me.



EVERYTHING AFTER THIS IS INFO FOR THE WAY TOO INTERESTED STOP STALKING MY BRAIN

So! My choices on the exam involved not talking about the Greek Anthology, because that was clearly put on the exam for the benefit of one student who really, really likes it against whom I would not measure up on that ID, leaving out an ID on Dionysius of Halicarnassus, but talking about him in the essays to prove I was familiar with his critical works, not ever mentioning Ibycus. Fuck that. Ktisis poetry I didn't have enough authors of off the top of my head to make worth the ID and the Euboian Discourse I had only ever skimmed.

As for essays, the Hellenistic poetry one was much, much easier due to its more compact outline. Discussing Callimachus's Aitia and Hecale bought me a the ability to skimp a little on the paragraph on Moschus, which I hid between decent chunks on Apollonius and Theocritus. I later found out that the other people who answered that question had either used Menander as a substitute for Moschus or not been able to think of 4 important enough, and talked about epigram in general as a weak 3rd paragraph (exactly where I hid my bit on Moschus).

For prose, I hadn't quite thought enough about biography while reviewing to do that as easily as political discussion, choosing to forego mentioning the Old Oligarch as I'd already identified that above. Instead, I used Thucydides for late 5th/early 4th century commentary, juxtaposed Democritus and Isocrates (using the Panegyricus again; not the best move) for mid 4th century, and skipped into the second century to talk about Polybius under the rule of the Roman Empire.

The mixed question, I chose to do the theme of eros, as I immediately had 6 works spring to mind and kept thinking of more as I was writing, that I could have swapped in. Discussed Gorgias's Encomium of Helen, the works of Sappho, the allusions to eros/marriage/pederasty in Pindar's Odes, and, of course, Plato's Symposium. Also threw in a reference to Hesiod's Theogony in the opening paragraph, just as a quick nod to that.

Overall, don't think it was high pass-worthy and definitely didn't say anything new and interesting, but it was at least passable and I should be 1/5 exams down for the PhD before I can start my dissertation. Hopefully 2/5 down by December, when I'll be taking my Latin Reading List translation exam. Meaning they've had a list of things I should have been reading all along that I'm to know well enough to translate dictionary-free in December. I suppose I should get cracking on reading that list.

tl;dr I'm a nerd.