Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Catullus wrote of one aspiring poet, "Mentula tries to climb the mountain of the Muses." Note the word "tries." What do the Muses do?
2. Catullus also wrote a lovely poem about a noble and stately yacht. On the other hand, some anonymous author had to do a goofy take-off of the same. This take-off turns the yacht into what?
3. Aristophanes' play "The Frogs" consists of a poetic contest between two famous deceased playwrights, Aeschylus and Euripides. Aeschylus manages to sabotage the beauty and grandeur of every single one of Euripides' prologues. He notes that the opening lines of every prologue can be filled out with what phrase?
4. Speaking of Aristophanes, one of Aristophanes' catchiest pieces of poetry compares the explosive rumbling of thunder to which of the following? This comes from the "Clouds", by the way.
5. Now, let me insert a question about poetry which is not necessarily "bad," just "not good enough." The three best Greek tragedians were Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides. Who was Number Four? Did you know there even WAS a Number Four?
6. Euripides' "Bacchae" culminates with Queen Agave piecing together bits of the son she's just dismembered. The scene is horrifyingly moving. On the other hand, the Romans just couldn't get it right. In one play, Theseus, in rather the same situation as Agave, says:
"What is this that has no shape,
An ugly thing torn on every side with many wounds?
What part it is of yours I do not know, but it is part of you.
Here, put it here. That's not its proper place, but it is empty..."
(Taken from Woodruff's translation of Euripides' "Bacchae")
Which Roman tragedian wrote this play, the "Phaedra"?
7. This Roman poet earned his livelihood simply by making fun of people in poetry. I would also add that if you removed every poem that made some reference to sexuality or personal hygiene habits, there wouldn't be much left in the corpus. Yuck. Which Roman poet would this be, known for his 14 volumes of epigrams?
8. The Greek poet Archilochus wrote the following little ditty:
"Some Thracian is delighted with the shield, which beside a bush
I left unwillingly, an excellent and perfect armament.
Myself I saved! Why should that shield be important to me?
The hell with it! I'll get another again, just as good."
(Trans. William Harris)
Clever, no? On the other hand, it got Archilochus expelled from one certain Greek city state. The governing body thought it insulted their military moral fiber. Which city-state was this?
9. Ennius, the fist of the Roman epic writers, was a little over the top. One of his "greatest lines" involves the rhetorical figure tmesis. One example of tmesis would be the introduction to Star Trek-- "*To* boldly *go* where no one has gone before." You would expect "to" and "go" to not have an intervening word. Or, *to have* not an intervening word. Whatever. Ennius's line is "saxo cere-comminuit-brum." Does this line actually split a word in half?
10. But, there's more! Given these quotes in Ennius, which rhetorical device is he using to excess? Copied shamelessly from the blog "Le Sauvage Noble" by Angelo Mercado.
O Tite tute Tati tibi tanta tyranne tulisti.
O Titus Tatius you tyrant, you have brought so many things to yourself!
Macina multa minax minitatur maxima muris.
A very large, ill-boding siege-engine much threatens the city walls.
Veluti si quando uinclis uenatica uelox.
Just as if ever a swift hound at its chains
Africa terribili tremit horrida terra tumultu.
The wild land of Africa trembles with terrible tumult.
Source: Author
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agony before going online.
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