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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Dido send to plead with Aeneas?

2. What kind of countryman is Achaemenidës?

3. What does Anchises show Aeneas in the underworld?

4. What does Neptune say must happen for Aeneas and his followers to have save passage over the seas?

5. Why did the Trojans think the Danaans had left?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Priam compare and contrast Achilles and Pyrrhus?

2. How does talking to Anchises prepare Aeneas to go build a new city for the Trojans in Italy?

3. Describe the Sibyl.

4. What does Dido ask her people to do and what does she personally vow to do before she committed suicide?

5. What fate does Laocoön meet and why?

6. Where does Helenus say destiny and change come from?

7. What are some ways the characters in Book 2 are affected by fate?

8. What instances in Book V reveal how the Trojans feel about burying their dead?

9. How does Aeneas feel about having to leave Dido and to what extent does he allow his feelings to influence his decision to leave her?

10. What are Neptune's feelings toward Troy and toward Aeneas? How do these feelings affect Aeneas' journey on the sea?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How well do you think Aeneas would have been able to fulfill his fate without the help of gods and goddesses? As you answer, take into account the actions of divine beings working against him. If there had been no divine interaction on either side, what might have been the final outcome and why?

Essay Topic 2

Virgil uses foreshadowing for reasons such as to introduce events he will discuss in greater detail later, to create suspense, and to kindle his audience's interest so they will continue to listen to the story. Identify three examples of foreshadowing in this work, explain how they work, and identify what Virgil's purpose might have been for using them.

Essay Topic 3

A bildingsroman is a work of art that tells of the development of a character, perhaps telling how the character matures or grows capable of taking on a duty as the process of a journey or a series of trials. Explain why The Aeneid is or is not a bildingsroman by examining how Aeneas does or does not develop over the course of it. Examine issues such as:

1) his capacity as a leader

2) his control over his emotions and temper

3) the wiseness of his judgement

4) his treatment of others.

(see the answer keys)

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