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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. Why does King Iarbas pray to Jove/Jupiter?

2. Who is Andromache's new husband?

3. What does Aeneas see depicted on the walls of the temple that the people of Carthage are building?

4. Whom does Helenus say Aeneas should visit for advice?

5. What hides Aeneas' identity as he travels through Carthage?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What fate does Laocoön meet and why?

3. Once Aeneas is definitely leaving, what disagreeable options lay before Dido that make death seem the best choice?

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

5. What qualities of a good queen/leader does Dido exemplify? Cite specific examples from the book in your answer.

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

7. Explain how Deïphobus died and why his body is mutilated.

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

9. Why might the Trojan women have been tempted to set fire to the ships even without Juno and Iris befuddling them?

10. Compare and contrast the Greeks with the Trojans in the affair of the wooden horse.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What role do the Muses play in the telling of this tale? When and why does Virgil call upon them? Upon which particular Muses does he rely?

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

Similes and other detailed descriptions help the reader picture and understand things about the settings, characters, and events of this work. Identify an example of a simile being used to describe each of these three things and explain how it is used, what effect it has, and why Virgil might have used that particular simile in that particular place.

(see the answer keys)

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