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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. What does Ovid ask Corinna to do in Amores 3:14?

2. What social trouble plagues the upper classes of Rome?

3. Who does Ovid threaten with exposure if she denies him in Amores 2:8?

4. Why does Ovid berate the writing tablet in Amores 1:12?

5. Who is Ovid telling to turn a blind eye about the affairs of his lover in Amores 2:2?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Amores 3:11, Ovid grapples with conflicting emotions regarding Corinna. What are they and why?

2. Explain what happens the time Ovid is impotent.

3. Why is Ovid banished from Rome?

4. What does Ovid devote an entire poem to compare lovers to in Amores? Why are they similar?

5. What is the event that happens to cause Ovid to first offer an elegy and then scorn regarding the writing tablet?

6. What is the nature of the relationship between Corinna and Ovid in Amores book 1? What is the major impediment that stands in their way?

7. Does Ovid marry? Does he have children? Describe Ovid's matrimonial and parental experiences.

8. Why is Ovid waiting outside a door in Amores 1:6? What does he hope will happen?

9. What happens to Ovid after his banishment? How long does he live?

10. What does Dipsas tell Corinna?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the time of Ovid's life, adultery has become a rampant social issue and the theme of Ovid's erotic poems probably leads to his banishment. Discuss the social issue of adultery in Rome at the time of Ovid's life.

Part 1. What are the social mores regarding adultery in the Rome that Ovid grew up in?

Part 2. What steps do the leaders of Rome take to amend this problem?

Part 3. How does Ovid's erotic poems fit into this scheme and what were the consequences?

Essay Topic 2

After the Cures For Love, there is a fragment of the text that remains from his poem On Facial Treatment for Ladies. This fragment gives us a glimpse into what makeup and its applications might have been like two thousand years ago in Rome. Further this text with some research on the side and discuss the history and changes of makeup over time.

Part 1. Summarize and explain the information in On Facial Treatment for Ladies and other sources you have used.

Part 2. What would it have been like to use cosmetics as they were then?

Part 3. How have cosmetics changed over time to become how they are today? How is the experience of the user different?

Essay Topic 3

Ovid's erotic poems are written in elegiac couplets. Discuss this choice of meter form.

Part 1. What are the component parts of meter?

Part 2. What is a system of scansion and how is it used?

Part 3. What are elegiac couplets? What problems are there in translating this meter from the Latin?

(see the answer keys)

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