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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's wife do when he is banished?

2. How does the competitor Ovid support do in the competition?

3. What does Ovid compare resisting the powers of love to?

4. In the third poem of Amores, what promise does Ovid make?

5. In Amores 2:3, who is Ovid trying to convince to help him as a go-between?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Corinna's husband's involvement or lack of involvement affect Ovid's feelings for Corinna?

2. What reasons does Ovid give for wanting to be a ring on Corinna's finger?

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

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

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

6. How does Ovid embody the dilemma between writing love poems and writing tragedies in Amores Book 3?

7. What happens when Corinna gets pregnant? Whose child is it?

8. What does Dipsas tell Corinna?

9. What does Ovid hope to accomplish by telling the story of the river that falls in love with the wandering woman to the stream?

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

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

Unlike many other famous pieces of literature, it is the approach to Ovid's work and its format, and not just its content, that offers enduring value and interest. Discuss the concept of creating artistic value of commonplace experiences.

Part 1. What is the difference between approach and content to create a final written product of enduring value?

Part 2. What examples of literature or other writing famous for its approach have been found throughout history? What are illuminated manuscripts?

Part 3. What inherent value do you see this as having? Would you adopt it to make your own commonplace experience extraordinary? If so, what approach would you use?

Essay Topic 3

There are many social mores regarding sexuality that from Rome in Ovid's time that are similar to those in America in the 1960's. Discuss those social mores.

Part 1. What part of the social mores of the two eras are worthy of comparison?

Part 2. How are they similar? How are they different?

Part 3. Has there been any "progress" or "evolution" since Rome in 2 AD or are we essentially the same?

(see the answer keys)

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