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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 Patroclus feel about this expectation?

2. What is the one thing that almost keeps Patroclus from leaving Phthia?

3. Who is Tyndareus’ daughter?

4. What does Achilles suggest Patroclus might have done when he killed Clysonymus?

5. What is Patroclus afraid of when Achilles’ father’s messengers come with trunks full of supplies?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Achilles and Patroclus get called back to civilization?

2. How does Achilles show Patroclus another way of looking at the death of Clysonymus?

3. What does Chiron offer to teach Patroclus and Achilles, and what is Patroclus most interested in learning from him?

4. How does Patroclus end up fighting Achilles, and what is the outcome?

5. How does the news of the war find Achilles and Patroclus on Scyros?

6. What prophecy does Odysseus tell Achilles about the conditions under which he will die?

7. What does Peleus tell his people about the news from Mycenae?

8. How is Achilles’ identity unmasked?

9. Describe Patroclus’ interaction with Achilles’ mother Thetis.

10. What question does Odysseus pose to Tyndareus, to complicate the suits for Helen’s hand?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What topics would you like to research further, after reading The Song of Achilles? Describe why additional research or reading would be beneficial to an understanding of this book. Propose a list of articles or books you would read in order to get a better handle on The Song of Achilles.

Essay Topic 2

Write an evaluative review of The Song of Achilles. What is this book’s place in culture? What are its uses? What are its limitations?

Essay Topic 3

Identify the most important plot points in The Song of Achilles. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course among other alternative or possible plots?

(see the answer keys)

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