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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. How does Patroclus recognize Odysseus?

2. How do Odysseus and Diomedes compel Achilles to come to Troy?

3. How does Chiron handle Thetis’ demand that Patroclus not train with Achilles?

4. How long do Achilles and Patroclus stay with Chiron?

5. What does Patroclus take with him when he leaves Phthia?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Achilles’ relationship with Deidameia.

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

3. What is Patroclus’ status at the opening of the novel?

4. What conundrum is Patroclus caught in, now that the army will be going to Troy?

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

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

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

8. How does Patroclus come to kill the boy whose death gets him exiled?

9. How does Achilles explain his friendship with Patroclus to Peleus?

10. What leverage do Odysseus and Diomedes use to get Achilles to go to Troy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Would you recommend The Song of Achilles? For what purposes would you recommend The Song of Achilles, and what kinds of readers would you recommend it for? What other book would you recommend that would cover the same material or tell the same story in a different way?

Essay Topic 2

Debate the proposition Chiron articulates, that no life matters more than any other. Patroclus says that there is no solution to this question, that whichever way you choose, you lose. Is there are an answer to the question, of whether this statement is correct? What must one lose in answering it one way or another?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 885 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample