The midterm will consist of 3 parts: short-answer, passage identification, and an essay. It will be a "closed-book" examination: you may not consult your notes or texts during the exam. All questions will be based on the following works: Homer, Iliad; Homer, Odyssey; anon., Hymn to Demeter; Herodotus, Histories; Aeschylus, Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides); Sophocles, Oedipus the King; Euripides, Bacchae. Be sure that you know how to spell the titles of the works and their authors' names.

Part I (10 minutes): Short Answers.
You will be asked to provide approximate dates for some of the works we have studied and to identify, in a few words, certain persons or places mentioned in them. Only significant persons and places will appear on the exam: e.g., Kalypso (Odyssey) would be fair game, but not Simoeisios (Iliad).

Part II (40 minutes): Passage Identification.
You will be asked to identify 8 (from a possible 12) passages from the works we have read. They will not necessarily be passages we have discussed in class. You will be asked to identify (a) the author; (b) the title of the work; (c) speaker and addressee (where applicable); (d) in a few words, the context in which the excerpted text occurs. Then, in 2 or 3 sentences, you should touch upon the most significant themes raised in the passage, and indicate its significance to the work as a whole. Do not provide plot summary! Focus on themes, not plot; analyze the passage, and consider its implications.

Part III (up to 60 minutes): Essay.
You will be provided with 3 possible topics, of which you should write on only one. The topics will be selected from the list below. Your essay must have a thesis and must address 3 different works by 3 different authors. Be sure to have a coherent argument that links these 3 works in relation to the topic you choose.
Topics: 
(1) Storytelling
(2) Personal and Public (rules, relationships, commitments)
(3) Children (and parents)
(4) Marriage
(5) Journeys (literal and figurative)
(6) Home/Homecomings
(7) Resolution/Endings
(8) Violence
(9) Death
(10) Knowledge
(11) Transition
(12) Vision (and blindness)

Instructions for writing the essay
The following is the best way to prepare for the essay:
(1) List significant examples (characters/events/scenes) from the works we have read that are relevant to the topic.
(2) Consider the thematic implications/resonances of your examples.
(3) Organize the themes and examples into categories; note differences, similarities, patterns. Come up with possible arguments and counterarguments linking them.
(4) Construct an outline around these categories, organising the ideas you have so far.
(5) Distil a supportable thesis statement from your outline. Your thesis should should present a specific argument about the way your chosen topic is developed and represented in three works. It should be circumspect enough in its formulation to save you from making generalizations or categorical statements that lie beyond the scope of what you can demonstrate with purely textual evidence. Conversely, it should be assertive enough to take your reader to a new level of understanding about the texts you discuss. In other words, make me see the texts in a new way; don't tell me what happens in them, but interpret for me the significance of the happenings.

You must have a thesis. Without a thesis, your essay offers the reader no meaningful criteria by which to judge (grade) it. Do not merely list the contents of the three works in relation to your topic. Your thesis should compare and contrast the treatment of that theme in the three works, and arrive at some sort of synthesis.

(Note: when I say you must have a thesis, I am not contradicting what I told you in your paper assignment. All your essays, whether take-home or in-class, should have a thesis and argue it cogently; yet, they should all be inductive. Simply put, the point is this:
DO consider the evidence with an open mind and derive from it a thesis that makes sense (as a good scientist would);
DON'T decide on a thesis first and then consider only the evidence that, in your mind, supports it.)