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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 define as his natural weapons in Amores 2:1?

2. Which of the following best characterizes Ovid's lover in the fourth poem of Amores Book I?

3. What does Ovid say that soldiers have that he does not?

4. What does the dream interpreter say Ovid's dream means?

5. Which member of the arguing pair squabbling for his attention does Ovid choose?

Short Essay Questions

1. Does Ovid express which kind of woman is "his type?" If so, please describe.

2. Who dies in Amores 2? Does this character have a special ability?

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

4. In Amores book 3, why does Ovid regret writing elegies of Corinna and her beauty?

5. Why does Corinna's hair fall out? What does Ovid recommend as a solution?

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

7. What does Ovid say causes him to turn cold toward Corinna? What is it about her that he does not like?

8. Does Ovid experience success as a statesman or a poet during his lifetime? Explain.

9. Describe the personality of Ovid in the role of lover.

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Assuming that Ovid has not created a persona for his poems, what is the nature of the man we get to know through his poems?

Part 1. Is it likely that Ovid was writing through a persona or that his poems are from personal experience?

Part 2. What is his character like in the poems? Does it evolve?

Part 3. What logical life history or situation can explain his changing nature?

Essay Topic 2

Summarize the advice that Ovid gives to men and/or women regarding what to do to be successful in obtaining and securing a lover.

Part 1. What suggestions does he make regarding appearance?

Part 2. What suggestions does he make regarding behavior?

Part 3. How accurate or valuable to you feel his advice is?

Part 4. Is any, most, or all of it still applicable today? What has changed and what hasn't?

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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