Reed College
Reed College

Humanities 110

Introduction to the Humanities

Paper Topics | Fall 2010 | Paper 4

Due Saturday, December 4, 5 p.m., in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
Maximum Length 1500 words

Write an essay in response to one of the following prompts. Structure your essay around a strong, analytical claim, and provide specific, detailed evidence from the texts to support that claim.

  1. In Herodotus' account, Themistocles emerges as a central figure in Athens' defeat of the Persians. Comparing Herodotus' portrayal of Themistocles to Homer's depiction of Odysseus, discuss similarities and differences between the Histories and epic poetry.

  2. In Book II (113-120) of The Histories, Herodotus offers an alternative account of the causes of the Trojan War. Focusing on this passage, discuss Herodotus' method of inquiry and his understanding of causation in human affairs.

  3. Compare the role of the chorus in one play of Aeschylus' Oresteia to the chorus' role in either Euripides' Medea or Sophocles' Antigone. How does the form of tragedy help to communicate the plays' meanings, and how do the different authors deploy the chorus differently?

  4. Discuss the tensions between polis and oikos in Aeschylus' Oresteia. You may wish to focus your analysis on the development/representation of a single character, or on a single play, but be sure to pay attention to its location in the trilogy.

  5. Female characters figure centrally in many tragedies, but women were strictly excluded from Athenian political life. Focusing on one of the female characters in either Sophocles' Antigone or Euripides' Medea, identify and explain one critique of Athens' democratic politics. Historical context is important: incorporate secondary sources (lectures and readings) as well as evidence from the primary texts in your analysis.

  6. Drawing from Pericles' "Funeral Oration", the description of the Athenian plague, and Pericles' final speech in Book II of the Peloponnesian War, describe and analyze Thucydides' view of "human nature" and its relation to social and political order.

  7. Provide a visual analysis of the ways in which the Athenian Acropolis (either as a whole, or particular parts thereof) present the viewer with an ideal of the relationship between citizens and non- citizens, and Athenians and non-Athenians.