Humanities 110

Paper Topics | Fall 2023 | Paper 3

Due Saturday, November 11, 5:00 p.m., to your conference leader

Target length: 1,400-1,600 words

1. Analyze one of the following scenes of political decision-making in Herodotus’s Histories: the constitutional debate in 3.80-89 (pp.207-211) or Xerxes’s process of deciding to invade Greece in 7.6-19 (pp. 415-424).  What does this tell us about Herodotus’ view of political decision making? What values are invoked to justify a given decision? What role does this scene play in Herodotus’s larger historical narrative or historical argument?  How does this moment connect to Herodotus’s larger historical argument and/or historical narrative in the Histories?
   
   
2. Examine the speeches of two female characters in the Iliad and discuss what values they express. Do these values contradict each other or are they in conflict with values expressed elsewhere in the poem? (You can find the speeches in the following books: Andromache: Book 6.406-439, Book 22.477-514, Book 24.725-745; Briseis: Book 19.287–300; Hecabe: Book 22.82-130, Book 24.748-759; Helen: Book 3.428-436, 6.343-358, Book 24.762-775)
3. Analyze the description of the shield of Achilles in the Iliad (Book 18.468-607) and construct an argument that makes a case for how the shield relates to the poem. Is this section designed to be a microcosm of the poem as a whole or is it in tension with the rest of the poem? Why would this particular design be on a shield of war?
4. Do a close comparative visual analysis of one of the sculptures from the Kouroi Gallery and one of the sculptural figures on the Parthenon frieze or its metopes. Questions to consider include: What characteristics do the artists of each work emphasize? How do they use aspects of form (for example, line, composition, shape, texture) in order to convey that emphasis? Is motion or stasis conveyed by the figure? Make an argument about how these distinctions might speak to the context of the work (e.g, its social function, the larger ideas it might be seeking to convey, what it might be trying to represent). 
5. In his lecture on Greek lyric poetry, Professor Nigel Nicholson argues that the first-person pronoun, the ‘I’ in the poems, performs an ideological function of communicating social or political values rather than conveying a subjective personal experience. Through a close reading of the poem, examine the function of the “I” in relation to the “he” and the “you” in Sappho’s poem 6 (Fragment 31). How does the use of the second and third person pronouns shape or complicate the values encapsulated in the “I”? Consider the use of imagery, metaphor, and sensory language in the poem. 
6. How is the ideology of empire and kingship expressed in Darius’s Bisitun monument different from that in the Cyrus cylinder? How do these two inscriptions reflect the principles of governance in relation to the diverse subjects of the Achaemenid Empire? Consider the form, content, and context for each of these sources.
7. In consultation with your instructor, write on a topic of your own devising.

In addition to consulting with your conference leader, you can get help with all stages of the writing process from peer tutors at the Writing Center. You can find links to the Writing Center hours on the Drop-in Tutoring Schedule website. Extra tutoring help will be available in the week leading up to paper due dates.