Deck 1: Before Philosophy: Myth in Hesiod and Homer

Question 1

Hesiod claimed to write his poems

A) after exhaustive study of the heavens and the earth.
B) by collecting stories that had been passed down from the ancestors.
C) through divine inspiration.
D) because he was bored while herding sheep on holy Helicon.

Answer 1

through divine inspiration.

Question 2

Zeus came to be "father of gods and men," according to Hesiod,

A) by swallowing a stone and vomiting it up again.
B) through war against his father.
C) by general acclamation of all the other gods.
D) because he was the first-born son of Earth and Heaven.

Answer 2

through war against his father.

Question 3

The quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon began when

A) Agamemnon demanded that Achilles give him the woman Achilles had been awarded as spoils from a battle.
B) Hector killed Achilles' friend, Patroclus.
C) Achilles wanted the woman Agamemnon had been awarded as spoils from a battle.
D) Apollo sent a plague on the army.

Answer 3

Agamemnon demanded that Achilles give him the woman Achilles had been awarded as spoils from a battle.

Question 4

The gods, in Homer's poem,

A) urge men to be more like themselves.
B) live in delight and splendor on Olympus, scarcely ever thinking about the affairs of men.
C) function as moral ideals for human beings, who have a hard time living up to the gods' standards.
D) care about the honor given them by men.

Question 5

Homer

A) advises humans to live well, so as to merit eternal life.
B) praises moderation.
C) disparages the quest for honor and glory, since it leads to quarrels and disaster for so many.
D) portrays gods and men as immortal.

Question 6

How, according to Hesiod, did Zeus come to be king of the gods?

Question 7

What brought on the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles?

Question 8

How does The Iliad end?

Question 9

What virtues are praised in The Iliad?

Question 10

Describe the gods of Olympus as Homer portrays them.

Question 11

What can we learn from Homer's poem about how to be excellent human beings?

Question 12

What does the term "theogony" mean? Relate several central events in Hesiod's theogony.

Question 13

It is important that this chapter not be taught as just one view after another. I try to stress how every subsequent thinker sees a problem in a previous one and tries to solve it. Karl Popper cited these pre-Socratics as displaying the method (which he favored) of "conjectures and refutations," and that seems a promising hook on which to hang the discussions.

Question 14

In teaching Parmenides, I have found it best to start with his conclusions: There are not many things, and nothing ever changes. These are startling enough that students wonder why anyone would ever believe such things, and they are then engaged.