Assignment Questions

The document provides questions for an assignment on two classical texts, Plautus' play The Brothers Menaechmus and selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Students must attempt two questions from Section I or one question from Section II. The questions ask students to analyze and critically comment on aspects of the texts like characters, themes of slavery and social institutions, and how the works relate to their historical contexts.

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Assignment Questions

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Plautus-The Brothers Menaechmus and Selections from The

Metamorphoses of Ovid

Assignment

Attempt any two questions from section I or any one question from section II.

Section I (500-800 words)

 Comment on the concluding lines of the prologue.

 critically comment on the depiction of Socicles as a man with a moral purpose and that of the money- mindedness of Messenio with
reference to the relevant scene.
 Is Plautus interested in merely reflecting prevailing notions around slavery in his times or to question and subvert those notions?
Discuss, especially in the light of the staging of double manumission in the play.
 A wife is sold like a chattel, a slave is promoted to be an auctioneer. How do these developments underpin the typical happy ending
comprising of the reunion of the separated twins? Explain.
 “Notions of the nation/civilization often exclude blindness/disability.” To what extent does Ovid’s representation of Tiresias
validate/invalidate this statement? Explain.
 Bring out the irony behind the phrase “descendants of the serpent’s race” in Pentheus’ speech and the significance of the evocation
of Acteon towards the end of the Pentheus story.
 Comment on the ways in which the shipmates of the Lydian Acoetes mirror Pentheus. Do they also reflect the preoccupations of the
“heroes” of Greeco-Roman mythology? Explain.
Section II (1000-1500 words)

 Comment on Plautus’s reworking of the conventions of Greek New Comedy with reference to
the play. How does he ensure that the audience maintain a critical distance from those
conventions? Discuss.
 How does the play offer a powerful critique of dominant social institutions like family and
marriage? Are the socio-institutional ills highlighted in the play intended to reflect the Greek
world or his own Roman world? Give reasons for your answer.
 In what ways did Ovid’s poems, especially The Metamorphoses, counter Augustan priorities?
Discuss with reference to the relevant texts.
 The cult of Bacchus was banned during the Republican Rome and remained prohibited under Augustus Caesar. Which aspects of
Bacchus do you think may have got the ruling establishments worried? Discuss with reference to the relevant extracts from The
Metamorphoses in your course.
 Transgressions in The Metamorphoses are ultimately linked with violation of liberty and is not
understood as a defiance of authority. Do you agree? Discuss.
 Critically analyze the justice/injustice of the consequences of transgressions with reference to
punishment meted out to Tiresias, Pentheus and Terius.

Due date: March 13th, 2022.

Instructions:

 Prepare the assignment as a typed Word Document.

 Name the file as your first name-last three digits of your university enrolment no.,
e.g., Abcde-001.
 Revert with the Word Document as attachment.

Note: In case you are not in a position to submit a typed assignment, please email a
scanned copy along with an audio recording of your responses.