Classical Civilisation AS OCR

viclupa1, I'm with you, I'm hoping for a context question from the first half. I think we can safely assume there will be one, though, because every year it seems the exam board draws one question from the first books and one from the latter. I doubt they'll change the style of the exam this year, unless they're being really mean!

Agreed as well!! I hate it when Odysseus' tales end... the stories of the suitors I loathe - just because they're so complicated!!

Which questions did you do for tragedy?

I know right, anything to do with suitors/slaves I can't stand.

Trojan Women and Ajax

Ahh I did Trojan Women and Medea!
I'm really worried though because i think I mess it up badly!
I ran out of time and rushed Part C of the commentary...!
I only talked about her reaction to death (her lamentations etc) and how that changes from being self-pitying to being sympathetic to Astynax as well as her position (her temper) --- I expanded on these obvious but they were basically the only two things I talked about in detail.. nothing else!! So worried I'm going to be marked down

I'm sort of worried the opposite, that I made a lot of points but didn't analyse enough. Thankfully I remembered my Hecabe quotes. Everyone else seems to be sharing a bit about what they wrote, so here were basically my points, if I can remember rightly: (Trojan Women question c)
1. similar portrayal, her lamentations elsewhere: Cassandra, Polyxena, Troy + herself and her own status, i.e 'shall I be set to keep watch over some doorway, or given charge over children, I, who reigned as queen over Troy,' basically Euripides playing with contrasts
2. similar portrayal, here she was out of control of Astyanax's fate, elsewhere she and the Trojan women are controlled by the Greeks i.e the lot drawing, and when Talthybius orders her to be taken away 'escort Odysseus' prize to him'
3. however, dissimilarly to above, she clearly has command of the Menelaus/Helen scene, Menelaus states 'I shall let her [Helen] do this in defence of what you have said, not out of any regard for her,' and he heeds her advice when she suggests not to board the same ship as her, additionally she shows prowess in rhetoric
4. dissimilar portrayal, here she is concerned with Astyanax's burial, but elsewhere she expresses 'I imagine it makes little difference to the dead whether they recieve rich gifts for the graves' which is controversial etc.
5. similarly to the above, she is controversial elsewhere regarding the gods i.e 'sorry alllies are the ones I call upon

Oh my god you've done so much!!! You're going to get such a high mark!!
So annoyed with myself.. I really need to boost up my mark through the odyssey paper now

I really hope so, but I didn't have time to check over, so god knows what I was babbling about xD

Same, I'm hoping to get a good mark for the Odyssey one, just incase tragedy didn't go as well as I thought. At least for the Odyssey the same questions seem to come up.

The more I think about tragedy the worse i think i've done!!

Is there always going to be a context question on the first part of the book? We can't be sure of that can we?

It seems to be that there usually is a context question from both the beginning and end sections. It just depends whether OCR are going to be annoying and randomly change their system, which I highly doubt. I really think there will be a question from the first part, which I will definitely be answering! xD

Same with me!!

Quickly returning to the tragedy paper.. how many points are we meant to make for section c?

- She laments bad news in the same manner throughout the play, however she moves from being self-pitying (wants her dead children to comfort her) to pitying Astynax
- She does think about herself over the burial, however, which relates to her previous self-pitying attitude
- When she curses the Greeks at the end of her speech her temper is demonstrated, something which shows her power (like argument with Helen) - her authority is shown as it would be wrong of a woman to talk in this manner unless they were highly superior.

i did expand on these points further but I'm really unsure over whether it's ok? Do you (or anyone else) have any idea?

It’s hard to understand how they mark essay style answers. Our teacher, who is an examiner for OCR, suggested that 2 pages worth of points was satisfactory for a part c question - of course that is dependent on the content of what you have written too. They use positive marking, so for everything that you’ve stated which is worth a mark, they'll give it to you, which means you can get, I'm guessing, close to top marks without mentioning everything they have on their mark scheme. If you had three points, which you have evidence for, developed, and mentioned context on some occasions, then I think you can score well. And that’s what I think you have done, so I wouldn’t worry. Plus the Odyssey will help you out whatever happens My friend did the AS last year, and she found tragedy very hard, but the Odyssey paper helped her get an A.

Ahhhh thank you!! You don't understand how much better you've just made me feel...!!
Right... this week I'm just going to put all my energy into the odyssey (and history) - you've given me hope hahaha!!
xxxx

what did u include, and im sure you did ok, i might of called Creon, Cleon which wouldn't of went down well with the marker haha, so don't feel bad about what you put, and I probs failed the spartan one, as I didn't do enough for section B as i ran out of time.

What do you mean the spartan one? As in Trojan Women context? and hahahahah just blame it on your handwriting the spelling looks quite similiar!! I'm so annoyed cos I honestly could have written such a good essay including everything but as usual I panicked during exams (happens EVERY TIME) and just flip out and write anything irrelevant I spoke about how Euripides separates her from the beginning isolating her.. e/g she's in the house alone blah blah and the audience is predisposed to her being very strange due to the nurse's description of her excessive lament.. and about how eloquence at speaking on feminist rights (therefore the playwright isn't a woman hater) and then however she is hypocritical and disingenuous because of her hypocrisy as complaining at having no brother or father because this was due to her own actions! and then her duplicity when she cries to Jason so Euripides portrays her as manipulating but then again we feel that he evokes sympathy as this is the only part in the play where she shows genuine maternal instincts.. or something, i can't actually remember if I even included all of that!?!!?

I wish i could blame it on spelling but i did it all on a laptop , anyways i was tlaking about the tragedy one. Did you include anything about Hecabe saying " Who ever you are", as if to state her emotions caused her to loose her fate when she was praying to the gods, and its considered a disrepect to the gods....?

You made really good points too! I wish I wrote about Cassandra raving on stage and from the points you made in your Ajax essay, I'm sure you got top-end marks
Now, I'm focusing on the Odyssey and really hoping that one of the books in the first half of the epic is a context question. I really struggle to remember all the names of everyone in the second half, and there are so many animal herders! I mean, you'd think it would be easy to remember who's the swineherd, the goatherd and the cowherd and who does what, but I have difficulty recalling their names and what each one does!!! All I remember is that the goatherd is the bad one and I remember that by picturing him with a goatee because he's nasty like the devil and he has a herd of goats.

Aha I hope so but I really don't think I will! Haha I have literally no time to revise the odyssey as I've got history tomorrow then Latin on the Wednesday so I'm hoping I can just remember stuff or blag my way through most of it:/ the names are literally so hard to remember! Especially because homer adds loads of extra names on top like 'son of Laertes' or whatever -_-


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ohhhhh I did agamemnon tragedy context...