OCR Classical Civilisation AS - Homer's Odyssey and Society - [19th May 2015]

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Just a thought but Homeric women and women in society hasn't come up for a while, when I was stalking the ocr Twitter they also had this on there from last month - would they give this much of a hint though? I don't know, but just a thought! 😊

You may well be on to something! I didn't come up last year, and to be honest I think there's only a certain amount of themes that our covered in our spec, so thanks for the heads up! :wink:

Reply 21

J_Moriarty

So is there always a choice between books 1-12 and 13-24 for the a, b and c questions?? I really don't want to try and remember what happened in the second half XD

Reply 22

meganstudies

Original post by Flask

Hmm... interesting.. I think I might go over that topic again just in case!

Reply 23

ChortleDawkins

Good luck everybody :smile:

Reply 24

Bubbleemi13

Section A
a) AO1 - 10 marks
b) AO1 (10 marks) and AO2 (10 marks) - 20 marks
c) AO1 (10 marks) and AO2 (15 marks) - 25 marks

Section B

- AO1: 20 marks
- AO2: 25 marks

- 45 marks in total

AO1: recall and deploy relevant knowledge and understanding of literary, cultural, material or historical sources or linguistic forms in their appropriate context

AO2: analyse, evaluate and respond to Classical sources as appropriate

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 25

natasha98

My brilliant classics techer, G force Giles, has predicted book 12 coming up. He is so great, that it will most likely appear so go revise children!

Reply 26

jesske

Original post by natasha98

My brilliant classics techer, G force Giles, has predicted book 12 coming up. He is so great, that it will most likely appear so go revise children!

And it didn't even come up lol you should sue

Reply 27

ChortleDawkins

How did everybody do?

Reply 28

Bubbleemi13

Original post by ChortleDawkins

How did everybody do?

I thought it went pretty well. I answer question 1 and 5 (on the validility of customs). I gave myself 45 mins on each section so i didn't quite finish 1c. The 45 marker was great tho

Reply 29

username1613333

it was ok. I did question 1 and 3. 1a and 1b were good but I totally messed up 1c :'( All I talked about were the suitors and how Odysseus's men ate Hyperion's cattle and how teiresias and circe prophesied these (Totally forgot about the gods, Theoclymenus and that old man in book1 :'( ! and how these predicted fates added tension, suspense and drama as well as driving the plot forward and revealing the repercussions of the abuse of xenia. However I didn't mention how Polyphemus and Circe mentioned they were expecting Odysseus, or how the gods prophicied the suitors demise, or the omens such as the birds and Zeus's thunderclap, or Theoclymenus's prophecy in the poem :'( :'( 3 was good but u can never be sure :/ what did u guys write?

Reply 30

mariaaaa12

How much emphasis did you put on the effects of fate? I just wrote a sentence at the end of each paragraph describing the effect of the events. Would i lose a lot of marks for that?? For example i said that excitement is enhanced because .... but i didn't do it consistently throughout

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 31

username1613333

Original post by mariaaaa12

yea that sounds find you're saying how this contributes to the poem

Reply 32

mariaaaa12

Original post by ciaraleow

yea that sounds find you're saying how this contributes to the poem

Im so scared because i don't feel like i emphasised how it contributes to the poem enough. I didn't really go into great detail but instead wrote at the end of each paragraph the contribution made. Do you still think this will be okay?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 33

ChortleDawkins

Questions A and B I found quite easy because our teacher had already made us do a practice on that same extract. For B, I even got to mention bathos which I had only learned about a couple of days ago XD
On C, I talked about the prophecy of Teiresias and Circe, which shows the poor leadership of Odysseus as he does not tell the suitors the exact details of the prophecy, just tells them not to eat the cattle. Then I said Odysseus' triumph over the suitors was predestined, because of the discussion at the start of the poem and Athene's help throughout, their omnipotence makes his success certain, not sure about the point I made, I said that it demonstrated the importance of endurance through suffering because the end is already determined, so his suffering along the way helps show his arete. Then I mentioned the omens interpreted from bird watching, referring to a nobleman in Ithaca and later on, Helen, saying that Odysseus will return and kill the suitors, which is proleptic and thus builds anticipation. I barely quoted at all for that question :/
I did question 3 and it was great! Arguments against the view he only is concerned for himself, Odysseus has the emotions of other people projected onto him, suggesting he is capable of empathy (him swimming to Scherie and his relief being compared to that of a child whose father becomes well after a long period of sickness, perhaps a ref to Telemachus and that Odysseus is made happy with the thought that Tele will have a father again) and when Demodocus sings about the Trojan war and Ody's grief is compared to that of a woman weeping over the body of her husband who died at war, maybe showing his guilt at the suffering he caused to the Trojan's and thus showing he has concern for others. My next point was something about the unity and genuine love present in marriage which would suggest he does have concern for his wife, I actually quoted in this paragraph lol.
Arguments against the view were essentially the same thing, one being his superfluous attempts at showing arete with his lying that I argued were not really necessary and then his indulging of things like Circe rather than returning home, both of these things just prolonging the suffering of his family.

Reply 34

mariaaaa12

In my part C i also said that some things didn't happen according to fate e.g even though the land of the Phaeacians was supposed to be covered by mountains after they had helped Odysseus this didn't happen which also contributes to the excitement of the poem. Similarly some of Odysseus' men died and fate had no role in it, e.g Polyphemus killing them... is this okay to mention? Im so stressed out about my answer for this question :frown:

Reply 35

ChortleDawkins

Original post by mariaaaa12

I think the second point is okay but I love the first one, I wish I had thought of that. I think they'd be impressed by it. It shows unique thinking

Reply 36

mariaaaa12

Original post by ChortleDawkins

I think the second point is okay but I love the first one, I wish I had thought of that. I think they'd be impressed by it. It shows unique thinking

Thank you. Also I know i've asked this before but im so so stressed about my answer... do you need to mention how every point made adds to the poem or is it okay to make a statement at the end of each paragraph. So if i gave examples suggesting the suitors death was fate e.g Theocymenous, the bird omen... and then said all of this adds to the excitement or something similar would this be okay??

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 37

ChortleDawkins

Original post by mariaaaa12

Thank you. Also I know i've asked this before but im so so stressed about my answer... do you need to mention how every point made adds to the poem or is it okay to make a statement at the end of each paragraph. So if i gave examples suggesting the suitors death e.g Theocymenous, the bird omen... and then said all of this adds to the excitement or something similar would this be okay??

For the C question? I think all you to do is make interpretations/comments that are relevant to the question, using evidence from the poem or background knowledge, I'm not sure though

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 38

yazdro

Just popping in, I was very happy with the exam today! Both of the passage questions were good ones, although I went with the first one on Book 5, as I have always been better at the fantasy section than the end. For me I LOVED the c question on fate, it was nearly as long as my essay - oops - but we had recently done a fate essay for class which I got 44/45 in so I had all my points in my head to use in that c question. I thought that the Odysseus essay was a dream, you could basically talk about the leadership theme in it, as well as loads of other reasons. I finished like 10 mins early, but I always finish early in exams. It went better than I was expecting actually. But this was my better exam out of the two, there is a lot more to remember for tragedy and I've done nothing yet - even though it is after half term!