Reading List Done!

I'm not sure about that exclamation point. It usually conveys excitement and energy, both of which are nowhere near my person right now.

HOWEVER, it is indeed over. I have been terrified of this exam since I was 18 years old and, barring a failure, I don't have to worry about it ever again. I hate even to say those words for fear of jinxing myself. So, here's the debrief:

1) Identify 8 of 12 passages (author, work, date, context, significance): I am 95% confident that I got all of them right, but 100% paranoid that I didn't. Thankfully, we had the twelve from which to choose and the passages were not tricky. I counted my chosen eight three times because once again paranoia compelled me to do so.

2) Essay on selected articles from a culture/history compendium. The question was awkwardly trying to encompass my chosen articles and so was, in a nutshell, "Explain how Roman views of the afterlife reflect social class distinction." Not a whole lot to say about the afterlife specifically, although I cited three ancient authors, but I went to town on religious practices. I was freakin RainMan with the articles I had read the day before. I am hoping there is not a glaring omission about the afterlife that has alluded me.

3) Essay on how Augustus corrected the mistakes Caesar made in his fateful leadership. Fortunately for me, I had just read Anthony Everitt's biography of Augustus last month, so I feel like my essay was very strong. Once again, I'm worried that I strayed from the original question though, because as thoroughly specific as my answer was, I made generalizations about Julius Caesar, feeling like establishing specifics about him wasn't as important and I only had a 1/2 hour to write each essay.

4) Essay on how the neoteric movement revolutionized Roman elegy. I think I bombed this one. I know quite a bit about Catullus and Ovid, but nearly zilch about Propertius and even less about Tibullus. It didn't help that part of the question asked about the lost works of Gallus, whom I've only vaguely heard of. Whoops. I feel better because most of the other students felt like they bombed it too.

5) Essay on how Tim Gantz deconstructs myth in his "Early Greek Myth". This was the essay about which I really freaked out over the last couple of weeks, so I was incredibly relieved at the ambiguity and flexibility the question allowed. My discussion focused mainly on Theseus(to illustrate his use of early art), Perseus (to mention how Gantz accounts for drama, but recognizes that strictures of the stage warrant variations on the standard tradition), and a bit of Jason too (although I cannot recall why).

6) Essay on the stemmatic method of textual recovery. I think I did 90%ish on this one, but for the sole reason that I spent the 1.5 hour lunch break to prepare this topic (as I did with the myth question). This was a more manageable essay because it was tied to specific and finite terminology as opposed to broadly interpretive stuff.

So, 4 hours of writing and my hand never hurt more. Before the neoteric question, I actually started to wonder if a "high pass" was within reach, but there just isn't any way it's going to happen after they read that response. Now, despite the fact that I am happy with each of my essays, except the one, I am still terrified of not passing. I guess I'll have to keep wondering for the next two weeks.