K-Agon - Semifinals

Moderator says: “I will read one test question for no points. This question is not necessarily reflective of the difficulty of the round or tournament. Topics in test questions may appear later in the tournament.”

0. What city, which was home to Plato’s interlocutor Megillus and became home to a lame schoolteacher known for his elegies, had its soldiers honored with the epigram “tell them, passer-by, / that here, obedient to their word, we lie” after Thermopylae?

SPARTA / LACEDAEMON

B1: What poet was that lame schoolteacher known for his elegies?

TYRTAEUS

B2: What Spartan is credited with the saying “τὸ λακωνίζειν εστί φιλοσοφείν,” effectively meaning “less is more”?,

CHILON (OF SPARTA)

Moderator says: “Subsequent questions will count for points. Good luck and have fun!”

1. What type of building might contain or stand near a βωμός—which is the site of a θυσία, a noun related to the verb θύω—and is referred to by the words νεώς or ἱερόν?

TEMPLE [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B1: Based on its constituent parts, what is the literal meaning of the sacrifice-related word ἑκατόμβης?

(SACRIFICE OF) ONE HUNDRED OXEN / COWS / CATTLE / BULLS

B2: What Greek verb has a sacrifice-related meaning in the active and means “to make a truce” in the middle?

σπένδω

2. Who fortified the town of Midea, constructed a mass-grave at Argos to bury the “Women of the Sea” after defeating their invasion, succeeded his cousin to the rule of Tiryns, and fathered Gorgophone after his primary adventures?

PERSEUS

B1: Which son of Perseus, the father of Eurystheus by Nicippe, later invited Atreus and Thyestes to jointly rule Midea?

STHENELUS

B2: Owing to her high rank, what maenad was the only one of the “Women of the Sea” to be buried separately?

CHORE(I)A

3. What overarching industry, which was the economic focus of Thasos and its subordinate territories, made Nicias his fortune when he invested in an enterprise at Laurion that was worked by men called metalleutai?

MINING [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS; DO NOT ACCEPT “GOLD MINING” OR “SILVER MINING”]

B1: In what region of Greece were the subordinate territories of the island of Thasos located?

THRACE

B2: During the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians effectively lost access to the silver at Laurion after 20,000 mining slaves fled for what city, which Agis II occupied soon after the formal conclusion of the Peace of Nicias?

DECELEA

4. Name the philosophical school described in these clues: a member of this school had his charred works preserved in Herculaneum’s “Villa of the Papyri” and was named Philodemus; this school believed that happiness comes from ἀπονία, or “absence of pain”; this school established a “school in the garden” under the author of On Nature.

EPICUREANISM

B1: Name both the man who originally developed the atomic theory and the “laughing philosopher” who subsequently improved it. Both were important forerunners of Epicureanism.

LEUCIPPUS and DEMOCRITUS [RESPECTIVELY]

B2: What author of the 2^nd or 3^rd century A.D. strongly defends Epicurus in Book 10 of his Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers?

DIOGENES LAËRTIUS [DO NOT ACCEPT OR PROMPT ON “DIOGENES”]

5. Carefully read the following passage, which I will paste in the chat and which you will have 60 seconds to examine. Please answer in English the questions that follow:

ἐκ δὲ τούτου ἐκέλευσε μὲν ὁ τῶν τριάκοντα κῆρυξ τοὺς ἕνδεκα τὸν Θηραμένην λαβεῖν: ἐκεῖνοι δὲ εἰσῆλθον σὺν τοῖς δούλοις, ἡγουμένου αὐτῶν Σατύρου τοῦ θρασυτάτου τε καὶ ἀναιδεστάτου. εἷλκε μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ βωμοῦ ὁ Σάτυρος, εἷλκον δὲ οἱ δούλοι. ὁ δὲ Θηραμένης ὥσπερ εἰκὸς καὶ θεοὺς ἐπεκαλεῖτο καὶ ἀνθρώπους καθορᾶν τὰ γιγνόμενα.

The question: What were the “Eleven” ordered to do by the Thirty Tyrants’ herald?

SEIZE THERAMENES

B1: After being seized, what did Theramenes do?

(AS WAS RIGHT) HE CALLED UPON THE GODS AND MEN TO WITNESS THE EVENTS

B2: In what two ways is Satyrus described?

MOST BOLD and MOST SHAMELESS

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6. What tense, which represents the “zero-grade” of Greek verbs such as λείπω, is formed through either a “first” or “second” stem and was—like the imperfect—typically augmented?

AORIST

B1: Give both the first and second aorist 1^st-person singular forms for the verb ἵστημι.

ἔστησα and ἔστην

B2: Assuming the verb λείπω is your paradigm, give the names of the other two ablaut grades and a tense that represents them in Ancient Greek.

E-GRADE = PRESENT / IMPERFECT / FUTURE / FUTURE PERFECT and O-GRADE = PERFECT / PLUPERFECT

7. Through a sort of interpretātiō graeca, what people’s gods—including Astarte, her associate Melkarth, and the little-known Onca—were rationalized as Greek deities, reflecting the perceived influence of a son of Agenor and Telephassa who founded Thebes?

PHOENICIANS / CANAANITES

B1: Melkarth was most clearly rationalized as a version of Heracles, but some believe he was the origin of what man, who was thrown into a cauldron of boiling water and then carried into the sea by his crazed mother?

MELICERTES

B2: Similarly, the name of Agenor’s twin brother is believed to be a Hellenized form of what title that was applied to many Phoenician deities?

BA’AL [HIS BROTHER IS “BELUS”]

8. What author, who inspired Isaiah Berlin with the line “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing,” wrote such scathing verses that Lycambes committed suicide and said “some Thracian is now parading my shield” after he threw it down?

ARCHILOCHUS

B1: What woman, the daughter of Lycambes and Archilochus’ one-time betrothed, hanged herself along with her father due to the harshness of Archilochus’ attacks?

NEOBULE

B2: What poet from Ephesus, the inventor of the choliambic meter, is similarly said to have parodied the sculptor Bupalus until Bupalus committed suicide?

HIPPONAX

9. Although it has nothing to do with music, what meaning is shared by the noun at the root of “proem” and the noun at the root of “cathode,” “period,” and “exodus”?

ROAD / WAY / PATH

B1: What derivative of ὁδός refers to “an assembly of the clergy of a particular church”?

SYNOD

B2: What derivative of another Greek word meaning “road” means “traveling from place to place, working in various places for relatively short periods” and is a synonym of “nomadic”?

PERIPATETIC

10. What man, who set up a series of dictatorial “decarchies” to rule over defeated cities, was replaced by Callicratidas between his defeat of Alcibiades at Notium and his recall to command Sparta’s navy at Aegospotami?

LYSANDER

B1: For what reason were six of the victorious Athenian strategoi at Arginusae put on trial after the battle? A description is fine.

(SAILED AWAY AND) FAILED TO (PROPERLY ASSIGN SHIPS TO) RESCUE THE {DROWNING SAILORS // SURVIVORS} FROM THE BATTLE [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: Xenophon records that “no one slept [at Athens], since they mourned for the lost, but even more still for their own fate” after what important messenger ship brought the news of Aegospotami?

PARALUS

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11. An injunction to “stay and mourn at the tomb of dead Kroisos” appears at the base of a statue from Anavyssos in what style, which usually depicted a nude warrior with his left foot forward in a stiff, formal position?

KOUROS

B1: The most famous example of a kore statue, the female equivalent of a kouros statue, is named for what type of garment, the full-length robe typically worn by Greek women?

PEPLOS

B2: What two-word term do scholars use to denote the expression found on most Greek statues of the mid-6^th-century B.C.? It is typically thought that it indicates that a person is alive.

ARCHAIC SMILE

12. On what island do “hides crawl about, raw and cooked meat bellow on the spit, and lowings of cattle arise” after the warnings of a golden-staffed Theban ghost are ignored and the cattle of Helios are slaughtered?

THRINACIA

B1: After warning of Thrinacia, Tiresias also warns that, after killing the suitors, Odysseus must wander with an oar on his shoulder until he encounters a traveler that mistakes the oar for what kind of object?

WINNOWING-FAN

B2: In Odyssey 19, the disguised Odysseus accurately reports that his crewmen were killed while leaving Thrinacia, but lies and says that Odysseus would be shortly returning from what people’s land, where he was hosted by king Pheidon?

THESPROTIANS

13. In what play, which opens with a speech by the “Watchman,” does the title character ominously walk across a red carpet laid by his wife, who stabs him in a bathtub in favor of her lover, Aegisthus?

(AESCHYLUS’) AGAMEMNON

B1: What woman pours libations to Agamemnon in the opening scene of the next play in Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy?

ELECTRA

B2: In Libation Bearers, Clytemnestra finally sends offerings to Agamemnon’s grave after dreaming that she does what? A description is fine.

GIVES BIRTH TO A SNAKE (WHICH SHE SUCKLES AND WHICH
DRINKS BOTH HER MILK AND HER BLOOD) [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

14. What meaning is shared by the adjectives ἥττων, χείρων, and κακίων, which can all be considered comparatives of κακός?

WORSE // MORE BAD

B1: Give two of three comparative-superlative pairs for ἀγαθός.

TWO OF: ἀμείνων and ἄριστος // βελτίων and βέλτιστος // κρείττων and κράτιστος

B2: Give the comparative-superlative pair for μικρός that is not μικρότερος and μικρότατος.

ἐλάττων and ἐλάχιστος

15. What general region, part of which was ruled by a prince called Omphis or Taxiles, became the site of Alexandria Bucephalus after the horse died after a battle against Porus on the banks of the Hydaspes?

INDIA / PAKISTAN / PUNJAB / INDUS // INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

B1: What river marks the farthest extent of Alexander’s conquest in India because his army mutinied on its banks?

HYPHASIS / BEAS (RIVER)

B2: What gymnosophist—i.e., what “naked philosopher”—joined Alexander’s expedition in India?

CALANUS

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16. Translate the following sentence from Plato’s Apology into English: ταῦτα, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, οὐ ὑμᾶς χρὴ ποιεῖν.

OH ATHENIAN MEN, IT IS NOT NECESSARY FOR YOU (ALL) TO DO THESE THINGS // OH ATHENIAN MEN, IT IS NECESSARY FOR YOU TO NOT DO THESE THINGS [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B1: Translate the following sentence from Plato’s Apology into English: οὐδὲν κωλύει διαμυθολογῆσαι πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἕως ἔξεστιν.

NOTHING PREVENTS US FROM {MYTHOLOGIZING / TALKING} TO
EACH OTHER WHILE IT IS POSSIBLE [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

B2: Translate the following sentence from Plato’s Euthyphro into English: ἀλλ᾽ οἶμαι, ὦ Σώκρατες, ὡς δεῖ δίκην διδόναι ἐκεῖνον ὃς ἂν ἀδίκως τινὰ ἀποκτείνῃ.

BUT, I THINK, OH SOCRATES, THAT IT IS NECESSARY FOR THAT ONE TO
PAY THE PENALTY WHO KILLS ANOTHER UNJUSTLY [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

17. Note to players: the answer to this tossup is not “Euneus.” In the Iliad, what name is shared between Lycaon’s ransomer, who ruled the island of Imbros, and a king who was killed together with his seven sons and buried in his full armor by Achilles?

EËTION

B1: Homer is inconsistent. In Iliad 21, he names Euneus as the purchaser of Lycaon and Eëtion as the ransomer, while in Iliad 23, he names Euneus as the ransomer. In the former case, Eëtion ransomed Lycaon from what island, which Euneus ruled after the departure of his father and the exile of his mother?

LEMNOS

B2: When Patroclus goes to fight in Iliad 16, he harnesses what mortal horse, whom Achilles took from Eëtion’s city, in side-trace with Xanthus and Balius?

PEDASUS

18. What author lamented Peison’s seizure of more than six talents, the general crimes of the Thirty Tyrants, and the murder of his elder brother Polemarchus in his corpus’ twelfth speech, Against Eratosthenes?

LYSIAS

B1: The sixth speech in Lysias’ corpus responds to what logographer’s speech On the Mysteries?

ANDOCIDES

B2: Lysias also wrote the speech On the Murder of Eratosthenes about a different man of the same name. For what reason did the defendant, Euphiletos, supposedly murder Eratosthenes? A description is fine.

ERATOSTHENES COMMITTED ADULTERY WITH EUPHILETOS’ WIFE // EUPHILETOS CAUGHT ERATOSTHENES COMMITTING ADULTERY WITH EUPHILETOS’ WIFE [ACCEPT EQUIVALENTS]

19. Iliad 9.182-9.198—describing the embassy to Achilles—strangely features forms such as the aorist “βάτην,” the imperative “χαίρετον,” and the participle “εὐχομένω,” which are what number, even though five people are speaking instead of two?

DUAL

B1: Give the Attic nominative dual of the noun ἄνθρωπος.

(τώ) ἀνθρώπω

B2: Give the Attic nominative dual of the noun χείρ.

(τώ) χεῖρε

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20. After being approached by an illiterate voter, what man supposedly wrote his own name on an ostrakon, furthering his reputation—which he had gained through his shrewd management of the Delian League’s finances—as “the Just”?

ARISTIDES

B1: The ostracism of Aristides was effectively manufactured by Themistocles, who also forced into exile what man, the father of Pericles?

XANTHIPPUS

B2: Extant ostraka always give both the name of the target of ostracism and the name of his father. Name the father of Aristides, who therefore appears on the potsherds with his son.

LYSIMACHUS

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