VCE Classical Greek case studies
VCE Classical Greek · Put your knowledge to work in context.
VCE Classical Greek is a senior secondary subject and external written examination offered within the Victorian Certificate of Education, the senior school qualification administered in Victoria, Australia. It suits students who have already built a solid grounding in Attic Greek and want to read authentic texts closely rather than work mainly from adapted passages. The VCE Classical Greek case studies are 5 cases and about 2,105 words.
1The Aorist That Changes the Verdict
You are translating a passage of Attic prose in which a defendant describes an incident in the agora. The key sentence reads: ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἀφικόμεθα, ὁ μὲν Φίλιππος εὐθὺς ἀπῄει, ἐγὼ δὲ αὐτὸν ἐκέλευσα μεῖναι.
435 words, about 2 min2Verse Word Order and the Delayed Verb
You are translating a stretch of Greek hexameter in which a speaker addresses a companion before a journey. The lines run: τὸν δ᾽ ἠμείβετ᾽ ἔπειτα ποδάρκης δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς· / 'τίπτε με ταῦτ᾽ ἐρέεις, ὅτ᾽ ἐγὼ πάρος οὐκ ἐθέλοντα / ἤθελον;' The syntax is compressed: the relative clause ὅτ᾽ ἐγὼ πάρος οὐκ ἐθέλοντα ἤθελον packs a negated participle and a finite verb together.
441 words, about 2 min3Comprehension Under a Corrupt Clause
You are answering comprehension questions on an unseen passage in which a speaker argues that a city should not trust a general. One clause reads: οὗτος γὰρ οὐχ ὅπως ἐβούλετο ἀγαθόν τι πρᾶξαι, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι μὲν αὐτὸς ἐκέρδαινεν, ἠμέλει.
415 words, about 2 min4Prescribed Prose: Irony and the Narrator's Mask
In your prescribed prose text, the narrator reports a speech by a character who claims to have acted for the city's good, and then adds a single evaluative clause of his own. Your essay question asks how the narrator guides the reader's judgment of that character.
418 words, about 2 min5Prescribed Verse: Heroic Values in a Simile
Your prescribed verse text contains a simile in which a warrior is compared to a lion driven from a fold by herdsmen who cannot kill it. The passage follows a scene in which the same warrior has been forced to retreat.
396 words, about 2 min