A.P.* Multiple Choice: Baucis and Philemon (Metamorphoses 8.626-39)
* = Abney Practice

Read Ovid's introduction to the story of Baucis and Philemon. Then choose the correct answers for the questions that follow.

For vocabulary help, move the cursor over the underlined words, and a definition will appear. Ekkehard's Waltharii Poesis

 

Iuppiter huc specie mortali cumque parente
venit Atlantiades positis caducifer alis.
mille domos adiere locum requiemque petentes,
mille domos clausere serae; tamen una recepit,
parva quidem, stipulis et canna tecta palustri,      5
sed pia Baucis anus parilique aetate Philemon
illa sunt annis iuncti iuvenalibus, illa
consenuere casa paupertatemque fatendo
effecere levem nec iniqua mente ferendo;
nec refert, dominos illic famulosne requiras:       10
tota domus duo sunt, idem parentque iubentque.
ergo ubi caelicolae parvos tetigere penates
summissoque humiles intrarunt vertice postes,
membra senex posito iussit relevare sedili;


Metamorphoses 8.626-39

(Excerpt from Ovid's Metamorphoses, available online here Book 8. )

1. What was Jupiter doing (lines 1-3)?
wearing a mortal guise
visiting his father Saturn
becoming father to a mortal
blessing a human parent


2. Who had accompanied Jupiter on his journey
    (line 2)?
Atlas
Neptune
Juno
Mercury


3. What figure of speech occurs in line 3?
syncope
chiasmus
zeugma
asyndeton


4. What is the point of the anaphora (lines 3-4)?
It indicates that the same treatment awaited them
     everywhere.
It slows the narrative.
It emphasizes the gods' eternal boredom.
It stresses how fast the gods can travel.


5. What are Jupiter and his companion up to (lines 3-4)?
testing hospitality
seeking female companionship
looking for a single honest human being
planning their return to Mt. Olympus


6. What do learn of Baucis and Philemon according to
    pia . . . Philemon (line 6)?
They are in the summer of their life.
They cannot have children at their age.
Baucis is older than Philemon.
They are dutiful and the same age.


7. What is the correct translation of illa . . .
    iuvenalibus
(line 7)?
They were young in years when married.
They were married in younger years.
They were married there in youthful years.
Those people were joined in years of youth.


8. What trait do Baucis and Philemon possess,
    according to paupertatemque . . . ferendo
    (lines 8-9)?
They are kind to strangers.
They despise their hard lot in life.
They are content to be poor.
They lack all guile and deceit.


9. What does the poet reveal about the couple's
    marriage in dominos . . . iubentque (lines 10-11)?
They have only two slaves.
They are equal partners.
They are masters now, but formerly were slaves.
They live in two separate houses.


10. What is the correct scansion of the first four feet of
     line 11?
dactyl-dactyl-dactyl-spondee
dactyl-spondee-dactyl-spondee
dactyl-dactyl-spondee-spondee
dactyl-dactyl-spondee-dactyl


11. The use of penates may be taken as an example
     of metonymy (line 12). Of what?
the home
the family
divine justice
human existence


12. If penates is not metonymy, then what figure of
     speech occurs in line 12?
chiasmus
hyperbole
juxtaposition (antithesis)
synchesis


13. What occurs at the end of the passage (lines
     13-14)?
Baucis and Philemon humbly worship the gods.
The gods order the old man to kneel.
The gods rest with Baucis and Philemon.
The old man tells his wife to straighten up the
     house for their guests.