OCR A-level Classical Civilisation · H408/23

Invention of the Barbarian

50 revision questions with answers for H408/23 Invention of the Barbarian in OCR A-level Classical Civilisation (spec H408). Practise with flashcards, a topic quiz, a random quiz across the course, 5 crosswords, or read every question and answer below.

All 50 questions and answers

Question 1 · Spec pp. 24–27
What did barbaros designate in Greek usage?
Answer:
Originally a non-Greek speaker. Its associations could develop into judgements about customs and power.
Question 2 · Spec pp. 24–27
Why treat the barbarian as a constructed category?
Answer:
Different Greeks selected different contrasts according to genre, audience and political circumstances.
Question 3 · Spec pp. 24–27
How did the Persian Wars affect Greek identity?
Answer:
Resistance could be presented as a shared achievement of Greek communities.
Question 4 · Spec pp. 24–27
What limits that picture of unity?
Answer:
Some Greeks sided with Persia, and rivalries among poleis continued during and after the wars.
Question 5 · Spec pp. 24–27
How is freedom opposed to monarchy in accounts of the wars?
Answer:
Greek collective action can be contrasted with obedience to a king.
Question 6 · Spec pp. 24–27
Why is this contrast selective?
Answer:
Sparta had kings and Greek political systems differed. A literary opposition compresses a more complex reality.
Question 7 · Spec pp. 24–27
Where is Aeschylus' Persians set?
Answer:
At the Persian royal centre, where elders and Atossa wait for news.
Question 8 · Spec pp. 24–27
Why stage defeat from the Persian side?
Answer:
An Athenian audience experiences its victory through an enemy community's loss and fear.
Question 9 · Spec pp. 24–27
What happens in Atossa's dream?
Answer:
Xerxes tries to yoke two women. One accepts the yoke and the other breaks it.
Question 10 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does the dream frame the invasion?
Answer:
Political domination becomes an image of forced control whose failure anticipates the king's defeat.
Question 11 · Spec pp. 24–27
What does the messenger bring to the Persian court?
Answer:
A report of the naval disaster at Salamis and the deaths of Persian leaders.
Question 12 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does the catalogue of losses shape sympathy?
Answer:
Naming individuals gives the defeated army a human scale while conveying the extent of disaster.
Question 13 · Spec pp. 24–27
How is the Greek battle cry used in Persians?
Answer:
The messenger represents the Greeks as fighting for homeland, families and sanctuaries.
Question 14 · Spec pp. 24–27
Why is reported speech significant here?
Answer:
A Persian voice relays a Greek account of patriotic motivation within a tragedy written for Athens.
Question 15 · Spec pp. 24–27
Why summon Darius in Persians?
Answer:
The dead king is asked to explain the catastrophe and advise the survivors.
Question 16 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does his authority affect the portrayal of Persia?
Answer:
A revered Persian ruler can voice wisdom. The contrast with Xerxes complicates a simple condemnation of all Persians.
Question 17 · Spec pp. 24–27
What does bridging the Hellespont signify in the play?
Answer:
Xerxes' attempt to harness the sea becomes an emblem of overreaching power.
Question 18 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does the play connect human and divine causation?
Answer:
Ambition and error operate alongside divine limits. Divine causation does not remove the king's responsibility.
Question 19 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does Xerxes appear at the end?
Answer:
He returns in defeat and joins the chorus in extended lament.
Question 20 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does lament alter the audience's response?
Answer:
The defeated ruler becomes a figure of suffering even as the performance commemorates Athenian success.
Question 21 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does Herodotus open his enquiry into East-West conflict?
Answer:
He reports Persian accounts of reciprocal abductions and distances himself from deciding all their truth.
Question 22 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does reporting versions affect authority?
Answer:
Readers can see the historian weighing traditions rather than simply reproducing a single national story.
Question 23 · Spec pp. 24–27
What does Herodotus describe in Histories 1.131–140?
Answer:
Persian religious practice, customs, values and social behaviour.
Question 24 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does ethnography encourage comparison?
Answer:
Familiar activities such as sacrifice and education reveal both parallels and differences between peoples.
Question 25 · Spec pp. 24–27
What does Herodotus' treatment of Egyptian religion suggest?
Answer:
He investigates parallels and possible transfers between Egyptian and Greek practices.
Question 26 · Spec pp. 24–27
Why does this challenge cultural isolation?
Answer:
Greek religious traditions can be presented as indebted to peoples classified as foreign.
Question 27 · Spec pp. 24–27
How do the Amazons and Scythians communicate in Herodotus?
Answer:
Contact across a language barrier leads to relationships and negotiation over a shared life.
Question 28 · Spec pp. 24–27
What do the Amazons refuse to give up?
Answer:
Their riding, hunting and armed activity. Their agency unsettles assumptions about women's roles.
Question 29 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does Xerxes' army display imperial scale?
Answer:
Many subject peoples contribute forces, equipment and distinctive practices.
Question 30 · Spec pp. 24–27
How can a catalogue serve two readings?
Answer:
It evokes immense imperial resources while revealing an army assembled from diverse communities.
Question 31 · Spec pp. 24–27
What motivates Demaratus' defence of Spartan courage?
Answer:
He presents law as the Spartans' master and obedience to it as a reason they will fight.
Question 32 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does this complicate the freedom-despotism contrast?
Answer:
Spartan freedom itself depends on a demanding form of obedience.
Question 33 · Spec pp. 24–27
What makes Thermopylae an ambiguous victory?
Answer:
Persia takes the pass but the defenders' resistance gains lasting Greek prestige.
Question 34 · Spec pp. 24–27
How can a narrative of defeat build identity?
Answer:
Selection of sacrifice, courage and collective memory turns a military loss into an ethical example.
Question 35 · Spec pp. 24–27
What is Medea's position in Corinth?
Answer:
She is a foreign woman without secure kin support, facing repudiation and expulsion.
Question 36 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does exile sharpen her grievances?
Answer:
Loss of marriage also threatens protection and a place in the community.
Question 37 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does Jason defend his new marriage?
Answer:
He presents it as a prudent alliance that will benefit the household and children.
Question 38 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does Medea challenge this defence?
Answer:
She recalls the risks she took for him and the obligations created by oaths and past assistance.
Question 39 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does Medea obtain time from Creon?
Answer:
She adopts a posture of supplication and asks for one more day.
Question 40 · Spec pp. 24–27
What does the scene show about persuasive speech?
Answer:
A character identified as dangerous can exploit expectations about pity and maternal vulnerability.
Question 41 · Spec pp. 24–27
What does Aegeus offer Medea?
Answer:
A sworn promise of refuge in Athens if she reaches it.
Question 42 · Spec pp. 24–27
Why does this encounter matter structurally?
Answer:
A secure destination removes a practical obstacle to revenge and implicates Athens in her future.
Question 43 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does the chorus respond to Medea's grievances?
Answer:
Corinthian women initially recognise injustices she describes in marriage.
Question 44 · Spec pp. 24–27
Where does solidarity reach a limit?
Answer:
They oppose the killing of the children. Shared gender does not erase ethical disagreement.
Question 45 · Spec pp. 24–27
Why is Medea's final chariot significant?
Answer:
Her association with Helios provides an extraordinary escape beyond Jason's reach.
Question 46 · Spec pp. 24–27
Why is its meaning disputed?
Answer:
Divine ancestry enhances her authority without settling the moral status of her revenge.
Question 47 · Spec pp. 24–27
How can a Greek-Persian combat cup construct difference?
Answer:
Costume, weapons and bodily pose can distinguish the opponents.
Question 48 · Spec pp. 24–27
Which visible distinctions identify the fighters on the prescribed cup?
Answer:
Compare Persian clothing and equipment with the Greek warrior's equipment, then explain how their poses organise the encounter.
Question 49 · Spec pp. 24–27
What do delegations on the Apadana staircase represent?
Answer:
Different peoples of the empire bring gifts in ordered processions.
Question 50 · Spec pp. 24–27
How does Persepolis challenge a Greek war narrative?
Answer:
Royal art presents diversity as orderly cooperation under the king. Its own ceremonial purpose also shapes the evidence.

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Invention of the Barbarian

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