Directions:
Option 1: From the topics given below, write three 600-1000 word essays (NB: For each essay, make sure that you state your thesis clearly and back it up with pertinent facts.).

1) Politics: It has been observed by historians that  both the Athenian politeia and the Spartan politeia aimed a) to avoid stasis (class conflict, revolution) within their poleis, and b) to limit the power of the aristocrats, but their solutions were radically different. Discuss. In your discussion detail how they differed in their approachs these two issues and attempt to answer why they differed.

2) Religion: We have examined how the gods were perceived with respect to justice in the writings dating from the late Dark Age and the Archaic Age of Greece. Discuss for the Classical Age, based on what we have read from Herodotus' Histories and Sophocles' Oedipus the King.

3) Women: Sparta and Athens, in their solutions to the issues mentioned in 1) above, also went in differing directions with regard to the rights and positions of women in their poleis who were also citizens. Discuss. In your discussion detail how they differ and attempt to answer why they differ.

Option 2: From the topics given below, write two 1000-1300 word essays (NB: For each essay, make sure that you state your thesis clearly and back it up with pertinent facts).

1) Politics: It has been observed by historians that  both the Athenian politeia and the Spartan politeia aimed a) to avoid stasis (class conflict, revolution) within their poleis, and b) to limit the power of the aristocrats, but their solutions were radically different. Discuss. In your discussion detail how they differed in their approachs these two issues and attempt to answer why they differed. In your discussion also include evidence from Aristophanes' Lysistrata and the funeral oration of Pericles in Thucydides' Histories.

2) Religion: We have examined how the gods were perceived with respect to justice in the writings dating from the late Dark Age and the Archaic Age of Greece. Discuss for the Classical Age, based on what we have read from Herodotus' and Thucydides' Histories and Sophocles' Oedipus the King.

3) Women: Sparta and Athens, in their solutions to the issues mentioned in 1) above, also went in differing directions with regard to the rights and positions of women in their poleis who were also citizens. Discuss. In your discussion detail how they differ and attempt to answer why they differ. In your discussion also include evidence from Aristophanes' Lysistrata and the funeral oration of Pericles in Thucydides' Histories.