The Eagle of the Ninth 21

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 21 “The Olive-Wood Bird”

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Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Peace, Love, Hope vs. Despair, Euchatastrophe, Home, Justice, Family, Death and Resurrection, Freedom

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What did Marcus miss during the “dark winter days” in his uncle’s house?

2. What “nagging questions” did Marcus still have and what did his Uncle make him promise to do?

3. What was Marcus surprised to see in Cottia upon their reunion?

4. How had Cottia learned that Esca was no longer a slave?

5. What request did Cottia make (even plead for) of Marcus concerning the future?

6. What great news did Marcus receive in a letter from Claudius Hieronimianus?

7. What decisions did Marcus make concerning where he would settle, and whom he would settle with, given the living he had been granted by the senate?

8. When did Marcuse say he would ask uncle Aquila for help?

9. What did Marcus remember at the end of the story?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. Why did Marcus feel “suddenly a little ache of loss” upon seeing Cottia again?

2. Why were Marcus and Cottia “unexpectedly shy of each other”?

3. What did Marcus mean by asking Cottia, “Are you a witch out of Thessaly, to draw the moon in a net of your hair? Or is it only the Other Sight that you have”? Why did he ask her that?

4. Why did the Roman Senate grant what they did to Marcus and Esca?

5. Why did it need to remain “unpublished”?

6. What was it that made Marcus realize Britain was his home?

7. Why had Marcus developed “a distaste for owning human beings”?

8. Why is the significance of Marcus’ mind returning to the little “olive-wood bird” he had sacrificed to Mithras?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. Euchatastrophe is the idea of being able to give thanks for having gone through some very hard things. Often it involves coming out the other side of great adversity being better off than you would have been without that extremely challenging time in you life. How does the great idea of “Euchatastrophe” find expression in this story? 

2. “There is no way back through the waters of Lethe” is this book’s way of saying you can’t go back to your old life. Is this true? In the end did Marcus and/or Esca return across the waters of Lethe? Explain your answer carefully with reference to the text.

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-15. How might we relate what is said in God’s word in Ecclesiastes to Marcus’ story?