Aeschylus and Sophocles

Question 1

Why is Aeschylus dubbed the creator of tragedy?

Answer 1

Because he added a second actor in his plays

Question 2

Aeschylus was born in what city?

Answer 2

Eleusis

Question 3

Athens, a nearby city, had just shifted from a tyrannical form of government to a __________

Answer 3

democracy

Question 4

What is the name of the earliest Greek tragedy?

Answer 4

Persians

Question 5

From whose point of view was Persians written? The Greeks or the Persians?

Answer 5

Persians

Question 6

How many of the 90 tragedies written by Aeschylus survive?

Answer 6

7 complete plays

Question 7

What are the three plays of the Oresteia?

Answer 7

Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, and Eumenides

Question 8

What is the most important event lying in the back events of the play of Agamemnon?

Answer 8

Agamemnon’s killing of his own daughter, Iphigenia

Question 9

How does Iphigenia’s death anticipate many of the themes of Agamemnon?

Answer 9

Her death is the first of many killings at Troy and at home. Her death also displays how loyalty to the group or city is more important than loyalty to the family.

Question 10

Translate the Greek patheo (pathos) mathos:

Answer 10

Suffering wisdom or learning

Question 11

What is stichomythia?

Answer 11

Dialogue in which each character speaks only one line at a time

Question 12

Where was Sophocles born?

Answer 12

The village of Colonus, just north of Athens

Question 13

What is a tritagonist?

Answer 13

A third actor

Question 14

CLashes between stubborn heroism and the voice of ________ are found in all Sopholcle’s surviving plays

Answer 14

moderation

Question 15

Of the 120 plays written by Sophocles how many survive?

Answer 15

Seven

Question 16

Is Oedipus the king a play of surprise or suspense?

Answer 16

Suspense, because we already know what he has done, we are just waiting to know how he will find out

Question 17

Why did Laios pierce and bind Oedipus’s feet?

Answer 17

In order to prevent him from crawling away and decreasing his chance of survival

Question 18

Why did Oedipus flee Corinth?

Answer 18

He ran away to avoid his fate

Question 19

What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?

Answer 19

Man

Question 20

How is Oedipus like unto a typical 5th century Athenian?

Answer 20

He is optimistic, irascible, self-confident, pious, and skeptical in his attitudes towards religion, and a committed believer in the power of human reason.

Question 21

What is a perpeteia?

Answer 21

A reversal of fortune

Question 22

What is anagnorisis?

Answer 22

A recognition

Question 23

What is harmartia?

Answer 23

A mistake

Question 24

What are the 2 main theories for the meaning of the name Oedipus?

Answer 24

Know Foot, Swell Foot

Question 25

Is Oedipus guilty of Freud’s Oedipus complex?

Answer 25

No, his actions were done in ignorance not out of desire

Question 26

Antigone was written before or after Oedipus the King?

Answer 26

Before

Question 27

The story of Antigone takes place before or after Oedipus?

Answer 27

After

Question 28

The play (Antigone) shows us a series of oppositions. List 3:

Answer 28

1. Love and Hate
2. City and Family
3. Living and Dead

Question 29

The Norton editor makes it clear that the reader should take Antigone’s side over that of Kreon? True or False

Answer 29

False, editor offers merits of both sides even though they state that the modern reader often take Antigone’s side

Question 30

Kreon’s actions are motivated by anxieties about his authority, as a ruler, a father, and a ____

Answer 30

man

Question 31

What is the difference between eros and philia?

Answer 31

Eros: sexual desire
Philia: love that binds us to family and friends