Maew Chapter 21

Question 1

Who got Achilles’ armor?

Answer 1

Odysseus, though Ajax deserved it. Ajax killed himself out of shame of this and his ensuing madness.

Question 2

Neoptolemus

Answer 2

“young fighter”, the son of Achilles, who was brought to Troy after Achilles’ death, due to a prophecy that he must fight for the Greeks to win

Question 3

Philoctetes’ role in the war

Answer 3

He is brought in only after Achilles dies due a prophecy, having been abandoned on the way to Troy because of a disgusting snake bite. He kills Paris with the bow of Heracles.

Question 4

Trojan Horse

Answer 4

A plot devised by Odysseus to sneak the Greeks into the city, under the guise of an offering to the Gods. The Greeks hid inside and opened the gates for the rest of the soldiers, killing the Trojans in their sleep

Question 5

Laocoon

Answer 5

A priest of Poseidon who warned that the Trojan Horse was a trap. He threw a spear into its side, and was then sucked into the sea by serpents (Actually for sex in Poseidon’s Temple, but the Trojans thought it was a sign that the horse was sacred)

Question 6

Death of Priam

Answer 6

Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, slaughters a son of Priam in front of him, at the altar to Zeus, and proceeds to kill Priam himself, while the city is being taken

Question 7

Death of Astyanax

Answer 7

Odysseus orders Astyanax, son of Hector, to be thrown to his death from the city walls

Question 8

Polyxena

Answer 8

Priam’s youngest daughter, sacrificed by Neoptolemus over the grave of Achilles, supposedly to quench the dead warrior’s thirst.

Question 9

What happened to Cassandra?

Answer 9

She was raped by Ajax the lesser, during the fall of Troy, while clinging to a statue of Athena (This offended Athena, causing problems for the Greeks coming home).

Agamemnon then took her as a prize back to Mycenae.

Question 10

Nostoi

Answer 10

“Homecomings”, the name for the stories told of the return of the Greeks after the Trojan War

Question 11

The Oresteia

Answer 11

“story of Orestes”, a dramatic trilogy by Aeschylus, consisting of Agamemnon, Choephori, and Eumenides, telling the story of Agamemnon and his family after the Trojan war.

Question 12

Agamemnon’s Death

Answer 12

returning from the Trojan War, Agamemnon walks on a purple carpet in an arrogant manner (after hesitation). Clytemnestra (his wife) then catches him in a net during a bath, and stabs him to death, claiming it was for his murder of their daughter, Iphigenia.

Question 13

Clytemnestra’s lover while Agamemnon is away

Answer 13

Aegisthus, Agamemnon’s cousin

Question 14

Orestes

Answer 14

Son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra

Question 15

Electra

Answer 15

Daughter of Clytemnestra, who plots with Orestes to kill their mother.

Question 16

What does Orestes do about his Father’s death?

Answer 16

He disguises himself as a messenger reporting his own death, and kills Aegisthus when he enters the room. He hesitates when facing his own mother, but kills her too in the end.

Question 17

The Trial of Orestes

Answer 17

The Furies seek punishment for Orestes’ murder of his mother, but he seeks protection from Apollo (who told him to kill her in the first place). The trial is presided over by Athena, and Apollo argues that the mother is simply the bearer of the child, not actually contributing to the child (as proof, he shows Athena, who has no mother).

The jury is evenly split, so Athena sides with Orestes, who is thus acquitted.

Question 18

Eumenides

Answer 18

“the kindly ones”, the role which the Furies now play in Athens, as beneficent spirits, according to the will of Athena (also namesake of the play by Aeschylus)

Question 19

Interpretation of the Orestia

Answer 19

Aeschylus shows, through the advancement of the plot in the trilogy, how the order and law they practice in Athens (trial by jury, man-made laws open to revision, democracy, etc) allow the Athenians to rise above the primitive laws of their ancestors, represented by the Furies. The cycle of killing is ended by a trial by peers, and it is justified as instituted by Athena/Apollo