Oedipus

Question 1

What does Oedis name mean?

Answer 1

Oida- all knowing

Question 2

Word for pollution?

Answer 2

Miasma

Question 3

Word for readiness to act?

Answer 3

Prothumia

Question 4

Who are the chorus?

Answer 4

Theban elders

Question 5

Where else is happiness questioned?

Answer 5

Herodotus’ histories

Question 6

Methaphor for blinding?

Answer 6

Hailstorm

Question 7

Which god responsible?

Answer 7

Apollo

Question 8

Tragic hero is?

Answer 8

Not outstanding, falls into bad fortune not through vice or wickedness, but through mistake, enjoys prosperity

Question 9

Two agons?

Answer 9

Tiresias and Oedipus, Oedipus and Creon

Question 10

Date

Answer 10

429 BC

Question 11

Kommos in Oedipus

Answer 11

when blinded Oedipus comes on stage

Question 12

Portrayal of women

Answer 12

Oedipus says he values Jocasta’s advice over the chorus and Creon says how they have equal power. Echoes of Odysseus and Penelope. Deliberate irony that the happiest marriage in Greek tragedy is incestuous

Question 13

Oedipus as good king

Answer 13

priest describes him as ‘first of men’, addresses them with paternal benevolence as ‘children’, has already sent Creon to consult the oracle and sent for Tiresias twice already

Question 14

Plague in Athens

Answer 14

429-425 BC

Question 15

Accusations against Tiresias

Answer 15

In cahoots with Creon to overthrow Oedipus

Question 16

word for human understanding

Answer 16

‘gnome’

Question 17

Word for picking up each other’s lines

Answer 17

Antilabe

Question 18

Important thing the chorus do

Answer 18

Tell him to spare Creon

Question 19

Example that Jocasta isn’t impious

Answer 19

Visits shrines with wreathed branches and offerings of incense- only questions oracles, not religion

Question 20

Jocasta stopping Oedipus asking questions

Answer 20

Tries 4 times to make him stop

Question 21

Role of the gods

Answer 21

“Apollo, it was Apollo…but the hand that struck them was mine: no one but I ventured this agony”