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| What two(2) main areas is Greek literature classified at? | tragedy and comedy |
| What is the the differnece between "tragedies" and "melodrama?" | "tragedies" are more like sad stories and a "melodrama" is more suspenful or scary (like Alfred Hitcock or a "horror flick" |
| When style of literature is "Oedipus Rex?" | poetic tragedy in dramatic form |
| What are plots of most Greek tragedies based on? | lengends - stories that are exagerrated over time like Greek Mytholgy. |
| Describe the Greek audience- | The Greek ordiance already knows the stories (lengend - mythology) and were interested how the play writer would present the legend on stage. |
| What does "Oedipus" mean in Greek and why is it given to the protagonist? | he was given the the name "Oedipus" because his real parents pinned his ankles together - his ankles together in order to aid in his death - left him a life-time injury |
| Who wrote "Oedipus Rex"? | Sophocles |
| Where and when was the first performance of "Oedipus Rex?" | in Athens, Greece (presently the capital of Greece) around 430 B.C. |
| What was the approximate years that Sophocles lived? | 496 ?-406 B.C. |
| Who were Oedipus's adopted parents and what city did they rule? | Polybus (step-father) and Merope (step-mother) and the city was Corinth |
| Who was Oedipus's real parents and what city did they rule? | Laios (his father) and Iokaste (his mother) and they ruled Thebes |
| Who is Kreon? | Kreon is his mother and wife Iokaste's brother and Oedipus's uncle but also his "bother-in-law) |
| Who does Oedipus marry? | Iolaste his mother |
| Who is Teiresias and what is his significance in the drama? | He is a respected blind soothsayer (psychic) who at the beginning of the drama is summoned by Oedipus to tell him of his true birth - at first, Teiresias does not want to give Oedipus any information but through arguing with him tells him that he will kill his father and marry and have children with his mother - this angers Oedipus and he sends him away with a reprimand - Teiresian was the 2nd person to inform Oedipus this information - Teiresias served the god Apollo |
| Who was the Priest? | A well repected religous person who begged King Oedipus to help the city of Thebes out of the plaque (disease) and starvation. - King Oedipus promised to do this which eventually leds to the fact that Thebes suffering is due to him (Oedipus) |
| Who was the Sphinx and what was its significance in the drama? | He held the people of Thebes under its cruel rule and would kill anyone who could not answer its riddle - Oedipus encountered the Sphinx on his way from Corinth to Thebes and answer his "riddle" the Sphinx stabbed himself with a sword in the chest - detroying itself - because of this the people of Thebes made Oedipus their King |
| What was the Sphinx's Riddle and its answer? | "What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening !" - Answer: "man, for he crawls as an infant, walks erect as a man, and uses his staff in old age" |
| Who and where did Oedipus first here that Polybus and Merope were not his real parents - and what did it cause him to do ? | A drunken man in Corith - it made Oedipus go to Delphi Oracle for answers and he was informed that he would kill his father and marry his mother - because he feared this would happen Oedipus - Opedius left Corinth and went to live in Thebes to get away from who he thought were his real parents. |
| Who was the "Choragos?" | The person who spoke for the "Chorus" |
| Who was the Chorus? | A group of "Theban elders" who recited verses between scences or "breaks in the action during the drama" - in a sense, they represented the citizens of Thebes. |
| Why does Oedipus get mad at Kreon? | he gets mad at Kreon because Kreon suggested his speak to the blind soothsayer Teiresias to get his opinion on the fact that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother - went Teiresias tells Oedipus that is a fact he feels that Kreon set up the old blind man to say it so that Kreon can then become King |
| Where does Oedipus send Kreon at the beginning of the play and for what reason? | he send Kreon to the Delphi Kreon to the Delphi Oracle to find out how the city of Thebes can be rid of the plague (disease) and starvation |
| What did Kreon tell Oedipus at the beginning of the drama after he returns from the Delphi Oracle? | he tells him that the god Apollo demands that Thebes get rid of and avenge the man who killed the prior King Laios (Oedipus's real father) on a highway as he traveled from Thebes- and King Oepidus sets an edict for this man to be found and punished (at time, he did not realize it was himself) |
| Who is the first messanger from Corinth? | the first messanger from Corinth informs them that King Polybos has died and the people of Corinth want him their King - this information makes Oedipus relieved and happy because how can he kill his father died by "natural death" - but then the messanger informs him why was he worried in the 1st place because Polybus was not his real father - this shocks Oedipus - he asks himw how he knows - the messanger tells him that a shepard had given Oedipus to him and he brought the baby to Polybus and Meope - because the messanger used to be a shepard |
| Why does Oedipus and Kreon argue and what position does Iokaste take? | they argue because Oedipus accuses him of treason (playing to replace Opedius as King) and Kreon swears had no plans to do that (Kreon said why be a king too much stress - he had al the respect he wants and everything he wants he can have) - Iokaste is neutral put tells Oedipus to believe Kreon and drops the matter) |
| Why does Oedipus seek a shepard? | because the 1st messanger said that he got Oedipus as infant from a shepard to give to Polybus and Merope - so Oedipus wants to get more information from the shepard about his past |
| How does Iocasta react to Oedipus wanting to talk to the shepard? | she becomes outraged and asks him Why ? when his father Polybus is already dead - she knows that the truth will now come and tragedy will follow - in anger she runs off the stage and the next we hear of her - she is hung and dead |
| What happens between Oedipus and the shepard? | at first, the shepard does not want to talk to Oedipus - but Oedipus tells him he will kill him if he will not talk - the shepard then tells him - the shepard tells him he is the only one who excaped on the highway after Oedipus kills King Laios - who was Oepidus's real father - and that he pitted the infant Oedipus on the mountain Kithairon and gave him to the 1st Messanger who eventually gave Oedipus to King Polybus and Queen Merope - Oedipus goes stark raving mad |
| Who was the 2nd Messanger and what message did he bring? | He came at the of drama and informed Oedipus that Iokaste was dead - this sends Oedipus running wildly into the Paave where he finds Iocasta hung over the same bed that he was conceived in and in which he sleep in with her and conceived four of their own children. |
| After Oedipus finds Iocasta dead, what does he do? | he tasks her jewelry, and with its pins stabs out both eyes and blood is everwhere. |
| Why does Oedipus blind himself? | he could not bear to see the evil he had done and wanted to place himself in dark exile every moment the rest of his life. |
| What else did Oedipus do beside blind himself? | he want to pierce his eardrums so he could hear nothing of evil - and place him into further exile within himself - but did not do it for instrument to pierce his eardrums |
| At the end of the drama, what happens? | The big doors in the middle backdrop of the stage open up and the blind Oedipus his helped on stage - he begs Kreon to do three things !) exile him 2) allow his two sons to live their live out 3) to protect his daughters from all the crap they are going to take because no one will ever want to marry them and prevent them from povery - they shake hands and Kreon agrees |
| Does Oedipus forgive Kreon and all the others assholes? | Yes |
| How children did Oedipus have with Iocasta? | Four(4) - two boys and two girls |
| Name of Oedipus's two daughters? | Antigone and Ismene who he loved very much |
| How does Oedipus kill his father? | He meets on the highway at an intersection of three roads on his way from Corinth to Thebes. One of King Laios men orders Oedipus off the road - a fight follows and in it Oedipus kills father, King Laios, with his father's club, and kills the other with his father except the shepard who later tells him the whole truth (Oedipus did not know it was his father he killed nor King Laios and he he did not know the shepard had got away. |
| What was the real tragedy in the drama "Oedipus Rex(Rex means "King")? | The real tragedy was that the gods set him up for all the evil he did and he accepted the punishment for it all as if he knew |
