Deck 14: Myth and the Tragic Vision in the Theater of Dionysus: Euripides Bacchae

Question 1

Tragedy taught the audience about the consequences of inflexibility.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Greek tragedy portrays many kings and queens because Athens had a monarchy during the fifth century b.c.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

According to ancient tradition, the first winner of the tragic competition was Thespis.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The City Dionysia festivals were held for five days in October, celebrating the making of new wine.

Question 5

In the tragic drama, the protagonists are more realistic than in the myths.

Question 6

Tragedy illustrates the importance of moderation, restraint, and a spirit of compromise to the existence of a healthy civic life.

Question 7

Like the epic heroes, the tragic heroes all descend to the Underworld.

Question 8

Comedies had their own festival.

Question 9

The first rule of the tragedy was that the protagonist had to be Dionysus himself.

Question 10

Even though the tragic universe is ruled by divine beings, the universe is anthropocentric.

Question 11

The Dionysia staged three different kinds of plays-tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays.

Question 12

The main content of the satyr plays was humorous antics and obscene jokes.

Question 13

The lessons taught by tragic drama were usually clear-cut: Creon, for instance, was wrong to defend civic order as he did; Antigone was right to refuse obedience.

Question 14

The tragic quest is typically an external journey of suffering, contrary to the quest of the myth, which is usually internal.

Question 15

The tragic hero has a capacity for extremes of feeling and behavior, which contradicts the Apollonian awareness of one's human limitations.

Question 16

The printed script of a tragedy, which we read on a page or even see acted on a state, represents only one element in the impressive ritual of greek tragic drama, and much that surrounded it is lost to us.

Question 17

The tragic hero is doomed to suffer, because he or she is trapped between conflicting demands.

Question 18

Role reversal and violation of rules was part of the essence of Dionysus, in whose honor Greek tragedy was produced.

Question 19

Aristotle viewed the tragedy as a cleansing emotional experience for the audience.

Question 20

In drama as well as in the epic, a narrative voice guides the perception of the audience.

Question 21

Tiresias was able to reconcile the opposites of control and freedom because he

A) was half-human, half-divine.
B) was half-human, half-horse.
C) was half-man, half-woman.
D) once had been changed into a woman and then back into a man.

Question 22

Delphi had a shrine for Dionysus as well as the oracle of Apollo.

Question 23

What is meant by the phrase "the tragic universe is not morally neat"?

A) There is no Christian value system.
B) There is no assured divine justice.
C) There are no gods.
D) Humans are considered evil by nature.

Question 24

What does the word catharsis mean?

A) the hero's descent into the Underworld
B) a cleansing
C) a hound from hell
D) a reconciliation of opposites

Question 25

In the tragic universe, there is still divine justice waiting at the conclusion of the story.

Question 26

The epic and tragic heroes are similar in that

A) they both encounter difficult challenges.
B) they both have incredible strengths and also flaws.
C) they both journey to the geographical ends of the earth.
D) a and b above

Question 27

Most satyr plays have been lost. Why?

A) They were met with Christian disapproval.
B) They were never written down, but survived for centuries as part of an oral ritual.
C) They were met with public disapproval almost from the beginning.
D) They were stored in the Dionysus temple, which burned down.

Question 28

Aristotle says that peripeteia defines the tragic experience.

Question 29

What is the origin of the word tragedy?

A) a goat play
B) a parade of revelers
C) a goat song
D) a sad song