Deck 16: The Tragic House of Laius: Sophocles Oedipus Cycle

Question 1

Sophocles lived through most of what is known as the classical age of Greece.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

In Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus finally experiences death and transfiguration and becomes deified in the process.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus thinks of himself as an innocent victim; in the later play Oedipus at Colonus Sophocles presents him as taking full responsibility for his actions, even though he acted out of ignorance.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Apollo strikes Thebes with plague in order to punish Oedipus for his sins.

Question 5

Both Creon and Antigone substitute death for love, though each in a particular way.

Question 6

Oedipus's own endeavor to find the truth can be compared with the psychoanalytic process.

Question 7

The first play Sophocles wrote about Oedipus takes place after Oedipus's death.

Question 8

Antigone, Oedipus's daughter, is at odds with Creon, her uncle, because she insists on giving her father full funeral rites.

Question 9

Although she resists her death bravely, Creon condemns Antigone: she becomes the "Bride of Death."

Question 10

Oedipus Rex opens with a description of the plague in Thebes.

Question 11

Although the play is named for Antigone, Creon is its real hero, because he loses his family at the end.

Question 12

Antigone argues that the gods are a higher authority than the state.

Question 13

Sigmund Freud argued that every male child unconsciously desires to kill his father and marry his mother.

Question 14

Sophocles was active in the political life of Athens.

Question 15

When she stands up to Oedipus and opposes his plans, Jocasta behaves in a way which distinguishes her from all other female characters in Greek myth.

Question 16

In Oedipus Rex, the Athenian audience was possibly asked to consider the potential fall of their own powerful city.

Question 17

The sin that angers Apollo is not Oedipus's murder and incest, but the lack of civic duty displayed by the citizens of Thebes.

Question 18

According to Jungian analysis, Oedipus (in Oedipus Rex) enacts the male child's struggle to escape "the Terrible Mother" and find his own male identity.

Question 19

For her disobedience to Creon's rule, Antigone is buried alive in a cave.

Question 20

Sophocles, alone of all the Greek dramatists, insisted that there is no fate; humans always have a choice.

Question 21

Who is Antigone trying to bury?

A) her father, Oedipus
B) her brother, Polynices
C) her brother, Eteocles
D) her uncle, Creon

Question 22

Why do Oedipus's sons want him to return to Thebes?

A) The oracle says that the city that earns his goodwill will prosper after his death.
B) The oracle says that Oedipus is the only one who can solve the riddle of the Sphinx.
C) The oracle says that only Oedipus can put an end to the plague in Thebes.
D) They love him and miss him, even though he is their brother as well as their father.

Question 23

Why did Oedipus come to such a tragic end in OedipusRex?

A) because he killed his father and married his mother.
B) because, like all other human beings, he is subject to peripeteia-no matter how much he tries to do what is right.
C) because he didn't understand the Sphinx's riddle
D) because he didn't respect his mother.

Question 24

Select the title of the first play written by Sophocles about Oedipus.

A) Oedipus at Colonus
B) Oedipus Rex
C) Antigone
D) Oedipus of Corinth

Question 25

In Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus embraces the feminine principle by doing what?

A) He marries a princess of Colonus.
B) He enters the sacred cave of the Gorgons.
C) He enters the sacred grove of the Eumenides.
D) He is reconciled with his daughters.

Question 26

Oedipus and Jocasta disagreed about the best course of action because

A) Oedipus needed to spearate from his mother and become an independent male (in Jungian terms).
B) males and females typically have different sets of priorities in Greek myth.
C) Jocasta understands that "going forward" in a heroic way is usually destructive for women.
D) all of the above

Question 27

Antigone is a "hero impersonator" in many ways. In which of the following ways does her "heroic" experience not parallel the usual masculine heroic pattern?

A) She goes to the Underworld.
B) She is isolated in her heroism.
C) She is motivated by a desire for personal honor.
D) She is unable to return from the Underworld.