Deck 15: The House of Atreus: Aeschyluss Oresteia

Question 1

In the Homeric version of the story of Agamemnon, the king is killed by his wife's lover, Aegisthus.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Prior to Aeschylus, the story of Agamemnon and Orestes usually illustrated a competition for power between gods and humans.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The Oresteia identifies the feminine principle with the powers of darkness.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Before leaving Argos for Troy, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to the gods.

Question 5

Clytemnestra is a representative of the Great Goddess, showing solidarity with other women in the face of patriarchal pressure.

Question 6

In the Libation-Bearers, Orestes has to decide whether to obey Apollo's order to avenge his father by slaying his mother, thereby incurring the wrath of the Furies.

Question 7

Agamemnon's father, Atreus, repeats his ancestor Tantalus's crime of serving a dismembered human being as food.

Question 8

Because Cassandra refused to follow Apollo's command of becoming the lover of Agamemnon, he cursed her with clairvoyance.

Question 9

The third part of the trilogy, the Eumenides, features Orestes seeking purification at Delphi.

Question 10

Agamemnon is related to Tantalus, who is condemned to roll a rock uphill in Hades only to watch it roll down again and again.

Question 11

As in the Prometheus trilogy, Aeschylus explores the Greek belief that the gods change and gradually develop greater ethical maturity.

Question 12

The first play, the Agamemnon, opens in Argos shortly before Agamemnon's ­departure for Troy.

Question 13

The main point in the Eumenides is the transformation of the Gorgons into priestesses of Apollo at Delphi.

Question 14

Aeschylus' Oresteia is one of only three surviving complete trilogies of Greek tragedy.

Question 15

Aeschylus did not write only tragedies; he also wrote a satyr play about Menelaus.

Question 16

Apollo declares that a mother is merely an incubator for the seed that the father deposits in her.

Question 17

Cassandra, a Trojan priestess of Apollo, is cursed with a clairvoyance that nobody believes.

Question 18

In Aeschylus' version, Agamemnon is killed by Clytemnestra and her lover working together as a team.

Question 19

The moral evolution of the gods produces significant changes for the human community, culminating in the substitution of courts of law for individual acts of vengeance.

Question 20

Clytemnestra kills Cassandra because she has foretold that Clytemnestra is going to kill Agamemnon.

Question 21

The Furies are the same as the Gorgons.

Question 22

What did King Atreus do that was reminiscent of his ancestor Tantalus?

A) He starved to death surrounded by food and drink, which he could not digest.
B) He killed the sons of his enemy, cooked them, and served them to his enemy without letting him know what he was eating.
C) He raped and killed a priestess of Apollo.
D) He put his twin sons to death because of a prophecy that they would conspire to kill him.

Question 23

In what way might one say that Agamemnon continues the evil instigated by his ancestor Tantalus?

A) He sacrifices his child, Iphigenia, to the gods.
B) He sacks the city of Troy, with no concern for its holy places.
C) He takes a woman captive and is the indirect cause of her death.
D) He kills his brother and serves him to his father for dinner.

Question 24

What is the factor that makes Orestes decide to kill his mother?

A) He has a vision of the Furies.
B) His friend Pylades reminds him of Apollo's command.
C) The ghost of his father speaks to him, revealing his mother's unfaithfulness with Orestes's uncle Aegisthus.
D) He realizes that Clytemnestra is not his birth mother.

Question 25

Athene can mediate between Apollo and the Furies because

A) as a goddess of war, she is stronger than both.
B) she is female and can outwit the male gods.
C) she combines the ouranic powers of Zeus with the chthonic power inherited from her mother Metis.
D) as a goddess of wisdom, she can argue better than anyone else.

Question 26

Who are the members of the chorus in the Eumenides?

A) older citizens of Argos
B) captive Trojan women
C) the Furies
D) the Gorgons

Question 27

In Aeschylus' version of the story, Agamemnon is murdered by

A) Aegisthus and Clytemnestra.
B) Aegisthus.
C) Clytemnestra.
D) Aegisthus and Cassandra.

Question 28

Which title does not belong to the trilogy of the Oresteia?

A) the Pylades
B) the Eumenides
C) the Libation-Bearers
D) the Agamemnon

Question 29

What, according to Aeschylus, is the main point of the third part of the Oresteia?

A) the transformation of the Furies into a socially stabilizing power
B) the transformation of the Gorgons into a socially stabilizing power
C) the transformation of the Gorgons into priestesses of Apollo at Delphi
D) the transformation of the Furies from female to male spirits

Question 30

Why is Cassandra not a successful clairvoyant?

A) because her prophecies do not come true
B) because she is unable to voice her prophecies, due to Apollo's curse
C) because nobody believes her prophecies, due to Apollo's curse
D) because she makes up the prophecies as she goes along without having visions