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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What prevents Creon from helping Medea or seeing her point of view?
(a) His beliefs about women and their role in society.
(b) His love for his daughter and desire to see her happy.
(c) His desire to rid his kingdom of a foreign menace.
(d) His strong friendship with Jason.

2. What goddess does Medea invoke as she plans her revenge?
(a) Hecate.
(b) Hera.
(c) Aphrodite.
(d) Artemis.

3. What was Jason's mission when he and Medea met?
(a) To find a beautiful wife.
(b) To negotiate peace with Thebes.
(c) To find glory and live forever in legend.
(d) To capture the Golden Fleece.

4. What does Medea say about the value of being clever?
(a) That it is on par with being moral, and only matters in the eye of the beholder.
(b) That it is the most important skill to get by in life and survive in a strange land.
(c) That it is something women learn from birth in order to survive the men they meet.
(d) That it hasn't helped her very much, earning her enemies rather than friends.

5. What country is the myth of Medea from?
(a) Sparta.
(b) Greece.
(c) Carthage.
(d) Turkey.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the time the play was written, what would the audience have typically known before coming to the theater?

2. What does Jason think influences women's judgment?

3. Why is Medea glad to see Jason at first?

4. What supernatural ability is Medea said to have?

5. Why does the Nurse send the children inside after hearing the Tutor's news?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why would people want to harm the children for Medea's crimes?

2. Is there merit to Medea's final justification to the chorus about why she must kill her children? Why or why not?

3. What motivates Medea to take her revenge further than killing Jason's bride?

4. What makes Medea's anger and despair seem so untoward to the Chorus?

5. Medea is clearly a very proud character, so what do you think motivates her to beg Creon on her knees for more time before being forced into exile?

6. What happens that enables Medea to put her plans into action?

7. What is the purpose of the chorus ending the play by commenting on the mysterious ways of the gods?

8. What similarities are evident in the characters of Jason and Medea?

9. Why do you think the chorus is made entirely of Corinthian women?

10. What is the significance, in the first scene, of the Nurse urging the children to hide from their mother until her anger has passed?

(see the answer keys)

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