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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Oedipus reveal to Jocasta at the end of the play?
(a) He is cursed by the gods.
(b) He never loved her.
(c) He is her son.
(d) He is leaving Thebes.

2. What does Oedipus do to Creon at the end of the third act?
(a) He tortures him.
(b) He exiles him.
(c) He kills him.
(d) He imprisons him.

3. What does the messenger reveal that Oedipus refuses to do in the fifth act?
(a) Free the imprisoned Creon.
(b) Flee Thebes.
(c) Tell Jocasta the truth about their relationship.
(d) Commit suicide.

4. What is the chorus in the fifth act of "Oedipus" questioning when they learn about their king's punishment?
(a) The justice of fate.
(b) The self-fulfilling nature of prophecies.
(c) The hatred Oedipus must feel for himself.
(d) Humanity's tendencies to make mistakes.

5. What is revealed about Troy in the background of "Troades"?
(a) Troy is blessed by Zeus himself.
(b) Troy has fallen to the Spartans.
(c) Troy is the mightiest city-state in the world.
(d) Troy has been cursed.

6. Who does Andromache blame for the fall of Troy?
(a) Paris.
(b) Helen.
(c) Achilles.
(d) Agamemnon.

7. What has happened to the Trojan widows after their army was defeated?
(a) The women have all been prepared for suicide.
(b) The women escaped the city.
(c) The women took up arms to defend themselves.
(d) The women have all been claimed by the Greeks.

8. From where does the messenger in the fourth act come in "Oedipus"?
(a) Sparta.
(b) Troy.
(c) Corinth.
(d) Thebes.

9. How does Jocasta kill herself?
(a) Oedipus' sword.
(b) She hangs herself.
(c) She throws herself out of a tower.
(d) Fire.

10. What is significant about Polyxena being given a quick death?
(a) The gods were merciful.
(b) Agamemnon defied the demands of the sacrifice for Achilles by not killing her slowly.
(c) She committed suicide.
(d) It shows the Greeks respected her courage.

11. How does Ulysses trick Andromache into revealing Astyanax's location?
(a) He pretends to leave but watches her walk into the tomb.
(b) He watches her eyes as she looks around for him.
(c) He suggests that the boy is a coward.
(d) He claims Hector's tomb must be torn down.

12. According to Hecuba, what was ignored before the fall of Troy?
(a) Priam's pleas for surrender.
(b) The death of Hector.
(c) The demands of the gods.
(d) Her prophesies.

13. Who kills Polyxena?
(a) Menelaus.
(b) Pyrrhus.
(c) Agamemnon.
(d) Ulysses.

14. In the second act of "Oedipus," what knowledge does Creon relate that will end the plague?
(a) Jocasta must bear another child.
(b) Laius' murder must be avenged.
(c) Oedipus must seek out a special herb.
(d) Oedipus must make a human sacrifice to Hera.

15. According to Andromache, what is the worst fate for a Trojan woman?
(a) Marriage to a Greek.
(b) Abandonment by their husbands.
(c) Death in the name of the Greeks.
(d) Exile from their home.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Oedipus believe about the news from Creon from the ghost?

2. What does the old shepherd reveal to Oedipus about his parentage?

3. How does Oedipus punish himself at the end of the play?

4. What does Hecuba tell the chorus they must not do in regards to Priam?

5. For what purpose does Tiresias wish to take a particular action after he is unable to clarify the Oracle's message?

(see the answer keys)

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