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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 reason does Atreus give for hating the three boys?
(a) They could change the tide of favor against Atreus.
(b) Atreus was in love with their mother.
(c) The boys tormented Atreus' sons.
(d) They are his brother's sons.

2. Although he refuses to grant Phaedra a proper burial, what does Theseus plan to do at the end of the play?
(a) Find a new wife.
(b) Return to the Underworld to be with his son.
(c) Pray for forgiveness.
(d) Grant the innocent Hippolytus a proper burial.

3. What does Phaedra's nurse lament in the beginning of the second act?
(a) Phaedra's planned suicide.
(b) Hippolytus' disdain of women.
(c) Phaedra's plan to seduce Hippolytus.
(d) Theseus' death.

4. What is Atreus angry about being unable to avenge?
(a) His son's death.
(b) His father's death.
(c) His brother's insults.
(d) The pestilence deaths of his subjects.

5. What does Phaedra's confidante try to dissuade her from doing?
(a) Ignoring her feelings for Hippolytus.
(b) Leaving the city to escape her desire.
(c) Suicide.
(d) Acting on her attraction to Hippolytus.

Short Answer Questions

1. Upon what did Hippolytus' horses run when escaping the attacking creature?

2. Upon what were Thyestes' sons sacrificed?

3. What does Atreus do to his nephews' bodies?

4. What does Hippolytus prefer over social interactions?

5. At the end of the second act of "Phaedra," in what does the chorus hope Hippolytus will find comfort?

Short Essay Questions

1. Over what is Tantalus agonizing in the afterlife and why?

2. What do Thyestes and his children believe about their upcoming meeting with Atreus?

3. For what does Theseus pray at the end of the third act of "Phaedra" and how does the chorus react?

4. What does Atreus claim about Thyestes' grief at the end of "Thyestes"?

5. What plot does Atreus form against his brother and why?

6. How is Theseus manipulated into believing his son raped Phaedra?

7. Discuss the backstory of the House of Pelops.

8. What is the chorus at the end of the first act of "Phaedra" singing about and how does it relate to the action of the play?

9. In what conflicting moods does Thyestes find himself as he travels to Argos?

10. Describe Hippolytus' preferences in life and how he is at odds with other people over it.

(see the answer keys)

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