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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. Why does the messenger in the fourth act urge Oedipus to leave the city?
(a) Oedipus is the reason for the plague.
(b) Oedipus is about to be betrayed.
(c) Oedipus must flee the plague.
(d) Oedipus must take Polybus' throne.

2. Because of the plague, what does Oedipus consider doing because he is unable to stop it in the first act of the play?
(a) Sacrifice himself to Zeus.
(b) Abdicate the throne.
(c) Leave Thebes.
(d) Raise the ghost of the murdered king.

3. What does the old shepherd reveal to Oedipus about his parentage?
(a) He is Oedipus' father.
(b) Oedipus' mother died in childbirth.
(c) Oedipus' mother is the queen of Corinth.
(d) Oedipus' mother is his wife, Jocasta.

4. What deception must Helen play on Polyxena?
(a) Helen must suggest Polyxena pray to the wrong god so that she becomes cursed.
(b) Helen must lure Polyxena to be sacrificed under guise of a wedding.
(c) Helen must talk Polyxena into committing.
(d) Helen is going to switch places with Polyxena to escape her husband.

5. What is significant about Hecuba's exit at the end of the play?
(a) It infers that she has committed suicide.
(b) It infers that the gods have taken her away with them.
(c) It infers that she will be staying in Troy.
(d) It infers that she is going to murder Ulysses.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Talthybius' station among the Greeks?

2. What actions did the old shepherd perform before the beginning of "Oedipus"?

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

4. What does Oedipus do to Creon at the end of the third act?

5. Who is Oedipus' father in Corinth?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Tiresias summon Laius' ghost?

2. For what reasons do the Greeks want to sacrifice Astyanax?

3. How did Oedipus become king of Thebes?

4. Why is Creon reluctant to give Oedipus the information from Laius' ghost?

5. Describe Hecuba's mocking of the Greeks throughout "Troades."

6. Why does Oedipus imprison Creon in the third act?

7. What do the shepherd and the messenger reveal to Oedipus about his past?

8. How does Ulysses trick Andromache at Hector's tomb and why?

9. Why do the Greeks cry when they take Astyanax?

10. What does Oedipus reveal about his journey to Thebes in the fourth act?

(see the answer keys)

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