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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Tiresias' occupation?

2. What happened when Polyxena was sacrificed in honor of Achilles?

3. Why do the Greeks fear Hector's son?

4. What does the messenger reveal that Oedipus refuses to do in the fifth act?

5. According to Hecuba, what was ignored before the fall of Troy?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Pyrrhus demand for Achilles and why?

2. Why does Andromache hide her son from the Greeks?

3. Why is Creon sent to Delphi and what does he learn?

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

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

6. Why are the Greeks unable to leave Troy in the beginning of "Troades"?

7. Why is Oedipus summoned back to Corinth and why is he reluctant to go?

8. Who is Hector and why is he important to the Trojans and Greeks?

9. Why did Oedipus leave Corinth?

10. How does Agamemnon view the dead Achilles?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the debate regarding the performance ability of a Senecan tragedy? How does the emphasis on rhetoric suggest that these plays were meant to be recited? How is this related to the on-stage violence? What are some other suggestions that point to these plays having been written with the intention of being performed? Discuss both sides of this debate in a brief essay and conclude with your opinions on whether Seneca intended for his work to be performed.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the roles of lies in the Senecan tragedy in the following format:

Part 1) Atreus and Tantalus.

Part 2) Phaedra framing Hippolytus for rape.

Part 3) Andromache's attempts to save her son.

Part 4) Creon and shepherd's attempted lies by omission.

Part 5) The differences between lying for gain and lying for good.

In the final section, use the first four parts to help provide examples in this comparison. As always, cite specific examples from the text to support your answers.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the circular nature of playwrights influencing each other through authors such as Seneca in the following format:

Part 1) The original versions of these plays.

Part 2) The differences between the original play and Seneca's version.

Part 3) The "revenge play."

Part 4) The use of ghosts.

Part 5) The introduction of onstage violence.

Cite specific examples from Seneca's work to support your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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