Scene 4 and Exodos Qs. on Oedipus Rex

Questions on Scene 4/Choral Ode

1. How does the messenger’s well-meaning effort to jog the old herdsman’s memory remind us of the way a cross-examiner might try to get a recalcitrant witness to « remember » in court ?
2. Why is the old man (herdsman) reluctant to answer ?
3. What does Oedipus threaten to do to make the herdsman talk ?
4. Why does the herdsman shrink from saying what he’s been forced to tell ?
5. Why does Oedipus feel compelled to hear the truth uttered aloud ?
6. The rapid-fire dialogue between Oedipus and the herdsman is an example of what ?
7. Why does Oedipus want never again to see the light of sun now that the truth has been clearly revealed ?
8. Do the Chorus’ words suggest that Oedipus did anything to deserve his fate ?
9. Oedipus’ fall from grace is an example of what ?
10. Explain the metaphor of « Time » in Antistrophe 2.
11. Choruses frequently meditate on the ways in which affection brings suffering. Why ?

Questions on the Exodos

1. Describe the prelude to Jocasta’s death.
2. How did Jocasta die ?
3. What was Oedipus’ reaction to Jocasta’s suicide ?
4. Why did Oedipus commit this act ?
5. Whom does Oedipus curse ?
6. What does Oedipus mean when he says that Apollo was the curse, but he himself is the agent of his own blinding ?
7. Is it reasonable that Oedipus feels he cannot bear to look on anything in the world anymore ?
8. What ironies are involved in Oedipus’ curse on the man who saved him ?
9. Why is he disturbed that his friends pity him and feel pain for him ?
10. Do you agree or disagree witgh the Chorus that Oedipus would be better off dead than blind and banished ?
11. What might Oedipus’ decision to go on living in blindness, exile, and suffering say about his heroic statue ?
12. Why does Oedipus say that he deserves worse punishment than hanging ?
13. Now that Oedipus is blind, where is his inner vision turned ?
14. How are Creon’s tone and remarks reminiscent of Jocasta ?
15. Is there evidence that Creon is cool and impatient with Oedipus ?
16. Analyze lines 222-242.
17. How is Oedipus’ speech like a funeral lament ?
18. Is Creon’s admonition about Oedipus’ children mean-spirited, kindly, justified ? Why ?

Scene 3 Q.s on Oedipus Rex

Questions on Scene 3/Choral Ode

1. Discuss how the messenger’s arrival makes us feel that the plot has been tied into a « knot » that needs to be undone.
2. Look up the Greek word « philos. » How is this ironic when Oedipus uses this word in speaking to Jocasta ?
3. How do you respond to Oedipus’ reaction of relief to the messenger’s message ? Why ?
4. How does the fact that Oedipus should derive comfort from what ought to be bad news highlight the way in which everything is turned upside down in this legend ?
5. By refusing to go near his parents, and thus, theoretically, eliminating the chance of fulfilling the oracle, what is Oedepus really avoiding ?
6. Who is « Liaus’ man »?
7. What does Jocasta mean in lines 140-142 ?
8. Why do you think Jocasta does not want the truth about Oedipus’ birth revealed ?
9. How is Oedipus being unfair to Jocasta in lines 158-162 ?
10.What is Oedipus’ reaction to his being a foundling ?
11.What is the Chorus’ reaction to this news ?

Questions on Scenes 1 and 2 Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex : Questions on Scene 1/Ode

1.Summarize Oedipus’s first speech in Scene 1.
2.How do you respond to Oedipus’s curse ? What does it say about human knowledge that Oedipus, renowned for his intelligence, cannot see what is plain to us, with our hindsight ?
3.Oedipus thinks of himself as a « stranger » to the city and to the royal house. Why is this a tragic mistake ?
4.Does Teiresias sound reasonable ? Is Oedipus justified in feeling infuriated ?
5.What do you think is revealed in Scene 1 as one of Oedipus’s flaws ?
6.Is Oedipus’s suspiciousness based on reasonable (even if ultimately false) conjecture ?
7.What does Teiresias imply about the role of seer ?
8.What does Oedipus accuse Teiresias of ? Why do you think he does this ?
9.How does the audience understand Teiresias in a way Oedipus does not ?
10.Give specific examples of Oedipus’s arrogance in this scene.
11.Summarize Teiresias’s prophecy in this scene.
12.One of the ironies of the play is that the structure of its plot is essentially comic, that is suited to a story with a happy ending. Normally, the stranger who proves to be a citizen gains rewards. What does Teiresias say will happen to this « stranger » ?
13.What does the metaphor « a fellow sower in his father’s bed » mean ?
14.Why does the Chorus seem not to understand Teriesias’s prophecy, which to us seems quite explicit ?
15.Oedipus has represented himself as a « tracker. » What is the effect of the Chorus speaking of itself now as a tracker, or a pack of hunting hounds ?
16.Why is the Chorus reluctant to believe Teiresias ? On what is the Thebans’ allegiance to Oedipus based ?


Questions on Scene 2/Ode of Oedipus Rex

1. How do you react to Oedipus’ outburst ? How has Oedipus moved from conjecture to certainty ? Is he justified ?
2. What is the irony of Oedipus’ use of hunting images to describe Creon’s supposed ambition ?
3. What does the exchange between Oedipus and Creon remind you of ?
4. What does Creon mean when he says that he doesn’t want to be king ?
5. What is Oedipus really saying to the Chorus in lines 137-138 ?
6. Is there a metaphor in lines 169-170 ? If so, what is it ?
7. What is Jocasta’s view of prophets ? Is it similar to Oedipus’ view ?
8. How does Oedipus interpret Jocasta’s speech ?
9. Discuss Oedipus’ reaction to Apollo’s prophecy when he heard it (p. 1242).
10. What do you feel about Oedipus’ attempt to take action rather than submit passively to his fate ?
11. React to the gods’ malevolence.
12. Why does Oedipus seem less certain that he’s the murderer ?
13. Analyze Jocasta’s speech.
14. Who is the « I/me » in Strophe 1 ?
15. Summarize the Antistrophe.
16. Why might it be less frightening to believe that there is some divine plan or unuversal order, even if it is terrible, rather than thinking good and bad fortune are purely random ?
17. Of what does the Chorus try to convince Oedipus about knowledge ?
18. What role does the Chorus play in heightening the dramatic tension of this play ?

More Questions on the Prologue to OEDIPUS REX

More Questions on the Prologue/Parodos

1. Why is Oedipus thought to be a “tyrannos”?
2. How can we say that Oedipus is described as a pilot whose duty it is to guide his ship through treacherous waters?
3. Consider the effect of contrast between the house of Cadmus, emptied, and the house of Hades, filled?
4. How do Oedipus’s subjects view him? Explain the irony that Oedipus came to Thebes as the city’s savior with the gods’ assistance?
5. When Sophocles wrote this play, Athens was reeling from recent war and a severe plague which killed many people and undermined faith in the law and religious customs. What do you think that the biggest fear of most play-goers was? ( as well as the citizens of Thebes in the play?)
6. How does Oedipus’s claim to be even more affected by the sickness than his subjects mean something different to us who know he’s polluted and is the cause of the plague?
7. Oedipus projects himself as a sort of hunter or tracker, hunting down his prey. Explain how he is also the hunter whose arrow will hit the true mark but miss the target he thinks he sees.
8. If only one man killed Liaus, why does the slave who came home say that the king’s party was surrounded by robbers rather than a single man was involved?
9. As the Chorus reminds the gods that they have helped Thebes before, of what are we reminded?
10. Why does the Chorus focus on children and women of childbearing age as victims of the plague?