Name __________________________________ Date:_________________

Oedipus the King

Directions: Answer the questions that go with the assigned reading.

1. What is the current problem that is taking place in Thebes?

2. What does the priest say to Oedipus?

3. How did Oedipus become king of Thebes?

4. What qualities does Oedipus exhibit in his early speeches in Thebes? Explain why you say he shows these qualities.

5. Who is Creon?

6. What news does Creon bring from the Oracle in Delphi?

7. What is the mood of the chorus upon its entrance?

8. In what ways does Oedipus criticize his subjects?

9. What initial signs of rashness are seen in Oedipus?

10. Who is Tiresias? Why is he sent for?

11. What seems to be Tiresias’ attitude toward everything that is going on?

12. What false conclusion does Oedipus reach as a result of his quarrel with Tiresias?

13. Is there any reason at all that Oedipus comes to the above conclusion?

14. What role does the senator play in the quarrel?

15. What issues are discussed in the second choral ode?

16. What does Creon’s counterargument to Oedipus’s charges reveal about Creon?

17. Contrast Oedipus’s and Creon’s approach to political power. What questions does Sophocles seem to raise by using this contrast?

18. What decision does the first senator (chorus) persuade Oedipus to make regarding Creon?

19. How does Jocasta attempt to refute Tiresias’s allegation?

20. How does Jocasta’s attempt to sooth Oedipus backfire?

21. What of his past does Oedipus tell Jocasta?

22. What do the speeches of Oedipus and Jocasta concerning their respective pasts contribute to the drama?

23. Explain what the Oracle told Oedipus about his future.

24. Explain what the Oracle told Jocasta and her first husband about Oedipus.

25. Describe the death of Laisus as the people of Thebes know it.

26. Why is it that even after he hears the story of Laisus’s death, does Oedipus not realize he killed the king?

27. Whom does Oedipus ask to have brought to him? Why does he issue this order?

28. What questions concerning fate, the gods, and mortals arise in this part of the play?

29. What is the subject of the choral ode?

30. What is Jocasta’s comment about fate to the chorus?

31. What does the name “Oedipus” mean?

32. Why does Jocasta attempt to keep Oedipus from questioning the shepherd?

33. How does Oedipus misunderstand her pleas to stop the investigation?

34. What is the subject of the choral ode?

35. Why is the shepherd reluctant to speak?

36. What facts does the shepherd bring to light?

37. What admirable trait is revealed about Oedipus’s character in the scene where he discovers the full truth about himself?

38. How does the chorus react in the choral ode to Oedipus’s turn of fortune?

39. How does the chorus expand on the theme of illusion and reality in the last ode?

40. Why do the play’s most violent acts take place off stage?

41. What does Oedipus’s reaction to his downfall say about his courage?

42. What is Jocasta’s reaction to the disclosure of the truth?

43. What does Oedipus ask of Creon?

44. What is Creon’s response to the above request?

45. What does Oedipus sense about his destine?

46. What image of Creon is left by his final words to Oedipus?

47. Why does Oedipus choose the particular punishment he does?

48. What is the difference between the reaction to the truth as displayed by Oedipus and Jocasta? Who seems to be more brave? Why?