Oedipus rex for 10 honors

Oedipus Rex Can people control their own fate?

Can others know you better than you know yourself?

Is it better not to know some secrets?

Reading Sign-ups Prologue Oedipus: Priest: Creon:

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Pârodos Strophe 1: a-strophe 1: strophe 2: a-strophe 2: Strophe 3: a-strophe 3:

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scene 1 Oedipus: Choragos: Teiresias:

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Ode 1 Strophe 1: a-strophe 1: strophe 2: a-strophe 2:

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scene 2 creon: choragus: Oedipus: Jocaste

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Ode 2 Strophe 1: a-strophe 1: strophe 2: a-strophe 2:

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Scene 3 Choragos: Oedipus: Jocaste: Messenger:

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Ode 3 Strophe: a-Strophe:

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scene 4 Oedipus: Choragos: Messenger: Shepherd:

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Ode 4 Strophe 1: a-strophe 1: strophe 2: a-strophe 2:

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ĂŞxodos 2nd mess: Oedipus: Choragos: Creon:

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2

Vocabulary

Vocabulary 2.5: Greek Chorus Motif Forshadowing Theme (revisited)

Vocabulary 2.6: Suppliant Clairvoyant Lamentation Treachery

Vocabulary 3.1: Balk Insolence Execrable Infamous

4 Corners: You may choose to Agree, Strongly Agree, disagree or Strongly Disagree with the following statements. Then you must Explain WHY you feel the way you do. During the activity you will be asked to defend your claims.

1) Fate is real.

2) IT is important to always strive for the truth.

3) Good leaders should follow the advice of those that they trust.

4) Other people know me better than I know myself.

5) Self-Confidence is a positive character trait.

Reading Comprehension Directions: Answer all questions in full and complete sentences. You need to include a direct quotation in at least TWO of your responses per section.

Prologue:

1. How does Oedipus view himself? What type of leader does he say he is?

2. What is Oedipus’ attitude toward the suppliants (citizens begging for help)?

3. What are the conditions like in Thebes at the beginning of the play? Look to the Priest description for help.

4. According to Creon, what does the Oracle say must be done in order to cure Thebes of the plague?

5. What prevented the citizens of Thebes from investigating Laios’ death?

6. Explain the dramatic irony in Oedipus’ final statements in the prologue (p. 9)?

Directions: Answer all questions in full and complete sentences. You need to include a direct quotation in at least TWO of your responses per section.

Scene i: 1. Find an example of dramatic irony in Oedipus’ speech that begins scene 1. Explain how the example fits the definition.

2. What does Oedipus propose as a punishment for the murder?

3. Who is Teiresias? What is his reaction to Oedipus’ request for help?

4. Of what does Oedipus accuse Teiresias?

5. What does Teiresias reveal to Oedipus? Does Oedipus believe him?

6. What does Teiresias predict will happen to Oedipus?

Ode 1: Directions: Read and annotate the first Ode. You will participate in a Socratic Seminar about this portion of the text, so read it carefully. After reading through it a few times, write 2 discussion questions that you plan to ask during the class discussion.

The Delphic stone of prophecies

Remembers ancient regicide And a still bloody hand.

That killer’s hour of flight has come.

He must be stronger than riderless Coursers of untiring wind, For the son of Zeus is armed with his father’s thunder Leaps in lightning after him; And the Furies follow him, the sad Furies.

Holy Parnassos’ peak of snow Flashes and blinds the secret man, That all shall hunt him down; Though he may roam the forest shade Like a bull gone wild from pasture To rage through glooms of stone.

Doom comes down on him; flight will not avail him; For the world’s heart calls him desolate, And the immortal Furies follow, for ever follow.

But now a wilder thing is heard From the old man skilled at hearing Fate in the wingbeat of a bird Bewildered as a blown bird, my soul hovers and cannot find Foodhold in this debate, or any reason or rest of mind.

But no man ever brought—none can bring Proof of strife between Thebes’ royal hous, Labdakos’ line, and the son of Polybos; And never until now has any man brought word Of Laios’ dark death staining Oedipus the King.

Divine Zeus and Apollo hold Perfect intelligence alone of all tales ever told; And well though this diviner works, he works in his own night; No man can judge that rough unknown or trust in second sight, For wisdom changes hands among the wise.

Shall I believe my great lord criminal At raging word that a blind old man let fall?

I saw him, when the carrion woman faced him of old, Prove his heroic mind! These evil words are lies.

Two Discussion questions: 1) ________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 2) ________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Socratic Seminar Notes: What question was on your card?

__________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Your response:

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Directions: Answer all questions in full and complete sentences. You need to include a direct quotation in at least TWO of your responses per section.

Scene 2: 1. How does Choragos explain Oedipus’ behavior and accusations?

2. Does Creon regret calling for Teiresias? How do you know?

3. Why doesn’t Creon want to be king? Do you think his arguments are justified?

4. What does Iocaste think about soothsayers and predictions?

5. What is Oedipus’ story about Corinth? What happened there?

6. Why are Oedipus and Iocaste upset at the end of Scene II?

Group Annotation Directions: You may work with a group of 4 people to complete this assignment. Please annotate the ode and then summarize each stanza. You need to turn this in at the end of class.

Let me be reverent in the ways of right, Lowly the paths I journey on;

Let all my words and actions keep The laws of the pure universe From highest Heaven handed down.

For Heaven is their bright nurse, Those generations of the realms of light; Ah, never of mortal kind were they begot, Nor are they slaves of memory, lost in sleep: Their Father is greater than Time, and ages not.

What is the message of this stanza? How would you describe the tone?

The tyrant is a child of Pride Who drinks from his great sickening cup Recklessness and vanity, Until from his high crest headlong He plummets to the dust of hope.

That strong man is not strong.

But let no fair ambition be denied; May God protect the wrestler for the State In government, in comely policy, Who will fear God, and on His ordinance wait.

What is the message of this stanza? How would you describe the tone?

Haughtiness and the high hand of disdain Tempt and outrage God’s holy law; And any mortal who dares hold No immortal Power in awe Will be caught up in a net of pain: The price for which his levity is sold.

Let each man take due earnings, then, And keep his hands from holy things, And from blasphemy stand apart— Else the crackling blast of heaven Blows on his head, and on his desperate heart; Through fools will honor impious men, In their cities no tragic poet sings.

What is the message of this stanza? How would you describe the tone?

Shall we lose faith in Delphi’s obscurities, We who have heard the world’s core Discredited, and the sacred wood Of Zeus at Elis praised no more?

The deeds and the strange prophecies Must make a pattern yet to be understood.

Zeus, if indeed you are lord of all, Throned in light over night and day, Mirror this in your endless mind: Our masters call the oracle Words on the wind, and the Delphic vision blind!

Their hearts no longer know Apollo, And reverence for the gods has died away.

What is the message of this stanza? How would you describe the tone?

Directions: Answer all questions in full and complete sentences. You need to include a direct quotation in at least TWO of your responses per section.

Scene 3: 1. What news brings the messenger to Thebes?

2. Why are the Thebans so happy about the news?

3. Why doesn’t Oedipus feel relieved?

4. Why does Iocaste start to hesitate about the investigation? What does she say to try and stop it?

5. Why does Oedipus think she is hesitating?

6. Cite an example of dramatic irony from Oedipus’ last speech and explain it.

Directions: Answer all questions in full and complete sentences. You need to include a direct quotation in at least TWO of your responses per section.

Scene 4: 1. How does Oedipus know that he can trust the shepherd?

2. Why does the shepherd tell the messenger to stop talking? What does the shepherd know that the messenger does not?

3. Why did the shepherd give the baby away?

4. What is Oedipus’ reaction to the news?

Directions: Answer all questions in full and complete sentences. You need to include a direct quotation in at least TWO of your responses per section.

Exodos: 1. How does Iocaste die?

2. What did Oedipus do following Iocaste’s death? What figurative language is used to describe his actions?

3. How does Oedipus explain his decision to harm himself?

4. What is ironic about Creon’s rise to the throne?

5. What does Oedipus think will happen to his daughters?

6. What is Choragos’ final advice? What does it mean?

Oedipus Rex Motif Essay It’s time to synthesize your ideas about a motif of your choosing. The steps below are designed to help you create a successful and argumentative 3-paragraph essay.

1. Identify one central theme from Oedipus Rex: _________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Choose a motif that helps develop that theme: ________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Write a focused essay that includes an introduction and body paragraph(s) that explains how this motif contributes to the theme you identified.