Our Previous Samples

Beowulf.  Beowulf unlocks his word-hoard many times in his poem.  He also has a number of exchanges with Hrothgar in the first part of the poem.  Choose a speech like the one he makes on his arrival in Daneland (258-285) or another in the first part, and choose one of Beowulf’s speeches from the end of the poem like his summary speech before he fights the dragon (2446-2509) or his death speech (2729-2751).  Compare the early and late speeches you have chosen, and cite any other speeches and actions you find relevant, to give a picture of the Germanic cultural values demonstrated in the poem. Be sure to quote briefly and appropriately from the speeches you have chosen.

Critically discuss the major gains made by African Americans during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Were these gains adequate or not for African Americans in terms of diversity, inclusion, and equity? Justify your critical response.

Oedipus

Scene by scene, chorus by chorus.

Scene I

What is Oedipus’s “assignment” in this first scene, and how does he respond to it?

Chorus I

What is the gist of the first choral ode, and whom do the chorus appeal to?

Scene II

When Tiresias, the prophet, spells the situation out, why doesn’t anyone believe him?

Chorus II

“What man provokes / the speaking rock of Delphi?”  What man is the chorus talking about here, and how much do they know that they are talking about him?

Scene III

Why does Oedipus begin to suspect that he may, indeed, be the murderer of Laius? How does he mean to prove that he did not?

Chorus III

“If prophecies don’t show the way / I will no longer honor . . . Earth’s navel at Delphi.”  Unless what?

Scene IV

When Oedipus finally meets the shepherd he called back in the previous scene, what makes it inevitable that he will find out that he is not only the murderer of Laius but also his son?  Who figures it out first?

Chorus IV

What does the chorus have to say about Oedipus now?

Final Scene

At the end of the play, is Oedipus merely a man crushed by fate, or could we describe him some other way?  Remember the situation at the beginning of the play.  What has the hero accomplished by his sacrifice?

 The Questions

Scene I

1. What is the situation in Thebes at the beginning of Oedipus?  Why are the people gathered in front of Oedipus’s palace?

2. What is the question the priest has for Oedipus, and how does Oedipus respond to it?

3. When Creon returns from Delphi, and when Oedipus asks him what he found, how does he respond?  Why would he respond as he does?

4. How does Oedipus react to Creon’s suggestion?

5. What is the message from the Delphi?

6. When, where, and how was the murder of Laius committed?  What is Oedipus’s hypothesis as to how it happened?

7. What is Oedipus’s attitude toward his assignment to find and punish the murderer of Laius?

Chorus I

8. Which gods does the chorus appeal to in their first choral ode?

9. Which is the last god they appeal to, and what is his significance?

Scene II

10. What comment does Oedipus make when he comes back in after the chorus?  How do we feel about his comment?

11. What is the purpose of Oedipus’s proclamation to the people of  Thebes?

12. How do we feel when he says, “I curse myself as well” (l. 284)?  Why do we feel that way?

13. When the leader of the chorus suggests that Oedipus call Tiresias, what is Oedipus’s immediate reaction?

14. When Tiresias arrives, what kind of attitude does he display?  How does that attitude affect Oedipus?

15. What finally gets Tiresias to talk?

16. Why doesn’t anyone believe what Tiresias says?

17. What in fact does Oedipus accuse Tiresias of, and whom else does he accuse?

Chorus II

18. “. . . the man the voice of god denounces . . .” (l. 528).  What man is the chorus talking about in this ode?

19. Do they know that they are talking about him?  Why not?

Scene III

20. When Creon shows up to face the music, what does the chorus tell him?

21. When Oedipus comes in and confronts Creon, what exactly does he accuse him of?

22.  Whose word do we have that the Oracle really said to find the murderer of Laius?  Whose idea was it to send for Tiresias?  How strong a case does Oedipus have against Creon?

23. What is Creon’s defense against the conspiracy charge?  Does it make sense?

24. Oedipus is ready to string Creon up right now.  What finally makes him back down?

25. Creon says, “Natures like  yours chiefly torment themselves.”  What is Oedipus’s nature?

26. “A prophet?” says Jocasta.  “You’re worried about a prophet?”  What comfort does she offer Oedipus about prophets and prophecy, and what effect does it have?

27. How does Oedipus plan to find out whether he is the murderer of Laius?

28. Can you straighten out the chronology of the story now and tell the Oedipus’s whole story, from his birth up to now?

29. If you were the shepherd Oedipus is calling back, and Oedipus asked you if you remembered Laius murder—and remember that Oedipus is a big galoot—and if Laius was killed by a gang of thieves or by one man, and, if one man, if that man was me, Oedipus, what would you say?

Chorus III

30. “Pride breeds the tyrant,” says the chorus, and  “if any man . . . cannot restrain himself from outrage . . .”  Whom are they talking about?  Do they know whom they are talking about?  Why not?

31. “Never again will I go reverent to Delphi,”  they say, “unless . . .”  Unless what?

Scene IV

32. The messenger from Corinth comes in with the first good news-bad news joke in history.  What’s the good news?  What’s the bad news?  Why is the good news good and the bad news bad?

33. How does Jocasta react to the news of Polybus’s death?

34. What lingering worry does Oedipus have, and how does the messenger seek to relieve Oedipus’s fears?  Does his strategy work?

35. So far, Oedipus is only worried that he killed Laius.  Who is first to figure out the whole situation? 

36.  What does Oedipus think is bothering Jocasta?

37. When the shepherd arrives, why would he claim that his memory is bad?

38. What does it take to get the shepherd to talk?

39. What is the relationship between the Theban shepherd and the messenger from Corinth?  Where do they know each other from? What does Oedipus’s name mean, and where did he get it?

40. From Jocasta’s line, “You know, he looked a lot like you,” to the arrival of the shepherd, Oedipus is trying to find out whether he killed Laius.  What is he finding out now?  And what does he do about it?

Chorus IV

41. What does the chorus have to say about Oedipus now?

Final Scene

42. The ancient Greeks did not have very good special effects in their dramatic productions.  How do they get across the full horror of the events here?

43. When (as the messenger reports) Oedipus cries out to give him a sword—what would he do with the sword?

44. What state does he find Jocasta in, and what does he do then?

45. Why was it appropriate to take the action he did, according to Oedipus?

46. Creon’s name means “ruler.”  What are his attitude and actions when he comes in at the end of the play, now running things?

47. What does Oedipus have to say to his daughters, Ismene and Antigone?

48. “Count no man happy till he dies,” the chorus says.  Why then?

Summary Questions

49. Does this play illustrate the inevitable working out of fate, as many have said?  What if the oracle’s messages for Laius and Oedipus had gotten mixed up, like specimens in a hospital?  As long as Laius believed his message, and Oedipus believed his, would that have changed the outcome of the play?  Did the Greeks, in other words, necessarily believe in fate any more than we do?

50. The Oresteia makes a kind of political statement, coming at the end of the Persian Wars, “We can do anything we want to do!”  Does Oedipus, coming at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (which Athens ultimately lost), have some counter statement to make?

Greece—Iliad

Introduction to Homer

1. The Iliad and The Odyssey had nearly scriptural status in ancient Greece.  What was their influence on Greek religion?
2. Was Homer actual, or was he constructed by Greek tradition?

Iliad

Book I

3. Look at the first line of the poem.  What is the poem about?
4. What did Agamemnon and Achilles quarrel about?  You do want to know, don’t you?
5. What god was punishing the Greeks?  What for?
6. Who was Chryses, and what did he have to do with the Greeks’ punishment?
7. When Chryses offered a ransom for his daughter to Agamemnon, what did the rest of the Greeks think Agamemnon ought to do?  What did he do?
8. By the way, why would Agamemnon have had Chryses’ daughter in the first place?
9. There is a plague.  If you’re an ancient person, what obviously is wrong?  What do you have to do about it?
10. Who is the leader of this expedition—supreme commander?  Who should call the war council to solve the problem?  Who does?
11. Who can tell them why the god is angry?
12. Why doesn’t he just speak up?  Remember, it was Calchas who led the Greeks to sacrifice Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigeneia, in order to sail for Troy in the first place.
13. What does Calchas now tell Agamemnon he has to do to lift the plague?  Is this good news for Agamemnon?  How does he react?
14. Does Achilles display even a grain of caution when he promises to defend Calchas, even if he has to defend him against Agamemnon?
15. If you are in the military or any other hierarchical organization, and you are in a subordinate position, what do you do when the old man is in a rage?  Argue with him?  What does Achilles do?
16. Why doesn’t Achilles just whip out his sword and run Agamemnon through?
17. Look up “myrmidons” in a good dictionary.  What does that meaning have to do with the followers of Achilles?
18. After Nestor’s speech, Agamemnon demands to know if the gods have “put insults on [Achilles’] lips.”  Have they?  Which god?
19. Does the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus put you in mind of any other best-friends relationship we have looked at?  Which one?
20. Why would Eurybates and Talthybius be leery of carrying out Agamemnon’s orders?
21. Achilles is deeply aggrieved at losing Briseis.  Being a good Greek boy, what does he do?
22. What does he want Thetis to do?  Why should Zeus do what Thetis wants?
23. From the description of the sacrifice to Apollo, how would you say the Olympian religion worked?
24. When Thetis finally gets to Olympus to ask Zeus for the favor, why is Zeus cautious?
25. When Zeus nods his head in assent to Thetis’s request, can she then slip away with no one the wiser?  Why not?
26. What does Hera have to say to Zeus when he goes back home?  How does Zeus handle her complaints?
27. Do these gods seem very godlike to you?

1. When he hears about the manner of Laius’ death, Oedipus bursts out, “How could a robber dare a deed like this/ were he not helped with money from the city . . .” (144-145).  What seed has Oedipus planted with this comment, and how will it affect the course of the play?
2. “. . .listen to me and learn that human beings/ have no part in the craft of prophecy,” (770-771) says Jocasta, trying to reassure Oedipus in the middle of the play.  What effect do her words following these lines really have on Oedipus, and how do they affect the outcome of the play?

“But if a man walks with haughtiness . . ./When such deeds are held in honour/ why should I honour the gods in the sacred dance?” (954, 964-965) sings the chorus.  Whom are they talking about, and what are they saying here, before the Messenger from Corinth

1. I’ll take “either your own prize, or that of  Ajax,” says Agamemnon to Achilles.  “but we shall consider these things later” (I, 138,140).  Since Agamemnon has not made a definite threat at this point, the quarrel could have died there.  Show why it doesn’t.
2. “. . .and the men swiftly set up the splendid hacatomb for the god/ in good order around the well-built altar,” Homer says as the Greeks prepared their sacrifice (I, 447-448).  Using the event as described by Homer, show how the Olympic religion seems to have worked.
3. Homer describes two cities on Achilles’ shield, the city at war—“they dashed in battle and they fought like living men (XVIII, 538)”—and the city at peace.  And he describes the country and its activities—“a herd of straight-horned cattle (XVIII, 573)”—and many other scenes.  Give as general a description as you can of this world that Homer describes.

1. Gilgamesh has a number of dreams which his mother interprets early in his story.  Show how these and other dreams work in the story.
2. “Aruru wet her hands, / She pinched off clay, she tossed it upon the steppe, / She created valiant Enkidu . . .” (I, 100-103). Comment on the events and the use of language here and any other similar passages in Gilgamesh and the Old Testament.
3. Ishtar wants Anu to give her the Bull of Heaven to kill Gilgamesh.  Show how this passage with the bull fits in with the themes of the story.

1. Critically Explain and discuss the original purpose and the controversy over Affirmative Action as provided in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. What is your opinion as to when, where, and why affirmative action is or is not acceptable?

Write a detailed discussion of what you think are the pros and cons of the GA "religious liberty" bill, based on your "vast" knowledge of diversity that you have acquired in this class so far.