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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which is one of the two periods of tragedy in literary history?
(a) the Constantinople of the Ottomans
(b) the England of Henry V
(c) the Rome of Julius Caesar
(d) the Athens of Pericles

2. Of the ninety plays that Aeschylus wrote, how many have survived?
(a) twenty three
(b) ninety
(c) five
(d) seven

3. Which of the following is not one of the four elements common to every tragedy?
(a) pity
(b) hilarity
(c) reconciliation
(d) awe

4. The Athenians and Spartans fought because _________________________.
(a) Sparta was weaker than Athens
(b) Athens was weaker than Sparta
(c) both were weak
(d) both were powerful

5. Which tragedian is considered to be the most modern?
(a) Shakespeare
(b) Aeschylus
(c) Euripides
(d) Sophocles

6. Tragedy, in Hamilton's view, ________________________________.
(a) is a mixture of comedy and sadness
(b) makes people cry
(c) is a mixture of pain and pleasure
(d) makes people sad

7. According to Hamilton, Greek religion developed from _____________________________.
(a) the elite
(b) the priests
(c) the poets, artists and philosophers
(d) the prophets

8. Thucydides felt that ___________________________________.
(a) power and wealth created the desire for more power and wealth
(b) the desire for power was not a cause of war
(c) wars were covered by broken treaties
(d) the desire for wealth was not a cause of war

9. In Greek drama, the characters are viewed as ______________________.
(a) part of the whole
(b) as scenery
(c) as separate and distinct individuals
(d) as separate and individual entities

10. Which one of Shakespeare's tragedies comes closest to the tragedies of Aeschylus?
(a) Macbeth
(b) Romeo and Juliet
(c) King Lear
(d) Hamlet

11. The tragedies of Aeschylus present death and suffering in a way that __________________________.
(a) depresses the audience
(b) brings the audience to tears
(c) makes it comical
(d) does not depress the audience

12. Xenophon felt that it was significant ________________________________.
(a) that there should be leisure time
(b) that men should participate in the games
(c) that men should work
(d) to see what honorable men did for amusement

13. What are the terms Hamilton uses to describe the works of Sophocles?
(a) beutiful workmanship
(b) poetic expression
(c) great intellect
(d) crude

14. As a result of the Peloponnesian War, _______________________________________.
(a) the Athenian culture spread
(b) the Athenian culture and its contirubtions to the world ended
(c) Sparta merged wih Athens
(d) Sparta adopted the Athenian culture

15. Which of the following is not a play of Euripides'?
(a) Antigone
(b) Electra
(c) Media
(d) Trojan Women

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is not a play of Sophocles?

2. According to Schopenhauer, what world applies to the tragedies of Sophocles?

3. What did the Greeks view as important in men?

4. Sophocles' characters ________________________________.

5. Xenophon felt that ___________________________________.

(see the answer keys)

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