HERCULES QUIZ QUESTIONS/ Thursday, January 8th, 2015

Dear Mythology Students,

I have included your quiz questions for you below.

Don't forget that you will have a QUIZ covering Heracles as a paradox, and the irony found within the myth of "Heracles," and how those aspects add to the pathos experienced by our hero. This will occur in class, after you submit your mosaics!  You will need to support your points will textual evidence. You may use your annotated article regarding Hercules and/or your textbook. The internet is not an available option.

"How do I prepare for the quiz, Crampton?"

"Make sure you have read the myth of Heracles found on page 166 in your textbook. In addition, review the storyboard that we worked on in class.

"Will there be extra credit for this quiz?"

"Absolutely! I have listed the questions below. Respond to each one as if you were taking the actual quiz. Originally, I was going to have you complete one of the six questions, but I have changed my mind. You will answer two of the six listed. If you review this way, you will clearly be successful, as you will have two of the six included below, you just don't know which two. You are to discuss the irony found in each excerpt from the myth of “Heracles,” and how the irony adds to the pathos experienced by Heracles. Please be thorough in your response; assume that your audience has no schema on the character of Heracles. Cut and paste the questions into a Word document, and then respond to them on your computer.

 

DRAMATIC....the audience knows what the characters do not!

SITUATIONAL.....action occurs that the audience was not anticipating

VERBAL....words possess an opposite meaning to what is said 

1.) Heracles represents a paradoxical character, in that he represents the extremes to human behavior.  He is a positive vharacter and a terrible villain. He is extremely intelligent; yet, at the same time he is daft. Discuss a minimum of two paradoxical features regarding his story, and why these traits add to his already significant pathos.

2.) "The goddess drove Heracles temporally mad, and he killed his children, Megara as well—thinking they were either wild beasts or enemies of Thebes. When his sanity returned, Heracles exiled himself from Thebes for his crime. He traveled to Delphi to ask the oracle how best to atone for his crime. The priestess of the oracle instructed Heracles to go to Tiryns and perform any 10 labors devised for him by King Eurystheus."

 

3.)" Eurystheus directed Heracles to kill the Lernaean Hydra (water snake) as his second labor. Heracles slew the beast by chopping off its immortal head and burying the still-hissing head under a rock. Before returning to Tiryns, Heracles dipped his arrows in the poisonous blood of the Hydra. Thereafter, anyone wounded with one of these arrows would die."

 

4.) "The goddess sent two poisonous serpents with flaming eyes to destroy both Heracles and his half-brother Iphicles. Yet the mighty infant seized one in each hand and easily strangled the serpents, thinking they were toys he found great glee in his kill of the snakes."

 

5.) "The perfect host, Admetus entertained his guest while hiding the fact that he was mourning for his wife, Alcestis. When Heracles discovered his host’s secret, he rushed to Alcestis tomb. Upon bringing her back to Admetus, the host promptly died." 

 

       6) "He sent his servant home to Deianeira in order to obtain the special ceremonial shirt he wore on        these religious occasions. When the servant mentioned to Deianeira that Iole was to accompany Heracles, Deianeira feared that her husband loved the beautiful princess.”