Oedipus Rex Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. Who assumes practical authority in Thebes after Oedipus’s downfall?
Tiresias
Creon
The Corinthian messenger
The surviving shepherd
2. What central warning is expressed by the chorus at the tragedy’s close?
A wise ruler should never consult prophets during a crisis.
Family loyalty is more reliable than divine law.
Political success can permanently protect a person from fate.
A person’s life should not be judged fortunate before its end, because fortune can change.
3. What achievement made Oedipus the celebrated ruler of Thebes before the play begins?
He defeated Laius’s enemies in battle.
He solved the Sphinx’s riddle and freed the city.
He negotiated an alliance with Corinth.
He interpreted an oracle that saved the harvest.
4. How does the contrast between Oedipus and Tiresias develop the play’s sight motif?
Both men lack reliable knowledge until the shepherd speaks.
Oedipus understands the prophecy, while Tiresias misunderstands its wording.
Tiresias sees the crime but deliberately invents a different culprit.
Oedipus can see physically but misses the truth, while blind Tiresias perceives it.
5. Which sequence correctly shows how Oedipus’s parentage is uncovered?
The messenger reveals Oedipus was adopted, and the shepherd confirms his birth and transfer as an infant.
The shepherd accuses Creon, the messenger identifies Jocasta, and Tiresias names Polybus.
Jocasta finds a written record, and Creon verifies it at Delphi.
Polybus’s servant arrives, and the chorus recognizes Oedipus from a royal mark.
6. What news does the messenger from Corinth first bring to Thebes?
Merope has confessed that Oedipus was adopted.
Corinth has been struck by the same plague as Thebes.
A witness has accused Creon of killing Laius.
Polybus has died, and Corinth wants Oedipus as its ruler.
7. Why does Jocasta beg Oedipus to stop investigating his birth and then leave the scene?
She has recognized the truth of Oedipus’s identity before he has.
She plans to ask Apollo for a second prophecy.
She thinks the shepherd will falsely accuse her family.
She believes Polybus’s death has made the inquiry irrelevant.
8. Oedipus publicly curses Laius’s unknown killer. Why is this an example of dramatic irony?
The oracle has actually ordered the killer to be pardoned.
The citizens already know that Creon killed Laius.
He unknowingly places the curse upon himself.
Laius is later revealed to have survived the attack.
9. What crisis is afflicting Thebes when Oedipus Rex opens?
An invading army has surrounded the city.
A plague is bringing widespread sickness and death.
A drought has emptied the city’s wells.
A dispute over succession has divided the royal family.
10. What crucial fact does Laius’s former shepherd ultimately confirm?
The infant he gave away was the son of Laius and Jocasta.
Laius survived the crossroads attack but later died in Thebes.
Creon ordered him to conceal the identity of Laius’s killers.
The Sphinx had revealed Oedipus’s parentage before her death.
11. Which revelation from the Corinthian messenger destroys Oedipus’s confidence that Polybus’s death has cleared him?
Polybus and Merope were not Oedipus’s biological parents.
Polybus was secretly related to Laius.
The oracle had issued a different prophecy to Corinth.
Merope had arranged the attack at the crossroads.
12. Why does Oedipus initially feel relieved when he hears that Polybus has died?
Polybus had withdrawn Corinth’s claim to the Theban throne.
The news proves that Tiresias cannot foresee the future.
Oedipus believes it permits him to return safely to Delphi.
Polybus died without Oedipus killing him, apparently disproving part of the prophecy.
13. Which detail in Jocasta’s account of Laius’s death first makes Oedipus fear that he may have been involved?
Laius had consulted an oracle shortly before leaving Thebes.
One servant escaped and returned to the palace.
Laius was killed where three roads met.
The attackers were described as travelers from Corinth.
14. Tiresias initially refuses to reveal what he knows. What best explains his resistance?
He wants Creon to announce the accusation first.
He has forgotten the details because of his age.
He believes disclosing the truth will bring terrible pain.
He doubts that Apollo’s oracle can be trusted.
15. According to the oracle reported by Creon, what must Thebes do to remove its pollution?
Restore the worship of a neglected god.
Return Jocasta to her original family.
Find and punish or expel the killer of Laius.
Send a permanent tribute to Corinth.
16. Which interpretation best connects Oedipus’s self-blinding to the play’s recurring imagery of sight?
It shows that physical blindness automatically grants prophetic power.
It joins self-punishment with the irony that he sees the truth only after long blindness to it.
It proves that Tiresias caused the tragedy through supernatural means.
It allows him to escape responsibility by claiming helplessness.