Greek Drama Questions

1. Dancing choruses of worshipers began competing for prizes such as a bull or goat.
2. As many as fourteen thousand spectators gathered in the open-air Theater of Dionysos.
3. The mask affected the voices of the actors because they had exaggerated mouthpieces that amplified the actors' voices.
4. Antigone was suspenseful to viewing audiences because since they already knew the story, the suspense came from their knowledge of things the characters on stage did not know. The audience pitied them and wanted to warn them of their impending doom.
5. The Shepard is ordered to leave the infant to die on a lonely mountainside with his ankles pinned together.
6. The riddle the Sphinx gave to Oedipus was, "What creature goes on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?"
7. Oedipus had four kids: two sons, Polyneices and Eteocles; and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene.
8. After Oedipus is exiled, Creon takes over Thebes.
9. After death, the family closed the dead person's eyes and mouth and began to prepare the body for the prothesis (the wake). The women of the house washed the body and dressed it in white or in wedding clothes. Then they places the body on a portable framework, making sure that the feet pointed toward the door, and sprinkled it with herbs which were believed to keep evil spirits away. Women waited near the body, and men entered with their right arms raised high in the air. When the closest relative held the dead persons head with both hands, the other mourners wailed and sang accompanied by the reed pipe.