Honors World Literature Summer Reading: O edipus Rex b y Sophocles How Summer Reading Works: ❏ Check out the play from the WGHS library before leaving for summer break. (It is not necessary to purchase your own copy.)

❏ Read the play over the summer and prepare to spend the first two weeks of Honors World Literature working with it. You will also take an assessment based on the play worth 3% of your semester grade.

❏ As you read, consider writing double-entry journals to help track your thinking over a long period of time. Instructions are included in this handout. While this is an optional assignment, students who complete this h andwritten w ork will be allowed to use it on the assessment. Happy reading! Mrs. Katie Guymon (Room 208) - [email protected]

Written around 430 B.C. by one of ancient Greece’s most famous playwrights, O edipus Rex (translation: Oedipus the King) unfolds as a murder mystery, a quest for truth, and ultimately, a tragedy. Throughout this mythic story, Sophocles uses all forms of irony to emphasize the consequences of running from fear and being unaware of one’s own identity. T o learn more about ancient Greek theater, scan the QR code to watch a YouTube video (turn captioning on if you need help with the British accents!)

Sophocles’s original audience would have already known Oedipus’s story from Greek mythology when sitting down for the play’s premiere in the theater of Dionysus. Here is the story that they had heard…

“The Oedipus Myth” A man named Cadmus founded Thebes, a city-state in Greece. Unfortunately, later on, he angered the god Apollo by killing Apollo’s favorite snake. As punishment, Apollo proclaimed that all of Cadmus’s descendants would be cursed.

King Laius of Thebes was one of those direct descendants of Cadmus. A prophecy declared that if King Laius and his wife Queen Jocasta have a son, that son would kill his father Laius and marry his mother Jocasta. Talk about bad luck.

And so, a baby boy was born. At three days old, Laius drove a metal rivet between the child’s ankles and ordered a servant to leave the newborn on Mount Cithaeron to die. Jocasta consented because she was afraid of the prediction; she wanted to avoid the prophecy. (The ancient custom of “exposing” unwanted children enabled the Greeks to avoid the “pollution”

1 associated with outright murder. They placed such infants out in the open and let nature take its course.)

The servant pitied the baby, and unbeknownst to Laius and Jocasta, he met a shepherd from Corinth (another city-state) on Mount Cithaeron and left the baby with him instead. The shepherd then gave the child to a woman named Queen Merope, wife of King Polybus of Corinth, and the couple raised him as their own. They named the baby Oedipus, which means “swollen foot.” Laius and Jocasta had no idea that their child had survived.

Oedipus, perhaps in his late teens, consulted the oracle at Delphi for answers. (An oracle is a sacred place, considered a location where gods communicate with priests and priestesses. And, Apollo is the god of light and truth!)

The priestess, Pythia, told Oedipus of his destiny. Terribly frightened, Oedipus left Corinth to escape his fate.

On his hurried trip out of Corinth, Oedipus confronted a chariot that would not move out of his way. This situation occurred at a point where “three roads meet.” It is important to know that between these Greek city-states, there were no laws. People either travelled in groups, or it was every man for himself.

Someone with a club struck Oedipus as the chariot slowly moved past. Perhaps as the first ever episode of documented road rage, Oedipus killed the men in the chariot. Oedipus continued on, in turmoil, toward Thebes.

When he arrived at the gates of Thebes, he met the creature Sphinx, part lion, part bird, part woman. The Sphinx had been on a rampage, eating Thebans who could not answer her riddle: “What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs during the day, and three legs in the evening?” (Google the answer if you don’t know!)

Creon, Jocasta’s brother, sought shelter from the Sphinx. He offered the throne to Jocasta and anyone who could solve the riddle. That someone was Oedipus. He solved the riddle, and then married Jocasta.

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After Oedipus had competently and happily been ruling Thebes for twenty years, a plague strikes the city of Thebes. Dead bodies are strewn everywhere; the starving are crawling their way through the streets. The plague will only end when and i f the murderer of King Laius is found. Since it’s the current ruler’s responsibility to cure the land and save his people, King Oedipus vows to find the murderer and rid his people of the epidemic. This is where Sophocles’s O edipus Rex begins.

2 Double-Entry Journals As you work to understand your summer reading novel, you can respond to the text in a double-entry journal. Think of your journal as a series of conversations with your book—after all, powerful readers must critically think about w hat t hey read w hile t hey read. Use your journal to record your personal responses to the text.

Procedure: ● As you read, choose lines and passages and record them in the left-hand column on the provided chart. Look for direct quotes that seem significant, powerful, thought-provoking, or puzzling. (If a quote gets too long, write its introductory lines.) In the right column, write your response to the text (see below list for possible response types).

● What thoughts or wonderings pop up while you read? ○ Define unknown vocabulary.

○ Comment on lines you think are especially powerful or meaningful.

○ Make meaningful connections to previous scenes in the text; to other texts, films, and current events; or to personal experiences.

○ Ask and/or answer questions.

○ Make predictions on what will happen next.

○ Restate or summarize difficult sentences, paragraphs, or ideas. (Putting it in your own words demonstrates your understanding.)

○ Comment on emerging themes and / or motifs and symbols. Sample Journal Entry:

Ch. Text (use internal citations) Response

Ch. 1 “Maman died today. Or yesterday The first lines of the novel are shocking maybe, I don’t know. I got a telegram because they are so blunt. Since I’ve never from the home: ‘Mother deceased. taken a French class, I had to look up what Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.’ ‘maman’ meant. The closest English translation is That doesn’t mean anything. Maybe it ‘mom’. Referring to one’s mother as ‘mom’ was yesterday” (Camus 1). shows a softer, closer relationship than the formal connotation of ‘mother’ that is used in the telegram. But, the son doesn’t know for sure which day his mom died—some might think that is careless or even cruel.

3 Cast of Characters: 1. Oedipus (Eh-duh-puhs): K ing of Thebes. As a young man, he saved the city of Thebes by solving the riddle of the Sphinx and destroying the monster. He now sets about finding the murderer of the former king Laius to save Thebes from plague.

2. Priest (of Zeus): comes to the royal house to tell Oedipus of the city's suffering and to ask Oedipus to save Thebes once more

3. Choragos (Kor-a-gos): the leader of the Chorus

4. Chorus: a group of Theban elders used to comment on the play’s action, foreshadow future events, and expound upon the play’s central themes

5. Creon (Kree-on): the second-in-command in Thebes, brother-in-law of Oedipus. He is Oedipus' trusted advisor, selected to go to the oracle at Delphi to seek Apollo's advice in saving the city from plague

6. Tiresias (Tai-ree-see-uhs): a blind prophet who has guided the kings of Thebes with his advice and counsel

7. Jocasta (Jo-cah-sta): Queen of Thebes, wife of Oedipus. She was the widow of Thebes' former king, Laius, and married Oedipus when he saved the city from the Sphinx

8. Laïus (Ley-uhs): the last king of Thebes before Oedipus

9. Polybus (Pol-uh-buhs): King of Corinth and Oedipus’s supposed father

10. Merope (Meh-ro-pee): Queen of Corinth and Oedipus’s supposed mother

11. Messenger: a man from the palace in Corinth who delivers important news to Oedipus

12. Shepherd: f ormer servant of King Laius who took pity on baby Oedipus and spared his life

13. Antigone & Ismene: Oedipus and Jocasta’s two daughters

Essential Questions:

“Ancient stories, and texts that have stood the test of time, can be portals to honest and dignified grappling with present wounds and longings and callings…” (“You are not alone across time”). These essential questions will help you think about the play’s relevance 2,500 years after it was written. ● Why do people avoid the truth when it is right in front of them?

● How can the search for truth be both a burden and a virtue?

● Should people sacrifice themselves for the greater good?

● Which has the greatest power in human lives: fate or free will?

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