Round 9: Tossup 2

An alternate version of the events of this play is depicted in the Lille Stesichorus, whose most complete fragment is a “Queen’s speech” that occurs after the events of this play. This play never describes a “cryptic song” that causes a group of people to “put aside something we found obscure,” and which a character later describes as overcoming with “wits” instead of “birds.” The “irrationality” of this play is argued to be “outside” the tragedy in Aristotle’s Poetics, (10[1])which uses (-5[1])this play to explain the structure and superiority of tragedies. In this play, the prophet Tiresias returns (10[1])an insult by declaring (-5[1])“you have your eyesight, and you do not see” (10[1])foreshadowing the protagonist’s loss of sight. For 10 points, name this play by Sophocles whose title character (10[1])discovers he did not escape his fate of marrying his mother (10[1])and murdering his father. ■END■

ANSWER: Oedipus Rex [accept Oedipus the King or Oedipus Tyrannus]
<JF, European Literature> | Packet N - Simon Fraser A, Carleton A, Georgia Tech A, Claremont A, Warwick A, Columbia B
= Average correct buzzpoint

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