STUDY QUESTIONS FOR ION, PHILOCTETES AND ORESTES:

1. Both the Ion and the Philoctetes can be seen as “coming of age” dramas. Compare and contrast the coming of age of Ion and that of Neoptolemus as they are represented in these two plays.

2. Whose play is the Philoctetes? Philotetes’? Odysseus’? Neoptolemus’? Or is this even a meaningful question? If yes, why? In no, why?

3. How is the Philoctetes a “typical” play of Sophocles?

4. How is the Ion a “typical” play of Euripides?

5. There is a lot said about Athens in the Ion. Is this another “patriotic” play like Euripides’ Suppliant Women and Children of Heracles? If yes, how so? In no, why?

6. Some critics have seen the Orestes as an absurdist parody of the whole Oresteia myth – that it was intentionally meant not to make sense. What do you think led them to this position? Do you agree with them? If so why? If you don’t agree, what do you think Euripides is doing in this play?

7. More generally, what is each of these plays about? What will we talk about when we go to the wine shop after the play is over?