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Three Theban Plays
There are many reasons to study the Theban plays (Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus). The masterful playwright - Sophocles; the great myth/story - Oedipus, who is fated to unknowingly kill his father and marry his mother; the great themes - fate, free will, the quest for knowledge and truth. There is one very good reason to read/study these plays using the Memoria Press' Guides - they do the job very, very well! With an emphasis on the "Central One Idea," there is a four-stage approach to each play. The Pre-Grammar stage is preparation (pre-reading); the Grammar stage is presentation (background, vocabulary, and comprehension); the Logic is dialectic (Socratic discussion); and the Rhetoric stage is expression (summary, abstract, and essay). The Student Guide includes some very helpful instructional material concerning these four stages as well as the Central One Idea (COI), along with a short tutorial on Greek tragedy, as well as the outlines, background info and features of these plays. These Guides are consumable with plenty of space to write the normal short essay answers as well as the longer essays. Appendices include a section on Memorization & Recitation plus a Master Words-to-be-Defined List. The Teacher Guide is a replica of the Student Guide with all the same introductory information and Appendices but with answers provided for all questions except the essays. The TG also provides non-reproducible quizzes (one for each play) and a Final Exam along with answers for each. Student is 85 pgs, pb; Teacher is 116 pgs, pb ~ Janice
