Mythology
Name: __________________________________________________________ Date: ________________
Part Five The Great Families of Mythology
Chapter 17 The House of Atreus - Chapter 18 The House of Thebes
Chapter 19 The Royal House of Athens
1. Name two of the members of the house of Atreus.
2. Who brought all of the misfortunes on the house of Atreus?
3. What was the evil deed Tantalus committed?
4. What punishment did Tantalus receive for this deed?
5. What did Tantalus’s daughter, Niobe, do, and how was she punished?
6. Why had Agamemnon killed his daughter Iphigenia?
7. How did Agamemnon die?
8. What happened to Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus?
9. What one good thing resulted from Orestes’s repentance?
10. What did Cadmus do?
11. What happened to Cadmus and Harmonia, and what did this show?
12. What wrongs did Oedipus commit?
13. Did he commit this crime knowingly?
14. What punishment did Oedipus inflict upon himself?
15. Why was Antigone killed?
16. How did Theseus, King of Athens, help Adrastus and the relatives of the chieftains who fought against
Thebes?
17. For what was Cecrops noted?
18. How did Philomela let Procne know of Tereus’s evil deeds?
19. What happened to Procne and Philomela?
20. How did Cephalus test Procris’s devotion to him?
21. How were Creusa and Ion reunited?
Pre-reading Vocabulary Worksheets
Introduction part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Context Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence.
Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you
think the underlined words mean on the lines provided.
1. In return for their favor he acted so atrociously that no poet ever tried to explain his conduct
.
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2. One of the goddesses inadvertently had eaten some of the loathsome dish.
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3. It was a sordid tale.
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4. He learned that no crime was beyond atonement, that even he could be made clean.
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5. With the words of acquittal, the spirit of evil which had haunted his house was banished.
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6. Whatever the priestess at Delphi said would happen infallibly came to pass.
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7. It seemed, nevertheless, that nothing could be done except to acquiesce.
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8. In return for this good gift, Cecrops, who had been made arbiter, decided that Athena was hers.
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9. In one story of this contest between the two deities, woman’s suffrage plays a part.
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10. But the men, along with Poseidon, were greatly chagrined at this female triumph
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Pre-reading Vocabulary Worksheets - Mythology
Part Five Chapters 17, 18, & 19 continued
Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
____ 1. atrociously A. morally degraded
____ 2. inadvertently B. horribly, cruelly
____ 3. sordid C. making amends for an injury or wrong
____ 4. atonement D. a judge
____ 5. acquittal E. accidentally
____ 6. infallibly F. not capable of an error
____ 7. acquiesce G. the right to vote
____ 8. arbiter H. a freeing or clearing from a charge or accusation
____ 9. suffrage I. embarrassed due to failure or disappointment
____ 10. chagrined J. to consent without protest