# Electra : Oedipus :: David : **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 30, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401 "2010-03-30T23:57:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/41 "2010-04-06T15:42:32Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Alright, here’s the best answer I got. Oedipus was raised by Shepards and later became a king, Elektra was married to a commoner, but later married royalty. David was raised as a shepard and later became a king. Bathsheba was married to a commoner, and later married a king. I agree, that’s the best rationalization anyone has come up with so far in that it’s nicely parallel. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/42 "2010-04-06T15:44:57Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > I agree, that’s the best rationalization anyone has come up with so far in that it’s nicely parallel. Best logic so far, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/43 "2010-04-06T16:07:22Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Alright, here’s the best answer I got. Oedipus was raised by Shepards and later became a king, Elektra was married to a commoner, but later married royalty. David was raised as a shepard and later became a king. Bathsheba was married to a commoner, and later married a king. Except Oedipus wasn’t raised by shepherds. The shepherd who found him passed him on to the king and queen of Corinth, and they raised him. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/44 "2010-04-06T16:34:35Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Except Oedipus wasn’t raised by shepherds. The shepherd who found him passed him on to the king and queen of Corinth, and they raised him. La-la-la-la-I’m-not-listening. Glad we solved that! Let us never speak of it again. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/45 "2010-04-06T16:52:45Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Except Oedipus wasn’t raised by shepherds. The shepherd who found him passed him on to the king and queen of Corinth, and they raised him. Ah crap, you’re right. ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/46 "2010-04-06T19:14:03Z")
**Plan B** , is your son still on spring break? I’m kind of dying to find out what the teacher’s answer is. (Though with our luck, they’ll only have an answer key with the letter, and no idea of the rationalization behind it.) ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/47 "2010-04-06T19:17:00Z")
> [@Risha](#): > > **Plan B** , is your son still on spring break? I’m kind of dying to find out what the teacher’s answer is. > > (Though with our luck, they’ll only have an answer key with the letter, and no idea of the rationalization behind it.) My bet is that we’ll learn about that 14 thing first. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/48 "2010-04-08T04:10:41Z")
I’m still confused by the need to do this at all. There are analogies on the AP Lit test? Cause there sure weren’t when I took it…although that was quite awhile ago now. We just had multiple choice and then some essay questions. (I got a 4, which saved me from taking a writing class in college and earned me a whopping 8 college credits - half a quarter right there!) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/49 "2010-04-08T04:57:44Z")
Dunno–I must have taken an English AP similar to yours. But there were analogies on the GRE and some of them were as um, obscure as this one. Thing is, after a while, you get to understand the “bent” of the GRE’s analogies and stop questioning their logic (or grasp of reality, much like their definitions) and just go with it. We have no other questions to help us here. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/50 "2010-04-08T05:05:35Z")
Remember: No matter what the teacher or the book says the “correct” answer is, if you don’t slap your head and go “Of course! That makes clear and exclusive sense now; nothing else is nearly as good” (and you almost certainly won’t), then there’s no reason you have to accept it as the unique answer; the stories everyone else has spun for other answers are probably just as good as (or even better than) whatever you’ll be offered. There’s no hidden objectively correct answer to the analogy; analogies always have a subjective element, to some degree. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/51 "2010-04-13T20:03:50Z")
> [@Plan\_B](#): > > Here’s the entire question my son is working on as prep for an AP exam: > > Electra : Oedipus :: David : > > (A) Absalom > (B) Bathsheba > (C) Saul > (D) Goliath > This is NOT homework help; he’s just studying for the AP exam and this question came up in a review book. And he’s on spring break so it could be a few more days till he’s back in school. > > Even with Google we can’t figure this one out. Well? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/52 "2010-04-13T20:12:21Z")
Don’t those test prep books have the answers in the back? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/53 "2010-04-13T20:20:11Z")
My money’s on Bathsheba. I don’t think the answer is any strained parallel from their stories, just two characters of opposite sex from Greek literature :: two characters of opposite sex from the Bible. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2010, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/54 "2010-04-13T23:45:33Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > My money’s on Bathsheba. I don’t think the answer is any strained parallel from their stories, just two characters of opposite sex from Greek literature :: two characters of opposite sex from the Bible. I think if that were the case, they’d have either used two Greek characters from the same story or two Bible characters from different stories, and they’d have kept the gender order the same. ETA: **Plan B** was online this morning. I sent him a PM asking if there was more info. ---
**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/55 "2010-05-03T23:30:54Z")
First of all apologies to all and especially to Morgyn. I get less than one PM a year here so I’m not used to looking for notifications when I do sign on. I just saw it for the first time after I read the above post. As I may have mentioned this thread was started during one of my son’s school vacations. Life has been very busy for him and for us so by the time he got back to school I wasn’t thinking about this question and neither was he. Then when I would think about it and intend to tell him to check with the teacher, he wouldn’t be around, and so on. Finally, last week he asked the teacher what the correct answer is. And, of course, the teacher had no idea. But she did circulate the question amongst the English faculty which started a big debate. Then, since they couldn’t come up with an answer, what did they do? Someone went to google it and this is what they came up with: [Electra : Oedipus :: David : - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=557880)🙂 Seriously, and they had a good laugh as did my son and I. If I get some more time and energy I’ll try to contact the publisher, but my guess is that these publishers have small offices with contract writers who are long gone by the time the book leaves the warehouse. So I guess it was just an error. Thanks for trying. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/56 "2010-05-04T02:01:07Z")
Electra killed her mother deliberately (by way of her brother). Oedipus accidentally killed his father. David accidentally killed his son (by way of his general). Absalom tried to kill his father deliberately. That’s not very good, but it’s the best I can do. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/57 "2010-05-04T03:23:11Z")
> [@Plan\_B](#): > > Finally, last week he asked the teacher what the correct answer is. And, of course, the teacher had no idea. But she did circulate the question amongst the English faculty which started a big debate. Then, since they couldn’t come up with an answer, what did they do? Someone went to google it and this is what they came up with: > > [Electra : Oedipus :: David : - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=557880)🙂 > > Seriously, and they had a good laugh as did my son and I. If I get some more time and energy I’ll try to contact the publisher, but my guess is that these publishers have small offices with contract writers who are long gone by the time the book leaves the warehouse. It’s fun that even the teachers can’t figure it out! Too bad they weren’t given an answer key, but I suppose that would be contraindicated. So who wrote/published the review test? ---
**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/58 "2010-05-04T14:37:31Z")
^^Amsco…So I just called Amsco and was immediately connected to an exec in this department. I told her the problem and she told me there is no separate answer key, but she’ll look into it and get back to me. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/59 "2010-05-04T14:51:38Z")
I think it’s just a straight opposites question, and the answer is Goliath. However, I just don’t get the concept of why there are tests like this anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401/60 "2010-05-04T14:52:06Z")
My money was on “mistake by test creator(s)” so what do I win? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electra-oedipus-david/534401.md?page=4)