STUDY / Mythology
Greek mythology flashcards
Meet the Greek gods through their names, symbols, and stories.
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Gods, symbols, and traditions
01 / 50Who rules the Olympian gods?Reveal answerHide answer
Answer
Zeus. Zeus rules the Olympians. In the Library, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades divide authority over the sky, sea, and underworld after defeating the Titans.
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02 / 50Which god carries a trident?Reveal answerHide answer
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Poseidon. Poseidon’s trident has three prongs and identifies him in much Greek art. In the Library, the Cyclopes give him this weapon.
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03 / 50Which goddess is associated with wisdom?Reveal answerHide answer
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Athena. Athena is associated with wisdom, crafts, and warfare.
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04 / 50Who is the messenger of the gods?Reveal answerHide answer
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Hermes. Hermes is the gods’ messenger and a protector of travelers.
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05 / 50Which goddess is Apollo’s twin?Reveal answerHide answer
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Artemis. Apollo and Artemis are twins, children of Zeus and Leto.
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06 / 50Which god is associated with wine?Reveal answerHide answer
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Dionysus. Dionysus is associated with wine and revelry.
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07 / 50Which bird is a symbol of Athena?Reveal answerHide answer
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Owl. The owl is associated with Athena and appears with her on ancient Athenian coins. The British Museum’s coin collection preserves examples of this pairing.
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08 / 50Which goddess is associated with love and beauty?Reveal answerHide answer
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Aphrodite. Aphrodite is associated with love and beauty.
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09 / 50Which god is closely associated with war?Reveal answerHide answer
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Ares. Ares is the Greek god associated with war.
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10 / 50Which tree did Athena give Athens in its founding myth?Reveal answerHide answer
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Olive. In the Library, Athena plants an olive tree during her contest with Poseidon for Attica. The judgment gives her patronage of Athens.
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11 / 50Who rules the Greek underworld?Reveal answerHide answer
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Hades. Hades rules the underworld, the realm of the dead. In the Library’s division of the cosmos, his brothers Zeus and Poseidon receive sky and sea.
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12 / 50Which goddess is queen of the Olympian gods?Reveal answerHide answer
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Hera. Hera is Zeus’s wife and queen of the Olympians. Her place in the pantheon is also closely associated with marriage.
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13 / 50Which goddess is associated with grain and the harvest?Reveal answerHide answer
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Demeter. Demeter is associated with grain and cultivation. Her search for Persephone links agriculture to one of the best-known family stories of the gods.
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14 / 50Who is Demeter’s daughter and queen of the underworld?Reveal answerHide answer
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Persephone. Persephone is Demeter’s daughter and the underworld’s queen. Ancient accounts vary in the details of how her time is divided between the two realms.
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15 / 50Which god is the divine smith?Reveal answerHide answer
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Hephaestus. Hephaestus is the gods’ craftsman and smith. His role concerns making objects and working with fire, rather than leading battles.
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16 / 50Which goddess is associated with the household hearth?Reveal answerHide answer
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Hestia. Hestia is the goddess of the hearth. The hearth was the home’s central fire, giving her a place in household and communal religious life.
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17 / 50Which god is closely associated with the oracle at Delphi?Reveal answerHide answer
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Apollo. Apollo is associated with Delphi’s oracle. In the Library, he takes over the oracle after killing the serpent Python.
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18 / 50Which instrument is especially associated with Apollo?Reveal answerHide answer
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The lyre. Apollo is associated with the lyre. In the Library, Hermes makes the instrument and exchanges it with Apollo as part of their reconciliation.
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19 / 50Which mountain is the traditional home of the Olympian gods?Reveal answerHide answer
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Mount Olympus. Greek tradition places the gods’ home on Olympus.
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20 / 50What weapon is a familiar symbol of Zeus?Reveal answerHide answer
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A thunderbolt. Zeus’s thunderbolt symbolizes his authority over the sky. The Library says the Cyclopes give him thunder, lightning, and the thunderbolt.
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21 / 50Which Titan is the father of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades?Reveal answerHide answer
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Cronus. Cronus and Rhea are the parents of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Cronus belongs to the older generation of Titans, before the Olympians’ rule.
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22 / 50Who is the mother of Zeus?Reveal answerHide answer
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Rhea. Rhea hides the infant Zeus from Cronus. In the Library, she gives Cronus a wrapped stone to swallow in the child’s place.
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23 / 50Which Titan brings fire to humanity in a familiar Greek myth?Reveal answerHide answer
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Prometheus. In Hesiod, Prometheus steals fire for humans in a fennel stalk. The story connects the gift with Zeus’s anger toward him and humanity.
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24 / 50What does Atlas hold up in Greek myth?Reveal answerHide answer
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The sky. Atlas supports the sky, or heavens. The familiar image of a globe on his shoulders can be misleading if it is taken to mean planet Earth.
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25 / 50In Hesiod’s account, who opens a jar and releases troubles into the world?Reveal answerHide answer
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Pandora. Hesiod’s Works and Days describes Pandora lifting the lid of a jar, releasing afflictions while Hope remains inside. It is a jar in this account, not a box.
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26 / 50What is the name of the dog guarding the underworld?Reveal answerHide answer
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Cerberus. Cerberus guards the underworld. The Library describes him with three dog heads, although the creature’s appearance varies in ancient literature and art.
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27 / 50Who ferries the dead across a river of the underworld?Reveal answerHide answer
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Charon. Charon transports the dead by boat in underworld stories. Chiron, a similar-sounding name, is a centaur and a different mythological figure.
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30 / 50What kind of creature is Pegasus?Reveal answerHide answer
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A winged horse. Pegasus is a winged horse associated with Bellerophon. The Library also connects his birth with Perseus’s killing of Medusa.
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34 / 50Who designs the Labyrinth?Reveal answerHide answer
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Daedalus. Daedalus builds the Labyrinth for Minos. His role as its designer is distinct from Theseus’s later role in defeating the Minotaur.
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35 / 50Whose wax-fastened wings fail after he flies too close to the Sun?Reveal answerHide answer
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Icarus. Icarus flies too high despite Daedalus’s warning. The fastening of his artificial wings fails in the Sun’s heat, and he falls into the sea.
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42 / 50Which musician travels to the underworld to recover Eurydice?Reveal answerHide answer
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Orpheus. Orpheus descends to seek Eurydice. In Ovid’s account, his music persuades the rulers of the underworld to allow a conditional return.
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43 / 50What must Orpheus avoid doing while leading Eurydice out?Reveal answerHide answer
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Looking back at her. In Ovid’s account, Orpheus must not look back until they have left the underworld. He turns too soon and loses Eurydice again.
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44 / 50Which king receives the power to turn things into gold by touch?Reveal answerHide answer
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Midas. In Ovid, Midas asks that everything he touches become gold. The gift becomes a curse when his food and drink are transformed too.
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45 / 50Who falls in love with his own reflection?Reveal answerHide answer
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Narcissus. In Ovid’s story, Narcissus becomes absorbed by his image in a pool. The apparent beloved is his own reflection.
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46 / 50Which nymph becomes a laurel tree while fleeing Apollo?Reveal answerHide answer
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Daphne. Ovid tells how Daphne becomes a laurel while fleeing Apollo. The tree then becomes one of the god’s enduring symbols.
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50 / 50Which creature poses a deadly riddle to travelers near Thebes?Reveal answerHide answer
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The Sphinx. The Sphinx poses the riddle near Thebes. Oedipus solves it in the familiar account, unlike heroes who defeat monsters through combat.
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Heroes and journeys
28 / 50Which hero kills Medusa?Reveal answerHide answer
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Perseus. Perseus kills Medusa with divine assistance. The Library describes him looking at her reflected image rather than meeting her gaze directly.
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31 / 50Which hero defeats the Minotaur?Reveal answerHide answer
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Theseus. Theseus kills the Minotaur inside the Labyrinth. The escape is a separate problem, solved with help from Ariadne’s thread.
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32 / 50Who gives Theseus the thread that helps him leave the Labyrinth?Reveal answerHide answer
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Ariadne. Ariadne gives Theseus the thread. By following it back, he can leave the winding Labyrinth after defeating the Minotaur.
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36 / 50How many labors make up the traditional cycle of Heracles’s tasks?Reveal answerHide answer
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Twelve. The familiar cycle has twelve labors. In the Library, Eurystheus rejects two of the first ten and adds two more tasks.
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37 / 50Which many-headed monster does Heracles fight at Lerna?Reveal answerHide answer
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The Hydra. The Lernaean Hydra is the many-headed monster in Heracles’s second labor in the Library. Its regrowing heads make the fight unusually difficult.
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38 / 50Which lion does Heracles defeat in his first labor?Reveal answerHide answer
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The Nemean Lion. The Nemean Lion is Heracles’s first labor in the Library. Its resistant hide forces the hero to overcome it without relying on ordinary weapon blows.
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39 / 50Which hero leads the Argonauts?Reveal answerHide answer
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Jason. Jason leads the heroes aboard the Argo. The ship gives the Argonauts their collective name.
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40 / 50What prize do the Argonauts seek?Reveal answerHide answer
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The Golden Fleece. The Argonauts sail to Colchis to obtain the Golden Fleece. It is the object of Jason’s expedition, not a weapon carried by an Olympian god.
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41 / 50Who helps Jason obtain the Golden Fleece?Reveal answerHide answer
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Medea. Medea helps Jason complete the tasks needed to obtain the fleece. Her assistance is central to his success at Colchis.
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47 / 50Which hero is the central figure of the Odyssey?Reveal answerHide answer
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Odysseus. The Odyssey centers on Odysseus’s return from the Trojan War. His Latin name is Ulysses, which appears in some English translations of ancient texts.
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48 / 50What is the name of Odysseus’s wife?Reveal answerHide answer
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Penelope. Penelope is Odysseus’s wife in Ithaca. His return home is also a return to her and their household.
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49 / 50Which one-eyed giant traps Odysseus and his men in a cave?Reveal answerHide answer
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Polyphemus. Polyphemus is the one-eyed Cyclops who traps the travelers. In the tradition summarized by the Library, he is Poseidon’s son.
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Creatures and encounters
29 / 50What happens to someone who looks directly at Medusa?Reveal answerHide answer
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They turn to stone. Medusa’s gaze turns those who look at her to stone. This is why avoiding a direct look matters in Perseus’s encounter with her.
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33 / 50On which island is the Minotaur’s Labyrinth?Reveal answerHide answer
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Crete. The Labyrinth belongs to the story of King Minos of Crete.