Greek mythology quiz

Answer key

1. Zeus. Zeus rules the Olympians. In the Library, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades divide authority over the sky, sea, and underworld after defeating the Titans.
2. Poseidon. Poseidon’s trident has three prongs and identifies him in much Greek art. In the Library, the Cyclopes give him this weapon.
3. Athena. Athena is associated with wisdom, crafts, and warfare.
4. Hermes. Hermes is the gods’ messenger and a protector of travelers.
5. Artemis. Apollo and Artemis are twins, children of Zeus and Leto.
6. Dionysus. Dionysus is associated with wine and revelry.
7. 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.
8. Aphrodite. Aphrodite is associated with love and beauty.
9. Ares. Ares is the Greek god associated with war.
10. Olive. In the Library, Athena plants an olive tree during her contest with Poseidon for Attica. The judgment gives her patronage of Athens.
11. 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.
12. Hera. Hera is Zeus’s wife and queen of the Olympians. Her place in the pantheon is also closely associated with marriage.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. Hephaestus. Hephaestus is the gods’ craftsman and smith. His role concerns making objects and working with fire, rather than leading battles.
16. 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.
17. Apollo. Apollo is associated with Delphi’s oracle. In the Library, he takes over the oracle after killing the serpent Python.
18. 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.
19. Mount Olympus. Greek tradition places the gods’ home on Olympus.
20. A thunderbolt. Zeus’s thunderbolt symbolizes his authority over the sky. The Library says the Cyclopes give him thunder, lightning, and the thunderbolt.
21. Cronus. Cronus and Rhea are the parents of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Cronus belongs to the older generation of Titans, before the Olympians’ rule.
22. Rhea. Rhea hides the infant Zeus from Cronus. In the Library, she gives Cronus a wrapped stone to swallow in the child’s place.
23. 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.
24. 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.
25. 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.
26. Cerberus. Cerberus guards the underworld. The Library describes him with three dog heads, although the creature’s appearance varies in ancient literature and art.
27. Charon. Charon transports the dead by boat in underworld stories. Chiron, a similar-sounding name, is a centaur and a different mythological figure.
28. Perseus. Perseus kills Medusa with divine assistance. The Library describes him looking at her reflected image rather than meeting her gaze directly.
29. 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.
30. A winged horse. Pegasus is a winged horse associated with Bellerophon. The Library also connects his birth with Perseus’s killing of Medusa.
31. Theseus. Theseus kills the Minotaur inside the Labyrinth. The escape is a separate problem, solved with help from Ariadne’s thread.
32. Ariadne. Ariadne gives Theseus the thread. By following it back, he can leave the winding Labyrinth after defeating the Minotaur.
33. Crete. The Labyrinth belongs to the story of King Minos of Crete.
34. Daedalus. Daedalus builds the Labyrinth for Minos. His role as its designer is distinct from Theseus’s later role in defeating the Minotaur.
35. 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.
36. Twelve. The familiar cycle has twelve labors. In the Library, Eurystheus rejects two of the first ten and adds two more tasks.
37. 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.
38. 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.
39. Jason. Jason leads the heroes aboard the Argo. The ship gives the Argonauts their collective name.
40. 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.
41. Medea. Medea helps Jason complete the tasks needed to obtain the fleece. Her assistance is central to his success at Colchis.
42. Orpheus. Orpheus descends to seek Eurydice. In Ovid’s account, his music persuades the rulers of the underworld to allow a conditional return.
43. 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.
44. Midas. In Ovid, Midas asks that everything he touches become gold. The gift becomes a curse when his food and drink are transformed too.
45. Narcissus. In Ovid’s story, Narcissus becomes absorbed by his image in a pool. The apparent beloved is his own reflection.
46. Daphne. Ovid tells how Daphne becomes a laurel while fleeing Apollo. The tree then becomes one of the god’s enduring symbols.
47. 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.
48. Penelope. Penelope is Odysseus’s wife in Ithaca. His return home is also a return to her and their household.
49. Polyphemus. Polyphemus is the one-eyed Cyclops who traps the travelers. In the tradition summarized by the Library, he is Poseidon’s son.
50. The Sphinx. The Sphinx poses the riddle near Thebes. Oedipus solves it in the familiar account, unlike heroes who defeat monsters through combat.