Once Upon a Time in Rome Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hercules

His Greek name was of course Heracles - sometimes spelt Herakles (say 'herr-ah-cullz') - and he had to do twelve labours for his cousin, King Eurystheus (say 'your-iss-thee-us').
This was because his father was Jupiter (his Greek name is Zeus) but his mother wasn't Jupiter's wife, Juno, it was a human named Alcmene (say 'alk-me-nay'). Juno was very jealous, and she made his cousin come to be born before he was ready, so he would be king and not Hercules. She hated Hercules as she was jealous of Alcmene. She even tried to kill him as a baby by sending two snakes to his cradle, but Hercules was found in the morning and he had strangled the snakes with his bare hands!
One day, she made him go mad and very violent, and in a rage he killed his wife and children. As he was very sad and feeling very guilty, he had to perform twelve tasks for his cousin, and then he would be made into a god.

Originally Eurystheus had only given him ten tasks - the other two were set by Juno.

Answer: Killing Termerus the robber.

The hero was Hercules. Although he did kill Termerus, it wasn't actually a task. Because Termerus wore a garment made from the bark of Gaia, Hercules needed to use arrows tipped with poison from one his twelve tasks - the task to kill the Lernaean Hydra.

There were poisonous fumes coming from the Hydra's lair, so as he approached, Hercules had to cover his mouth. The Hydra was a very tricky monster to kill, as every time a head was cut off, two more grew in its place. Realising he couldn't defeat it on his own, he called his nephew Iolaus, who had the idea of setting fire to the place where the heads had been. As they couldn't grow past the flames, Hercules defeated the monster and dipped his arrows in its poison. Ironically, it was this poison that aided the death of Hercules.
His labours were:

1. Killing the Nemean Lion.
2. Destroying the Lernaean Hydra.
3. Capturing the Ceryneian Hind.
4. Capturing the Erymanthian Boar.
5. Cleaning the Augean Stables.
6. Killing the Stymphalian Birds.
7. Capturing the Cretan Bull.
8. Rounding up the Mares of Diomedes.
9. Stealing the Girdle of Hippolyte.
10. Herding the Cattle of Geryon
11. Fetching the Golden Apples of Hesperides.
12. Capturing Cerberus.

Answer: Narcissus

Narcissus was a very, very vain young man. Echo the nymph saw him and fell in love with him, but she was unable to speak first - she could only echo what he said. When he heard footsteps, he shouted: "Who's there?" and she repeated it. After several minutes, she revealed herself and tried to embrace him, but he ran away, telling her to 'leave him alone'.
When he became thirsty, he went to a stream but wouldn't touch the water in case it ruined his reflection. Eventually, he died, staring at his own reflection, and where he had sat there grew a flower, named the Narcissus.
As for Echo, she pined away, longing for the love she never knew.

As for Midas...
Midas was a king who collected gold, and he could be very cunning about how he got it. One day, he saw a satyr called Silenus sleeping under a tree, and he recognised him as a follower of the god Bacchus. Very cleverly, he befriended him and invited hm to stay at the palace, where he made sure he felt like royalty for ten days.
After the ten days were up, he took Silenus back to Bacchus and, in return for his hospitality, granted him any wish he wanted.
Midas barely paused for thought and wished that everything he touched would turn to gold. At first this was heaven for King Midas. But his robes were gold and - although they looked beautiful - they were very, very heavy and uncomfortable. Then, when he sat down for his dinner in his stiff robes, every piece of food he ate turned to solid gold. He got so fed up, he prayed desperately to Bacchus pleading for him to release him from his curse. Bacchus told him to bathe in the river Pactolus. The river turned to liquid gold, and the wish (now a curse) was lifted. Other versions say that when his beloved daughter rushed to hug him, she turned into a golden stautue. Midas was so overcome with grief, he ran to a shrine of Bacchus and grovelled until the god lifted the curse.

Answer: Vulcan

There are technically only two choices for a question like this - a Roman name and its Greek counterpart. As long as you know the Roman and Greek gods, you should have a 50/50 chance.
Cupid/Eros is generally known as Venus's son, but some people say otherwise. Cupid shoots arrows into people's hearts and makes them fall in love with each other.

Answer: They were taken by boat.

The ferryman was called Charon and he rowed the boat across the river Styx. When Hercules had his final task (to bring Cerberus back from the Underworld) he had to cross the river Styx, but different variations of the story argue how he got across. One of the most common of these is that he bullied Charon into taking him (would you want to argue with the son of a god?!).

Answer: Venus

Yes I am Venus (Aphrodite), the most beautiful and fair of all the goddesses (and gods!). Psyche was rumoured to be more beautiful than me, and people started honouring her as they should honour me. The impudence! All the other three are still immortals, but they are not so gorgeous. My beauty will surpass the most exquisite of women. Proserpina is probably the prettiest of the others as Pluto, God of the Underworld, kidnapped her and made her stay by giving her the fruit of the underworld, a pomegranate.

Minerva (Athena) is the goddess of wisdom and Victoria (Nike) is goddess of victory. Eek! The author's back!

Answer: Eurydice

Unfortunately, one day Eurydice stepped on a snake which bit her and she died. Orpheus was so distraight he ventured to the Underworld to retrieve his bride. So sweet was his fabulous music that it softened the hearts of Pluto and his wife, Proserpina. They allowed him to take Eurydice back to the land of the living on the condition he walked in front of her and didn't look at her until they reached the land of the living. Sadly, his anxiety took control and he turned around to look at Eurydice. Immediatly, she disappeared forever.

The famous Roman poet Virgil writes that Eurydice stepped on the snake after fleeing from the god of agriculture, Aristaeus, who had fallen in love with her.

Answer: Arachne

Minerva and Arachne had a competition to see who was the best. When Arachne made flawless pictures of the King of the Gods, Jupiter, Minerva turned her into a spider as she was so angry (and probably very jealous!). You will find with a bit of research that almost everything to do with spiders will have a scientific name beginning with the five letters "arach", as they translate from the Latin word for spider.

Answer: King Minos of Crete

Although Jupiter had many, many children by lots of mothers, Ariadne did not come from him. She fell in love with Theseus after he went to Crete to try and kill the Minotaur. This was because every nine years his father had to send seven boys and seven girls to Crete to be fed to the Minotaur.

Theseus decided to go as one of the boys to try and slay the fiercesome beast. When she saw him, Ariadne fell in love. So, to make sure he could get back out of the labyrinth, she gave him a long piece of string that he could drop along the path.

She went with him back to Athens - or was going to. They stopped at the island called Naxos, where she fell asleep. Theseus then left, even though he knew she was still on the island. Luckily for her, Ariadne was found by the god of wine, Bacchus (or Liber - his Greek name is Dionysus). Bacchus fell in love with her and made her his wife.

Answer: Pegasus

Yes, the legendary Pegasus! The Chimera is a horrible creature with three heads - one of a goat, one of a lion and one of a dragon! In other tales though, it has only one head, that of a lion, but its middle section is that of a goat and behind it is a snake. Hmm, fickle poets, eh? Pegasus helped in the slaying of this beast by flying over the top of it, away from its fiery breath, with Bellerophon on top so he could shoot it. Pegasus was a winged horse and he was said to have been born from Medusa after Perseus chopped off her head.

Daedalus and Icarus were father and son. Daedalus was a very good inventor - better than good, he was fantastic, and one of the best in all of Greece. But, when he made his nephew Talos into his apprentice, Talos's skill far surpassed his own, so Daedalus got extremely jealous and pushed him off the Acropolis. When the authorities discovered this, Daedalus and his son Icarus fled to Crete, where King Minos welcomed them and their skills. He told them to build him a labyrinth beneath his palace to serve as a prison for the Minotaur. But, after they had done this, Princess Ariadne asked for something to help Theseus who had to fight and kill the Minotaur because she had fallen in love with him - unfortunately for Daedalus. Daedalus gave her magical thread and told her to tell him to drop the thread whilst inside the labyrintnh so he could find his way out again. This she did, and Theseus killed the Minotaur, but when he left, she ran away with him. Furious at Daedalus's part in this, Minos trapped him and Icarus in the labyrinth they had built. Daedalus scoured the entire labyrinth for the slightest weakness, but he had built it too well. Eventually, he figured that the only way to escape was through the skies. He fastened two pairs of wings out of feathers and wax, then strapped them onto his son. He warned him not to fly too close to the sun, lest the heat melt the wax, but he also told him not to fly too close to the sea in case the spray made his wings too wet to fly.
But when up high, Icarus loved the freedom and flew higher and higher, barely noticing the drips of wax that fell from his wings. After a while, the feathers dropped away without anything to hold them together and Icarus fell in the sea and drowned.

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Please note, much of this information came from Wikipedia.