The A-Boats Trivia Quiz

Answer: Thebes

Amphion and his brother Zethus were born after their mother, Antiope, was seduced by Zeus. In her shame, she fled to the city of Sicyon, where she married King Epopeus. However, she was returned to the city of Thebes by Lyceus, the ruler of the city; while on the way, she gave birth to Amphion and Zethus. The brothers were separated from their mother, who was given to Lyceus's wife, Dirce. For many years, Antiope was treated cruelly by Dirce, until she escaped and found her sons. The pair then killed Dirce, and forced Lyceus to give up the throne of Thebes. Amphion and Zethus then became rulers of Thebes, building fortifications around the citadel to defend the city.

The pair both married, with Amphion's wife Niobe having fourteen children. However, Niobe insulted the goddess Leto who, having only had a son (Apollo) and a daughter (Artemis), killed all of Niobe's children in revenge. At the death of his children, Amphion swore revenge and attempted to attack the temple of Apollo, with the god killing him. Zethus, having married Thebe, had one son; upon his death, Zethus killed himself. The pair were succeeded as King of Thebes by Laius, the son of Labdacus, a previous ruler of the city.

Answer: Capella

Capella, also called Alpha Aurigae, is the third-brightest object in the Northern Sky (after Arcturus and Vega), and the sixth-brightest overall. Located at a distance of 42.9 light years from Earth, Capella is actually a quadruple system with four individual stars formed into a pair of binaries. The first pair, Capella Aa and Capella Ab, are a pair of yellow giants, each around 2.5 times the mass of the Sun, and orbit each other at a distance of 0.74 AU. Both are at the stage of their evolution where they have exhausted their core hydrogen, leading to their surfaces beginning to cool, which will lead them to expand into red giants. The second pair, Capella H and Capella L, are located around 10,000 AU from the primary pair. Both are red dwarfs, and are separated from each other by 40 AU.

Capella's position in the sky puts it closer to the north celestial pole than any other first-magnitude star, while it is invisible south of latitude 44°S, meaning it cannot be seen in the southernmost areas of Argentina, Chile or New Zealand, while north of latitude 44°N it is circumpolar, and thus does not descend below the horizon. At its highest in early December, Capella is regarded as one of the more prominent objects in the northern winter sky.

Answer: Cattle

The aurochs was a bovine mammal that is regarded as the ancestor of the modern domestic cattle. Considered to be part of the group of large animals known as the Pleistocene megafauna, it is believed to have originally evolved in Asia and migrated westwards during the current Holocene epoch. The aurochs is a staple of cave paintings, reliefs dating from Ancient Egypt, and Bronze Age sculptures, and symbolised power, prowess and potency in a number of religions of the Near East. It eventually became extinct, when the last recorded individual died in the Jaktorów forest in Poland in 1627.

The aurochs was domesticated during two separate events that formed part of the so-called Neolithic Revolution, which brought about the first transition of human culture from hunter-gatherers to settlement and agriculture. The first of these came in the Near East, which saw the animal then introduced into Europe, eventually evolving into the domestic cattle. The other saw domestication of aurochs in the Indian subcontinent, which led to the evolution of the zebu. Some modern cattle breeds continue to exhibit aurochs-like features, such as the large horns or the dark coat colour and light eel-stripe down the back of bulls.

Answer: Heracles

Heracles was born as the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and was conceived when Zeus, who desired Alcmene, had one night stretched to three so that he could spend more time with her. Hera, the wife of Zeus, sought to take revenge against the illegitimate child, so his mother Alcmene, having given birth, sought to kill the child as she was fearful of Hera. However, he was brought to Olympus by Athena, and nursed by Hera, who did not recognise him.

Gaining supernatural powers through Hera's milk, the child gained strength before being returned to his mother and her husband. He was named Alcides, in memory of his maternal grandfather, Alcaeus, who was the son of Perseus. But, in an effort to placate Hera, he was renamed as Heracles, meaning "Hera's glory".

Answer: Cotentin

The Cotentin Peninsula, which is also referred to as the Cherbourg Peninsula after the port town which is the largest in the area, is located in north-west France in the region of Normandy. The peninsula forms the eastern part of the Gulf of Saint-Malo, which forms part of the English Channel. The western coast of the peninsula faces the Channel Islands, with Alderney the closest of these to the coast of France. Alderney is the northernmost of the islands, and is just 15km west of the town of La Hague, which is on the Cap de la Hague at the northern tip of the Cotentin Peninsula.

Alderney and Cap de la Hague are separated by the Alderney Race, known as the Raz Blanchard in French, a strait that forms the northern extremity of the Gulf of Saint-Malo. The strait can be particularly treacherous, with waves of as much as four metres possible when the wind and tide run in opposite directions, and the current capable of up to 12 knots in extreme conditions. Additional hazards come from the uneven seabed and the poor visibility that can occur in bad weather.

Answer: Officium Defunctorum

An anchorite is an individual who elects to withdraw from secular society into a prayer oriented life. Although sometimes likened to hermits, anchorites withdraw into permanent enclosure in cells that are attached to churches, through which they could view the altar, hear mass, and receive the Eucharist. In addition, anchorites would provide spiritual advice and counsel to people, giving them a reputation for wisdom, with their enclosure in the church seeing them often at the centre of the community, in spite of their physical isolation.

Because anchorites were essentially removing themselves from society, upon their entry into their enclosure, they would undergo a consecration that resembled funeral rites. This is because they were viewed as being "dead to the world", instead seen as a kind of living saint, answerable only to a bishop. In Germanic speaking areas, this funeral rite entailed the bishop recite the "Officium Defunctorum", or Office of the Dead, a prayer cycle said during the canonical hours said for the soul of someone recently deceased. Consisting of a number of parts, including psalms, prayers and scriptures, it is recited at Matins, Lauds, Little Hours, Vespers and Compline.

Answer: Patras

Patras has been the site of human settlement since around the third millennium BCE, and has flourished on several occasions since then. The city was part of the Second Achaean League from 280BC, while it was a major colony following the Roman invasion of Greece in 146BC. Additionally it was a Christian centre from the earliest days of Christianity onwards, in both the Roman and Eastern traditions. As part of this, Andrew, one of the apostles of Jesus, is said to have continued his ministry in the region around the year 60AD.

It was at this time, while he was in Patras, that Andrew was martyred. While continuing his ministry, Andrew was told by the local Roman governor, Aegeas, who remained a believer in the old Roman deities, to stop his preaching. Having refused to stop, Andrew was arrested and put to death by being crucified. Early texts state that Andrew was bound to a cross similar to the one used to crucify Jesus. However, a tradition later developed which indicated that Andrew requested to be crucified on a differently-shaped cross because he felt himself unworthy of being crucified on the same type of cross as Jesus. As a result, an X-shaped cross, known as a "saltire", as typified on the flag of Scotland, is also referred to as a "Saint Andrew's Cross".

Answer: Virgil

Aeneas was born in Troy, the son of Anchises, a cousin of King Priam, and the goddess Aphrodite. In Greek tradition, he is something of a minor figure who, although mentioned in the "Iliad" by Homer, does not play a significant role; he is twice-saved by the gods for some unknown destiny, and is shown as an honourable warrior, being the leader of the Dardanians, the major allies of the Trojans. Aeneas is also shown as a favourite of several of the gods - he is often aided in battle by his mother Aphrodite, occasionally in concert with Apollo, of whom he is a favourite.

Aeneas was a significant figure in Roman literature, appearing in a number of historical works during the Roman period, including the "Roman Antiquities" by the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The major Roman work to feature Aeneas is the "Aeneid" by Virgil, which was written between 29BC and 19BC. The "Aeneid" is an epic poem divided into twelve books and two parts - the first six books encompass Aeneas's wanderings following the fall of Troy, which take him to Italy, while the second tell the story of his part in the foundation of Rome itself. In 19BC, Virgil travelled to Greece to revise the work, where he caught a fever. He returned to Italy where he died, having ordered his manuscript to be burned. However, this order was countermanded by Caesar Augustus, who had the work published with few edits.

Answer: Visigoths

Alaric is believed to have been born in around 370AD in an area of what is now Romania. The Goths, of whom Alaric was part, had come to terms with the Roman Empire in 382 where, in return for the supply of troops, they received a large degree of autonomy from imperial control. As a result, in 392 Alaric joined the Roman Army, serving to maintain the reign of the Emperor Theodosius. In 394, Alaric led a force of Gothic troops in the Battle of Frigidus against the army of the Frankish usurper Arbogast. However, having not received recognition for the service of his soldiers following victory, Alaric mutinied and marched on Constantinople. The death of Theodosius in 395 saw Alaric come to be regarded as King of the Visigoths.

Following his ascension to the leadership of the Visigoth people, Alaric led his army in an effort to gain recognition of the independence of his people. This saw him come to terms on several occasions with the remnants of the Roman Empire, which were interspersed with periods of conflict that eventually saw him lead his army into Italy to lay siege to Rome itself. In the year 410, following the failure of yet another negotiation, this time with the Emperor Honorius, Alaric led his army in what came to be called the Sack of Rome, which precipitated the final fall of the Empire in the west.

Answer: Delos

In the Greek tradition, Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto who, along with her twin brother Apollo, was the result of a liaison between their parents that saw Zeus's wife, Hera, insist that they not be born anywhere on land. However, the island of Delos disobeyed Hera's instruction, and allowed Leto to give birth there. Legend states that Artemis is the older of the two, and that after her birth, she aided her mother in giving birth to Apollo.

While Delos is generally believed to be the location of the birth of both Artemis and Apollo, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo states that Artemis was born on the island of Ortygia, located in the middle of Syracuse in Sicily. She then helped Leto to Delos, where Apollo was born. However, the Greek historian Strabo wrote that Ortygia was an alternative name for Delos, and that both Artemis and Apollo were born in the same place.