Particular Greek Events Trivia Quiz

Answer: Minoan

The Minoan civilization (about 3500 BC - about 1100 BC) arose on Crete and was built upon peaceful trade with nearby shores (Egypt, Phoenicia, and others). Archaeological research has unearthed some fine Minoan art, including the palace of Knossos and the fresco of "La Parisienne": a young woman wearing make-up (lipstick and mascara), and with long black hair tied in a sacral knot in the neck - probably the image of a priestess.

Between about 1750 BC and about 1100 BC thrived the Mycenaean civilization on the Peleponnesus, more oriented towards the military. While Minoan palaces were relatively open, Mycenaeans built heavily guarded fortresses. The Cycladic civilization (about 3200 BC - about 1100 BC) was spread over the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea. Alas, only a few types of objects were found, mostly small marble figures of women (probably goddesses). There are yet no traces of a "Pelasgian" civilization. Various Greek authors from the classical Greek period (about 1100 BC - about 300 AD) used the word Pelasgian for the inhabitants of Greece before the classical period, but they differed in identifying the origin of this group: either the ancestors of the classical Greeks or a number of tribes replaced by the classical Greeks.

Answer: Running

While several other civilizations held occasionally some athletic contests, the Greek were the first to organise the games on a regular basis. Tradition has it that the first of these regularly planned games were held in 776 BC, in the vicinity of the village Olympia - hence the name. They would be held every four years, and every city in the whole Greek world would end their wars by a peace agreement or a truce to enter the athletic competition.

The first Olympic Games had only one event: the running competition over a short distance, the stade (stadion), approximately 200 m. Later the diaulos (running twice the stadion, so approximately 400 m) and the long-distance run the dolichos (about 3,000 m) were added. In 708 BC wrestling was added, as well as the pentathlon: a set of the stadion, the javelin throw and discus throw, the long jump and wrestling. Next came boxing, the chariot race and pankration (a sort of mixed martial arts).

All these sports were competed in the nude, except the chariot races. And a typically clothed event was the hoplitodromos: a run in full body armour.

Answer: Draco

Draco lived at the end of the seventh century BC in Athens, but little is known of his personal life. About 622 BC he ordered that his compilation of laws would be written down, so that any learned citizen could consult the same version. As usual in that time, many crimes were punished by death. But one of the most interesting developments (given the time frame) was the differentiation between killing someone by accident and deliberate killing. In case of accidental killing, the punishment was exile, combined with some sort of compensation for the family of the deceased.

Lycurgus (about 820 BC) may have proclaimed the set of laws that shaped Spartan government. But Lycurgus may also have been a mythical person. Pheidon lived form about 710 BC until about 670 BC. He would have compiled law codes for the city of Corinth. Philolaus (about 399 BC) was a Pythagorean philosopher, who would have written down some laws for the Thebans.

Answer: Acheamenid Empire

Ancient Greece did not only comprise the mainland and islands which we nowadays call Greece, but also several city-states along the coasts of present Turkey, Ukraine, southern Italy, Spain, France, and northern Africa. Inland Turkey was one of the provinces of the Achaemenid Empire, better known as the Persian Empire.

In 547 BC the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great subdued the Greek city states on the Turkish shores (the so-called Ionian states), so that they had to pay taxes to Persia. Cyrus also appointed Persian-minded tyrants as head of state of these city states.

In 499 BC one of these tyrants tried in vain to conquer the Greek island of Naxos. The defeat of the Persians by the small island of Naxos, inspired several Ionian cities to revolt and get rid of their Persian-minded heads of state as well of their tax duties. The Persian Emperor, Darius I, needed several years to quell this revolt, which was supported by some of the Greek mainland city-states (such as Athens and Eretria).

So Darius developed the plan to invade the Greek mainland and conquer all city-states up till the east shore of the Balkan peninsula. But the Athenian army (although outnumbered) defeated the Persian landing troops at Marathon. Darius died and was succeeded by Xerxes I, who took to war on Greece once more in 480 BC. After a Pyrrhic victory over the hardcore of the Spartan army near Thermopylae (10,000 Persians had a hard time to defeat 300 Spartans) and a spectacular defeat of the Persian navy at Salamis (near Athens), the Persian Empire was forced to retreat and defend their Turkish inland positions.

A few sources cite the Peace of Callias (449 BC) as the formal end of the Persian wars. Other sources, however, state that over time hostilities abated and that there was not a specific peace treaty or cease-fire.

Answer: Hippocrates

Hippocrates was born on the island of Kos around 460 BC, and died in Larissa (Thessaly, north-central Greece) around 370 BC. He worked as a physician, and is likely the first person to claim that diseases have natural causes - they are no result of the intervention of the various deities. Hippocrates would typically observe the symptoms to reach a diagnosis of what was wrong with the patient, predict the further development if no care was taken, and tried to apply adequate care. For instance if the symptom was an upset stomach, Hippocrates would prescribe a light diet for a few days.

Present-day medicine has evolved quite a lot since, but the medical doctors still swear the Hippocratic oath to exercise medicine in a professional way, with as first aim not to harm the patient.

Herodotus (ca 484 BC - ca 425 BC) is considered the "father of history". Socrates (ca 470 BC - 399 BC) was one of the main Greek philosophers. Sophocles (ca 497 BC - 405 BC) is one of the best-known authors of Greek tragedies, together with Aeschylus (ca 525 BC - ca 455 BC) and Euripides (ca. 480 BC - ca 406 BC).

Answer: Philosopher

Stageira is a small town in Chalkidiki, in the northern part of Greece. Most inhabitants of Stageira whose name has survived centuries of history, were close family members of Aristotle: his father Nicomachus, his sister Arimneste, his wife Herpilys.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) studied philosophy under Plato. At that time, philosophers tried to understand several very different subjects. And indeed, Aristotle dealt with logic, biology, physics, and ethics. In biology, for instance, he differentiated mammals and birds as warmblooded animals from the coldblooded reptilians and fish, and other animals without blood (such as cephalopods and insects).

Other people from Chalkidiki have inspired me for the red herrings: Paeonius of Mende (Fifth century BC) was a sculptor, Aristobulus of Cassandreia (375 BC - 321 BC) was a historian and Poseidippus of Cassandreia (310 BC - 240 BC) was a poet, author of comedies.

Answer: Actium is near the Greek coast

Only one of the given options is a fact: Actium is still a small settlement in western Greece, about 20 kilometers north of the entrance of the Gulf of Corinth. Although a small settlement, it has a local aeroport with flights to London.

The Battle of Actium in 31 BC opposed the Roman legions led by Octavian to the Roman legions led by Mark Anthony and his Egyptian wife Cleopatra. As the Roman-Egyptian navy seemed to be annihilated, Cleopatra sailed away, shortly followed by Mark Anthony. A few months later, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra committed suicide, and Egypt became a Roman province.

Greece had already been a Roman province since 146 BC (the Battle of Corinth).
According to popular history, Mark Anthony requested in his last will and testimony to be buried in Egypt, side by side with Cleopatra. However, as this document is lost, we don't know for sure what it stipulated. If Mark Anthony did indeed request to be buried in Egypt, his request was not fulfilled: Octavian granted him and Cleopatra a funeral service in Rome.

Answer: Constantine XI Paleologos

Greek colonists founded the city of Byzantium (renamed Constantinople by Emperor Constantine I, and nowadays known as Istanbul) on the edge of Europe and Asia. This strategic location explains how this city gained a tremendous influence, even replacing Rome around 476 AD as what people could consider the world's capital.

The Byzantine Empire had three main aspects: the Roman organization of an empire (with of course the Roman military organization into legions), the Greek language, and the Christian religion. The Byzantine Empire continued until 1453 AD, when the Ottoman Empire finally conquered the city of Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul. The last of the Byzantine Emperors would have mounted a horse and charged into the Ottoman army, never too be seen again.

The last Byzantine Emperor was Constantine XI Palaiologos, who shared his first name with the first Byzantine Emperor, Constantine I the Great. Born in 1405, Constantine XI reached the throne in 1449. When the Ottoman Empire sieged Constantinople in 1453, odds were really unfavourable for Constantine: he was largely outnumbered, according to some sources even 14 to 1.

Romanos IV Diogenes was the Byzantine Emperor between 1068 AD and 1071 AD.
John VI ruled between 1347 AD and 1354 AD. Basil II was one of the longest ruling Byzantine Emperors from 976 AD - 1025 AD.

Answer: Greek independence was not yet internationally recognised

The Greek War of Independence started in 1821 against the Ottoman empire with a few distinct mutinies. In 1822, the Greeks published a Declaration of Independence, but the main other European nations did not recognise this Declaration. Only in 1827 the UK, France and Russia sent navy support to the Greeks, and they started negotiating the future independence.

The National Assembly at Troezen (1827) declared that Greece would be a Republic, led by Ioannis Kapodistrias as a "governor" - internationally considered as equal to a Prime Minister, although he had about the same powers as a President. But while Greece and the Ottoman Empire continued their war, the other European nations were still negotiating. Only in 1830 France, Russia and the UK formally recognized the Greek independence in the London Protocol.

Iooannis Kapodistrias was murdered in 1831, and then the European powerful nations decided to annul the republic and make Greece a monarchy, under king Otto I (who happened to be a Bavarian).

Answer: Literature

Giorgios Seferis (1900-1971) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963 for his lyric poetry. The second Greek to win any Nobel Prize, was the poet Odysseas Elytis (1911-1996), the 1979 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Does this mean that Greeks have made no great efforts in any of the other categories? Not at all, but there are each year so many people worthy for a Noble Prize, and Greece is after all a rather small country. Some other countries with about the same population are Azerbaijan and Honduras (both without Nobel Prize winners in the Twentieth Century), Portugal and Czechia. Five Czechs won four different Nobel Prize categories during the Twentieth Century, while two Portuguese won in different categories during the Twentieth Century.