Glaucus Trivia Quiz

Answer: Minos and Pasiphae

Glaucus was a prince of Crete. He was the son of the great king Minos and Pasiphae. Minos was Zeus and Europa's son and his brothers were Sarpedon and Rhadamanthus. After his death he became one of the three judges of the dead in Hades.

Answer: No

Glaucus was one of the youngest members of his family. He had an older brother named Androgeus, who was killed in Athens, and a sister named Ariadne, who saved Theseus from the labyrinth and followed him. A lot of other mythological people were Minos' children, also.

Answer: Owl

The word "glaux" means "owl" in ancient Greek. From this root, comes the word "glaukos" that means "gleaming", because of the bird's distinctive eyes. Athena, who had the owl as her symbol, was called "glaukopis", that means "bright-eyed".

Answer: Polyeidos

Polyeidos was a wise seer from Lycia. His name means "he who sees/knows everything". Minos called him to Crete to help him find Glaucus, who had suddenly disappeared. Polyeidos went to Knossos and started searching for the child.

Answer: White - Red - Black

Minos, along with asking Polyeidos for help, asked the oracle to find where his son was. The oracle told him that an amazing animal from his herd would help find Glaucus. This animal was a calf, that was changing color three times a day. In the morning it was white, at noon it was red and in the evening it was black. Polyeidos understood that the colors were referring to mulberries and searched for a bush of this kind.

Answer: Both of these

Behind the mulberry bush that Polyeidos found, there was an opening at the wall of the palace. The wise seer entered and saw that he was inside a basement that was used as a depot. Then, he saw an owl chasing some bees and thought that there should have been some sort of correlation between Glaucus (the name comes from the Greek word for the owl, "glaux") and the honey (that was symbolized by the bees).

Answer: True

Polyeidos, after seeing the owl (that symbolized Glaucus, because "glaux" means owl in the ancient Greek language) and the bees (that symbolized honey), began searching the depot for casks of honey. In a cask, he found Glaucus dead, drowned.

Answer: Snake

Minos, mad because of his woe, ordered Polyeidos not to leave the basement until Glaucus was alive again. The seer was sure that he couldn't revive the child and decided to stay there until his death. Suddenly, he saw a snake and killed it with a stick. A few minutes later, another snake came and touched a herb to the nose of the other snake. Polyeidos took the herb and revived Glaucus.

Answer: False

Polyeidos was ordered by Minos to teach divination to Glaucus. The seer did it, though involuntarily. So, when the tuition was over and Polyeidos was free to leave Crete, he told Glaucus to spit in his mouth. When Minos discovered that, with this action, all the knowledge had returned to Polyeidos it was too late; the seer was away.

Answer: False

When Jason was ordered by Pelias to bring him the Golden Fleece in order to take the throne, the hero called a lot of friends to help him. These heroes were called Argonauts, after their ship, Argo. Glaucus was not an Argonaut; in fact, there isn't any story for him, except for his adventure when he was a child.