Greek Mythical Masquerade Mixer 9 for 10 Quiz

Answer: Athena

Legend has it that Zeus impregnated Metis and then decided to eat her. If that doesn't sound weird enough, soon after, Zeus is complaining of a headache, and low and behold Athena pops out of his head as a full adult! Yeah, that makes sense, right? The other popular myth is that she has no mother at all and just popped out of Zeus' head. Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war. I didn't realize those two topics went together...but they do for the ancient Greeks!

Answer: Paris

If you break out the old Homer, you learn that Paris caused a bit of drama by bringing Helen home to meet his parents. They were in love (at least he was, anyway), and by ancient standards that is all that matters. As the story goes, the Greeks were having none of that and came to attack Troy.

The mightiest of the Greeks was Achilles who was almost immortal...after a lovely bath in the river Styx...except for his heel. Back to the siege on Troy...the legend goes that Apollo knew about Achilles' weakness and guided Paris's arrow to hit that one spot.

Unfortunately, the Iliad does not tell us how the heel wound actually killed Achilles, but myth does not have to make sense, does it?

Answer: Hades

Demeter would shudder at this one! So, Hades kidnaps Persephone and brought her to the underworld. Persephone did not read the service warranty and did not realize that eating a pomegranate seed would cause her to have to come back to the underworld every year! In fact, she ate four pomegranate seeds and thus had to spend four months out of every year with Hades! Yuck! Legend has it that we have winter because Demeter is too sad to keep things growing while her daughter is gone. Have you ever seen how big a pomegranate seed is?

Answer: Rhea

Rhea is the daughter of Gaia and the mother of Zeus. Apparently, her husband (and brother...) Cronus was given the prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him. Rather than stop having children, he chose to eat each child as soon as they were born! Rhea's maternal instincts kick in, and she hides her sixth child, Zeus, giving Cronus a rock to eat instead since it is so hard to tell the difference between a rock and a baby! Zeus does go on to overthrow his father and save his five other siblings who were apparently still alive in Dad's belly. Rhea's role as a goddess is reduced at this point, but she does continue to be the goddess of fertility and childbirth.

Answer: Oedipus

The tale of Oedipus is another story with a prophecy predicting son will kill Dad - in this case, King Laius of Thebes. So baby Oedipus is sent with a shepherd to be left out on a mountainside to die of exposure. But we finally have someone in our story with some compassion, and he instead passes the baby on to another shepherd. Oedipus grows up with a neighboring King Polybus and Queen Merope, not knowing the true origin of his birth.

He ends up with the Delphic prophecy of him not only killing his father but also marrying his mother! Ew! Gross! So logically, Oedipus left his home kingdom and went to the faraway kingdom of...(wait for it)...Thebes. On his way, he gets in a fight and kills a random old man along the way (hint, it was King Laius) and finds the city needs a champion to answer the riddle of the Sphinx. Being clever, he solves the riddle with no problem, saves the city, and marries the newly widowed queen...er...his mom, Queen Jocasta!

Answer: Dionysus

There are few mysteries more complex and confusing than the actual birth of Dionysus. What can be said is he is the god of grapes and wine...so he is the one you want at your party! Most stories have Dionysus growing up in the care of river nymphs, so it is not too surprising that he is also the god of insanity and madness.

He just gets more awesome! The mystery cult surrounding Dionysus is focused on letting go of inhibitions and channeling the god's power into oneself. Definitely crazy!

Answer: Io

Io was a chief priestess for the temple of Hera when she caught the eye of Zeus. In most myths, Io resisted Zeus's advances at first but eventually was overcome. Some say that Zeus turned Io into a cow to hide her from Hera, but of course, the goddess is too smart for that.

Other myths suggest that Hera was the one who turned Io into a cow out of anger and jealousy. Considering the fate of many of the mortals who end up displeasing the gods, maybe being a cow is not that bad after all.

Answer: Theseus

Theseus, of course, is the one who slays the minotaur! The legend goes that the son of King Minos was murdered in Athens, but the Athenian King, Aegeus, did not know who the murderer was. So to placate King Minos, the Athenians would send seven young men and seven women to Crete to be placed in the labyrinth to face the minotaur. King Aegeus' son, Theseus, volunteers to go and promises to defeat the minotaur to free the Athenians of the pledge. King Minos's daughter Ariadne falls in love with Theseus and helps him by giving him a ball of string to help trace his path through the maze.

In return, Theseus promised to bring Ariadne back with him to Athens. Theseus wins and takes the girl...and drops her off on an island along the way before heading back to Athens. Smooth! Regretfully, Theseus does not change the color of the flags on his ship from black, and the old King Aegeus thinks he is dead and kills himself.

Answer: Eros

Eros is the son of the god of war, Ares, and the god of love Aphrodite (don't think too hard about why Ares is his dad instead of her husband, Hephaestus). He has wings, and it seems like Eros decided to take after his mother. Legend has it he would use his bow and arrow to pierce the hearts of mortals and gods alike to cause them to fall in love. One story says that Aphrodite was jealous of the mortal woman, Psyche, who was very beautiful. Aphrodite wanted her son to cause Psyche to fall in love with the ugliest man he could find...but Eros fell in love with Psyche instead!

Answer: Aphrodite

If you answered all the questions correctly, you will realize that your special host is Aphrodite the goddess of love! One myth has her being born out of sea foam from a body part that the god Uranus was no longer using. Another suggests she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione the Titaness.

There are a few stories that explain why Aphrodite became the wife of Hephaestus. In one story, Zeus married Aphrodite off to Hephaestus quickly before the other gods could fight over her. In another story, Hephaestus made Hera a throne of gold and trapped her on it until she agreed to give Aphrodite to him as a wife.

When Aphrodite was unfaithful by being with Ares, one legend suggests Hephaestus went back to Zeus and demanded his dowry back!