Wise Owl Trivia Quiz

Answer: Zeus swallowed her when she became pregnant

In Hesiod's "Theogony", one of the major sources for Greek mythology, Metis ("wise counsel") was one of the daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, who became Zeus' first wife. However, it had been prophesied that Metis would bear very powerful - and dangerous - children: a daughter who would be wiser than her father, and a son who would eventually overthrow him. In order to avoid this fate, Zeus followed the advice of his grandparents, Uranus and Gaea, and swallowed Metis when she was already pregnant with Athena. The goddess grew in Zeus' mind, and eventually emerged from her father's head, fully grown and clad in her armour (as shown on the vase on the photo). In other sources, Zeus had his son, Hephaestus, split his head open with an axe to let Athena out.

The three wrong answers all refer to the fates of various characters of Greek myth. Semele was incinerated when she beheld Zeus in all his glory, though their son, Dionysus, survived. Niobe was turned to stone (though not by Hera) after all her 14 children were killed by Apollo and Artemis, while Eurydice, Orpheus' wife, died when a venomous snake bit her.

Answer: virginity

Since the beginnings of the Greek civilization, Athena was the tutelary deity of the city of Athens, and is likely to have been named after the city rather the other way round. In her aspect of protector of Athens and its fortified citadel, the Acropolis ("high city"), she was known as Athena Polias. In the foundation myth of Athens narrated by various sources, Athena won a contest with Poseidon over the patronage of the city by planting the first domesticated olive tree: in fact, an olive tree still stands on the north side of the Acropolis, in front of the Erechtheion, the temple dedicated to Athena Polias

Built on the Acropolis in the 5th century BC, the Parthenon takes its name from "Parthenos", meaning "virgin", one of Athena's major attributes. Athena was one of a trio of virgin goddesses together with Artemis and Hestia: the three of them were reputed to be impervious to the powers of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and lust. This particular feature of Athena has been interpreted as stemming from her peculiar birth and her close relationship to her father, as well as from her quintessentially intellectual nature.

As the patron goddess of crafts, Athena was given the epithet of "Ergane" ("the industrious one"), while "Promachos" ("she who fights in front") referred to her skill as a military leader and strategist. While the temple dedicated to Athena Nike ("victory") still stands on the Acropolis, the colossal bronze statue of Athena Promachos sculpted by Phidias was destroyed in the early 13th century.

Answer: its keen eyesight

The little owl (named "Athene noctua" in 1822 by German zooloogist Friedrich Bole) is found in much of temperate Eurasia, including Greece - where it seems to have been particularly abundant in antiquity. According to some scholars, the association of Athena with the owl may be rooted in the deity's origins as a Minoan or pre-Indo-European bird or snake goddess. In Ancient Greek art Athena was often depicted with an owl hovering near her, or perched on her hand.

After 5010 BC, Athenian tetradrachms (shown in the photo) - large silver coins that became the standard currency of the ancient world - bore the image of the little owl on the reverse, and Athena's head on the obverse. The owl is accompanied by an olive sprig and a crescent moon. These coins were known as "glaux", the Greek name of the little owl, which has the same root as the adjective "glaukos", meaning "silvery-grey" or "bluish-green". The most common Homeric epithet of Athena, "Glaukopis", often translated as "bright-eyed" or "grey-eyed", is likely to have meant "owl-eyed". The owl's distinctive eyes and keen night vision have been interpreted as a metaphor for Athena's wisdom and intellectual brilliance.

Answer: aegis

Though often depicted as a shield in the art of the Renaissance and later eras, in ancient Greek art Athena's aegis took most often the shape of a short cloak bearing the "Gorgoneion" - that is, Medusa's severed head, gifted to the goddess by Perseus. The name of this device - also associated with Zeus, though rarely featured in ancient art - has been interpreted in various ways: it is, however, likely to have derived from "aigos", the genitive form of "aix", meaning "goat". The goat in question may have been Amalthea, who suckled the infant Zeus on the island of Crete. As the Roman mosaic (3rd century AD) in the photo shows, the aegis was often depicted as being fringed with snakes.

In modern English, the expression "being under someone's aegis" has come to mean "being protected or sponsored by a powerful or benevolent source".

The caduceus (a staff entwined by two snakes) and the petasos (a winged hat) were attributes of Hermes, the messenger of the Olympians. The thyrsus, on the other hand, was a staff tipped by a pine cone that symbolized Dionysus, the god of wine.

Answer: half-brothers

Heracles and Perseus were the offspring of two of Zeus' many dalliances with mortal women. Athena helped Perseus, the son of Zeus and Danae, in his quest to behead Medusa, the fearsome, snake-haired Gorgon who could turn people to stone with her gaze. In order to avoid such a fate, the goddess gave Perseus a mirrored shield, which allowed the hero to slay Medusa without looking directly at her. At the end of his adventures, Perseus gifted Athena with the head of Medusa, which the goddess placed on her aegis.

Heracles was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, a granddaughter of Perseus and Andromeda. Athena assisted him in some of his twelve labours - namely, the slaying of the many-headed Lernaean Hydra, the fight against the Stymphalian birds, and his journey to Hades to fetch the three-headed dog Cerberus. After his death, Heracles ascended to Olympus and married Hebe, the daughter of Zeus and Hera, becoming Athena's brother-in-law. The goddess herself carried the hero to Olympus in her chariot to present him to Zeus. In the photo, Athena is depicted pouring wine for the resting Heracles, who is wearing the skin of the Nemean lion.

Athena also helped other prominent heroes, such as Bellerophon, Jason, and Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. Like other Olympian deities, she also took an active role during the Trojan War.

Answer: Ajax

During the Trojan War, Athena sided with the Greeks, in retaliation against the judgment of Paris (one of the sons of Priam, the Trojan king), who had chosen Aphrodite as the fairest. Though Athena's protection extended to the whole of the Greek army, she did have her favourites - in particular, Odysseus and his close friend, Diomedes. However, when Greek warriors earned her displeasure through some egregious action, they were were punished accordingly.

After the death of Achilles, Ajax Telamon, also known as Ajax the Great, one of the strongest warriors in the Greek camp, contended with Odysseus for the arms of the deceased hero. Thanks to Athena's support, Odysseus won the arms, and Ajax, in a fit of jealousy, tried to kill him and other Greek leaders. As told in Sophocles' tragedy "Ajax", Athena clouded his mind, so that Ajax slaughtered a herd of cattle, mistaking them for his enemies. When he regained his senses, he was so ashamed of his actions that he killed himself by falling on his sword.

After the fall of Troy, Ajax Oileus, or Ajax the Lesser, stormed into the temple of Athena on the Trojan acropolis - where the Palladion, a wooden effigy of the goddess, was kept - and raped Cassandra, Priam's daughter, who had taken refuge there. This event, narrated in Euripides' tragedy "The Trojan Women" and Virgil's "Aeneid", is depicted in the Pompeian fresco shown in the photo. Although Ajax managed to escape being sentenced to death for his sacrilege, the wrath of Athena pursued him when he was at sea, trying to return home at the end of the war: a storm wrecked Ajax's ship, and he and all his followers drowned.

Answer: Poseidon

Athena favoured Odysseus above all other Greek heroes because of his keen intellect and cunning. In the first book of the "Odyssey", she takes advantage of Poseidon's absence from Olympus to ask er father, Zeus, to allow Odysseus to return home to Ithaca after 20 years of absence. The hero was prevented from sailing home by Poseidon's wrath at Odysseus' blinding of the sea-god's son, the cyclops Polyphemus. While Athena is pleading on his behalf, Odysseus - who lost all his companions in a shipwreck - is being held by the nymph Calypso, in love with him and trying her best to make him forget his home and his duty.

Zeus accedes to his daughter's request, and together they try to find a way to allow the hero to return to Ithaca without stepping on Poseidon's toes. First of all, they send Hermes to Calypso's island to let her know that the gods want Odysseus to return home. Then Athena heads to Ithaca, taking on various disguises - including that of Mentor, an old friend of Odysseus - to advise the hero's son, Telemachus, on the best course of action against the overbearing suitors of his mother, Penelope. Once the hero is back in Ithaca, Athena helps him to regain his kingdom and his wife by disguising him as a beggar, then prompting Penelope to organize an archery competition that leads to the suitors' deaths. In the poem's final book, Athena - once again disguised as Mentor - is instrumental in brokering peace between Odysseus and the citizens of Ithaca, enraged at the suitors' fate.

Answer: he had killed his mother

"Eumenides" ("The Benevolent Ones") is the last part of the "Oresteia" trilogy, written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BC. The tragedy is the culmination of the story of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and supreme leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War. Pursued by the Erinyes (Furies) for having killed his mother, Clytemnestra (guilty of having murdered her husband), Orestes manages to find refuge in Athens, where he begs for Athena's help. The goddess sets up a trial with a jury of twelve Athenian citizens, Apollo as the defense, and the Furies as the prosecution. At the end of the trial, the votes are tied, so Athena casts the decisive vote in favour of Orestes. The goddess then persuades the Furies to accept the verdict and become a positive force rather than instruments of violent retaliation (hence the title of the play).

The events in "Eumenides" have been interpreted as the development of a system that guarantees justice through the law - in keeping with Athena's role as the patron of civilized society. According to another interpretation, the ending of the play marks the transition from a matriarchal to a patriarchal society: in fact, Athena states that she fully sides with men, and does not care about avenging the death of a woman who has slain her husband.

Orestes' sister, Iphigenia, had been sacrificed to Artemis by their father, Agamemnon, before the start of the Trojan War. Ajax Oileus had raped Cassandra, a priestess of Apollo, in the temple of Athena on the acropolis of Troy. Tantalus, an ancestor of Orestes, had killed his son and served his flesh to the gods at a banquet - for which crime he was famously punished in Tartarus, the Greek version of Hell.

Answer: cooking and baking

Hestia (the Roman Vesta), the goddess of home and hearth, and one of Zeus' sisters, was venerated as the patron of anything related to homemaking, while Athena was associated with more artistic (though traditionally also viewed as feminine) pursuits - such as needlework and weaving, as illustrated by the well-known myth of Arachne. In particular, Hestia presided over the baking of bread, the preparation of family meals, and the cooking of sacrificial meals. Demeter, another sister of Zeus, was mainly associated with the cultivation of grains and other foods: Athena, however, was believed to have invented many of the implements needed for agriculture, such as the plough and the rake.

Another of Athena's spheres of influence was engineering, a combination of science and craft involving the construction of walls, bridges, and other buildings needed both for defense and everyday life. Athena was also revered as the inventor of the chariot, and associated with shipbuilding and navigation. Together with Hephaestus, Athena was also venerated as the patron of metalworking; in some myths, she is described as having invented the flute and the trumpet. In brief, most aspects of a civilized life - including the organization of the state - were regarded as being Athena's domain.

The photo shows a Roman cooking hearth from the ruins of Pompeii.

Answer: Etruscans

Even before the Romans became the dominant power in the Italian peninsula, the Etruscan civilization had been deeply influenced by Greece; religion was one of the areas in which this influence was most keenly felt. Besides a number of indigenous deities, the Etruscans venerated a triad of higher deities that consisted of the sky god Tinia (Zeus, or Jupiter), his wife Uni (Hera, or Juno), and their daughter Menrva, which became the Roman Minerva. This Etruscan goddess shared many aspects with Athena - such as her association with war, wisdom, and art - but she was also venerated as the goddess of commerce and medicine. In addition, in Etruscan art she was often depicted as a lightning thrower - an attribute unique to Zeus in Greek mythology.

In Roman religion, Minerva was strongly connected to knowledge and scholarship (as well as defensive war), and worshipped in many locations in Rome and Italy, and later throughout the Roman Empire. One of the most important temples in Rome was dedicated to Minerva Medica (Minerva as patron of medicine), and stood on the Esquiline Hill.

The painting in the photo (found in the famous Cerveteri necropolis near Rome) illustrates the syncretism between Greek and Etruscan religion: Menrva is depicted carrying a spear, as the Greek Athena generally was, but wearing typical Etruscan attire, and holding a wreath (probably a laurel wreath, a symbol of victory) in her other hand.