Animals in the Ancient World Trivia Quiz

Answer: Snake

Plutarch in his "Life of Alexander" relates that Olympias had been initiated into the rites of Dionysos and Orpheus, which involved snake-handling, and that Philip, her husband, once saw her in bed with a large serpent. This snake was later identified as the god Zeus Ammon in serpent form, who was considered to be the "real" father of Alexander. Unlike Appalachian snake-handling which uses venomous snakes, these creatures were tame and non-venomous.

Answer: Peacock

The peacock, called "taos" in Greek and "pavo" in Latin, came originally from India (where today it is that country's national bird) and became known in ancient Greece through contact with the Persian Empire in the 5th century BC. One Athenian ambassador to Persia brought back peacocks, which his son would display to the public on the first day of each month.

Answer: Sparrow

These two poems (Catullus 2, 3) are known as the "passer" poems -- the Latin word for "sparrow" and used today for the family of "true sparrows". In one poem the bird is alive and well and hopping about playfully in his girl friend's lap; in the other, she is inconsolable because it has died. In the ancient world, sparrows were kept as pet songbirds.

Answer: Ferret

The cat seems not to have been known to the classical Greeks, and the domestic animal kept to control mice and other vermin was the "galé", a word usually translated as "weasel". It is more likely to have been a ferret, a creature that has long been domesticated.

Answer: Dormouse

This creature, whose scientific name is "glis glis", is usually known in English as the "edible dormouse", and is native to central and southern Europe. They are called "edible" as they had a special place at high-class Roman banquets. They were usually fattened on a diet of nuts and then served roasted with honey or stuffed with pinenuts.

A well-nourished dormouse can weigh up to half a pound.

Answer: Fox

Plutarch (late 1st century AD) tells this story on a couple of occasions, in both cases ending with the death of the boy who in good Spartan fashion refused to give in to his pain and as his last words maintained that it was better to die without yielding to the pain than to live with the disgrace of being detected.

The fox ("alopex" in Greek) was well-known as a creature of cunning and cleverness, and was a character in several of the fables of Aesop.

Answer: Elephants

This is a famous story told by the historian Livy and others. Hannibal and his Carthaginian army were based in Spain and because the Romans were expecting an invasion by sea, he marched his army through southern France and over the Alps to invade Italy from the north. Losses to men, pack animals and elephants were significant during this crossing, but Hannibal took Rome entirely by surprise. Today two species of elephants are generally recognised: Asian and African.

The evidence suggests that in warfare the ancient Greeks and Romans employed Indian elephants, with which the conquests of Alexander would have made them familiar.

Answer: Geese

A tribe of Gauls seeking new land to settle, invaded Italy sometime between 390 and 387 BC and defeated the Roman army at the battle of the River Allia. The Romans fled to Rome and took refuge in the fortifications on the Capitoline Hill. The Gauls staged a night attack via a secret path that the Romans had neglected to guard, but they disturbed the sacred geese of the goddess Juno who raised such a clamour that the attack was detected and repulsed. All gray geese are of the genus Anser, a common species being the greylag goose which has the scientific name of Anser answer.

Answer: King Arthur - Cafall

Alexander is known for his horse Bucephalus ("Ox-Head"), for whom he named a city in what is now Pakistan. Napoleon, often shown as mounted on a horse, is known to have owned many horses. The most famous of these is Marengo, named for the scene of his decisive victory in 1800. Traveller, an American saddlebred, was the best known of several horses ridden by General Lee in the Civil War, and followed the carriage at Lee's funeral in 1870.

It doesn't matter whether or not King Arthur was a real ruler, hidden by legend, since Cafall was his dog, not his horse.

Answer: Cod

Although the Greeks were a sea-going people, fish were not a mainstay of their diet, but were rather considered as something special. The octopus ("polypous" in Greek) was common in Greek waters, but needed to be made tender by beating. It was also considered an aphrodisiac.

The tuna ("thynnos") was especially prized for its fat and juicy steaks, while the giant eel ("engchelys") was one of the great delicacies of a Greek feast. On the other hand, the cod belongs to northern waters and is rarely found in the Mediterranean.