Cryptic Clues: Deities Trivia Quiz

Answer: Zeus

Zeus is the head of the Greek pantheon of gods, brother of Poseidon and Hades. His domain is the sky, and his weapon the thunderbolt. Also, he likes the ladies - much to the dismay of his sister / wife, Hera. As for the clue... "Canal" is SUEZ, as in the Suez canal, dug by the French in the 1860s and located in Egypt. "Backwards" means just that, so you get ZEUS. Yes, it's best to start off with an easier one.

Answer: Ra

Ra, or Re, is the Egyptian god of the mid-day sun. The sun is said to be his flashing eye, or sometimes his whole body, as he traverses the sky in his flying boat. He created himself from the primordial waters, then created other gods, and finally humans (out of his tears).

This clue is a deletion. "Rat" = RAT. "Has no time" indicates you take off the T (that letter indicating "time"). Thus, RA(t) = RA.

Answer: Apollo

Apollo, twin brother of Artemis, is Greek god of prophecy, poetry, some arts, flocks, and archery. He is also identified with the sun, and in some accounts drives the sun chariot across the sky. This clue is standard charade. "A" = A. "Survey" = POLL. "Indicates zero" = O (because while O is not zero, but a letter, it *stands for* zero). A + POLL + O.

Answer: Osiris

Osiris is an Egyptian god who was killed by his brother Set. His sister / wife Isis found his body, reassembled it, and impregnated herself. The resulting son defeated Seth later, but Osiris stayed on in the underworld as a judge of the dead. This is another charade clue. "Oh" = O. "A lord" = SIR, the address for a lord. "Is" = IS. (How simple!) O + SIR + IS.

Answer: Heracles

Heracles, the Greek god of strength (spelled Hercules in the Roman tradition), is the son of Zeus. He is most famous for performing the twelve labors (killing the Hydra, clean the Augean stables, capture the girdle of the queen of the Amazons, etc). These tasks were actually acts of repentance for killing his children in a mad fit (probably brought on by his jealous mother-in-law Hera).

This is a clue of deletion and substitution. "Chains" = MANACLES. "Man is taken away" = ACLES. "Some woman" = HER, so "replacing" MAN with HER gives you HER + (man)ACLES = HERACLES.

Answer: Tlaloc

Tlaloc is the Aztec god of rain, fire, agriculture, and is associated with both water and the moon. Supposedly, he required a yearly sacrifice of drowned children to appease his wrath (which came in the form of lightning and, oddly, leprosy). The clue is a reversal with an embedded word. "Young horse" = COLT. "Running backwards" = TLOC. "Takes a left" means put A L. somewhere in the word. So you get TL (A L.) OC.

Answer: Ganesh

Ganesh, or Ganesa, or Ganesha, is the elephant-headed god of wisdom and luck in the Indian pantheon. The son of Siva, he was given his pachydermic features as an infant when he lost his original head as a result of his father's anger or carelessness (the accounts differ). Either way, after the incident, the lord Shiva took the first head he could find and popped it on his son's body.

The fact that it was an elephant's made no difference to him. Fathers can be so careless. This clue is your basic anagram. "Badly" is the clue to rearrange the words close by: "he sang" becomes GANESH.

Answer: Thor

Thor is the Norse god of thunder, the son of Odin and husband to Sif, a fertility goddess. During thunderstorms, he is said to fly across the sky ina chariot pulled by his goats Tanngrisni and Tanngnost. He also causes lightning when he throws his hammer Mjollnir.

This clue is a homophone with a twist. "Fly" = SOAR. "Calls out loud" means it sounds like soar, but isn't spelled quit that way. And when "Daffy Duck" says it, you lisp the S sound. So you get THOAR = THOR.

Answer: Lugh

Lugh is the Celtic god of the sun, and celebrated for the fact that he had mastered every skill. According to one story, he desired to enter a city during a celebration, and was stopped by the gate-keeper. Only those who had a unique ability could enter. So Lugh listed all his talents: smith, poet, hero, warrior, magician, etc.

The gate-keeper replied that none of those talents were unique, but Lugh pointed out that having them all in one person was a unique gift. The gate-keeper admitted defeat and let Lugh in.

This is an insertion clue. "Fifty" = L as in the Roman numeral. "Uh" = UH. "take" = put the following words in the previous words. "A thousand" = G, American slang, short for grand, as in ten G's, meaning ten thousand dollars. So you get L + U(G)H.

Answer: Odin

Odin is the head of the Norse pantheon, father of Thor and Balder. He is the god of runes, wisdom, poetry and war. He is the image of the grizzled inhuman warrior, with one eye, riding an eight-legged steed, wielding a spear which never misses its target, and accompanied by his two wolves Freki and Geri.

He eats no food, but does drink copiously. His wisdom consists in small part of his ability to make the dead reveal their secrets. In keeping with his powers of revelation, this is a hidden clue. "Hides me" is the indicator of this wordplay. "Go(OD, I N)eed a..." I hope you enjoyed this quiz. Cryptics are hard to do, but they're just so satisfying when you unravel one!