A Panoply of Trivia 6 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Great Britain

Steve Redgrave comes from the town of Marlow on the River Thames, a center for rowing. He first competed in the 1984 Los Angeles games and won gold in the men's coxed fours. In 1988, the Seoul Olympics, Redgrave won a gold medal for the coxless pairs and a bronze medal in the coxed pairs. Four years later, the Barcelona games, he again won gold in the coxless pairs, as he did in Atlanta 1996. Finally, in the 2000 Sydney games, he won a fifth gold medal for the coxless fours.

When he retired from the sport, Steve Redgrave became Great Britain's most decorated rower and fourth-most decorated athlete. In 1987 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), and then in 1997 he was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Since 2001 he has been allowed to use the honorific title "Sir".

Answer: Saint-Denis

The Basilica of Saint-Denis is an ancient cathedral in a suburb north of Paris. Originally build in 1144, this was an abbey church that is recognized by many to be the archetype of Gothic architecture, using all of the typical elements in its construction. It was built over a Roman cemetery and became very important for the French monarchy.

The Kings of France except Charlemagne, Louis XI, Charles X, and Louis Philippe I are all buried at this location, as well as many Queens of France. Even Louis XVII's heart was laid to rest at Saint-Denis (though his body was tossed into an unmarked grave). The royal regalia were also kept here, as well as the relics of the actual Saint Denis.

Answer: Circe

Circe was a minor character in Greek mythology that had the knowledge of herbs and potions to turn people who wronged her (or that she just didn't like) into animals. She was said to be the daughter of the goddess Hecate and Aeëtes or perhaps the daughter of the god Helios and Perse, a nymph of the ocean. She lived on the island of Aeaea, which is surmised to be somewhere close to Italy.

As depicted in the "Iliad", when Odysseus returns from the Trojan War, he stops on the island of Aeaea. Circe welcomes the sailors to a feast where she drugs them and they turn into swine. Odysseus is warned by the suspicious Eurylochus, and he secures his men's freedom in exchange for him living a year with Circe, after he is helped by the gods.

Answer: Stormont

The Assembly sits at Stormont, an estate in Belfast, Northern Ireland. From the name of the estate, the assembly gets its name. The Tionól Thuaisceart Éireann is the legislature of the country of Northern Ireland in the kingdom of the United Kingdom. Though the body has had some really stormy politics in the past, it has some autonomy over areas which are not nationally governed, like choosing a First Minister, health, finance, and education within the country.

Sunningdale was the name of the 1973 agreement between Britain and the Northern Irish to create power-sharing between the two entities. The agreement collapsed in 1974 due to civil unrest.

Answer: Jane Austen

Elizabeth Bennett, Mr. Darcy and Lady Catherine de Burgh are leading characters in the novel "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. She was an English author who wrote six novels that became the core of her work. "Sense and Sensibility", "Emma" and "Mansfield Park" and the aforementioned were the books that made Austen's writing prominent, while "Northanger Abbey" and "Persuasion" were both published posthumously.

Her work gained momentum after her death and she has often been cited as one of the authors who best used irony and social commentary in her works. There have been many films, television shows, and other literary works that have been influenced by Jane Austen's body of work.

Answer: On Mars

Olympus Mons is a massive shield volcano that can be found on Mars. It is so high, in fact, that the peak is two-and-a-half times higher above the Martian surface than Everest is above Earth's sea level. As far as humans have seen, it is the largest volcano in the Solar System as well as the highest mountain.

As far as the area of the volcano itself, it is roughly the size of the country of Italy, though rounder in shape.

Answer: Moana Pasifika

Moana Pasifika are a Rugby Union team that was first created in December of 2020 for a match against the Maori All-Blacks. However, the popularity of the side allowed the league to push for the creation of a more permanent team which was granted an unconditional license to play in 2022. Their first match was in March of that year, a loss to the Canterbury Crusaders.

Moana Pasifika was initially based out of South Auckland, New Zealand, and consists of players from the Pacific islands, or players whose heritage comes from these places.

Answer: Joseph Stalin

Leon Trotsky was born Lev Bronstein in Yankova, in the Russian Empire. Though he was born wealthy, he was enamoured with the idea of Communism and wanted to replace the Tsar with a people's government. Though he was one of the leaders of the Russian Revolution of 1905, which ultimately failed, he did not return to Russia until after the successful 1917 February Revolution. He was able to become a key player in the October Revolution of 1917.

As a friend of Vladimir Lenin, Trotsky was very involved in Soviet politics in the infancy of the Soviet Union. However, when Lenin passed away, Joseph Stalin, the new leader, saw Trotsky as a rival. Trotsky was eventually exiled and made his way to Mexico after many years. In 1940, Trotsky was murdered with an ice pick by an NKVD agent under the orders of Stalin.

Answer: Turkey

The city of Byzantium was founded in the seventh century BCE by the Greeks and the name is likely Thracian. It was created in order to guard the entrance to the Black Sea and the city of Chalcedon was founded on the Asian side of the strait in order to counter it. Nearly a thousand years after it was founded, the Roman emperor Constantine replaced his capital, Rome, with Byzantium and renamed the city Nova Roma. A few years later, he had a change of heart and renamed the city after himself, Constantinopolis, or, anglicized, Constantinople.

Today, the city of Istanbul is the largest city in the country of Turkey. It is the economic and cultural hub of the country, though not the capital. The final renaming happened in 1930.

Answer: Hinduism

Diwali is a celebration of light and is a festival that takes place around the end of October or the beginning of November. It's celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and some Buddhists. Though it originated in India, the festival is now celebrated worldwide during the Hindu month of Kartika. The festival itself lasts five days.

Diwali is most commonly associated with the Hindu goddess of prosperity, Lakshmi, though other associations also exist. In the Hindu tradition, people light up their homes and decorate them, wear their finest clothes, share food and gifts, and often light fireworks. The third day of the festival is the Lakshmi Puja, and this is considered the main day of Deepawali (Diwali).