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Answer: Heracles

In penance for slaying his own children in a fit of madness, the hero and later god Heracles undertook ten labors for his archnemesis Eurystheus. Heracles completed these seemingly impossible tasks without failure, but two of the tasks were discounted: one because he had the assistance of his nephew, and the other - cleaning the Augean stables in a single day - depending on source, either because he accepted payment or because he did not actually do the work himself, but relied on the power of a river he diverted into the buildings to do the actual task.

Answer: Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came

This is actually a double literary reference because the title of Browning's 1855 poem itself is a line from Act Three of Shakespeare's "Hamlet". This poem and the underlying saga of Roland's quest have not only inspired Stephen King but many other works, among them a radio play also entitled "The Dark Tower", a "Doctor Who" episode and Gordon R. Dickson's "Childe Cycle".

Answer: They were forgeries

Han van Meegeren was not your average creator of phony art but an expert. In his desire to create and sell fake paintings of Jan Vermeer, a Dutch 17th century painter, he not only studied and copied the style extremely well, but went as far as finding and using materials of the era so that it would not be possible to easily prove his works as fake.

In addition, he had chosen a period in Vermeer's life from which it was believed that far more paintings existed than were known, thus not making his "discovery" of further works too surprising.

Answer: Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band

Based on John Williams' brilliant score to the 1977 blockbuster "Star Wars: A New Hope", this disco track became an instant hit. The track was created by disco artist Meco, born Domenico Monardo. It was his first major release and his further work up to approximately 1985 all was based on adapting various highly recognizable soundtrack excerpts to the disco style.

Answer: Venetian

While similar to Italian, Venetian cannot actually be considered a dialect due to having a distinct vocabulary and clear differences in grammar and syntax. True to its name, this language is spoken in and around Venice. It preserves many aspects of Vulgar Latin (the variant of Latin spoken in the Middle Ages) in both its grammar and its phonetics.

Answer: Serbia

Plogojowitz, a Serbian peasant, died in 1725. However, the day after his burial, sightings of his risen self began and an unexplained wave of deaths - nine in just eight days - ravaged his village of Kisilova. Among his alleged victims was his son who was found brutally murdered.

The event was widely reported and rumors soon circulated. Plogojowitz's body was exhumed after those eight days and, although not showing any noticeable decomposition, it was decided to put a stake through its heart and then burn it. Paole's case was very similar in nature. Together, they were two of the earliest cases of vampire mass hysteria in that era.

Answer: Berlin, Germany

The gate Terry was looking at was Brandenburg Gate, in the middle of Berlin. During the separation of Germany from 1961 to 1990, the border actually went just around the gate in a semicircle with the gate itself being on East Berlin territory. The gate is situated on the famous Unter den Linden avenue, flanked by tilia ("Linde") trees on both sides.

The building he espied is the German Reichstag, burned down in 1933 and rebuilt in the 1990s to once again serve as the seat of the German parliament.

Answer: Lord of the Rigs

I am amazed that "Lord of the Rings", Tolkien's masterful fantasy epic about the courage of Frodo the Hobbit and his companions, is not part of the original quiz. Decades after its completion, this work has remained the defining origin of the high fantasy genre and few authors can claim to have created a world that was not inspired, at least in some aspects, by Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Answer: Chang and Eng Bunker

Born in 1811, Chang and Eng Bunker were conjoined twins whose bodies were connected at the chest. Today, this kind of ligature would be easily operated upon and separated in the first days of life since neither large blood vessels nor important nerves were involved in this particular case.

However, at the time this was not possible, so the two brothers lived their entire 63 year life connected. Both were married, and together they fathered 21 children. The term "Siamese twins" is derived from this pair whose birthplace was in Thailand (then named Siam).

In their native country, however, they are known as the "Chinese twins" based on their heritage.

Answer: Orpheus

Dear Cassandra:

You will surely be happy to hear that I am a man of principles and that resisting temptation is one of my strengths. As you will know, my music can charm the worst of the worst and if I were not resistant enough, I would not be able to play it.

So do not worry about my Eurydice, as soon as that treacherous satyr is done chasing her, I will pick her up from the clutches of the nether reaches and we shall live a long life of love and success as it is our due.

Yours truly,
Orpheus.

P.S. I guess I spoke too early. But how could I know she was that far behind me? I was sure it was less than a man's height!