Breezing Through Athens Trivia Quiz

Answer: Goddess of wisdom

Etymologists debate whether the city was named after the diety or vice versa.

According to Greek myth, when the city was formed, two Greek deities competed to become the patron of the yet to be named city. One was Poseidon, the god of the seas and the other was Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Both were to give the city a gift and the one chosen by the people would win. Poseidon gave the city a salt water spring (in some versions, he gave a horse) while Athena gave them an olive tree. The king of the city chose the latter and Athena became the patron goddess with the city named Athens in her honour.

Zeus was the god of thunder, and Artemis the goddess of the hunt.

Question by zorba_scank.

Answer: Clocktower

The Tower of the Winds is also known as Horologion of Andronikos Kyrrhestes. It is an ancient marble clocktower with some sources considering it to be the world's first meteorological station. The Tower of the Winds has a combination of sundials, water clocks and wind vanes and is believed to have been built as early as the second century BC. The structure also depicts eight wind deities of Greek myth.
The Tower of the Winds has served for some other uses, but never served as one of the false answers.

Question by zorba_scank.

Answer: Attica

Attica is the most populated of the thirteen Greek regions, with more than 35% of all Greek inhabitants. Furthermore it has the highest gross domestic product per capita (almost 27,000 EUR per inhabitant in 2008), although closely followed by the South Aegean.
Compared to the ancient region of Attica as the history books sketch it, present-day Attica has a greater surface area and includes not only nearby islands, but also a distant island named Cythera.
The three other regions mentioned here are among the poorer Greek regions, but not the poorest. Thessaly, Epirus and West Greece all had a GDP per inhabitant between 17,000 and 18,000 EUR in 2008. The poorest region is East Macedonia, with barely 15,000 EUR per inhabitant.

Question by JanIQ.

Answer: The Ottomans

Besides remains of several structures from the original Greeks, Athens has numerous monuments that were built by the Romans and Byzantines. Lesser known are the structures that were built by the Ottomans who conquered the city in 1458 and ruled it until the Greek War of Independence in the early 19th century. The Fethiye Mosque is one such monument. It is built over the ruins of an older Byzantine church. The present mosque structure was built in the mid-17th century. When the city was later occupied by Venetian forces, the mosque was converted to a Catholic church. Later it also served as a school, military barracks, prison and bakery. The mosque has since been completely restored and was opened to the public in 2017.

The Moors stayed mainly in Spain and the Mughals in India. Mongols did come to Athens, but did not build any structure there.

Question by zorba_scank.

Answer: Piraeus

All these are harbours in Europe. Piraeus is the harbour for Athens, and this at least since 700 BC.
Piraeus has found a place in the top ten in European container harbours in 2016, having surpassed since 2011 the ports of Istanbul (Turkey), Le Havre (France) and Barcelona (Spain).
As for passenger transport, the city of Piraeus has two different ports, both mentioned in the top 10 for 2015. The combined number of passengers from Piraeus itself and Perama (district Piraeus) may well make Piraeus the busiest European passenger harbour in 2015.

Aarhus is a Danish port, Rijeka is Croatian, and Lorient is one of many French ports.

Question by JanIQ.

Answer: Limestone

Mount Lycabettus, sometimes also called Lykavittos, stands 908 feet (300 m) above sea level and is the city's highest point. It can therefore be seen from almost all parts of the city. It is made of limestone that is considered to have been formed during the Cretaceous period. At the top of the hill is a 19th century chapel. Modern additions include a restaurant. The hill provides a clear view of the city and its most famous landmark, the Parthenon.

Question by zorba_scank.

Answer: Pottery

Kerameikos was the pottery quarter, where craftsmen produced pots, amphoras and vases, often finely decorated (even if the amphoras were made for daily use).
The name Kerameikos has given us the Latin word ceramicus, in which we can recognise present-day English ceramics (and similar words in French, Italian, Dutch and German).

Leather, mutton (prepared in butcher's shops) and fish (especially when it is no longer very fresh) cause typical odours which made these quarters not as respectable as others.

Question by JanIQ.

Answer: Styx

The Styx was according to Greek myth one of the main rivers of the underworld, more precisely the river that dead souls crossed (ferried by Charon).

The Ilisos river has been made into an underground canal, flowing below the street Kalliroes (literally "the one that flows beautifully").
The Cephissus river too is for a large part overarched, this one by a small part of the M1 motorway between Athens and Thessaloniki.
The Eridanos finally has already been overarched in ancient times, and only in the neighbourhood Kerameikos one can clearly follow the riverbed.

Question by JanIQ, who once studied ancient Greek.

Answer: The ancient Olympic Games were held there.

Incredibly enough, the ancient Olympic games were never held in Athens. The first Olympic Games were held in 776 B.C. in Olympia (hence the name), a settlement on the Peleponnese peninsula. The Olympics were dedicated to Zeus, chief of the gods.
Athens had its own competitions, the Panathenaic Games, starting in 566 B.C. and dedicated to the goddess Athena.
When the modern Olympic games were started up again in 1896, they were held in Athens.
All of the other statements are true about the amazing city of Athens.

Question by Shuehorn.

Answer: Chicago, IL, USA

Of the options mentioned, the only one that is widely known as "the Windy City" is Chicago. According to American sources, it entered into a sister-city relationship with Athens in 1997.
Oddly enough the Greek sources don't mention Chicago as sister-city of Athens. Official lists of the Greek government include Beijing and Bethlehem which both became sister cities of Athens in 1986 and Los Angeles, that joined the sisterhood in 2004.

Question by Shuehorn and JanIQ.