Famous Figures from Ancient Greece Quiz

Answer: Historian

Herodotus lived in the 5th century BC and is best known for his work entitled 'The Histories', in which he gives an account of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars. He was born in Halicarnassus, which was then part of the Persian Empire and is now the seaside city of Bodrum. He is referred to as the 'Father of History', a term coined by the Roman writer and orator Cicero.

Answer: Thucydides

Thucydides was an Athenian historian who lived in the 5th century BC. His 'History of the Peloponnesian War' chronicles the course of this war, in which the Peloponnesian League, headed up by Sparta, fought against the Delian League, headed up by Athens.

The war ran from 431 to 404 BC and was won by Sparta after the destruction of the fleet of Athens in the Battle of Aegospotami. Herodotus wrote about the Greco-Persian Wars. Xenophon was an ancient Greek philosopher, historian and soldier. Polybius was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period.

Answer: Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great, also known as Alexander III of Macedon, lived from 356 to 323 BC and became king of Macedon at the age of 20 upon the assassination of his father, Philip II. By the time he was 30, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, extending from Greece all the way to northwest India. He is credited with being one of the most successful military commanders of all time. His tutor in his youth was the philosopher Aristotle. He died in Babylon at the age of 32 and was succeeded by Philip III.

Answer: Aristophanes

Aristophanes lived from approximately 446 to 386 BC. He is known as the 'Father of Comedy', and his works include 'The Clouds', 'The Wasps' and 'The Birds'. His play 'Lysistrata' tells the story of how the Greek women, led by Lysistrata, deny sex to their men in an attempt to force them to negotiate peace and thus bring to an end the Peloponnesian War that is being waged between the Greek city states. Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus were all tragedians.

Answer: Samos

Pythagoras of Samos lived from approximately 570 to 495 BC, but he was not just a mathematician. He was also a philosopher and was well known for his political and religious teachings. He was a proponent of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which maintains that the soul is immortal and upon death enters a new body. He is also credited with various scientific and mathematical discoveries, including the fact that our planet is spherical and that the morning and evening stars are both the planet Venus.

Answer: Pericles

Pericles was a very famous and influential statesman during the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He transformed the Delian League into an Athenian empire, and such was his impact that this period is also known as the 'age of Pericles'. He was the son of the politician Xanthippus and his wife Agariste. He died of the plague in 429 BC. Diogenes and Heraclitus were philosophers. Draco was a legislator renowned for the harshness of his laws.

Answer: Lesbos

Sappho (also spelled Psappho) was a much admired Greek poet. Her poetry is described as lyric because it was written to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre. She was born on the island of Lesbos, which is the third largest of the Greek islands and lies in the North Aegean cluster.

Answer: Hippocrates

Hippocrates of Kos was a Greek physician during the age of Pericles. He founded the Hippocratic School of Medicine, which set medicine apart form other fields of study and led to the establishment of medicine as a profession in its own right. His approach to medicine was both holistic and ethical.

He is thought to be the first physician to accurately describe the symptoms of pneumonia and epilepsy. He is strongly associated with the Hippocratic Oath, which is still sworn by physicians today. Socrates, Aristotle and Plato were all famous philosophers.

Answer: How to measure the volume of an irregular object

As the story goes, Archimedes' excitement was caused by his observation of a rise in the water level when he lowered himself into his bath and his realization of the implications of this, namely that it could be used to measure the volume of irregularly shaped objects and then used, together with their weight, to determine their density.

He was so excited and so keen to spread word of his discovery that he forgot to get dressed and ran round the streets naked crying "Eureka". He is widely regarded as the greatest mathematician of ancient times and invented the Archimedes screw and the Archimedes claw.

He did calculate an approximate value for pi, but this is not what got him so excited. Hero of Alexandria developed the siphon principle. As far as I know, despite considerable efforts to this end, no-one has succeeded in turning base metals into gold.

Answer: Pythia

The Ancient Greeks believed that their oracles were inspired by the gods and were able to see into the future and give wise advice and counsel. The most famous oracle of all was that of Delphi, also known as the Pythia (from the word 'Pytho', the former name of Delphi).

The Pythia was the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo. Dodona was an oracle identified with the Mother Goddess. Trophonius was an oracle at Lebadea, a town in central Greece. Menestheus is not an oracle but the name of a place in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, where an oracle practised.