Myths of History Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva was an eleventh century figure who did in fact intercede on behalf of the people with her husband Leofric, the Earl of Mercia, to lower the heregeld tax which threatened death to those who did not pay. The first reference to her naked ride does not appear until the writings of Roger of Wendover in approximately 1236.

Answer: Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus

It was reported posthumously by Cassius Dio and Suetonius that Nero, costumed, sang the "Sack of Ilium" whilst the fire burned although this would have been performed on the lyre and not the fiddle which did not exist at the time. Tacitus' Annals report that Nero's performance was a malicious rumour.

Although Nero was keen on music it is likely that in the search for a scapegoat and in an attempt to posthumously blacken his memory further, such hearsay developed. According to Tacitus, Nero wasn't even in Rome during the fire, but hurried back and financed a considerable relief effort to assist the citizens in the aftermath.

Answer: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The phrase first appeared in Rousseau's "Confessions" completed in 1769, five years before Marie Antoinette's became queen. "If they have no bread, let them eat brioche" was the quote attributed to the queen, the meaning of which actually corresponded to laws at the time stipulating that those who ran out of cheaper bread had to sell their finer products at lower prices. Thus, even if she had made this comment, it would not necessarily have been in the contemptuous vein with which she is associated, itself likely the consequence of republican propaganda.

Another school of thought states that the Queen was referring to the common baking practice of scraping the leavings from the oven at the close of the day which were then left outside for the poor.

Answer: Hanging

The majority of those found guilty were hanged except in one case in which the convicted was crushed to death for refusing to plead. Interestingly, six of those executed were male, contrary to the usual image of witchcraft; however, the others were female. By 1711, 22 of the 31 found guilty had their convictions posthumously overturned, although the remainder had to wait until 1957.

Answer: Sir Walter Raleigh

This charming story is believed to have originated in the work of Thomas Fuller and is reinforced in Sir Walter Scott's novel "Kenilworth." Sir Walter was actually imprisoned by the Queen for a secret affair with one of her maids, although he was later freed when one of his vessels returned an enormous hoard of treasure plundered from the Spanish ship "Madre de Dios." He was later executed in 1618 on the orders of King James I to mollify the Spanish after Raleigh and his men had attacked one of their outposts in Venezuela.

Answer: Hamelin

The story goes that the 'Pied Piper of Hamelin' offered to rid the town of its rats for a fee of 1,000 guilders. Its origins are widely debated, ranging from Chinese and Persian writings to tales in Greek and Sanskrit. Historically, it may refer to the Children's Crusade of 1212 in which a German shepherd by the name of Nicholas led a group of youths on a crusade that ended in the death of a vast number of the recruits.

This in itself is believed to have actually consisted of the movements of a group of impoverished peoples of all ages in Germany and France which has been retrospectively mythologised.

Another suggestion is that the story relates to the German settlement of Transylvania in the Middle Ages.

Answer: Pope Joan

Pope Joan never existed. The myth is believed to have first been documented in Jean de Meilly's chronicle and is also included in Martin of Troppau's "Chronicon Pontificum" in the 13th century. The persistence of this myth seems likely to be the result of anti-Catholic writings which promoted the story of Pope Joan giving birth to an illegitimate son in public to discredit the church.

Answer: Follow the Drinking Gourd

This famous composition was supposedly adopted by the Underground Railroad as a blueprint for encoding secret instructions to enable fleeing slaves to head north and sung by a conductor known as Peg Leg Joe. The "gourd" which was a hollow drinking vessel is used euphemistically to refer to the Big Dipper star and thus the North Star. Harriet Tubman was also said to have made use of the anthem whilst helping slaves to escape.

It was not actually written until 1928, so could not have played this role in the Underground Railroad and its authorship remains much disputed.

Answer: Betsy Ross

In 1776 Betsy Ross supposedly received a personal visit to her shop from George Washington, Robert Morris and Colonel George Ross who asked if she would be able to bring their ideas for a flag to life. The legend goes that they were then presented with her work which was immediately accepted by Congress as the official flag.

This story was in fact propagated by her grandson, William J. Canby, in 1870 but no official records exist relating to the flag-designing and it is unlikely that there is any truth to the tale.

Answer: George Santayana

George Santayana (1863-1952) was a Spanish philosopher and novelist. Similarly, Voltaire once remarked, "history is a pack of lies we play on the dead."

However, George Santayana is even better remembered for saying "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".