Catalogue of Classics Trivia Quiz

Answer: Agamemnon

To acquire the wind to propel his thousand-ship fleet to the shores of Troy, King Agamemnon of Mycenae sacrificed his youngest daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the goddess Artemis, whom he had slighted (in some myths, Iphigenia was saved by the goddess at the last minute and replaced with a stag for slaughter). Agamemnon was one of few Greeks to survive the decade-long war at Troy and the journey home, but was slaughtered by his wife Clytemnestra in his bath shortly after his return.

Answer: Ceres

Ceres was the Roman goddess of grain whose name gives us the English word "cereal". She was sometimes considered part of the threefold mother goddess: Proserpina (maiden), Ceres (mother), Trivia (crone). There was once a cult to Ceres in Rome, that dated back to the early days of the Republic and the dedication of a temple in Aventine in 493 BC to the gods Ceres, Liber, and Libera.

Answer: Delphi

According to mythology, Delphi was once an ancient sanctuary that was home to Apollo's most famous oracle, called the Pythia (the origin of the modern English word "python"). She was a priestess of sorts who would "consult with the god" to answer the questions of his followers.

The oracle would inhale vapors from a chasm in the earth and then make prophecies, while in a trance-like state, which would be interpreted by priests in order to make sense of her intoxicated ramblings.

Answer: Elysium

Elysium, or the Elysian Fields, was the land of paradise located in the underworld (though it was sometimes located elsewhere, like the Islands of the Blessed). Those who committed sins were denied entry into Elysium and were instead sent to Tartarus, a land of torment. Tartarus (Erebus, or sometimes Hades) was also used as a term to describe the underworld as a whole.

In addition to the lands of paradise and torment, the underworld, overseen by Hades, was home to five rivers of the dead: Styx (hate), Acheron (woe), Lethe (forgetfulness), Cocytus (wailing), and Pyriphlegethon (fire).

Answer: The Gorgons

The Gorgons were three terrifyingly ugly daughters of Phorcys and Ceto with the ability to turn mortals into stone. They were sisters to the Graeae, who shared one eye and one tooth between them, and who aided the hero Perseus on his quest to destroy Medusa. Medusa's story is more interesting than just her death at the hands of Perseus, as she was much beloved by the sea-god Poseidon, and was the mother of Pegasus, the famous winged horse, and Chrysaor, "he of the golden sword".

Answer: Hyperion

Hyperion, Helius, and Apollo were all Greek gods of the sun. Hyperion's story has often been overshadowed by that of his son Helius, who would drive his golden chariot across the sky to bring light to each new day, and of Apollo, who in addition to being a sun-god was the god of prophesy, intelligence, reason, music, and medicine. Hyperion's companion and lover was his sister, Theia, goddess of the sun.

Answer: Maia

The seven Pleiades were the sisters Maia (mother of Hermes), Electra (mother of Iris and the Harpies), Alcyone (a sea-bird), Ta˙gete, Asterope, Celaeno (prophesied Aeneas), and Merope. They were the daughters of Atlas, the Titan who held up the sky, and an Oceanid (child of the Titan Oceanus) called Pleione.

The Pleiades star cluster can been seen in the northern sky as part of the Taurus constellation that sits in front of Orion's bow. Even in the skies, the Pleiades could not escape Orion, cursed to stay forever in his sights.

Answer: Narcissus

The tale of Narcissus cannot be told without also telling the tale of Echo. Echo was a nymph who was in love with Narcissus, but was cursed by Juno (Hera), to only be able to utter back words which were spoken to her. She was scorned by Narcissus, who played with her and then left her alone, as he did with many nymphs.

He was later cursed by Nemesis to fall in love with his own reflection and wasted away in front of a pool of spring water, as smooth and reflective as a mirror. A genus of flowers was named for him that includes, among other species, daffodils.

Answer: Pantheon

The Pantheon in Rome was constructed between 118 and 125 AD, during the reign of Hadrian, on the site of an earlier temple that had been commissioned by Marcus Agrippa, but which had previously burned to the ground (in 80 AD). From the outside, the Pantheon looks like a giant cylinder with a triangular pediment, but on the inside, visitors experience a massive dome that reaches high overhead to an open oculus at the center.

The bottom of the dome is kept from splaying outward by a series of compression rings that encircle the base and are partially hidden by the cylindrical form that is visible from outside the church.

The Pantheon, amazingly, has been in use (as a temple and now as a church) continuously since the day it was completed.

Answer: Titanomachy

The Titanomachy was the first major clash between gods in Greek mythology. The Titans were the children of Gaea and Uranus (the earth and sky) and had ruled over the earth for a very long time. Cronus, "learning" from his father's mistake, chose to devour his own children instead of sticking them in his wife, to prevent a prophesy from coming true that he would one day be overthrown by his child. Rhea, mother of the Olympians, saved her third son and youngest child, Zeus, by tricking Cronus into swallowing a stone instead of his son. Zeus freed his siblings (Hera, Demeter, Hestia, Poseidon, and Hades) by feeding his father a mixture of mustard and wine, and then released the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires from their prisons. Together they fought for ten years against the Titans, eventually succeeding in taking down Cronus, and imprisoning the Titans in the depths of Tartarus once and for all.