Clash of the Titans Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cronus

Cronus was the youngest of the original twelve Titans, and was the son of Uranus (the sky) and Gaia (the earth). He was married to one of his sisters, Rhea, and was the father of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. After usurping the leadership from his father, he swallowed up his children in an attempt to prevent them from doing the same to him. However, Rhea saved Zeus from this fate, and once he grew up he led a rebellion against Cronus and the other Titans; this resulted in the banishment of most of the Titans to Tartarus, and the long-lasting reign of Zeus and his siblings from Mount Olympus.

Phoebe was one of Cronus's sisters, and Pallas and Atlas were two of his nephews.

Answer: Serpent

Oceanus, whose name is the origin of our word "ocean", was the god of all rivers and other sources of water. He is usually depicted as having the horns of a bull, the torso of a man, and the tail of a serpent or a fish - a bit like a merman, in fact. He was married to his sister, Tethys, and was the father of all of the ocean nymphs.

If he had had any of the other body-types, he would not have found it quite so easy to swim along his rivers.

Answer: Muses

Mnemoysne was the goddess of memory, and her name is where the word mnemonic comes from. She had the subsidiary role of controlling all learning by rote, which used to be the way in which stories and poems were passed down, and it is therefore appropriate that she produced the nine muses, who took care of poetry, and intervened if ever a mortal had trouble remembering a word or idea.

The Fates, who were also the daughters of Zeus by the Titaness Themis, controlled the lives of all mortal beings; the Furies were the avengers of all wrong-doings; and the Giants were another set of descendants of Gaia, the mother or grandmother to all the Titans. None of them were quite so gentle as the Muses.

Answer: Delphi

Themis, the last of the first generation of Titans that I am detailing in this quiz, was the goddess of law and order. She was also the mother of the Furies. However, it is perhaps as one of the oracles of Delphi that she was best known. Delphi, located on Mount Parnassus in central Greece, was home to the most famous shrine in the ancient world, and was seen as symbolising the entire Greek religion.

The three wrong answers were also known for their shrines, but none of them was associated with Themis.

Answer: Apollo and Artemis

Leto, the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe, was considered to be the goddess of motherhood. She was married to Zeus in the days before Hera was his wife, and became pregnant by him. However, Hera was so infuriated by this fact, that she pursued Leto around the world, denying her a resting place to have her children. Finally she was able to give birth on a floating island - the island of Delos. Her two children became the god and goddess of the sun (Apollo) and the moon (Artemis).

The story of Leto and her pregnancy can be found in Ovid's "Metamorphoses", although there she is called by her Roman name of Latona.

Answer: Atlas

Atlas, the god of astronomy and navigation, was the son of Iapetus. When the Olympians were trying to take over the power from the Titans, Atlas fought hard against the younger usurpers, along with his brother Menoetius and many of his other relations. After the Olympians won the war, the majority of the Titans were forced to live in the underworld abyss of Tartarus, but Atlas was compelled to hold up the skies for all eternity.

He also appears in the story of Heracles's (Hercules's) eleventh labour, when he agrees to fetch the apples of the Hesperides for him, so long as Heracles holds up the skies until his return. Of course, he plans to escape after fetching the apples, but Heracles manages to trick him into taking his burden back.

Epimentheus is one of his brothers; Hyperion is an uncle; and Perses is a cousin.

Answer: Fire

Prometheus, who was one of Atlas's brothers, was the god of forethought. He was responsible for creating mankind out of clay, and he therefore often took man's side against the gods. One story goes that he even stole some food from Zeus's banquet to feed to the starving mortals. However, he gained infamy after he stole a bolt of fire from Mount Olympus, with the intention of giving it to mankind. As a punishment, Prometheus did not only have to mould a woman (Pandora), who brought a fair amount of trouble to the ancient world, but he was also chained to a rock, where an eagle pecked out his liver every day.

Interestingly, Prometheus was on the side of the Zeus in their war against the Titans. He seemed to have made a habit of not doing what was expected of him!

Answer: Eos

Eos was the daughter of Theia and Hyperion, and as part of her role as the goddess of dawn, she was also responsible for opening the gates of heaven every morning. She had four sons, who became the winds of the north (Boreas), south (Notus), east (Eurus) and west (Zephyrus).

Eos was renowned throughout ancient Greece for her many lovers; they included Orion, who became the constellation of the hunter, and Tithanus, a Trojan prince, who became her official and long-term companion.

Answer: Phaeton

Helios, who was the brother of Eos and of Selene, the goddess of the moon, was responsible for driving his sun chariot across the skies to wake everyone up. One day his son, Phaeton, in an attempt to prove to his friends that he was the son of the sun (so to speak) took control of the chariot, and went out of control. As the Earth was in danger of being burnt up, Zeus killed Phaeton with one of his thunderbolts, and the Earth was saved. This is what can happen if you let children drive! His name was later taken to describe a small open-topped carriage in the early nineteenth century.

Later on, Helios became identified with Apollo, the Olympian sun god, but even then he still has his individual persona as a Titan.

The three incorrect answers were all famous mythological sons, but none of them was allowed any where near a chariot.

Answer: Fly

Metis, who was originally the goddess of magical cunning, and later became the goddess of wisdom, was the daughter of Oceanus. She was another of Zeus's many wives, and was the result of a prophecy that stated that she would give birth to powerful children. Zeus, fearing for his kingdom if she became pregnant, tricked her into changing herself into a fly, at which point he swallowed her.

However, he was too late, as she was already pregnant when he swallowed her, and their daughter Athena was able to burst fully formed from his skull. Athena did become a powerful goddess, and took over her mother's role as far as her wisdom was concerned, but she never challenged her father over his kingly position.