Gods and Monsters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Apollo

The shrine of Delphi was the most important religious centre in Ancient Greece. People came from far and wide to consult the Oracle of Apollo - spoken by a priestess who was said to be possessed by the god himself. She was named Pythia after the serpent/dragon Python, a child of the Earth Goddess Gaea. According to other legends, Apollo slew Python because the monster had pursued his mother, Leto, during her flight from Hera's revenge for her dalliance with Zeus.

Answer: Harpies

The Harpies were female monsters in the shape of birds of prey with a human face. They were called Aello, Ocypete and Podarge, though the latter is replaced by Celaeno in later tradition. Their name means "the snatchers", and they were believed to be the hounds of Zeus. They were often represented as vicious, repulsive creatures - as in Virgil's "Aeneid", and also in Dante's "Inferno".

The Gorgons, the Furies and the Sirens were also female mythical creatures who were often said to come in threes.

Answer: Polyphemus

Polyphemus was one of the Cyclopes, giants with only one eye set in the middle of their forehead. When Odysseus and his companions stumbled into his cave, Polyphemus killed and devoured six of the men. Then Ulysses got him drunk, and - while the cyclops was asleep - blinded him with a burning stake. When Polyphemus failed to sink Odysseus's ships with rocks because of his blindness, he called Poseidon's vengeance upon him and his crew.

The other three choices are all characters that appear in the "Odyssey". Telemachus is the son of Odysseus and Penelope, Antinous is the leader of Penelope's suitors, and Tiresias is the blind prophet whom Odysseus encounters in the underworld.

Answer: Artemis

Oeneus, the king of Calydon, had neglected to offer a sacrifice to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Therefore, the angry goddess sent a monstrous boar to ravage the fields - a beast so ferocious that no one had the courage to hunt it. Eventually, the creature was slain by Meleager, the king's son, who had gathered a band of heroes (including the maiden Atalanta, with whom he was in love) to hunt and kill the beast. Atalanta was the first to wound the boar with an arrow, allowing Meleager to finish it off. Meleager's gallant offer of the boar's skin to Atalanta eventually led to his death, and thus Artemis' revenge on Oeneus was complete.

Answer: capturing the three-headed dog Cerberus

Heracles was initiated into the Eleusynian Mysteries, secret religious rites that were celebrated every year to reenact the myth of Persephone's abduction by the god Hades, and her mother Demeter's desperate search for her. During this ancient ritual, the participants consumed a drink that may have had psychotropic effects to help them conjure visions of the afterlife.

The slaying of the Hydra was the second of Heracles' twelve labours; the capture of the Cretan bull was the seventh, and the theft of the golden apples the eleventh.

Answer: Cadmus

Cadmus was the son of the king of Phoenicia, and the brother of Europa, one of Zeus' human lovers. During his wanderings in search of his sister, he came to a spring guarded by a dragon, which he killed. Athena instructed him to sow the monster's teeth, from which sprang a host of armed warriors, the Spartoi. They immediately started fighting with each other, and the five who survived became the founders of the most important families of the new city. Cadmus later married Harmonia, the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares, and had five children by her. Hounded by bad luck as punishment for his killing of a sacred dragon, Cadmus was eventually turned into a serpent, and Harmonia begged the gods to share her husband's fate.

The other three heroes were all famous monster-slayers: Theseus slew the Minotaur, Bellerophon the Chimaera, and Perseus the Gorgon Medusa.

Answer: Io

Io was a priestess of Hera in Argos. To protect her from his wife's retaliation, Zeus turned her into a white heifer, but the goddess was not deceived, and asked to be given the heifer as a present. Then she put her under the custody of Argus, who - with his 100 eyes - never slept, and always kept watch, so that Zeus could not approach his lover. The god then sent Hermes to lull the giant to sleep with music, and eventually slay him. To reward her faithful servant, Hera put his eyes on the tail of her favourite animal, the peacock. Io's son by Zeus, Epaphos, was believed to be the founder of the Egyptian city of Memphis.

All the other choices are women loved by Zeus, who fathered famous heroes on them: Minos (Europa), Perseus (Danae) and Heracles (Alcmene)

Answer: Etna

Typhon (also known as Typhoeus) was a truly frightening creature, so huge that his head brushed the stars. Not surprisingly, it took quite a while for Zeus to subdue him. He fathered a number of monsters with Echidna - a creature half-woman, half-snake - including Cerberus, the Chimaera and the Hydra. According to some sources, after defeating the monster Zeus buried him under Mount Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe, on the island of Sicily.

The other three choices are all volcanoes in the Mediterranean: Stromboli, like Etna, is very much active, while Vesuvius and Santorini (the only one of the four located in Greece rather than in Italy) have been quiescent for the past 65-70 years.

Answer: Athena

Medusa was the only one of the three Gorgons (snake-haired women who could turn people to stone with their gaze) who was mortal. Perseus, son of Zeus and Danae, killed her with the help of Athena, who later claimed the monster's head to use as a device on her shield (the aegis).

Answer: Uranus

Uranus, the sky god, was the father of the twelve Titans, the gods and goddesses that made up the first pantheon of Greek deities. He was castrated with a sickle by his son Cronus (known as Saturn to the Romans), instigated by his mother, Gaia, the Earth goddess. His genitals fell into the sea, and from the sea foam Aphrodite was born. The three Erinyes, goddesses of vengeance, were instead born of the god's blood when it fell on the earth. As told in Aeschylus' tragedy "Orestes", they tormented those who had committed matricide or patricide. They were described as ugly, winged crones, robed in black and with snakes for hair.

Oceanus (the sea god) and Hyperion (the sun god) were also born of Uranus and Gaia. They participated to their father's overthrow, and were in turn displaced by the Olympians.