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Homeric Questions Trivia Quiz

Homer's Greek is linguistically interesting-- a fact not known to most casual readers of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" in translation. Take this quiz to find out more about the language and poetry of Homer! No knowledge of Greek required.

A multiple-choice quiz by pu2-ke-qi-ri. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
pu2-ke-qi-ri

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
181,336

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
1912

Awards
Top 35% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. In what meter are the Iliad and the Odyssey written? You might know this as the meter of Longfellow's poem "Evangeline". Hint

Iambic pentameter

Dactylic pentameter

Iambic trimeter

Dactylic hexameter

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Question 2 of 10

2. Greek poetic meters are not based on syllable stress, like English poetic meters are. Instead, Greek meter is based on what aspect of the syllable? Hint

Pitch

All of these

Vowel sound

Length

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Question 3 of 10

3. Furthermore, syllables in ancient Greek words aren't accented by stress. What are they accented by? Hint

All of these

Length

pitch

Vowel sound

4. Objects and heroes have more than one epithet because Greek words change their endings to indicate grammatical meaning. An epithet may work with one form of a word, but not another. What are the different grammatical forms of a noun called? Hint

Tenses

Conjugation

Inflection

Cases

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Question 5 of 10

5. There are multiple distinct dialects of ancient Greek. For instance, the historian Herodotus, from Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, wrote in Ionic Greek, while the historian Thucydides, from Athens, wrote in Attic Greek. The dialect in which Homer composed his works is known as Homeric Greek. Was this an actual spoken dialect?

Yes

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Question 6 of 10

6. Homer uses older and newer versions of words as it suits the meter. It just so happens that a certain consonant was in the process of dropping out of use around Homer's time. Name it, or the English letter corresponding to its sound. For a clue, you might compare the newer form "oinos" with its English cognate "wine," Latin "winus."

Answer: (Which consonant is different?)

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Question 7 of 10

7. Another consonant was also in the process of dying out in certain situations: intervocalic iota (i), also known as y. Surprisingly, one word where we find an intervocalic iota present is "Athenaie," the name of the goddess more commonly known as... Hint

Artemis

Athena/Athene

Athens

Athos

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Question 8 of 10

8. Homeric Greek lacks this part of speech, certainly present by the time of, say, Plato. I'll give you *the* hint required to get this question right, not just *a* random clue. Hint

Indefinite article

Definite article

Relative pronoun

Particles

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Question 9 of 10

9. Many Greek names consist of two normal Greek words put together. For instance, the name of Hector's son, Astyanax, consists of the two words "astu" (town) and "anax" (lord). Patroclus' name contains the same two words, in reverse order, as what famous queen? Hint

Clytemnestra

Cleopatra

Andromache

Helen

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Question 10 of 10

10. You've heard the story where Odysseus tells the Cyclops he's Mr. Nobody, but the Greek includes a pun on top of that. One form of the word "no" is "ou," and this is the form Odysseus gives the Cyclops in his name "outis." But when the Cyclops starts telling his friends that Nobody's hurting him, he uses the other form, "me," out of grammatical necessity. What meaning, other than "nobody," does "metis" have? You might know this personified as Athena's mother, the goddess of intelligence. Hint

Strength

Cleverness

Superiority

Stupidity

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In what meter are the Iliad and the Odyssey written? You might know this as the meter of Longfellow's poem "Evangeline".

Answer: Dactylic hexameter

Dactylic hexameter consists of six feet, each of which can be either a dactyl, long-short-short, or a spondee, long-long. For a sample of what this really sounds like, there are several recordings up on the web of Stanley Lombardo reading the "Iliad" in Greek.

2. Greek poetic meters are not based on syllable stress, like English poetic meters are. Instead, Greek meter is based on what aspect of the syllable?

Answer: Length

Syllables can be either long or short, depending on how long it takes to pronounce them. A long syllable takes about twice as long to pronounce as a short syllable. Whether a syllable is long depends on the consonants that precede and follow the vowel and whether the vowel is long.

3. Furthermore, syllables in ancient Greek words aren't accented by stress. What are they accented by?

Answer: pitch

Ancient Greek would have sounded something like Chinese or Swedish, I suppose. The so-called acute accent represents a high or rising pitch, the circumflex represents a pitch that rises, then slides back down, and the grave represents a "canceled" acute.

Answer: Cases

Let's take the example of supplying an epithet in front of Apollo's name. When "Apollo" is the subject, the form is "Apollon," short-long-long. In that case, the epithet "Phoibos" works, long-short. Should we want to say "of Apollo," the form is "Apollona," long-long-long-long. We can't use "Phoibos" here; we can't have a single short syllable between two longs.

However, "hekebolon," short-long-short-short, suits the bill.

Answer: No

Homeric Greek is mostly Ionic Greek, with some Aeolic forms thrown in. Homer also uses an incongruous combination of old and new forms of words. Hence, nobody actually went around speaking Homeric Greek. I wonder if any translator has tried to reproduce how strange Homeric Greek would have sounded to a listener.

Answer: w

The early Greek alphabet contained a letter to represent the sound w, which was then still present in the language. It looked like our letter F. It was known as "vau" (pronounce the v as a w), and after the sound dropped out of use, digamma. We see the digamma used in early inscriptions.

Answer: Athena/Athene

Yes, after the i dropped out and left Athenae, the a and the e contracted simply to an e. In the first book of the Iliad, both spellings are found just a few lines apart. Here, the -i- is an adjectival ending on Athene, the name of Athens, the city. So, if you ever wondered whether Athens was named after Athena or vice versa, you now know that Athena was definitely named after Athens.

In Mycenaean Greek, ca. 1200-1400 BCE, Athena's name is written as a-ta-na-po-ti-ni-ja, literally the "Athens' Goddess." (The different spellings Athena/Athene are either due to differences in ancient Greek dialects, or, more likely, Latinizing the long e to a long a.)

8. Homeric Greek lacks this part of speech, certainly present by the time of, say, Plato. I'll give you *the* hint required to get this question right, not just *a* random clue.

Answer: Definite article

Alas, your faithful quiz writer forgets the theory of how the definite article developed. I must say, the definite article is quite helpful for figuring out the grammar of a word if you happen to be a beginning Greek student!

Answer: Cleopatra

Cleopatra is a Greek name, if you didn't happen to know. It consists of the two words "patros," "father," and "kleos," "fame." So, it means "fame of the father."

Answer: Cleverness

A few lines later, Odysseus laughs to himself about "how my name deceived him, and my faultless cunning (metis)." Actually, the two metis's are not exact homophones, but close enough that listeners would have heard the Cyclops bellowing, "Help! Mr. Smartypants is killing me!"

Source: Author pu2-ke-qi-ri

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