Mythological Dining Disasters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cronus

The stone supposedly lives happily ever after at Delphi. I wouldn't know. There is a similar Hittite myth, where the weather god somehow winds up inside Kumarbi, who predictably eats a large stone, and then the weather god emerges ready to do battle. Hey, it builds character.

Answer: Tantalus

Now, Demeter dug in, and ate the poor guy's shoulder. So when the gods put Pelops back together, they had to replace his shoulder with ivory. Sadly, the mythographers do not report what Pelops told his friends.

Answer: Atreus

Thyestes naturally threw up and vowed revenge. If you've read the Oresteia, you know the rest. Thyestes' daughter's son eventually killed Atreus, helped kill Atreus' son, and married Atreus' son's wife. His name was ... let's see ... Aegisthus! Atreus and Thyestes were both sons of Pelops and grandsons of Tantalus. Does cannibalism run in families?

Answer: Honey

He "drowned." Yes, that's what they all say, except the archaeologists, who point to Minoan burials in pithoi, which were possibly filled with honey. Honey was also used as an embalming agent. That's a waste of some perfectly good honey, I say.

Answer: Lost her nerve

Predictably, she went back on her offer. My myth book notes that this "act of ritual cannibalism ... may originally have been the very means of immortality."

Answer: Killed him

The shepherds drank the wine neat, not diluted with water like anyone with a brain would do. They got drunk. Then they got bad hangovers. They thought that Icarius had poisoned them, and so they killed him! A cautionary tale to anyone intending to throw a party.

Answer: The Cattle of the Sun God

The pieces of immortal cow meat keep crawling around and mooing even as they are skewered on the spits. I don't know about you, but I'd probably start thinking something was wrong at this point.

Answer: Lotus

Lotus as we know it does have edible parts, but apparently this was something different. There is no universal agreement as to the exact plant to which Homer referred, but its flowers and fruits had definite narcotic properties. Lotus eaters in Greek sounds so much better-- "Run! Run away! It's the Lotophagoi!" Andrew York, a classical/jazz/reggae guitarist, has written a piece titled "Lotus Eaters," which does sound descriptive of a group of stoned Greek flower children.

Answer: Cyclops

Odysseus gave the Cyclops a nice wine and steak, I mean, stake, dinner. When it came to the Laestrygonians, who were spearing people out of the water like fish, then eating them, Odysseus heroically arrives at his ship, heroically draws his sword, and heroically... cuts the rope mooring and gets outta there.

It's like the Brave Sir Robin, who bravely runs away. As for Scylla and Charybdis, they were a lost cause!

Answer: Suitors

It was more an issue of hospitality, the ancient Greek "xenia" relationship. You take good care of any traveler that comes your way, and they will do the same for you. Then your families are friends for generations to come. When the system works well, it's an important social institution in an age when travel was difficult and dangerous. So, anyone who disobeyed the courtesy rules of the guest or host (say, Paris running off with his host's wife, the Cyclops eating his guests, or the suitors treating themselves day after day after day after day ...) would be punished very severely, possibly by Zeus himself.