Only the Good Die Young Multiple Choice Quiz | Greek Myth

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Iphigenia, a tragic figure, was sacrificed to the gods as a child - who did so, and why?

Answer: Agamemnon (her father); to get favorable winds to Troy

Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, was sacrificed because Agamemnon's Greek forces were unable to get a favorable wind to sail to Troy and invade. To appease Artemis, who was stalling his army, Agamemnon was commanded through an oracle to sacrifice his daughter.

Some myths have her surviving the sacrifice and living out her days in obscurity. Her death spurs later revenges among her family.

2. Medea is another parent who kills her own young children, this time two boys. What reason does she give for her hideous act?

Answer: To spite her cheating husband

Medea and Jason of the Argonauts married after she helped him capture the Golden Fleece. They had two sons, but after he betrayed her and married another woman, she vowed revenge. She ended up killing their children and his new wife, and the gods essentially gave her immunity for her actions.

3. This youthful character is the son of a great inventor, but when he and his father escape one of the famous inventions, he loses his life after flying too close to the sun. Which character is this?

Answer: Icarus

Icarus is the son of Daedalus, the inventor of the labyrinth. Both of them were imprisoned once Daedalus' knowledge was deemed a threat, and they fashioned wings to escape using wax and fallen feathers. Icarus, however, was too eager to fly and when he reached too high a height, accidentally melted his wings in the sun, and he fell to his death.

4. Another character who falls out of the sky to his death is this son of Helios and Clymene (in many traditions) who demands his father's sun-chariot for a day. Sadly, Helios swore by Styx to give his son one demand, and the boy is unable to manage the chariot - he is struck from the sky by Zeus to save both sky and earth from the meandering sun, but who is he?

Answer: Phaeton

Phaeton was raised by his mother and was well-known as the son of Helios, but he felt anxious to prove it. When he finally met his father, he asked for his father to promise him one thing that he would ask for, as proof of their being related. Helios did so, but the request turned out to be a tragic one as he was not qualified to drive the chariot, and ended up singeing the sky and the ground in his attempts. Zeus needed to right the chariot and ended up shooting Phaeton with a thunderbolt.

5. This oldest son of king Priam died in battle towards the end of the "Iliad", and his death was the beginning of the end for Troy. Which son of Priam was this, who proved the last great defender of his city?

Answer: Hector

Hector is the heroic oldest son of Priam of Troy, and he is the leader of the Trojan forces for much of the Trojan War. Hector kills Patroclus, the friend of Achilles, thinking that it was in fact Achilles. Then, Achilles returned to the battlefield for revenge and killed Hector, then desecrated his corpse by dragging it behind his chariot.

Hector's death is the beginning of the end of Homer's "Iliad".

6. This loyal, devoted daughter of king Oedipus of Thebes risks her life by committing the capital crime of burying her brother Polynices who died in a recent war. Creon, the new king of Thebes, forbade burying anyone associated with Polynices as his party was branded traitors to the city. She is caught, confesses, and hangs herself after being buried alive - but what figure is this?

Answer: Antigone

Antigone is the tragic figure who aided her father after he blinded himself and felt a loyalty to both her brothers in the Theban civil war. After her brother Polynices was branded a traitor for his rebellion against brother Eteocles, she believes it is more important to honor his soul in the afterlife by burying his body than to honor Creon's law on earth.

7. The cruelest part of this story is that the girl saw it coming - which Trojan woman, a captive of Agamemnon, was an unheeded prophetess who was brought back as Agamemnon's prize but ended up killed by his angry wife?

Answer: Cassandra

Cassandra was a daughter of the Trojan king Priam who had been cursed by Apollo to see the future but never have her warnings believed. She was captured by the Greek leader Agamemnon and brought back to Mycenae, but Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus took vengeance on Agamemnon, killing both him and Cassandra. Cassandra had seen her death coming, but no one believed her as she was taken into the palace where she would meet her doom.

8. This mother of Dionysus was killed after requesting that Zeus show himself to her in all his glory. Who was this, who succumbed to Hera's campaign of psychological warfare when she asked Zeus to do this?

Answer: Semele

Semele is the Theban woman and mortal who was killed while pregnant with Dionysus. Hera, jealous of Semele due to her affair with Zeus, gave Semele the idea that her lover might not in fact be Zeus, and said that the only way to prove it was to "behold Zeus in all his glory". Semele exacted a promise from Zeus to do just that, which proved fatal. Zeus saved the unborn Dionysus, who was born shortly after.

In some versions, Dionysus later saves his mother from Hades.

9. Which wife of Heracles did he kill (along with their children) when Hera struck him with a supernatural madness?

Answer: Megara

Heracles' first wife Megara was the oldest daughter of Theban king Creon (from the Oedipus myth). Her two children were killed when Heracles was struck mad by Hera, and in some versions of the myth she is killed as well - in others she escapes and Heracles leaves her. Heracles' actions were punished with the Twelve Labors, great feats assigned to him by the king Eurystheus.

10. This death of a young character is perhaps not quite so sympathetic - this man, renowned for his beauty, couldn't leave his own reflection and pined away, to death, for lack of ability to leave it. Which pretty youth was this?

Answer: Narcissus

Narcissus was a disdainful man who did not return the love of the nymph Echo. She, heartbroken, faded away into just a voice that could only repeat things said to her. Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, punished Narcissus by having him fall in love with his own reflection in some water, and he variously either pines away as Echo did, or kills himself upon realizing that he could not attain his desire.

Source: Author merylfederman

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor LadyCaitriona before going online.
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Only the Good Die Young Trivia Quiz

Greek mythology is sadly riddled with instances of the good dying young - see if you can answer questions about ten notable ones.

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