These Eyes Don't Lie Trivia Quiz

Answer: Argus

His many eyes, which never went to sleep at the same time, made the giant Argus the ideal watchman; he was therefore called Panoptes ("all-seeing"). He was a servant of Hera, who set him to guard a white heifer, who in reality was Io, one of the many mortal lovers of her husband Zeus.

However, Zeus sent Hermes to distract the guardian, so that Io could be set free. The god lulled Argus to sleep with music and tales, then killed him with a stone. According to Ovid's "Metamorphoses", Hera preserved Argus' eyes in the tail of the peacock, her sacred animal, as a reward for the giant's loyalty.

Answer: Shiva

Together with Brahma and Vishnu, Shiva is one of the three major deities of Hinduism. His third eye is used both as an aid to meditation and as a weapon. When Kamadeva, god of love and desire, had the bad idea to hit Shiva with one of his flower arrows while he was meditating, in order to convince him to wed with Parvati, Shiva's third eye turned him to ashes. Parvati asked Shiva to resuscitate the god of love - who was called back to life, though in disembodied form (Ananga, the bodiless), and later reincarnated as Pradyumna, the son of Krishna and Rukmini. From Shiva and Parvati's union the god of war Karttikeya (also known as Murugan, Subramanya and Skanda) was born.

Answer: basilisk

Talk about looks that kill! In European legends, the basilisk, or cockatrice, was a serpent-like creature born of a serpent's egg hatched by a rooster. Its name means "little king", since it was reputed to have a crown-like crest on its head. A huge basilisk (even deadlier than the legendary one) appears in the second volume of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". On the other hand, the real-world, Central and South American lizard that bears the name of common basilisk is a perfectly harmless animal, which is able to run on water (hence its nickname of "Jesus lizard").

Answer: Horus

Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, was the Egyptian sky god, usually represented as a man with the head of a falcon. The symbol of the Eye of Horus was identified with Wadjet (or Wedjat), the cobra-headed goddess who later came to be associated with Isis.

The symbol was often painted on the prow of boats to ensure a safe voyage, and funerary amulets often made in its shape have been found in tombs.

Answer: Guanyin

Guanyin is a Buddhist deity synonymous with the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, who is represented in female form in China, Japan and other Far Eastern countries. She is associated with mercy and compassion: her arms reach out to humankind in order to alleviate its suffering, and the eyes embedded in the palm of each hand help her to see anyone in need.

In fact, the name Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, meaning "Perceiving the Cries of the World".

Answer: Odin

Odin, the All-Father, was the chief god of the Norse pantheon. He is often represented as an old man with a single, piercing eye, half-hidden by a wide-brimmed hat. In the "Völuspá", the poem in the Poetic Edda that relates the myths of the creation and destruction of the world, the tale is told of how Odin came to sacrifice his eye to Mimir, the guardian of the Well of Wisdom located beneath one of the three roots of the world tree Yggdrasil. Odin's eye was hidden at the bottom of the well, where the god himself put it after removing it.

Answer: Cyclopes

According to Hesiod's "Theogony", the Cyclopes were children of Uranus (the sky) and Gaia (the earth). Their name, referring to the single eye set in the middle of their foreheads, means "round-eyed". They were builders and craftsmen, and provided the weapons used by the Olympian gods to defeat the Titans: Zeus' thunderbolts, Poseidon's trident, and Hades' helmet of invisibility.

In Homer's "Odyssey", the cyclops Polyphemus was a son of the sea god Poseidon, a herdsman and a man-eater. He was eventually tricked and blinded by Odysseus with a pointed stake - an act that brought Poseidon's wrath upon the hero and his crew.

Answer: Tiresias

Tiresias, the most famous seer in Greek mythology, surely led an interesting life, as he was said to have been turned into a woman after he came upon two snakes copulating in a forest and struck them with his staff. Seven years later, he came upon the same pair of snakes, and struck them again - turning back into a man. He was then consulted by Zeus and Hera, who were arguing about who gets more pleasure from the act of love. Zeus maintained it was the woman, while Hera believed it was the man. When Tiresias sided with Zeus, Hera struck him blind in anger. Unable to restore his sight, Zeus gave Tiresias the gift of prophecy. According to another account, Tiresias lost his sight when he accidentally looked upon the naked Athena, and it was the goddess herself who gave him the gift of prophecy as compensation.

Tiresias was a recurring character in ancient Greek literature. In Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex", he tries in vain to warn the king against investigating the murder of Laius, the previous king (who was Oedipus' father, and whom Oedipus himself had unwittingly killed).

Answer: Varuna

Varuna is one of the oldest Vedic deities, and one of the Adityas (sons of Aditi, the mother of the gods). He was originally a sky god of the Aryans, and later came to be associated with the waters of the world. In the Vedas, he is portrayed as omniscient (on account of his thousand eyes) and omnipotent. Varuna is also associated with the concept of "dharma" (social order), and carries a noose to capture those who break the laws.

His vehicle (vahana) is the crocodile-like sea monster Makara.

Answer: Graiae

The Graiae (or Graeae) were daughters of the sea-deities Phorcys and Ceto, and sisters to the Gorgons. Named Enyo, Deino and Pemphredo, they took the shape of perpetually old women. When Perseus, the hero born of Zeus and Danae, was on his quest to kill the Gorgon Medusa, he stole their only eye in order to force them to reveal the whereabouts of the magical objects he needed to complete his task.