Homeric Heroes and Hometowns Trivia Quiz

Answer: Phthia

Phthia is traditionally located in the southern most area of Thessaly in central Greece and was the home of Achilles' Myrmidons. It has never been excavated and not a whole lot is known about the Mycenean-era city situated near the Pagasitic Gulf. It contributed 50 ships to the Greek effort against Troy. Phthia is thought to have suffered or been destroyed during the Doric invasion sometime in the 12th Century B.C.

The area in modern Greece is called Phthiotis.

Answer: The Island of Ithaca

Homer's Ithaca was the kingdom of Odysseus. The actual site of Odysseus' Ithaca has been the subject of some historical and archaelogical dispute. The modern Greek Island of that name is located off the western coast of Greece in the Ionian Sea and is thought to be the general location of the home of the "great tactician."

Answer: Pylos

Wise King Nestor's city of Pylos was a Mycenean-era city of importance located on the southwestern coast of the Peloponnese. It is generally thought to have been sacked and burnt some time during the Bronze Age Collapse circa the 12th Century B.C. The so-called "Palace of Nestor" was excavated in 1939. Modern Navarino sits near Nestor's Pylos.

Answer: Mycenae

Agamemnon was the King of Mycenae and the High Commander of all Greek forces. It was his pride that nearly cost the Greeks the war when he took the concubine Briseis from Achilles and provoked the great warrior's "wrath." Mycenae was the great Bronze Age city in east central Peloponnese excavated by Heinrich Schliemann, where he found the golden "Mask of Agamemnon". The city was destroyed some time in the 12th Century B.C. and never repopulated.

Answer: Sparta

Menelaus was the King of pre-Dorian (Mycenean) Sparta, located in the south central part of the Peloponnese. It was his wife Helen who was taken by the Trojan prince Paris, which started the Trojan War of Homer's epic. Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek expedition, was his brother.

Answer: Salamis

Ajax the Greater or Telemonian Ajax was second only to Achilles as a fighter. He was from the island of Salamis, site of the famous sea battle where the Greek fleet stopped the Persian invasion in 480 B.C. This is somewhat ironic given that Ajax brought only 12 ships to the fight against Troy.

Answer: Locris

Also known as racing Ajax, he was, according to Homer, a great spearman. Less heroically, he was responsible for the Rape of Cassandra in Athena's Temple. Opuntian Locris was his home, which is located in eastern central Greece, closer to the coast as opposed to Ozalian Locris, which is located in central Greece above the Gulf of Corinth.

Answer: Crete

Idomeneus was the king of the island of Crete and grandson of the mythical King Minos. He was one of Agamemnon's most trusted advisors and proved a heroic warrior and resourceful leader when Greek fortunes were at their lowest at the "Battling for the Ships" in Book 13.

Answer: Troy

Hector was the son of King Priam and Troy's greatest warrior. He is also one of Homer's more admirable and balanced characters, a loyal son, loving husband and doting father. He was killed by Achilles. Troy (Ilium,hence "The Iliad") was unearthed by the polymath German millionaire Heinrich Schliemann in 1871 and was located in the Troad Province of Modern Turkey, near the mouth of the Dardanelles.

Answer: Argos

Diomedes was the King of Argos, an important Mycenean city located in the northeastern part of the Peloponnese. Diomedes was one of the greatest warriors on the Greek side, killing several pairs of brothers in Book 5. His history was weighted with his father Tydaeus' murder of other family members and the elder's feud with Thebes.