Antics in the Aegean Trivia Quiz

Answer: Iliad

The attribution of the 'Iliad' to Homer is traditional, although nobody can be certain. The 'Iliad' is a long poem - called an Epic - relating the siege of Troy and its eventual fall. The characters have all become well known even to modern readers as have many of the events. Paris's abduction of Helen and the Trojan Horse might be among the best known even to those who couldn't name the 'Iliad' or even Homer.

The 'Aeneid' was written in Latin by Virgil, 'Oedipus Rex' by Sophocles and 'Argonautica' by Apollonius of Rhodes.

Answer: Aphrodite's Child

Aphrodite's Child formed in 1967 and left Greece soon after due to the repressive government of the time. They arrived in London, via Paris, and recorded their second album, 'It's Five O'Clock', in England. Their best known album, '666' was released in 1972 and is described as an early 'concept album' created mainly by Vangelis. The members of the band had different ideas of their future and broke up before '666' was released.

Demis Roussos had several solo hits - 'Forever and Ever' from 1973 is probably the best known. Vangelis Papathanassíou (I'm not sure why he dropped his surname!) is even better known, with his work on the soundtrack of the film 'Chariots of Fire' (1981) bringing him fame and (I assume) fortune.

Answer: Tennis

Stefanos was born in Athens in 1998. His Russian mother played tennis professionally herself and his father was a tennis coach, so Stefanos had an immediate advantage. He turned professional in 2013 and reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open championship in 2019, losing to Rafael Nadal. Tsitsipas went on to win the ATP Finals (the final competition of each year) in 2019, defeating Dominic Thiem of Austria in the final.

Answer: Christina

Onassis was born in Smyrna which was at the time (1909) part of the Ottoman Empire and is now in Turkey and called Izmir. His family had to leave the area as refugees following the Greco-Turkish War prompting the young Aristotle to leave for South America. Once there, he built up a large shipping fleet before moving to the USA. Onassis married Tina Livanos in 1946 and they had two children - Alexander and Christina, both of whom died in tragic circumstances.

While still married to Tina, Onassis had a long term affair with Maria Callas before marrying Jackie Kennedy in 1968.

Answer: The Guns of Navarone

The film, which came out in 1961, was based on the novel by Alistair MacLean four years earlier and is the only one of the options to be set in the Aegean. The stars were Anthony Quinn, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quayle and David Niven. The plot to blow up the German guns guarding the escape route for soldiers trapped on a nearby island needed the assistance of the local resistance. Maria (Papas) and Anna (Gia Scala) join the plan, but Anna is revealed to be a traitor and is shot by Maria.

Irene Papas appeared on the album which featured Vangelis and Roussos, '666', and also appeared in 'Zorba the Greek' (1964) and 'Anne of the Thousand Days' (1969) where she played Catherine of Aragon.

Answer: Corfu

Prince Philip was born in 1921. His father was a Prince of both Greece and Denmark, but his uncle, King Constantine I, abdicated (not voluntarily) in 1922. Prince Andrew and his family moved to Paris, before Philip was sent to school in the UK. He met Princess Elizabeth, as she then was, in 1939 when she was only thirteen and the couple married in 1947.

They have four children - Prince Charles, heir to the throne, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.

Answer: Mini

Alexander Issigonis was born in Smyrna (now Izmir and in Turkey) in 1906. He had British nationality via his grandfather, who had worked for the British on the railways. The family was rescued from Smyrna when war broke out between Greece and Turkey, and Alec arrived in the UK in 1923.

He began working in the motor industry and was employed in Longbridge, Birmingham, by BMC, the company formed by the merger of Morris and Austin. The Suez Crisis of 1956 meant petrol was in short supply and Issigonis was tasked with designing a small, fuel efficient, car. And so the Mini was born.

Answer: Opera

Maria Callas was actually born in New York, in 1923, after her father had moved the family there from Athens during her mother's pregnancy. Her parents' marriage broke down and her mother returned to Athens in 1937. Maria had a good singing voice and was often called upon to perform by her mother, and their relationship never recovered from what Maria saw as the loss of her childhood. By 1941, Maria had received enough training to sing professionally and she moved back to the USA (and her father) in 1945.

Her later years saw endless problems for her - the affair with Onassis and a failing voice among them - and she died from a heart attack aged only fifty-three.

Answer: Spain

The artist was born in 1541 and the name just means 'The Greek' in Spanish. He moved to Venice and then Rome before travelling to Toledo, Spain, in 1577. He spent the rest of his life in the city, dying there in 1614. El Greco's style was rather different from that of his contemporaries and some of his works are considered to be similar to both Cubism and Expressionism. Among his major paintings are 'The Burial of the Count of Orgaz' (1586/8) and 'Laocoon' (1610/14).

Answer: Herodotus

The quiz started in Ancient Greece and we've finished there. Herodotus was born in Halicarnassus around 480 BCE when it was part of the Persian Empire - it is now Bodrum, in Turkey. He wrote 'The Histories', an account of the Greco-Persian Wars, in 440 BCE and this has earned him the name of the 'Father of History'

Hippocrates was an early medical practitioner, still remembered these days in the Hippocratic Oath while Pythagoras was a mathematician and philosopher, among other talents. Socrates was a philosopher.