Lady Lazarus Trivia Quiz

Answer: Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi was born in Rome in 1593. Her father was Orazio Lomi Gentileschi, a Tuscan painter who soon became aware of her daughter's talent and introduced her to painting. In 1611 Artemisia was raped by Agostino Tassi, a collaborator of Orazio's who was tutoring her privately.

When Orazio realized that the man was not going to marry her as reparation for his deed, he pressed charges against Tassi. Artemisia, who had been a virgin, was subjected to a gynaecological examination, and subsequently tortured with thumbscrews to 'make sure' her testimony was truthful.

After the trial, Artemisia got married and moved to Florence, where her career took off; she later settled in Naples, where she enjoyed many personal and professional successes.

In 1638 she was invited to London by King Charles I, whose court painter Orazio had become, then returned to Italy in 1642. She is thought to have died in the plague that swept through Naples in 1656. Artemisia's most famous painting, "Judith Slaying Holofernes" (1614-20), has been interpreted as a sort of psychological retaliation against the violence she had endured at the hands of men.

Answer: Sarah Bernhardt

Born in Paris (probably in 1844) as Rosine Bernardt, Sarah Bernhardt was the daughter of a courtesan and an unknown father. Educated at a convent school, she studied acting at the Comédie-Française, but then took up the life of a courtesan after she was expelled from the theatre for slapping another actress.

In 1866 she returned to acting, and quickly became one of the most sought-after actresses of her time, performing all over the world and earning the nickname of "Divine Sarah". She was noted for her eccentricities (such as sleeping in a coffin) and her close friendships with some of the most famous artists and writers of the turn of the century.

She also starred in a number of silent movies. In 1905, while performing in Rio de Janeiro, Bernhardt injured her right knee in the final scene of Victorien Sardou's "La Tosca", when the titular heroine jumps off the parapet of the Castel Sant'Angelo.

The injury became gangrenous, and caused her entire leg to be amputated, forcing the actress in a wheelchair for months.

In spite of that, Bernhardt continued her acting career almost until her death in 1923, often appearing on stage without her prosthetic wooden leg, and holding audiences spellbound with the power of her voice.

Answer: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett, born in 1806 in northeastern England, was the eldest of 12 children. She started writing poetry at the age of 6, a few years before her health problems (head and spinal pain, and possibly tuberculosis) manifested, forcing her to take opiates for most of her life.

In spite of these issues, she pursued her literary career, soon becoming one of England's most successful writers, and also championing social causes such as child labour reform. In 1845, she met fellow poet Robert Browning, six years her junior, who had previously written to her to express his admiration for her 1844 volume "Poems".

The two fell in love, though they had to conduct their courtship in secret because of Elizabeth's father's disapproval. He eventually disinherited her when she and Browning got married in 1846.

The couple then moved to Florence (Italy), where they made their home and enjoyed a happy life - crowned by the birth of a child in 1849, when Elizabeth was 43 years old. Unfortunately, Elizabeth's health deteriorated again after a few years, and in 1861 she died in Florence, where she is buried in the Protestant Cemetery.

Her most famous work of poetry, "Sonnets from the Portuguese" (1845-46), is a collection of love poems written after she met Browning.

Answer: Theodora of Byzantium

Probably born in Cyprus around 500 AD, Theodora was the daughter of a bear trainer for the Green faction of Constantinople's hippodrome. After her father's death when she was only four years old, her family became destitute, and Theodora - like her sisters - trained as an actress and dancer (a profession that, at the time, was considered almost synonymous with prostitution).

She also became affiliated with the Greens' rival faction, the Blues, which she supported until the end of her life. She had several lovers, and at least one illegitimate child, but in her early 20s she left that lifestyle behind, and settled near the Imperial Palace, working as a wool spinner.

Her beauty and personality attracted the attention of the Emperor Justinian I, who eventually married her in 525, having repealed a law that prevented government officials from marrying actresses.

Theodora then became one of the most influential figures in the long history of the Eastern Roman Empire, supporting her husband through difficult times such as the Nika riots of 532. Remembering her early years, she was also committed to improving women's condition, and passed laws prohibiting forced prostitution.

She died in 548, at the age of 48, probably of breast cancer.

Answer: Wilma Rudolph

Born in 1940 in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee, Wilma Rudolph came from a poor working-class family, and was the 20th of 22 siblings. At the age of 4 she contracted infantile paralysis (caused by the polio virus), which caused her left leg and foot to become twisted. Though she eventually recovered, she had to wear a leg brace undergo physical therapy for many years.

She also survived pneumonia and scarlet fever. In 1953 she took up basketball, and later began playing in her high school team. There Wilma was discovered by Ed Temple, track and field coach of Tennessee State University.

At the age of 16 she won her first Olympic medal at the Melbourne games. Four years later, at the 1960 Rome Olympics, she won the hearts of the crowds by winning three sprint gold medals - which earned her the nickname of "La Gazzella Nera" (The Black Gazelle). Wilma Rudolph retired from competition at 22, and became a school teacher and sports commentator. Sadly, in July 1994 she was diagnosed with a brain tumour, and a few months later succumbed to the disease.

She was only 54. Thousands of people attended her memorial service in Nashville; the following year one of the Tennessee State University residences was named after her.

Answer: Audrey Hepburn

Born in 1929 in Brussels (Belgium), Audrey Kathleen Ruston was the daughter of a British businessman and a Dutch baroness. Her father, a supporter of Fascism, abandoned his family when Audrey was 6 years old. Audrey and her family, who had moved to The Netherlands after her father left them, were deeply affected by the Nazi occupation of the country between 1940 and 1945. Though she survived the occupation, during the famine of the winter of 1944 she developed anemia, asthma and jaundice as a result of malnutrition.

It has been speculated that Hepburn's svelte figure was due to eating disorders triggered by her ordeal. That harrowing experience shaped Hepburn's personality even as she achieved worldwide success as the iconic star of films such as "Sabrina", "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "My Fair Lady". Remembering her own wartime experiences, she became involved with humanitarian causes, especially on behalf of impoverished children; in 1989 she was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF. Audrey Hepburn died of cancer in 1993.

Answer: Marie Curie

Born in 1867 in Warsaw (Poland), Marie Sklodowska was the daughter of two well-known teachers, and was attracted to learning and research from a very early age. In 1891 she moved to Paris, where her sister Bronislawa had studied medicine and then married a Polish physician, and enrolled at the Sorbonne to study physics, chemistry and mathematics.

After earning two degrees, in 1894 she met Pierre Curie, who helped her find some laboratory space for her research into the magnetic properties of steel.

The two would eventually marry in 1895, and their pioneering research on radioactivity earned them the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared with Henri Becquerel. Sadly, Pierre Curie died in a street accident in 1906, leaving Marie heartbroken with their two daughters, Irène and Eve, to raise.

However, she continued her research, and became a professor at the Sorbonne. Xenophobic attitudes from the French right-wing press, as well as a scandal following the revelation of her brief affair with fellow scientist Paul Langevin, proved painful, but did not disrupt her career, nor prevent her from being awarded a second Nobel Prize (this time in chemistry) in 1911.

Her daughter, Irène Joliot Curie, also became a Nobel Prize winner in 1935. Marie Curie died in 1934 of aplastic anemia brought about by her continued exposure to radiation. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person to win two of them in two different sciences.

Answer: Eleanor Roosevelt

Anne Eleanor Roosevelt came from a prominent New York family; her father was the younger brother of President Theodore Roosevelt. Born in 1884, by the time she was 10 she had lost both her parents and one of her younger brothers, and was raised by her maternal grandmother. Eleanor (as she preferred to be called) had a lonely childhood, and was highly self-conscious because of her lack of conventional good looks.

In the summer of 1902, she met Franklin Delano Roosevelt, her father's fifth cousin, to whom she became engaged the following year, in spite of Franklin's mother's disapproval.

The couple got married in 1905, but their marriage was never truly happy - first because of her mother-in-law's domineering presence, then because of Eleanor's discovery of Franklin's affair with her secretary, Lucy Mercer. Eleanor and Franklin, however, remained married, and she supported him in his decision to continue his political career when polio caused him to lose the use of his legs.

When Franklin was elected President of the USA in 1933 (the first of four times), Eleanor did not abandon her activism as was expected of her, and became committed to social reform.

After Franklin's death in 1945, she was appointed as delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, and played an instrumental role in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which was adopted in 1948). Her activities continued throughout the '50s, earning her numerous awards and recognitions. Eleanor died in 1962, after struggling with health issues for a couple of years.

Answer: Elizabeth I

Though most people are familiar with Elizabeth I's accomplishments as England's first ruling queen, her troubled youth is often overlooked. As her mother Anne Boleyn's marriage to her father, King Henry VIII, had been annulled immediately prior to Anne's execution, Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and lost her place in the royal succession.

After her father's death, she was probably molested by Thomas Seymour, the fourth husband of her stepmother, Katherine Parr. She later was imprisoned in the Tower of London, and then spent almost a year under house arrest at Woodstock, accused of supporting a Protestant rebellion against the ruling queen, her half-sister Mary I. Upon the latter's death in 1558, Elizabeth ascended the throne, and ruled England for almost 45 years.

Her death in 1603 marked the end of the Tudor dynasty.

Answer: Maya Angelou

Born in 1928 in St Louis, Missouri, Marguerite Annie ("Maya") Johnson was brought up by her grandmother after the end of their parents' disastrous marriage. When, at the age of eight, Maya was returned to her mother's care, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, and as a consequence became mute for almost five years.

At the age of 14, she moved to California, where she attended high school and started working in a number of different jobs. At 17 she had a son, Guy, and to support him she worked for a time in the sex trade industry.

In 1951 she married Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician whose surname she adopted in her career as a singer and dancer, and later as a writer and civil rights activist. Angelou's early years are detailed in the first (and most famous) of her seven autobiographies, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969), a powerful account in which the author does not gloss over her traumatic experiences. Maya Angelou died in 2014.