She's a Femme Fatale Quiz | People

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. The earliest femme fatales are found in mythology. This particular lady was the powerful goddess of love and beauty, and was known for her many intrigues, among them causing the Trojan War (by promising Helen to Paris). She was one of the twelve Olympian gods, and her Roman equivalent was Venus. Name this beautiful goddess.

Answer: Aphrodite

Aphrodite was quite an interesting goddess. She was supposedly born from the sea, and it is this scene which is portrayed on Botticelli's famous "The Birth of Venus". She was seen as a threat to even the gods, and thus was married to the physically unattractive Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, and metals.

She did however embark on love affairs with other, lesser gods and mortals, such as Adonis and the god of war Ares. She is well-known today as the "subject" of the famous sculpture, the Venus de Milo.

2. In this 1891 play, this femme fatale dances the fictional "Dance of the Seven Veils" in order to get the head of John the Baptist. The play was written by famous writer Oscar Wilde and was originally in French. It has also been adapted to several film versions. Who is she?

Answer: Salome

In the play, Salome is the stepdaughter of King Herod and, in return for dancing the "Dance of the Seven Veils", requests the head of John the Baptist. Salome was the epitome of the femme fatale during the late 19th century and early 20th, until the "vamp" emerged on the scene.

The play has been transferred to the screen several times, with famous versions being the (now lost) film starring famous movie vamp Theda Bara in 1918 and a 1923 version with Alla Nazimova.

3. Possibly one of the most famous femme fatales, Mata Hari was a famous exotic dancer who entertained people and scandalized others in the early 1900s. She became the lover of several powerful men. She maintained her popularity until the begin of World War I, when she was suspected of being a spy. Finally she was executed for espionage, by firing squad. She may have become famous under the name Mata Hari, but what was her real name?

Answer: Margaretha Zelle

Mata Hari lived a colorful life, but today it is her manner of death that is most often remembered. Rumors cloud her death, but none are known to be true. Of the many rumors, one says she blew a kiss to her executioners, another that she flung open her coat and exposed her naked body. Her final words were said to be, "Merci, monsieur."

She was the contemporary of dancers such as Isadora Duncan, and her dance, like that of Isadora Duncan, looked to such exotic places as Asia, Egypt, and Greece for inspiration. Critics often derided her for being cheap and her dances for lacking any artistic merit, but they could not diminish her huge fame.

4. In the 1910s, silent film began to take off, and the vamp emerged. It was a short term for vampire, and was held to be a woman who literally sucked the life out of her lovers, leaving them shadows of their former self. The movie "A Fool There Was" (1914) showcased the first movie vamp, an actress named Theodosia Goodman. What is the name she is better known by?

Answer: Theda Bara

Though Nita Naldi, Louise Glaum, and Valeska Suratt were all vamps as well, Theda Bara was THE first. Her name was supposedly an anagram of "Arab Death", and photos were taken of her posing in absurd costumes, with skulls, leopard skins, and wild animals.

After the tremendous success of "A Fool There Was" (based on a Rudyard Kipling poem "The Vampire"), she became typecast in such roles, and was pushed into roles as other famous femme fatales, such as "Cleopatra" (1917) and "Salome" (1918). An actress who took her work seriously and wished to show her versatility, sadly little of her work survives.

5. The French vamp, actress Musidora acted in film serials (which were tremendously popular during the silent era), such as "Les Vampires" and "Judex", where she wore dark kohled eyes, sinister make-up, and exotic, outrageous clothing, she became the instantly known as a European vamp. Her stage name was Greek; what did it mean?

Answer: "gift of the muses"

Born Jeanne Roques, she began acting on the stage at the age of 15 and worked with the likes of Colette, a close friend. She began acting in movies in 1914 and was the French equivalent of American vamp Theda Bara. Her most famous film serials were quite surreal and became famous as examples of avant-garde cinema.

They have influenced such filmmakers as Fritz Lang and Luis Bunuel. Musidora, in addition to acting in her films, also wrote and directed many of them.

6. During the Great Depression, these women became the rougher versions of femme fatales. Women like Bonnie Parker and Virginia Hill were criminals and became known as what?

Answer: gun molls

The real-life descendant of the femme fatale, the gun moll was a criminal and often accomplice (though not always) to a male criminal or gangster. They were called "gun molls" because many of them were tough and also handled guns. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were notorious during the early 1930s, and Bonnie became the epitome of the gun moll. Virginia Hill was the girlfriend of Bugsy Siegel, and Evelyn Frenchette was the companion of John Dillinger during the early 30s.

7. Film noir spanned a new generation of on-screen femme fatales. The famous 1946 movie "Gilda" features a woman named Gilda, who manipulates her husband and his best friend, and famously performs a "striptease" in her gorgeous black dress. Who was the actress who portrayed her?

Answer: Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth became identified with her character and once said, "Men fall in love with Gilda, but they wake up with me." She played similar femme fatales several times in other films. Gene Tierney played a narcissistic, possessive wife in the movie "Leave Her to Heaven" (1945), while Barbara Stanwyck made movie history as Phyllis Dietrichson, who seduces a man so he can help her kill her husband, in the film "Double Indemnity" (1944). Lana Turner also had her share of femme fatale roles, but it was the film noir "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) that she became best known, in a role similar to Barbara Stanwyck's in "Double Indemnity".

8. Song has also been influenced by femme fatales. In the Velvet Underground song "Femme Fatale", off their first album "The Velvet Underground & Nico" (1967), Nico sings about a woman who plays men for fools. The woman in the lyrics was influenced by a real-life person, a famous Factory superstar during the mid-60s and perhaps the best known. Who is she?

Answer: Edie Sedgwick

Edie Sedgwick was the subject of the song, which was written by Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed and was sung by Nico. Edie was a famous member of the Factory during the years 1965 and 1966, and appeared in several of the famous experimental films created by Andy Warhol, like "Poor Little Rich Girl" (1965), the title of which was her persona, "Beauty No. 2" (1965), and "Chelsea Girls" (1966), but for the latter she demanded her footage be removed.

She lived a tumultuous life and was also the inspiration for several songs by Bob Dylan, such as "Just Like a Woman" and "Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat" off his "Blonde on Blonde" album from 1966.

9. Going back to ancient times: this wife of the Roman emperor Claudius was also the mother of the future emperor Nero. She was beautiful, domineering, and ruthless, and controlled Claudius. She manipulated him so that Nero would become his successor, but when he planned on making Britannicus (his biological son) heir, he mysteriously died. Rumors abound about the true nature of his death (was it poison?), but almost all point to this ambitious empress. Who was she?

Answer: Agrippina

Agrippina lived quite the life and even after Claudius's death remained a figure in politics. However, soon Nero saw reason to get his powerful mother out of the way (some sources say to marry a noblewoman, Poppaea Sabina), and legend says that when the assassin was about the kill her, Agrippina said, "Strike my womb," (the part of her body from which her son came from).

After her death Nero became guilty and later began having nightmares about her. Some historians now believe that Agrippina has been given a harsh record because of her role in politics (uncommon of women in that time) and that she had tried her best to help rule the empire. What Agrippina was truly like may never be known; however, she most certainly was a femme fatale and a powerful woman.

10. So now you have met several of the both real and fictional femme fatales, vamps, and gun molls from years past. This woman may reign supreme. As the queen of Egypt, she enchanted the likes of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and her life has been performed as plays and movies and written in novels (albeit often highly fictionalized). Who is possibly the most famous femme fatale of them all?

Answer: Cleopatra

Cleopatra (properly Cleopatra VII) ruled Egypt after the death of her father and the deaths of her two sisters (which were in highly suspicious circumstances). She met Julius Caesar sometime after this and together they had a son named Caesarion. She then married Mark Antony, had three children with him, and killed herself after she thought Antony had already committed suicide. Legends cloud her image, and thus it is hard to sort fact from fiction, but it is known she lived quite a life.

Thank you for venturing into the lives of these famous "femme fatales", often just women who lived independently and as they liked, sometimes women who were manipulative and attractive, and sometimes just downright scary! They are all fascinating people and hopefully this has sparked interest in their lives, careers, or (in the case of film stars) their movies.

This quiz has been crafted by Janis of JaAmCaJo13.

Source: Author JaAmCaJo13

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Snowman before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

She's a Femme Fatale Trivia Quiz

The femme fatale has been a stock character in books, plays, and movies for centuries. How much do you know about these real and fictional femme fatales?

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>