Greek Mythology Quiz — 50 Questions, No Pictures

Zeus overthrew which figure to take power?

Answer Cronus, his father

Cronus had himself overthrown his own father, and had swallowed his children to stop the pattern repeating. Zeus survived because his mother substituted a stone — the cycle of a son displacing a father is the engine of the whole origin story.

How were Zeus, Poseidon and Hades said to have divided the world?

Answer By lot: sky, sea and the underworld

By lot, which is worth noticing: the three brothers drew for their domains rather than fighting over them. Earth and Olympus were left common ground, which is why Zeus has authority everywhere without owning the ground.

Athena is the goddess of what, primarily?

Answer Wisdom and strategic warfare, alongside crafts

Wisdom and strategic warfare, alongside craft. She was said to have been born fully armed from Zeus's head, and she is the patron of Athens — the city and the goddess share a name, and the myth explains which came first.

What is Hephaestus known for?

Answer Metalworking and the forge, and for making the gods' equipment

Metalworking and the forge. He is also the only Olympian described as physically imperfect, thrown from Olympus and lamed, and the one who actually makes things — the gods' weapons and palaces are his work.

Which goddess is associated with the harvest and the grain?

Answer Demeter

Demeter, whose grief for Persephone was said to stop the earth producing. Her rites at Eleusis were among the most important in the Greek world, and initiates were forbidden to describe them — which is why we still do not know what happened there.

What was Hermes' role?

Answer Messenger of the gods, and guide of the dead to the underworld

Messenger of the gods and guide of the dead to the underworld. He is also patron of travelers, merchants and thieves, a combination that makes more sense once you notice all four move things from place to place.

Ares and Athena both concern war. How do they differ?

Answer Ares is the violence of battle; Athena is strategy and the disciplined side of war

Ares is the violence of battle; Athena is the strategy. The Greeks did not much like Ares and said so in their stories, while the Romans elevated the same figure as Mars into a dignified founder-god.

Dionysus presides over which pairing?

Answer Wine and the theater

Wine and the theater, which sounds odd until you learn that Greek drama grew out of festivals held in his honor. Tragedy and comedy were both religious events before they were art forms.

Hestia is unusual among the Olympians in what way?

Answer She has almost no stories of her own, keeping to the hearth instead

She has almost no stories, keeping the hearth instead. That absence is itself the point in a pantheon full of drama, and in some lists she gives up her place among the twelve to Dionysus.

Who is Hades' wife, and how is she said to have come there?

Answer Persephone, taken to the underworld, which is tied to the cycle of the seasons

Persephone, taken to the underworld. Because she ate pomegranate seeds there she had to return for part of each year, and her absence is the Greek explanation for winter.

Heracles is known for what set of deeds?

Answer Twelve labors performed as penance

Twelve labors performed as penance for killing his own family in a madness sent by Hera. The labors are usually told as adventures, but in the source they are punishment.

What did Theseus face in the labyrinth?

Answer The Minotaur, a creature part man and part bull

The Minotaur, part man and part bull, born to the queen of Crete. The creature exists because of an insult to Poseidon — in these stories monsters are usually consequences rather than accidents.

How did Theseus find his way back out?

Answer A thread given to him by Ariadne

A thread from Ariadne, which he unrolled going in. She helped him and he abandoned her afterward on Naxos, a detail the heroic version tends to leave out.

Perseus killed Medusa by what method?

Answer Watching her reflection so as not to meet her gaze directly

By watching her reflection in a polished shield rather than meeting her gaze. Almost every element of the story is borrowed equipment — winged sandals, a cap of invisibility, the shield — which makes it a story about preparation more than strength.

Jason and his crew set out to find what?

Answer The golden fleece

The golden fleece, guarded in Colchis. The crew is the point: the Argonauts gather most of the famous heroes into one voyage, which is why the story works as a hub for the rest.

Odysseus is remembered chiefly for which quality?

Answer Cunning: he solves problems by trickery rather than by force

Cunning. He solves problems by trickery rather than force, and the Odyssey punishes him for the one moment he chooses pride instead — shouting his real name at the blinded Cyclops.

What was Achilles' known weakness?

Answer His heel, the one part of him left vulnerable

His heel. Worth knowing: the heel does not appear in Homer at all. It comes from much later sources, so the most famous detail about Achilles is not in the poem that made him famous.

Orpheus went to the underworld for what reason?

Answer To bring back Eurydice, and he was told not to look back on the way out

To bring back Eurydice. He was told not to look back until both were out, and he looked — the story is built so that the failure is his own, at the last possible moment.

What did the Sphinx do to travelers outside Thebes?

Answer Posed a riddle and killed those who could not answer it

Posed a riddle and killed those who could not answer. Oedipus solved it, which is the only reason the story is remembered — and solving it is what puts him in Thebes for everything that follows.

Atalanta was defeated in a footrace by what trick?

Answer Golden apples dropped in her path, which she stopped to pick up

Golden apples dropped in her path. She was faster and had to be distracted rather than beaten, which is unusual: the trick concedes that the hero could not win the race.

What is a chimera, as the Greeks described it?

Answer A single creature combining parts of several animals, notably lion, goat and serpent

A single creature combining parts of several animals — lion, goat and serpent. The word now means any incoherent mixture, and in biology it means an organism with cells from two sources.

Cerberus guards what?

Answer The entrance to the underworld, keeping the dead from leaving

The entrance to the underworld, and the important half is often forgotten: Cerberus keeps the dead from leaving rather than the living from entering. The gate opens more easily one way.

What danger did the Sirens present?

Answer A song that drew sailors off course and onto the rocks

A song that drew sailors off course onto the rocks. In the earliest images the Sirens are bird-women, not fish-women — the mermaid version is a much later mixing with other water spirits.

Scylla and Charybdis together represent what kind of situation?

Answer A passage where avoiding one danger brings you nearer the other

A passage where avoiding one danger brings you into the other. Odysseus is advised to steer toward Scylla deliberately, because losing six men is better than losing the ship, which is the entire point of the phrase.

The Hydra had which property?

Answer Cutting off one head caused more to grow in its place

Cutting off one head made more grow. Heracles solved it by having Iolaus burn each stump — the labor was later disallowed on the grounds that he had accepted help.

A centaur is a combination of what?

Answer Human upper body and horse body

Human upper body on a horse's body. Centaurs are usually depicted as wild and violent, with the notable exception of Chiron, who taught many of the heroes and was the opposite in every respect.

Where did the gods live, in the usual telling?

Answer Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus, which is a real mountain in northern Greece rather than a purely imaginary place. That grounding is common in Greek myth: the stories attach to landscape people could walk to.

What was the Oracle at Delphi consulted for?

Answer Prophecy, delivered in words that often admitted more than one reading

Prophecy, delivered in words that could be read more than one way. The famous case is the king told that if he attacked he would destroy a great empire — he did, and it was his own.

The river Styx marks what?

Answer The boundary of the underworld, crossed by the ferryman Charon

The boundary of the underworld, crossed by the ferryman Charon. He required payment, which is why the dead were buried with a coin, and why an unburied body was a genuine problem for the living.

Pegasus is what sort of creature?

Answer A winged horse

A winged horse, said to have sprung from Medusa's blood when Perseus killed her. In these stories monsters and marvels often come from the same event.

The story of Icarus is usually told as a warning against what?

Answer Ignoring instructions given for your own safety, in the pursuit of something exhilarating

Ignoring instructions given for your own safety. The instruction was to fly a middle course — the warning is not against ambition in general but against disregarding a specific limit you were told about.

What happens in the story of King Midas?

Answer A wish that everything he touches turn to gold becomes a curse

A wish that everything he touches turns to gold, granted and immediately disastrous. Food and drink turn too, and in most versions so does his daughter, which is what makes it a story about consequences rather than wealth.

Narcissus is the origin of which idea?

Answer Being absorbed in one's own image to the exclusion of everything else

Being absorbed in one's own image to the exclusion of everything else. He was not vain in the ordinary sense; he was trapped, unable to leave a reflection he did not recognize as himself.

Prometheus is punished for doing what?

Answer Giving fire to humans against the will of Zeus

Giving fire to humans against Zeus's will. His punishment is chosen for cruelty: an eagle eats his liver daily and it grows back each night, so the sentence never ends.

What is Sisyphus condemned to do?

Answer Roll a boulder uphill only to have it roll back down, endlessly

Roll a boulder uphill only to have it roll back, forever. It is the standard image for pointless repeated effort, and the fact that the task is achievable each time is what makes it unbearable.

And Tantalus?

Answer Stand in water with fruit above him, both retreating whenever he reaches

Stand in water with fruit above him, both retreating whenever he reaches. His name gave English the word tantalize, which still means exactly that: kept just out of reach.

Cassandra was given what, and what was the catch?

Answer True prophecy that nobody would believe

True prophecy that nobody would believe. It is the cruelest gift in the collection — she is right about the fall of Troy and can do nothing with being right.

What is the general shape of hubris in these stories?

Answer Overreaching pride, especially against the gods, followed by a fall

Overreaching pride, especially against the gods, followed by a fall. The Greek stories treat it almost mechanically: hubris is noticed, and what follows is not bad luck but consequence.

The Trojan horse worked on what principle?

Answer A gift accepted without inspection carried the attackers inside

A gift accepted without inspection carrying the danger inside it. The phrase survives in computing, where a Trojan is a program the user installs willingly.

What is the golden mean the story of Daedalus's instructions illustrates?

Answer Flying neither too low, where spray weighs the wings, nor too high, where the sun weakens them

Flying neither too low, where sea spray would weigh the wings down, nor too high, where the sun would melt them. The instruction contains both limits, which is why it is a lesson about the middle course rather than about caution.

Pandora's famous container was described in the earliest surviving Greek text as what?

Answer A large storage jar; the word became box in a later Latin retelling

A large storage jar. The word became box through a Latin mistranslation in the sixteenth century, and the wrong version is now the famous one — a useful reminder of how much reaches us through translators.

Why does the same god appear under two names, such as Zeus and Jupiter?

Answer Roman gods were identified with Greek ones, so each figure carries a Greek and a Roman name

Roman gods were identified with Greek ones, so the stories merged while the names stayed separate. They were not originally the same figures, which is why the Roman versions sometimes behave differently.

Odysseus is also called Ulysses. Where does that come from?

Answer The name passed through Latin, and English took the Latin form

The name passed through Latin as Ulixes and reached English from there. Many of the familiar spellings are Latin rather than Greek, which is also why we write Hercules more often than Heracles.

Most of what survives about these myths comes to us how?

Answer Through poems, plays and later compilations — not from a single sacred book

Through poems, plays and later compilations — Homer and Hesiod, the tragedians, Ovid and handbooks written centuries after the fact. There was no scripture; what survives is literature about the myths.

Different cities told different versions of the same myth. What follows from that?

Answer There is often no single correct version, and contradictions are normal

There is often no single correct version. Cities told the version that suited them, and a modern retelling is choosing among ancient variants rather than departing from one original.

The Greek Sphinx and the Egyptian sphinx differ in what respect?

Answer The Greek one is female and poses a riddle; the Egyptian figure has a different role entirely

The Greek one is female and poses a riddle; the Egyptian one is male and guards. They are separate traditions that happen to share a name, and the Greek word was applied to the Egyptian monument later.

Modern games and films often present a god or monster with traits the ancient sources never mention. How should that be read?

Answer As adaptation: entertaining, but not evidence about the ancient stories

As adaptation: entertaining, but not evidence about what the ancient sources said. This is worth holding lightly — a great many people's first encounter with these figures is a game, and that is fine as long as the two are not confused.

The word labyrinth has come to mean a maze. In the myth, what is it?

Answer A specific structure built to hold the Minotaur, tied to one story

In the myth it is a specific structure built to hold the Minotaur, made deliberately confusing. The modern distinction between a labyrinth with one path and a maze with choices is a later convention, not a Greek one.

Constellations such as Orion carry mythological names. What does that reflect?

Answer Sky figures were named after the stories, and the names outlived the beliefs

Sky figures were named after the stories, mostly by Greek and later Arab astronomers. The names stuck because they were useful for navigation and record-keeping long before they were decorative.

Why do writers still reach for these stories?

Answer They are short, widely known, and about recognizable human failings, which makes them useful shorthand

They are short, widely known, and about recognizable human failures. A writer can invoke Cassandra or Sisyphus in one word and be understood, which is a kind of shorthand very few other stories provide.