A classical quiz – about the Greeks and Romans
1 How many of the seven wonders of the Ancient World can you name?
2 What is the Parthenon?
3 What are the ‘Elgin Marbles’ and what connection have they with the Parthenon?
4 Who was the goddess of wisdom in the Ancient World?
5 What bird was sacred to her?
6 What started the Trojan War?
7 How long did it last?
8 What was the wooden horse of Troy?
9 Who was the chief hero of the Trojans war?
10 Who was the bravest of the Greeks?
11 What do we mean by the expression ‘the heel of Achilles’?
12 Which of the Greek leaders wandered ten years before reaching home?
13 ‘Between Scylla and Charybdis’ – what do we mean by this phrase and how did it originate?
14 What mountain was regarded as the home of the Greek Gods?
15 What Greek festival, held every four years took place at Olympia?
16 Who rescued Andromeda?
17 What god was at once the god of the sun, music, of archery and of prophecy?
18 What was the name of the monstrous dog who guarded the entrance of Hades?
19 Who were the Centaurs?
20 What was the Chimaera?
21 Who were Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos?
22 Who were the Argonauts and who was their leader?
23 What was the purpose of their voyage?
24 Who was the hero who had twelve labours to accomplish?
25 What was the Hellespont and who swam over it to see his lover?
26 Who is thought to have composed the Ilia and the Odyssey?
27 Who was the cunning workman who built famous maze in which to keep a creature – half-man, half-bull?
28 Who was Icarus and how did he meet death?
29 What date in our calendar corresponds to the Ides of March?
30 Who was killed on the Ides of March 44 BC?
Answers
1 The Pyramids of Egypt; Hanging Gardens of Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon; Temple of Diana, Ephesus; Pheidias’ Statue of Zeus, Olympia; Mausoleum of Halicarnassus; Colossus of Rhodes; Pharos Lighthouse, Alexandria
2 The temple of Athene on the Acropolis, Athens
3 Sculptures and bas-reliefs, chiefly from the
Parthenon, brought to England (1812) by Lord Elgin. They were bought by the British Government and placed in the British Museum
4 Pallas Athene (Minerva)
5 The owl
6 The abduction of Helen, wife of Menelaus, by Paris
7 Ten years
8 The Greeks made a monster wooden horse
which the Trojans dragged within Troy. In the horse were Greeks who slew the guards and opened the city gates
9 Hector
10 Achilles
11 The vulnerable part. Achilles was rendered
invulnerable by being dipped in the Styx, but the water did not wash his heel by which his mother, Thetis, was holding him
12 Odysseus
13 Between two evils. The phrase refers to the Straits of Messina. On the Italian side, according to Greek myth, dwelt Scylla, a sea monster having twelve feet and six heads, and on the Sicilian side was Charyb-dis, a whirlpool. (Read about this and many other of the stories referred to in these questions in Kingsley’s The Heroes)
14 Olympus
15 The Olympic Games
16 Perseus. (Do you know Louis MacNeice’s poem Perseus’?)
17 Apollo
18 Cerberus
19 Mythical creatures, half men and half horses, inhabiting Thessaly
20 Fabulous monster. Its fore part was that of a lion, its middle that of a goat, its hind pan that of a dragon
21 The Three Fates
22 Those who sailed in Argo, the ship of Jason
23 To secure the Golden Fleece. (William Morris tells the story in his poem, The Life and Death of Jason)
24 Hercules
25 The Strait (now called the Dardanelles) con¬necting the Sea of Marmora with the Aegean. Leander swam across it to see Hero
26 Homer
27 Daedalus
28 Son of Daedalus. When escaping from Crete on wings made by his father, Icarus flew too near the sun. The wax fastenings of the wings melted and Icarus dropped into the sea
29 13th march
30 Julius Caesar
Image Credits: J. Minter .