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About This Quiz
Can you guess the character in Greek mythology from a one-sentence description? From Olympus to the underworld, the gods to the Gorgons, we've got a quiz to challenge your Greek myth savvy!
I'm king of the gods. Period.
Apollo
Hades
Hercules
Zeus
Zeus rules Mount Olympus and is the father of several other Olympian gods. Some of his lesser children have mortal mothers.
I'm queen of the gods ... yet I can't seem to keep my straying husband at home.
Athena
Artemis
Hera
Zeus's wife is named Hera. She is very jealous, but Zeus gives her good reason to be, with his wandering eye.
Medusa
My better-known Roman name is Neptune.
Ares
Hades
Poseidon
Poseidon rules the sea, along with his consort, Amphitrite. He is the brother, not the son, of Zeus.
Apollo
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I am said to have sprung full-grown from my father's forehead.
Athena
Athena's rarely-used full name is "Pallas Athena." Except in Roman mythology, in which she is called "Minerva."
Artemis
Aphrodite
Pandora
I never should have eaten those pomegranate seeds.
Artemis
Hestia
Persephone
Hades fell in love with Persephone and pulled her down into the underworld. Because she ate six pomegranate seeds, Persephone was required to spend six months a year -- one for each seed -- with him ever after.
Medusa
I am the blacksmith and weapon-maker of the gods.
Echo
Hercules
Hephaestus
Hephaestus is an anomaly among the 12 Olympian gods. He's described as both ugly and crippled, which is unusual for a god -- they're usually thought of as very powerful and handsome or beautiful.
Prometheus
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I rose from the waves of the sea.
Artemis
Aphrodite
Aphrodite, or Venus in Roman mythology, was the goddess of beauty and love. A famous painting depicts her rising from the foam of the sea;​ she has no known father or mother.
Hestia
Medusa
I am the god of war.
Apollo
Ares
Ares is better known as "Mars," his Roman name. Earth's nearest neighboring planet is named for him, perhaps because of its blood-like color.
Hades
Saturn
I am the messenger of the gods.
Jason
Hermes
This seems unfair: If you're a god, should you really have to run errands? But Hermes had fantastic winged slippers, so hey, maybe he liked getting away from Mt. Olympus and traveling the world!
Hestia
the Nemean Lion
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I am associated with physicians, logic, and light.
Apollo
Phoebus Apollo was the god of the sun, reason, and logic. He was associated with physicians like Galen, one of the earliest practitioners in the empiric tradition.
Orion
Prometheus
Hercules
I am the goddess of the moon and the hunt.
Artemis
Artemis was chaste -- interestingly, the Greeks attributed celibacy to her and to Athena, perhaps their two most admirable goddesses. The Greeks didn't seem to equate female chastity with being unfulfilled, but in being free to live as one pleased.
Aphrodite
Medusa
Scylla
As one of the three Fates, I spin the thread of life.
Clotho
The three Fates respectively spun, measured and cut the thread of each individual life. Clotho, the youngest, did the spinning.
Danae
Minerva
Hippolyta
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I am a minor goddess representing the actual, physical moon.
Ceres
Helen
Selene
While Artemis (Diana) was the goddess associated with the moon, the Greeks also had minor gods who "personified" important celestial or terrestrial things. Selene, in this capacity, represented the actual moon.
Echo
A lesser-known Olympian, I am the goddess of the hearth.
Danae
Hestia
Like Hermes, Hestia seems to have a rather blue-collar job for a goddess. However, she was important as the goddess of family and home.
Io
Leda
I am the goddess of grain and the harvest.
Demeter
Demeter is the mother of Persephone. When Persephone goes to the underworld for six months of the year, to be the wife of Hades, Demeter mourns and nothing grows, causing autumn and winter.
Juno
Io
Hestia
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Invite me to your next party ... I am the god of wine!
Dionysus
Our favorite description of the god Dionysus comes from one of the Greek playwrights, who called him "So gentle, yet so terrible, to man." Like wine itself!
Kronos
Nero
Hephaestus
I am the goddess of the dawn.
Eos
Eos is another minor goddess personifying a natural phenomenon. In his writings, Homer often refers to Eos as "rosy-fingered dawn."
Ceres
Diana
Endymion
Secondary to Apollo, I personify the sun.
Ares
Helios
Helios embodies the physical sun, while Apollo is more metaphorically associated with daytime, logic and reason. Fun fact: A "heliotropic" plant is one whose movements track the sun.
Phobos
Deimos
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I just represent the entire Earth!
Danae
Gaia
Gaia is considered a very early, primitive goddess -- that is, preceding the Olympian gods. She is the mother of the Titans, themselves a generation before the Olympians.
Io
Rhea
My beauty was said to launch a thousand ships.
Danae
Helen
Helen was said to be a daughter of Zeus; she was also the most beautiful woman in the world. When she eloped (or was abducted by) Paris of Troy, it launched the fabled "thousand ships" and the Trojan War.
Juno
Merope
The second of the three Fates, I measure the thread of your life.
Atropos
Lachesis
Lachesis, the second of the Fates, is portrayed as a middle-aged woman, just as her two partners are a young woman and an aged one. In this aspect, the Fates resemble the "Maiden, Mother and Crone" of Wiccan mythology.
Narcissa
Polyhymnia
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Killing the Nemean Lion was one of my 12 labors.
Achilles
Hercules
Though his traditional Greek name, "Heracles," seems to evoke Hera, she wasn't his mother -- he was the product of one of Zeus's affairs. Hera, in fact, hated Hercules and briefly drove him mad, causing him to kill his children.
Patroclus
Xerxes
I am the Queen of the Amazons.
Artemis
Hippolyta
Hippolyta was the daughter of Ares, the god of war. So it was probably inevitable that she would grow up to lead a war-like race.
Merope
Megara
Athena changed me into a spider for challenging her to a weaving contest.
Arachne
​As you might already know, this is the root of the word "arachnid," for eight-legged insects. The most common of these is the spider, which spins a web, like the weaver, Arachne.
Echo
Medea
Danae
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The last of the three Fates, I'll cut the thread of your life (hopefully not soon).
Atropos
She has to do it. Don't "at" her (Sorry)!
Deimos
Phobos
Persephone
I turned Odysseus's men into pigs.
Circe
She was a powerful sorceress, known for her work at the loom. Surprisingly, Odysseus and Circe ended up getting along (after she changed his men back).
Clytemnestra
Medea
Hecuba
I killed Medusa ... hey, somebody had to do it!
Achilles
Jason
Perseus
Perseus was one of many half-mortal sons of Zeus. Perhaps his greatest feat was killing Medusa, who could turn humans to stone with her gaze.
Medea
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We're the twins represented by Gemini.
Castor and Pollux
Castor and Pollux were born twins, from the same mother, Leda -- yet one had a mortal father and the other was the son of Zeus. This phenomenon can actually happen in real life; fraternal twins can have different fathers.
Helen and Clytemnestra
Patroclus and Polynieces
Odysseus and Ulysses
I put together the Argonauts, a dream team of world explorers.
Achilles
Jason
Jason was the captain of the Argo, and his explorers were the Argonauts. They went in search of the golden fleece.
Narcissus
Xerxes
The only part of me that could be harmed was my heel.
Achilles
Achilles was dipped into a fire that conferred immortality -- but his heel was vulnerable​ because his mother, Thetis, held him by the heel, which thus wasn't exposed to the flames. Details matter, people!
Hercules
Patroclus
Pericles
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I am commemorated by one of the most recognizable constellations.
Cygnus
Orion
Orion, the great hunter, was a companion of the goddess Artemis. The constellation Orion is well-known because of its position over earth's equator, which means it can be seen from most parts of the world, and for its "belt" -- three stars in a perfect row.
Priam
Telemachus
I'm now better known as a "Harry Potter" character.
Andromache
Achillea
Hermione
Hermione was the only daughter of Menelaus and Helen of Troy. Helen left Hermione behind when she went away (or was stolen away) by Paris.
Vesta
If I act like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders, well ... I do!
Atlas
Atlas was condemned to hold up the sky, but in art, this is portrayed as a man having the entire globe on his shoulders. He also gave his name to the Atlantic Ocean and the mythical island of Atlantis.
Colchon
Nereus
Perseus
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I nearly won a footrace with the help of golden apples.
Calypso
Merope
Atalanta
Atalanta, a tomboy, wanted to stay unmarried. So she challenged her suitors to a footrace. Hippomenes won the race by distracting her by throwing irresistible golden apples, provided to him by the goddess Aphrodite, which caused Atalanta to go off course while chasing them. (Hippomenes had to use golden apples because chocolate had yet to be invented).
Clovis
You Got:
/35
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