Mythology Test #2

Front 1

You should know which side of the Trojan War the major figures support, including the gods. For example:

Back 1

• Aphrodite, Artemis, and Apollo favor the Trojans
• Hera, Poseidon, and Athena support the Achaeans (Greeks)
• Ares fights on both sides
• Zeus is, for the most part, neutral. He does allow some Trojan victories at Thetis' request, and he is sympathetic to his son, Sarpedon, who fights for Troy. But as the defender of marriage rights and hospitality, he fundamentally sides with the Greeks.

Front 2

Amazons

Back 2

A tribe of formidable female warriors who lived apart from men.

Front 3

Alcestis

Back 3

The title character of Euripides’ tragedy about a wife who volunteered to die in place of her husband Admetus.

Front 4

Admetus

Back 4

The king of Pherae in Thessaly whom Apollo served as sheperd in penance for having slain Python at Delphi. According to a variant of the myth, Zeus forced Apollo to serve Admetus after the god had killed the Cyclops, who had created the thunderbolt Zeus used in slaying Apollo’s son Asclepius.

Front 5

Electra

Back 5

Daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and sister Orestes, she conspired with her brother to avenge their murdered father.

Front 6

Clytemnestra

Back 6

The leading female character in the “Oresteia”, she was the daughter of Tyndareus (or Zeus) and leda, sister of Helen, wife of Agamemnon, mistress of Aegisthus, and mother of Iphigenia, Electra, Chrysothemis and Orestes. After murdering Agamemnon, she was slain by Orestes.

Front 7

Atalanta

Back 7

A vergin huntress who competed with the heroes in their athletic contests and heroic adventures, including the expedition of the Argonauts and the Calydonian Boar hunt. She refused to marry unless a suitor could defeat her in a footrace at which losers would be killed. Either Hippomenes or Milanion distracted her by scattering three of Aphrodite’s golden apples and won the race.

Front 8

Medea

Back 8

Sorceress daughter of Aeetes (king of Colchis) and wife of Jason, whom she enabled to obtain the golden fleece. When he abandoned her for a Greek wife, she killed their Children.

Front 9

Ariadne

Back 9

Daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, King and queen of Knossos an Crete, and sister of Phaedra. After helping Theseus kill the Minotaur and fleeing Crete with him, she was abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos, where Dionysus married her and made her immortal.

Front 10

Semele

Back 10

Daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, sister of Agave, and mother (by Zeus) of Dionysus, she was consumed in Zeus’s lightning when she demanded to see him in his true form. Dionysus later rescued her from Hades and escorted her to heaven.

Front 11

Bacchus

Back 11

Another name for Dionysus. Son of Zeus and Semele and god of the vine that produces wine, he was a make fertility figure who represented a great variety of natural forces, including the vegetative cycle of life, growth, death and rebirth, and the conflicting power of human passions. He is also called Bromius and Liber.

Front 12

Cybele

Back 12

Asuatic mother goddess whom the Greeks identified with Rhea. Many of her priests were eunuchs, supposedly imitating the self-castration of Cybele’s lover Attis.

Front 13

Satyrs

Back 13

Generally human in appearance, but with a horse’s tail and ears, the satyr was characterized by lust and cowardice, a symbol of the amoral and animalistic aspects of human nature.

Front 14

Silens

Back 14

Human-animal hybrid usually portrayed as an old man whose bestial appearance and antic behavior belie an inner wisdom.

Front 15

Silenus

Back 15

A mythic creature of wild nature, half-man, half-animal in form, typically depicted with a horse’s ears and tail. Despite his partly bestial appearance and association with Bacchic revels, Silenus was known for his great wisdom and tutored the young Dionysus. Similarly hybrid figures, the Silens were depicted on Greek vases as drunken old men with equine features.

Front 16

Bacchants

Back 16

Ecstatic worshipers of Dionysus

Front 17

Maenads

Back 17

Female worshipers of Dionysus, commonly called Bacchae or Bachans, who dressed in fawn skins and carried a thyrsus while performing ecstatic dances.

Front 18

Dionysus-Zagreus

Back 18

In the Orphic version of the Dioynsus myth, a son of Zeus and Persephone swallowed by Zeus and reborn as the son of Zeus and Semele.

Front 19

Ariadne

Back 19

Daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, king and queen of Knossos on Crete, and sister of Phaedra. After helping Theseus to kill the Minotaur and fleeing Crete with him, she was abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos where Dionysus married her and made her immortal.

Front 20

Oinoche

Back 20

wine jug

Front 21

Kylix

Back 21

wine cup

Front 22

Kantharos

Back 22

wine cup

Front 23

Dithyramb

Back 23

choral hymn to Dionysus

Front 24

Hieros gamos

Back 24

a sacred marriage in which male and female entities, human or divine, are united in a way that ensures or promotes peace and fecundity.

Front 25

Rivers of the underworld(5)

Back 25

Acheron, phyegeton, styx, Cocytus, Lethe.

Front 26

Residents of the underworld(9)

Back 26

Hades (Aidoneus), Persephone, Cerberus, Charon, Minos, Thantos, Tantalus, Sisyphus, Ixion.

Front 27

Descents to the underworld (3)

Back 27

Heracles, Thesus, Orpheus.

Front 28

Chiron

Back 28

A wise old centaur who tutored several famous heros, including Jason and Achilles.

Front 29

Perseus

Back 29

Son of Zeus and Danae, he beheaded Medusa, wed Andromeda, and (in some myths) founded Mycenae.

Front 30

Danae

Back 30

Mother of the hero Perseus. Who sired by Zeus in a shower of gold. Cast into the sea in a chest with her son, Danae was unexpectedly rescued.

Front 31

Medusa

Back 31

The only mortal Gorgon, whose terrifying gaze turned men to stone. With Athene’s help, Perseus beheaded her.

Front 32

Gorgon

Back 32

Three hideous sisters with snake for hair and with hypnotic eyes. Meduse, the only mortal Gorgon, had a gaze so tarrying that she could turn men to stone.

Front 33

Graiae

Back 33

Three ancient women who had been born old, they had only one eye and one tooth among them, which they shared on rotation. They were named Enyo, Pephredo and Dino and lived in the far West, where the sun never shone. Sisters of the Gorgons, they were tricked by Perseus into revealing the three objects he needed to kill Medusa.

Front 34

Pegasus

Back 34

A winged horse that sprang from the blood of Medusa after Perseus beheaded her.

Front 35

Andromeda

Back 35

A maiden chained to a rock as prey for a sea monster. She was rescued by Perseus, who then turned her uncle Phineus to stone by showing him the head of Medusa.

Front 36

Bellerophon

Back 36

Son of Glaucus (son of Sisyohus) who killed the Chimaera and defeated the Amazons

Front 37

Heracles

Back 37

Son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene (who was married to Amphitryon), he was the strongest and the most long-suffering of all the Greek heroes

Front 38

Alcmene

Back 38

The wife of Amphitryon and mother of Heracles, she was said o be the last of the mortal women seduced by Zeus.

Front 39

Megara

Back 39

The first wife of Heracles

Front 40

Nessus

Back 40

A centaur whom Heracles killed for attempting to rape Deianeria (Heracles’ wife). Nessus gave Deianeira his garment steeped in the poison Hydra, a gift that later caused heracle’s painful death.

Front 41

Theseus

Back 41

The son of Aegeus and legendary king of Athens, he won fame by slaying the Minotaur at Minos’s palace on Crete. He fathered Hippoytus by the Amazon Antiope and later married Phaedra, daughter of Minos.

Front 42

Jason

Back 42

Greek adventurer who led fifty Argonauts on a quest across the Black Sea for the Golden Fleece. After marrying Medea, who had helped him steal the fleece from her father, Jason divorced her. Her reaction in dramatized in Euripides’ Medea.

Front 43

Aegeus

Back 43

King of Athens and father of the hero Theseus, he gave refuge to Medea after she escaped from Corinth. When he thought Theseus had been killed by the Minotaur, he committed suicide by leaping into the sea named after him.

Front 44

Minotaur

Back 44

A monster half-human, half-bull, produced from Pasiphae’s union with the sacred bull of Poseidon, it was confined in the Labyrinth at Knossos and slain by Theseus.

Front 45

Minos

Back 45

Name of a King- or a line of kings- who ruled Knossos on Crete. The son of Zeus and Europa, Minos married Pasiphae, whose unnatural union with a bull produces the minotaur.

Front 46

Daedalus

Back 46

Master architect who designed the labyrinth at Knossos for King minos. When Minos tried to keep him and his son Icarus prisoner on Crete, Daesalus fashioned wings for their escape.

Front 47

Icarus

Back 47

Son of Daedalus who flew from Crete on artificial wings his father had constructed. Ignoring his father’s warning, he flew too close to the sun, whose rays milted the wax holding the wings together, causing him to fall to his death.

Front 48

Hippolytus

Back 48

Son of Theseus and Antiope, queen of the Amazons, he was falsely accused of sexual assault by his stepmother, Phaedea and when his deceived father cursed him, killed by a monster from the sea.

Front 49

Phaedra

Back 49

Daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae, wife of Theseus and stepmother of Thesesus’ son Hippolytus, with whom she fell in love and later denounced to his father after he rejected her advances.

Front 50

Procrustes

Back 50

A brigand (said to be the son of Poseidon) who kidnapped and murdered travelers on the road between Athens and Eleusis. He laid his victims on an iron bed: if they were short he stretched them out to fit the bed frame, if too tall he cut off their extremities. Theseus beheaded him.

Front 51

Cadmus

Back 51

Founder and Kings of thebes, husband of Harmonia and father of Agave, Autone, Ino, and Semele. As a young man, he slew a dragon and (by Athene’s direction) planted its teeth, from which warriors sprang up. These fought amoung themselves until only five remained alive. The surviving five built Thebes and were the ancestors of the Theban aristocracy.

Front 52

Phaethon

Back 52

Son of Helios (or Apollo) and Clymene who convinced his father to let him drive the chariot of the sun across heaven, with Catastrophic results.

Front 53

Helios

Back 53

Son of Hyperion, he was the god of the sun.

Front 54

Mycenae

Back 54

Ancients Greek city, capital of Agamemnon, after which the Mycenaean civilization is named.

Front 55

Argos

Back 55

The region ruled by Agamemnon, whose capital was Mycenae.

Front 56

Hesperides

Back 56

Known as “Nymphs of the Setting sun” or “Daughters of the Evening”. They lived in the far west and guarded a tree bearing golden apples.

Front 57

Colchis

Back 57

Home of Madea, on the remote shores of the Black Sea.

Front 58

Labyrinth

Back 58

The maze that Daedalus built for King Minos to house the Minotaur.

Front 59

Argos

Back 59

The region ruled by Agamemnon, whose capital was Mycenae.

Front 60

Argonauts

Back 60

fifty Greek heros who sailed with Jason aboard the “Argo” to obtain the Golden Fleece.

Front 61

golden fleece

Back 61

The wool of a golden ram given to the king of Colchis and, with Madea’s help, stolen by Jason.

Front 62

Centaur

Back 62

A creature half-man, half-horse, symbol of humanity’s divided nature.

Front 63

Chimaera

Back 63

A fire-breathing monster with a lion’s head , goats body, and a dragon’s tail, traditionally and inhabitant of Hade’s realm.

Front 64

Hydra

Back 64

A seven-headed monster that ravaged Agros and was slain by Heracles.

Front 65

Cerberus

Back 65

The three headed watchdog of Hades

Front 66

apotropaic

Back 66

warding off evil

Front 67

moly

Back 67

herb given by Hermes to protect Odysseus from Circe

Front 68

Nausicaa

Back 68

Daughter of King Alcinous and queen Arete who found the shipwrecked Odysseus and befriended him at the Phaecian court.

Front 69

Psyche

Back 69

Perhaps the last major myth created in classical antiquity: the story of a beautiful young woman named Psyche who, after many hardships and ordeals, at last married Love (Eros or Cupid) and ascended to join the gods on Olympus.

Front 70

Callisto

Back 70

A virgin follower of Artemis, raped by Zeus and turned into a bear. In one version of her myth, she was nearly shot by her son Arcas but was rescued by Zeus, who transformed her into the Great Bear constellation.

Front 71

Agave

Back 71

Daughter of Harmonia and King Cadmus (founder of Thebes), she was the sister of Smele, Ino, and Autone, and mother of Pentheus.

Front 72

Cassandra

Back 72

Daughter of Priam and Hecuba, she was Apollo’s virgin prophet: part of Agamemnon’s booty from Troy, she was brought to Argos, where Clytemnestra murdered her.

Front 73

Iphigenia

Back 73

Daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra whom her father sacrificed at Aulis to prevent the Greek’s expedition against Troy from being disbanded.

Front 74

Aulis

Back 74

Seaport at which Greek tropps assembled before sailing to Troy, site of Iphigenia’s sacrifice.

Front 75

Thetis

Back 75

A sea nymph married to Peleus, by whom she had Achilles.

Front 76

Peleus

Back 76

The mortal to whom the gods married Thetis after Zeus learned that is he had a son by Thetis the boy would be stronger then his father. After Achilles’ birth- when Peleus showed the first sign of aging- Thetis deserted him.

Front 77

Eris

Back 77

Personification of strife or discord. The term can also mean the spirit of competition for excellence.

Front 78

Hecuba

Back 78

Wife of Priam and queen of Troy, she was the mother of Hector, Paris, Cassandra and many other noble children nearly all of whom were killed as a result of the Trojan War.

Front 79

Leda

Back 79

Wife of Tyndareus (king of Sparta) by whom Zeus fathered Helen, Clytemnestra, some historical event.

Front 80

Achaeans

Back 80

Homer’s most common term for the Greeks who besieged Troy, he also called them Argives or Danaans.

Front 81

Homer

Back 81

Name that the ancient Greeks attributed to the (otherwise unknown) poet of the Illiad and the Odyssey, the father of epic poetry.

Front 82

Calchas

Back 82

Prophet who accompanied the Achaens to Troy.

Front 83

Iphigenia

Back 83

Daughters of Agamemnon and Clyemnestra whom her father sacrificed at Aulis to prevent the Greek’s expedition against Troy from being disbanded.

Front 84

Neoptolemus

Back 84

Son of Achilles and Deidmia, known as Pyrrhus (yellowed hair). When Troy fell, he murdered Priam and took Andromache captive but later married Hermoine and was killed by Orestes.

Front 85

Chryseis

Back 85

In the Illiad, daughter of Chryses (priest of Apollo) whom Agamemnon was forced to return to her father after the god inflicted a plague on the Greek army.

Front 86

Nestor

Back 86

Aged king of Pylos, famous for his sagacity, who advised the Greek expedition

Front 87

Diomedes

Back 87

Youngest and one of the most effective Greek fighters in the Trojan War, he even battled against Ares and Aphrodite.

Front 88

Trojan horse

Back 88

The hollow wooden horse that concealed Odysseus and other Achaeans and that was left as a parting gift when the Greek’s pretended to leave Troy. It was so large that the Trojans had to tear down part of their protective walls to take it into their city.

Front 89

Laertes

Back 89

Son of Arcesius and Chalcomedusea, he married Anticleia, by whom he fathered Odysseus.

Front 90

Anticleia

Back 90

Daughter of Autolycus, Wife of Laertes, and mother of Oysseus, she died in mourning for her son during his long absence from Ithaca. Her ghost appeared to Odysseus in the Underworld.

Front 91

Autolycus

Back 91

A son of Hermes infamous for his trickery, he was the father of Anticleia, mother of Odysseus.

Front 92

Demodocus

Back 92

In the Odyssey, the Phaecian bard or minstrel who sang of the Trojan War at King Alcinous’s court.

Front 93

Calypso

Back 93

Minor goddess embodying female sexuality who held Odysseus captive for seven years on the island of Ogyia.

Front 94

Circe

Back 94

In the Odyssey, the enchantress who turned the hero’s men into swine

Front 95

Polyphemus

Back 95

A Cyclops, a one-eyed cannibalistic giant whom Odysseus blinded and who retaliated with a curse enforced by his father, Poseidon.

Front 96

Scylla

Back 96

In the Odyssey, a female monster who, with Charbdis, guarded the Straits of Messina between Italy and Sicily. A whirlpool, Charybdis sucked ships down to their doom, while multiarmed Scylla seized and ate any who came within her reach.

Front 97

Charybdis

Back 97

Female monster who, with Scylla, guarded the straits of Messina between Italy and Sicily, a whirlpool that sucked ships underwater.

Front 98

Aegisthus

Back 98

Son of Thyestes and his daughter Pelopia, he became Clytemnestra’s lover and was slain by Orestes.

Front 99

Orestes

Back 99

Son of Agamemnon and Clytemnstra, brother of Iphigenia and Electra, and husband of Herminone (Helen)

Front 100

Tiresias

Back 100

Blind Theban prophet who had temporarily been changed into a woman, giving him the experience to settle a quarrel between Hera and Zeus over which sex has the greater capacity for sexual pleasure. Hera blinded him for his candid answer, while Zeus gave him long life and insight.

Front 101

Aeolus

Back 101

Greek god of winds.