Greek Heroes & Quests

25 questions · Answers revealed below each question · Print this set

1.Which two monsters guard the strait Odysseus must sail through?
- A. The Hydra and the Chimera
- B. Scylla and Charybdis
- C. Polyphemus and the Sirens
- D. Grendel and his mother
Show answer
Scylla and Charybdis
Did you know? Six-headed Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis flank the deadly strait.
2.Which companion of Achilles did Hector kill, wearing his armor?
- A. Patroclus
- B. Nestor
- C. Agamemnon
- D. Diomedes
Show answer
Patroclus
Did you know? Hector slew Patroclus, who had ridden out in Achilles's armor.
3.Why did Hera plague Heracles with the madness that killed his family?
- A. He was Zeus's son by a mortal woman
- B. He had insulted her temple
- C. She hated his wife Deianira
- D. He refused her gifts
Show answer
He was Zeus's son by a mortal woman
Did you know? Hera's jealousy of Zeus's son drove Heracles to kill his wife Megara and their children.
4.Which winged horse sprang from Medusa's blood?
- A. Bucephalus
- B. Sleipnir
- C. Arion
- D. Pegasus
Show answer
Pegasus
Did you know? Pegasus sprang from Medusa's severed neck.
5.On which island did the nymph Calypso hold Odysseus for seven years?
- A. Ogygia
- B. Aeaea
- C. Ithaca
- D. Scheria
Show answer
Ogygia
Did you know? Calypso kept Odysseus on Ogygia until Zeus ordered his release.
6.What did Achilles do to Hector's body after killing him?
- A. Hanged it on the city gates
- B. Returned it at once
- C. Buried it with full honors
- D. Dragged it behind his chariot around Troy's walls
Show answer
Dragged it behind his chariot around Troy's walls
Did you know? Achilles dragged Hector's corpse behind his chariot for days.
7.How did Heracles defeat the Lernaean Hydra's regrowing heads?
- A. His nephew Iolaus burned each neck stump
- B. He froze it in a lake
- C. He buried it under a mountain
- D. He drowned it in the sea
Show answer
His nephew Iolaus burned each neck stump
Did you know? As each head was cut off, Iolaus seared the stump with fire so none regrew.
8.Which sorceress turned Odysseus's men into swine?
- A. The witch of Aeaea's twin
- B. Circe
- C. Calypso
- D. Medea
Show answer
Circe
Did you know? Hermes's moly herb protected Odysseus from Circe's spell.
9.Why was Achilles vulnerable only in his heel?
- A. The Fates decreed a heel wound
- B. He wore a heel guard of bronze
- C. He was born with a scarred heel
- D. His mother Thetis held him by the heel dipping him in the Styx
Show answer
His mother Thetis held him by the heel dipping him in the Styx
Did you know? Thetis dipped baby Achilles in the Styx, holding only his heel dry of protection.
10.What was Heracles's final labor?
- A. Stealing the girdle
- B. Slaying the Hydra
- C. Cleaning the stables
- D. Capturing Cerberus
Show answer
Capturing Cerberus
Did you know? Heracles dragged Cerberus up from the underworld without weapons.
11.How did Odysseus's crew escape Polyphemus's cave?
- A. Dressed in sheepskins as sheep
- B. Rushing out with the flock at noon
- C. Hanging beneath his rams
- D. Swimming through a sea tunnel
Show answer
Hanging beneath his rams
Did you know? The men clung to the bellies of Polyphemus's rams to slip past his groping hands.
12.What gift did Aeolus give Odysseus that his crew ruined?
- A. A bag holding the unfavorable winds
- B. A map of the straits
- C. A magical compass
- D. A jar of fair weather
Show answer
A bag holding the unfavorable winds
Did you know? Aeolus sealed the winds in a bag, and the crew opened it within sight of Ithaca.
13.What doomed Odysseus's crew on the island of the sun god?
- A. They cut down his sacred grove
- B. They blinded his son
- C. They broke his temple
- D. They slaughtered and ate the sacred cattle
Show answer
They slaughtered and ate the sacred cattle
Did you know? The starving crew ate Helios's cattle, and Zeus destroyed their ship with a thunderbolt.
14.Which three-bodied giant owned the cattle of Heracles's tenth labor?
- A. Geryon
- B. Geryones of Erytheia's twin
- C. Briareus
- D. Typhon
Show answer
Geryon
Did you know? Heracles slew the three-bodied Geryon to win his red cattle.
15.Which band of heroes did Orpheus join on the Argo?
- A. The Lapiths
- B. The Argonauts
- C. The Seven Against Thebes
- D. The hunters of the Calydonian boar
Show answer
The Argonauts
Did you know? Orpheus sailed with Jason's Argonauts, out-singing the Sirens.
16.Who killed Achilles?
- A. Paris, with an arrow guided by Apollo
- B. Diomedes, with a spear
- C. Hector, in single combat
- D. Agamemnon, in a quarrel
Show answer
Paris, with an arrow guided by Apollo
Did you know? Paris shot the fatal arrow to Achilles's heel, guided by Apollo.
17.Whose battle girdle did Heracles fetch for a daughter of Eurystheus?
- A. Penthesilea
- B. Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons
- C. Clytemnestra
- D. Antiope
Show answer
Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons
Did you know? Heracles took the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.
18.What does myth say of Orpheus's head after the Maenads tore him apart?
- A. It floated down the Hebrus still singing
- B. It became an oracle of Delphi
- C. It was hidden in a cave
- D. It was buried by the Muses
Show answer
It floated down the Hebrus still singing
Did you know? Orpheus's severed head drifted down the Hebrus, still singing.
19.How did Heracles drive off the Stymphalian birds?
- A. He released a lion among them
- B. He flooded their marsh
- C. He rattled a bronze rattle given by Athena
- D. He sang a song of the Sirens
Show answer
He rattled a bronze rattle given by Athena
Did you know? Athena's bronze castanets startled the Stymphalian birds into the open for his arrows.
20.How did Heracles attain immortality at the end of his life?
- A. He won immortality in a wrestling match
- B. He drank from the river Lethe
- C. Zeus turned him into a constellation
- D. He burned on a pyre and ascended to Olympus
Show answer
He burned on a pyre and ascended to Olympus
Did you know? Heracles burned himself on a pyre at Mount Oeta and was received among the gods.
21.What was special about the Ceryneian Hind that Heracles had to capture alive?
- A. It had golden antlers and was sacred to Artemis
- B. It could speak
- C. It ran faster than the wind
- D. It breathed fire
Show answer
It had golden antlers and was sacred to Artemis
Did you know? The Ceryneian Hind with golden horns was sacred to Artemis, so Heracles could not harm it.
22.Which labor involved man-eating mares belonging to a Thracian king?
- A. The chariot of Pelops
- B. The steeds of Adrastus
- C. The horses of Achilles
- D. The mares of Diomedes
Show answer
The mares of Diomedes
Did you know? Heracles fed King Diomedes to his own man-eating mares.
23.What did Heracles have to do with the Erymanthian Boar?
- A. Burn it in its den
- B. Offer it to Artemis
- C. Capture it alive
- D. Slay it with his spear
Show answer
Capture it alive
Did you know? Heracles drove the Erymanthian Boar into deep snow and carried it back alive.
24.Which labor's monster did Heracles free by killing its tormenting eagle?
- A. The Caucasus stone
- B. The Nemean lion's hide
- C. Prometheus's eternal torment
- D. The Hydra's spring
Show answer
Prometheus's eternal torment
Did you know? During the apple quest Heracles shot the eagle that gnawed Prometheus's liver.
25.Which bull did Heracles capture as his seventh labor?
- A. The bulls of Augeas
- B. The white bull of Minos's brother
- C. The Cretan Bull
- D. The bull of Marathon before Theseus
Show answer
The Cretan Bull
Did you know? Heracles captured the fire-breathing Cretan Bull and carried it to Eurystheus.

Questions are for entertainment — difficulty ratings are a guide, and you know your crowd best. Always follow the rules of your venue or event.