AP Lit Greek Vocabulary

Question 1

Achilles

Answer 1

Born of mortal and Zeus; mother dipped him in the river Styx to give him immortality but neglected to include the heel she held him by. Eventually, during the Trojan War, he was shot in that spot and killed. An Achilles heel is the one vulnerable spot in an otherwise invulnerable thing or person.

Question 2

Adonis

Answer 2

a mortal youth who was loved by Aphrodite for his great beauty and later killed by a wild boar.

Question 3

Aphrodite / Venus

Answer 3

goddess of love and beauty (and spring and bloom).

Question 4

Apollo / Sol

Answer 4

god of the sun; patron of healing; drove a chariot that pulled the sun, so it rose and crossed the sky each day

Question 5

Arachne

Answer 5

a mortal who was a great weaver and very proud (arrogant) of her ability. She challenged Athena to a weaving contest and won. Athena was mad and turned her into a spider, so she could weave and spin non-stop. This is where arachnids get their name. She is a symbol of the problems arrogance can cause.

Question 6

Ares / Mars

Answer 6

god of warfare

Question 7

Artemis / Diana

Answer 7

sister of Apollo; drives a chariot that carries the moon; goddess of the hunt and patron of
virgins. Seen as a huntress

Question 8

Athena / Minerva

Answer 8

goddess of wisdom and warfare; was “born” full-grown and wearing armor, by springing
from the head of Zeus. Her symbol is the owl. She was a great weaver and spinner; in charge of arts and crafts.

Question 9

Centaur

Answer 9

a race of beings half man (front) and half horse, known for fighting and lustiness (but sometimes for great wisdom!).

Question 10

Cerberus

Answer 10

a three-headed watchdog who guards the entrance to Hades.

Question 11

Chaos

Answer 11

Chaos is the void which came into being before anything else. But some say that Chaos was born from Mist, and that Mist was the first to exist. Others affirm that Chaos is not a void, but a rough unordered mass of
things. It is also asserted that Chaos existed from the beginning, together with Nyx, Erebus (Darkness of the Underworld), and Tartarus, and consequently they consider Chaos to be as Nyx and Erebus: one of “the powers below the ground.” It is told that during the war between the TITANS and the OLYMPIANS, the fight came to such a degree of intensity that an amazing heat seized Chaos.

Question 12

Cronos

Answer 12

the wily, youngest and most terrible of the children of Uranus, whom he hated.
He castrated his father and became ruler of the universe, but was later overthrown by his
own son Zeus.

Question 13

Cyclops

Answer 13

a race of one-eyed giants of whom the most famous is Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon; he was blinded by Odysseus.

Question 14

Daedalus and Icarus

Answer 14

Daedalus was an inventor (the Great Artificer) who killed a rival in jealousy and fled to
Crete (from Greece) where King Minos gave him refuge and put him to work. The king’s wife lusted after a gorgeous bull which had been given to Minos by Poseidon. She had Daedalus make her a wooden cow in which
she hid herself in order to mate with the bull; she conceived and bore the Minotaur from this union. The furious Minos ordered the Minotaur imprisoned in a labyrinth, which he commissioned Daedalus to design. Eventually, Daedalus and his son, Icarus, were also imprisoned in the Labyrinth, from which they escaped when Daedalus built wings from wax and feathers. On their escape to Crete, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too high because the sun would melt the wax; but Icarus ignored his father, his wings melted, and he fell to his watery death. Daedalus escaped safely.

Question 15

Dionysus / Bacchus

Answer 15

god of wine and revelry. Wild feasts were held in his honor, which usually turned into
drunken orgies, since that was what he was in charge of.

Question 16

Eros / Cupid

Answer 16

god of love; often pictured as a winged boy.

Question 17

Europa

Answer 17

a princess whom Zeus abducted and raped, when he was in the form of a bull.

Question 18

Hades / Pluto

Answer 18

god of the underworld; the place itself is called Hades. Also, god of wealth (gold and silver came from the earth, which he ruled.)

Question 19

Hephaestus / Vulcan

Answer 19

God of fire; a blacksmith; the only god who is deformed – rejected son of Zeus and
Hera.

Question 20

Hercules

Answer 20

a son of Zeus and a mortal, he was famous for his great strength and endurance; he performed twelve amazing feats of strength, called the “labors of Hercules.”

Question 21

Mercury

Answer 21

the messenger of the gods; wears shoes and hat with wings so he can fly very quickly. Known for living by his wits and cleverness.

Question 22

Midas

Answer 22

was given his wish that everything that he touched would turn to gold but rethought this idea when he killed his daughter by touching her and was near starvation because all the food he touched turned to gold. He
had the spell removed eventually.

Question 23

Minotaur

Answer 23

monster half man and half bull, wild and violent, demands sacrifices yearly of Greek youths and maidens. Imprisoned in the Labyrinth (see Daedalus). Eventually slain by Theseus with the help of the king’s daughter, who gives him a ball of string so he can find his way out of the Labyrinth.

Question 24

Narcissus and Echo

Answer 24

Narcissus was a gorgeous male who admired himself enormously. Echo loved him but he
ignored her. Eventually, she was cursed with not being able to speak her own thoughts but only repeat what other said. This bothered Narcissus even more and he taunted her and she eventually wasted away so that just
her voice, repeating others’ words, remained. He became so enamored with himself that he got stuck peering into a pond, admiring his reflection, and became a flower that grows there.

Question 25

Nereids

Answer 25

sea nymphs (female spirits of sea waters), they were distinct from the mermaid-like Sirens. They often accompany Poseidon, the god of the sea, and can be friendly and helpful to sailors fighting perilous 
storms.

Question 26

Nemesis

Answer 26

the goddess of retributive justice or vengeance.

Question 27

Odysseus / Ulysses

Answer 27

(meaning “man of wrath” according to Homer, or more likely, from Greek “a guide; the
one showing the way”), known as Ulysses in Roman mythology. Known for his guile and resourcefulness, he is the hero of Homer’s Odyssey, and a major character in the Iliad. Odysseus was the son of Laertes and Anticlea, although some sources, prominent among them Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides, state that Sisyphus was his father. As a child, Odysseus was wet-nursed by Euryclea. Odysseus was the king of Ithaca, husband of
Penelope and father of Telemachus, favorite of Athena, and wiliest of the Greeks involved in the Trojan War. Odysseus earns this title by, among other things, masterminding the Trojan Horse. He is most famous for the
ten years it took him to return home from the war, which is described in the Odyssey.

Question 28

Oedipus

Answer 28

abandoned at birth by his parents, who were trying to avoid a horrible prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Raised in Corinth, he eventually fled when he heard the same prophecy. In the road, he met and killed his father, solved the riddle of the Sphinx, and then went to Thebes and married his mother, with whom he had three children. When he learned the truth, he blinded himself and went into exile.

Question 29

Pan / Satyr

Answer 29

Pan is one of the group of satyrs, which are half man and half goat, with goat’s legs (including cloven hooves), a tail, pointy ears, and a wanton nature, who live in the woods. Pan is the god of forests, flocks, and shepherds. He usually plays pipes (a flute).

Question 30

Pandora

Answer 30

the first mortal woman, sent to Earth as a punishment to man for Prometheus’s theft of fire. She brought with her a box containing all human ills, which escaped into the world when she opened the box. Only hope was left at the bottom.

Question 31

Paris

Answer 31

son of the last king of Troy (Priam), he is forced to award a golden apple (inscribed “for the fairest”) to either Aphrodite, who promises him the love of the most beautiful woman in the word; Hera, who offers him great wealth; or Athena, who offers him wisdom. He chooses Aphrodite, who helps him steal Helen, who’s married to Menaleus of Sparta. He takes her to Troy and the Greeks come after and we have the Trojan War

Question 32

Persephone and Demeter / Ceres

Answer 32

Demeter is the goddess of agriculture and fruitfulness (fertility): guardian
of marriage. Persephone is her daughter whom Hades marries and takes to Hades to live. Demeter is so unhappy without her beloved daughter that nothing can grow. A compromise is reached and Persephone spends six months on Earth with Demeter and six months below, with Hades. This is the explanation for why we have seasons (winter is when Persephone is gone and Demeter is too unhappy to make things grow).

Question 33

Phoenix

Answer 33

a bird that is immortal, but dies in a self-built pyre every 500 or 600 years and is then reborn from the ashes; a symbol of rebirth and/or immortality.

Question 34

Poseidon / Neptune

Answer 34

god of the sea; often pictured with his 3-pronged scepter, the trident; has a son named Triton

Question 35

Prometheus

Answer 35

a Titan (preceded Zeus and the Olympian gods) who created man from clay. Later, he stole fire from the gods and gave it to man against the will of Zeus. As a punishment, he was chained to a rock and had his liver eaten out every day by an eagle. The liver grew back each night, only to be eaten out the next day. Eventually, he was released by Hercules.

Question 36

Psyche

Answer 36

a great mortal beauty, whom Venus was very jealous of, because of her beauty. Cupid loved her but didn’t want her to know who he was, so he visited her only in the dark. She was curious and eventually snuck a
light into their meeting place and shone it suddenly in his face. He was angry for a while but eventually forgave her and had her made immortal. She became the goddess of emotion.

Question 37

Sisyphus

Answer 37

A wealthy man who cheated the living and, later, the gods. He was sentenced by Zeus to forever push a boulder up a hill, only to fail before it reaches the top.

Question 38

Styx (river)

Answer 38

the river that divides the land of the living from Hades, the land of the dead

Question 39

The Sirens

Answer 39

a group of nymphs who lived on an island and lured men to their destruction
with their sweet singing.

Question 40

The Titans

Answer 40

The TITANS ruled the world after having dethroned their father Uranus, the first ruler of the universe. It was their mother Gaia who persuaded them to attack their father and overthrow him; for she grieved
at the destruction of her children, the CYCLOPES and the HECATONCHEIRES, who had been cast into Tartarus by Uranus. The Titan Cronos then ambushed his father and castrated him with a sickle, being himself
appointed by the TITANS to be their sovereign. However, once in power, Cronos behaved as his father, and again shut the CYCLOPES and the HECATONCHEIRES up in Tartarus.

Question 41

Zephyr

Answer 41

the west wind, which is known for being warm and soft.

Question 42

Zeus

Answer 42

king of the gods - Zeus was allotted the dominion of the sky, having waged war against Cronos and the TITANS. Zeus, some say, caused the Trojan War, so that the load of death might empty the world. Zeus got the
thunderbolt, his ultimate weapon, from the CYCLOPES, and an eagle brings back the thunderbolts which he has flung. Zeus is married to his sister, Hera.