Collegiate Questions—Novice Flashcards
After helping a foreigner plow a field with fire-breathing bulls, what princess of Colchis knew she had to turn against her father Aeëtes and help Jason steal the Golden Fleece?
MEDEA
B1: Aeëtes had told Jason to plow a field with fire-breathing bulls as part of a series of impossible tasks. What was the next task after plowing the field and scattering dragons’ teeth?
KILLING THE SOLDIERS THAT WOULD SPRING UP
B2: Colchis was located on the coast of what sea?
BLACK / EUXINE / AXINE / FRIENDLY / UNFRIENDLY SEA
What creature, the subject of a prophecy by Polyidus, was born alongside Chrysaor when they sprang from the head of Medusa, then tamed by the Corinthian hero Bellerophon?
PEGASUS
B1: Name either of Bellerophon’s mortal parents, one a man who was eaten by his own horses and the other a woman made equal to the gods in wisdom.
GLAUCUS or EURYNOME
B2: What other mythological monster, fought by Heracles, was the son of Chrysaor and Callirhoe?
GERYON
What couple landed on Mount Parnassus after days which saw dolphins in trees and lions carried off by waves, becoming the only survivors of the Great Flood?
DEUCALION and PYRRHA
B1: Pyrrha was the daughter of Epimetheus and what woman, whom Epimetheus had accepted as a wife against Prometheus’s warnings?
PANDORA
B2: What does Epimetheus’s name mean?
AFTERTHOUGHT
What mythological figure collected a fee of one obol in order to bring people to the fields of asphodel or Elysium by ferrying them across the Styx?
CHARON
B1: Which river in the Underworld would cause shades to forget their past lives?
LETHE
B2: According to the Sibyl, what item did Aeneas have to collect in order to convince Charon to ferry him across the Styx?
GOLDEN BOUGH / BRANCH
What city, from which one princess was abducted by Boreas and another had her tongue cut off by Tereus, had kings including the half-snake Cecrops and the unfortunate Aegeus?
ATHENS
B1: What sister of Philomela was married to Tereus and fed him his own son?
PROCNE
B2: What two Argonauts were sons of Boreas and Oreithyia, the abducted Athenian princess?
ZETES and CALAIS
What native of Amyclae was loved by the jealous West Wind, who blew on the discus he was throwing and killed him, causing his divine lover Apollo to turn him into a namesake flower?
HYACINTH(US)
B1: What was the Greek name for the West Wind?
ZEPHYR(US)
B2: What other man was turned into a hyacinth after losing to Odysseus in the contest for the dead Achilles’s armor?
AJAX {THE GREATER // TELAMON(IUS) // SON OF TELAMON} // BIG AJAX
Because their parents had forbidden them to meet, what Babylonian couple spoke through a crack in the wall until their attempt to meet up resulted in a Romeo-and-Juliet-style demise?
PYRAMUS & THISBE
B1: What animal tore Thisbe’s veil with its bloodied mouth, prompting Pyramus to think his lover had been killed?
LION(ESS)
B2: In his grief, Pyramus impaled himself on his sword, turning the berries of what tree from white to purple?
MULBERRY
What man received the gods at his Lydian palace but tried to feed his son to them, leading to a punishment in Tartarus where food and water retreated from his grasp?
TANTALUS
B1: Name Tantalus’ son who was nearly fed to the gods.
PELOPS
B2: According to Ovid, what Arcadian king similarly tried to feed a human to Jupiter, causing Jupiter to become disgusted with humanity and flood the Earth?
LYCAON
What daughter of Schoeneus turned off course and bent down to pick up Hippomenes’s golden apples, allowing him to win both his race against her and her hand in marriage?
ATALANTA
B1: Atalanta also participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, which was organized by what Calydonian hero?
MELEAGER
B2: Who was Meleager’s mother, who killed him by throwing a log of wood into a fire?
ALTHAEA
What god landed on Lemnos shortly after his birth, either because he tried defending Hera before Zeus or because Hera deemed him too ugly to keep on Olympus?
HEPHAESTUS [ACCEPT “VULCAN / MULCIBER” BEFORE HERA]
B1: Sometimes Hera is said to have born Hephaestus alone after Zeus bore what goddess alone?
ATHENA
B2: Give one of Hephaestus’s divine wives.
APHRODITE or AGLAIA
What type of animal in mythology licked Melampus’s ear, invaded the room where Iphicles and baby Heracles were sleeping, and made up the hair of the Furies and Gorgons?
SNAKE(S)
B1: According to Aeschylus, what mythological figure was persuaded by his friend Pylades to kill his mother, and was subsequently chased to Athens by snake-haired Furies?
ORESTES
B2: What mythological couple were transformed into snakes shortly after their daughters — including Ino, Autonoe, and Agave — all came to grief?
CADMUS and HARMONIA
What old man was killed by Neoptolemus after he had witnessed the death of Hector, Paris, and many of his other children during his reign as king of Troy?
PRIAM
B1: What daughter of Priam was known for rejecting Apollo’s advances?
CASSANDRA
B2: Who was the son of Hector and Andromache?
ASTYANAX / SCAMANDRIUS
When Dionysus tried to convert Thrace, what follower of Apollo opposed him and was torn apart by Maenads, after which the island of Lesbos received his head and famous lyre?
ORPHEUS
B1: What group, one of whom was Orpheus’s mother, gathered up and buried the pieces of his body?
MUSES / MOUSAI
B2: Who was Orpheus’s mortal father?
OEAGRUS
The sands of the Pactolus River featured gold after Dionysus granted what poor Phrygian king a way to get rid of his special touch?
MIDAS
B1: What had Midas done to be granted the golden touch as a gift in the first place?
HE TOOK CARE OF DIONYSUS’S COMPANION (SILENUS)
B2: Midas later earned himself a pair of what animal’s ears after he deemed Pan a better musician than Apollo?
DONKEY’S / ASS’S
What wily divine figure castrated his own father with a sickle from his mother Gaea and was later deposed by his own children after regurgitating them and fighting his son Zeus?
CRONUS
B1: Name 3 of the 5 siblings of Zeus that Cronus regurgitated.
DEMETER, HADES, HERA, HESTIA, POSEIDON
B2: Who was that father of his Cronus castrated?
OURANOS / URANUS
