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
What city witnessed the tragedy of Antigone being buried alive and the downfall of its king Laius and queen Jocasta at the hands of their son Oedipus?
THEBES
B1: Who was the original founder of Thebes?
CADMUS
B2: What sort of animal did Cadmus follow to determine where to found Thebes?
COW / HEIFER
Into what kind of tree did Peneius transform his daughter to save her from Apollo, causing it to be named after Daphne and form the wreaths that symbolized victory in the ancient world?
LAUREL
B1: Into what two types of trees were an elderly Phrygian couple transformed for their hospitality to two deities?
{LINDEN / LIME} and OAK
B2: Keeping with the arboreal theme (save the trees), into what type of tree was the mother of Adonis transformed?
MYRRH
Who distinguished himself from Pholus and other members of his species by taking care of Achilles and training him to be a hero, despite himself being a half-horse Centaur?
CH(E)IRON
B1: Chiron also raised what god of healing, the son of Apollo and Coronis?
ASCLEPIUS
B2: The other Centaurs were known for fighting a battle with what other mythological group at the wedding of their leader Pirithous?
LAPITHS
By depicting the crimes of the gods in embarrassing detail, who provoked the wrath of Minerva — whom she had challenged to a weaving contest — and became a spider?
ARACHNE
B1: In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Arachne’s hubris serves as a warning for what woman not to provoke Leto with her claim that her fourteen children were better than Leto’s two?
NIOBE
B2: Who were Leto’s two children?
APOLLO and ARTEMIS
In the Aeneid, what priest of Neptune or Apollo warned against the treachery of the Greeks and incurred the wrath of two sea serpents when he hurled a spear at the Trojan Horse?
LAOCOÖN
B1: What Greek spy convinced the Trojans to bring the horse into the city?
SINON
B2: To what goddess did the Greeks allegedly offer the Trojan horse before temporarily sailing to the island of Tenedos?
ATHENA / MINERVA
Later serving with his brother Rhadamanthys as judge of the dead, what king had a bovine problem that Heracles dealt with — the Cretan bull — and a large labyrinth near his palace?
MINOS
B1: Minos was plagued by cows and their ilk on all sides. How many Athenian youths were to be sacrificed to the Minotaur every nine years?
14
B2: Among these youths one year was Theseus. Minos challenged Theseus to retrieve what sort of object as proof that he was the son of Poseidon?
(SIGNET) RING
What man, who fathered Hermione, was chosen to succeed Tyndareus as king and marry Tyndareus’s daughter by Leda, though he made a mistake by allowing Paris into his kingdom?
MENELAUS
B1: After the Trojan War, Menelaus landed near Egypt and needed the help of what shape-shifting sea god to find his way home to Sparta?
PROTEUS
B2: Menelaus and the Spartans had to capture Proteus to figure out how to get home. What animal did they disguise themselves as?
SEAL(S)
What mythological monster was trapped in a cave and choked out by Heracles before he used its claws to tear off its impenetrable pelt for a spoil from his first labor?
NEMEAN LION // LION OF NEMEA
B1: What other monster did Heracles trap by chasing it until he drove it into deep snow?
ERYMANTHIAN BOAR // BOAR OF (MOUNT) ERYMANTHUS
B2: What king of Mycenae, and cousin of Heracles, was his taskmaster during these labors?
EURYSTHEUS
The islands of Ogygia and Aeaea both detained what man for several years, as both Calypso and Circe prevented him from finding his way home after the Trojan War?
ODYSSEUS
B1: Into what animal did Circe transform Odysseus’s men when they arrived on her island?
PIGS
B2: Who, the youngest crew member, fell from the top of Circe’s roof in a drunken stupor and was later buried by Odysseus after their interaction in the Underworld?
ELPENOR
What island saw figures such as Melantho and Dolius, Eurymachus and Antinous, Laertes, Telemachus, and Penelope struggle to know the right course of action in Odysseus’s absence?
ITHACA
B1: What Ithacan was a loyal swineherd who received Odysseus hospitably when he was in disguise as a beggar and helped him kill the suitors?
EUMAEUS
B2: When Odysseus refused to go to Troy and feigned madness by plowing his fields with salt, a clever Greek named Palamedes used what tactic to prove that he was faking it?
PLACED HIS SON (TELEMACHUS) IN FRONT OF THE PLOW
