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Greek myth anecdotes Flashcards

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1
Q

Who are the three judges of the souls of the dead

A

Minos and Rhadamanthys of Crete (sons of Europa by Zeus)

and Aegina

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2
Q

What are the four children of Hera and Zeus

A

Hebe

Eileithyia

Ares

Hephaestus

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3
Q

Who renews her virginity each year by bathing in the spring at Nauplia

A

Hera

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4
Q

What happened when Zeus bought Heracles to Hera to suckle as a baby

A

He bit her nipple, and in shock she pushed him away

Her divine spraying from her breasts formed the Milky Way, and that which dropped to earth sprouted white lilles

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5
Q

Which king with lands of Thessaly thought he could make love with Hera

what happened to him

A

Ixion

Zeus tricked him, and he lay with the cloud Nephele instead

He was punished by being lashed to a fiery wheel which revolves throught he universe for eternity

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6
Q

What was the offspring of Nephele (with King Ixion) - remember the Hera story

A

Centaurus

  • not a great guy, he coupled with mares thereby fathering a race of Centaurs, half man and half horse with appetite for carnal pleasure and destruction
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7
Q

What was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter

A

Persophone

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8
Q

What did Demeter do when Hades abducted (with Zeus’s permission) Persophone

A

She allowed crops to spoil, then cattle and people starved to death - then the gods couldn’t get their sacrifices

So Zeus sent Hermes down to Hades to retrieve her

However, Hades gave Persophone pommegrannite to eat, which meant she could never leave the underworld for good

Hence Demeter made the soil barren for those times when Persophone was down in the underworld

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9
Q

Who is the handmaid of Persophone

A

The witch Hecate

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10
Q

Who did Demeter punish with unquenchable hunger for cutting down trees from her beloved grove

A

Erysichthon, a grandson of Poseidon

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11
Q

Who made a statue of ivory that was so lifelike and beautiful he fell in love with it.

A

Pygmalion

Aphrodite heard the wishes in his head that the statue was alive and made it so

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12
Q

Who did Aphrodite inflame with a passion for her father Cinyras

What happened to her

A

The great granddaughter of Pygmalion - Myrrha

Eventually she tricked her way into sleeping with her dad

He found out and was not best pleased

She fled and prayed for help

They responded by turning her into a myrrh tree, forever shedding bitter tears

But she was pregnant and had a boy from within the tree

The boy was tended by tree nymphs and called Adonis

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13
Q

Which good looking youngster was fought over by Aphrodite and Persophone

what happened to him

A

Adonis

Zeus decided that Adonis would spent one third of a year with Aphrodite, one third with Persophone and the other where he wanted to…he tended to chose being with Aphrodite

in the end, jealous Ares had him savaged by a wild boar whilst hunting

With a prayer to Persephone, Aphrodite sprinkled nectar on his spilled blood and a delicate flower (an anemone) sprung up - for a brief but beautiful life

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14
Q

With whom did Aphrodite have a son Aeneas

A

Anchises

he boasted of his fun with Aphrodite and was crippled for his troubles

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15
Q

Which famous huntress used to raise people for a wedding - the loser of cause being killed (she was foretold getting married would not end well for her)

-and what happened to her

A

Atalanta, the daughter of Schoeneus of Boeotia

But a guy called Hippomenes was determined to wed her and Aphrodite decided to help him by giving him three magic apples

During the key race, Atalanta stopped to pick up the apples and lost the race

Hippomenes forgot to thank Aphrodite so she tricked them into having an indiscretion in the shrine of Hera, who turned them into sexless lions as a punishment

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16
Q

Who was son of Hermes and Aphrodite

A

Hermaphroditus

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17
Q

What happened to the luckless Hermaphrodite

A

He went for a swim in a pool which was home to the water nymph Salmacis

He couldn’t fend off her lustrous advances, and once she got her arms around him emplored the gods for them never to be separated

…the gods then made them become as one with both male and female attributes

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18
Q

Who was Priapus

A

The child of Dionysus and Aphrodite

He is the lecherous god of gardens. Gnome like with a big dick he scares evil from gardens

He taught Ares frst dance and then to make war

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19
Q

Who did Hephaestus catch in bed with his wife Aphrodite

A

Ares

He caught them in an impregnable (but invisible) net

All the male gods came to laugh at Aphrodite and Ares captures in flegrante

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20
Q

Why was Hephaestus lame

A

He was born hunched from birth, so Hera found him disgusting and flung him off Olympus, laiming him by twisting his ankle.

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21
Q

Who reared Hephaestus

A

Thetis

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22
Q

Who did Hephaestus get his revenge on his mother

A

He built her a magic ornate thrown - as soon as she sat in it, it held her fast and rose into the air .

It took Dionysus getting him drunk to agree to free her

As recompense Hephaestus demanded from Zeus a bed-partner. He wanted Athena, but she had sworn to chastity. He tried anyway and failed. So, in the end Zeus agreed he could have Aphrodite

23
Q

Who is Athena’s mother, and how was it a difficult birth

A

Metis

There was a prophesy that if Metis had a son by Zeus it would be more powerful than he, so he decided to swallow her when she was pregnant

But Athena wanted to be born, and with the help of Hephaestus was born out Zeus’s forehead fully armoured.

24
Q

Who was Arachne

A

A famed weaver of humble birth

She got into a weaving competition with Athena, and well won, which Gods dont like

Athena forced her to commit suicide, but as Arachne was gasping her last Athena let her live, but as a spider

25
Q

To which God is the Oracle of Delphi sacred - i.e. which god communicates throught the Oracle

A

Apollo

26
Q

What happened to Marsyas the Satyr

A

He was flayed alive for challenging Apollo to a music contest

27
Q

Why is the laurel tree sacred to Apollo

A

Apollo had belittled Eros, so in reply Eros made him fall sickeningly in love with the chaste Daphne

Daphne tried to get away from Apollo, and her prayer was answered when the gods turned her into a laurel tree

28
Q

Who rejected Apollo after he’d given her the gift of prophesy (ironically stupidly)

A

Cassandra

He spat a curse in her mouth that she was doomed to prophesy in vain, in that one would believe a word she said and took her for a madwomen

29
Q

Why is the raven black

A

Apollo shot the messanger.

Apollo’s bird the raven was originally white but it reported on some infideility of his lover Coronis

Obviously Apollo killed Coronis, but saved the unborn son Asclepius who became a supreme healer

30
Q

Who was blasted by Zeus’s thunderbolt for raising a man back from the dead

A

Apollo’s son Asclepius

But in heaven he became a patron god of medicine

31
Q

Who killed the Cyclopes

A

Apollo,

They had made Zeus’s thunderbolts, and it was these which killed Apollo’s son Asclepiius

Zeus wasn’t happy though and would have thrown Apollo down to Tartarus had his mother Leto not intervened.

Instead he just had to serve a year under King Admetus (who Apollo liked)

32
Q

How did Heracles save Admetus

A

Admetus was going to die, but Apollo begged the Fates for a stay

The fates agreed as long as replacement could be found

Only his wife, Alcestis agreed - a sacrifice Admetus unchivolrously accepted

However, Heracles wrestled dealth himself for the life of Alcestis and won

33
Q

Who was Orpheus - what is his underworld story

A

Son of the Muse Calliope and Apollo

He fell in love the oak nymph Eurydice - and the charm of his music won her heart

However, in trying to escape a lusty god (Aristaeus the god of beekeeping) she got bit by a snake and died

He went into underworld after her. Orpheus played his music and the gods agreed that Eurydice could return from the dead - on one condition - Orpheus was not to look back at her until that left the halls of Hades

But near the exit, Orpheus couldn’t here her footfall so he looked over his shoulder - she stayed dead

Orpheus went off in a huff and got torn to shreds by some Maenads

34
Q

Who is the Mistress of Animals

A

Artemis

35
Q

Who carries a silver bow and hunts with Arcadian hunting hounds

A

Artemis

36
Q

Who was Niobe, and what happened when she annoyed the gods

A

Queen Niobe was the arrogant wife of King Amphion, daugther or Tantalus and granddaughter of Apollo

She claimed her lineage was greater than Apollo’s mother Leto

For that insult Apollo removed all her blessings, killed her six sons, whilst Artemis killed her six daughters - leaving the corpses unburied for nine days

Niobe was turned to stone and carried of by a tornado to her native Lydia

37
Q

Who as Tityus

A

A Giant, son of Gaia, who tried to rape Leto

Apollo and Artemis hunted him down, and sent him down to Hades where he was splatted on the ground and vultures feasted forever on his liver

38
Q

Who was turned into a stag and hunted down and killed by his own hounds, because he had seen Artemis naked - by accident

A

Actaeon of Thebes

39
Q

Who is Callisto and what is the story of Ursa Major

A

Callisto was daughter of King Lycaon of Arcadia and a companion of Artemis

One day Zeus tricked her and got her pregnant

When Artemis saw the preganancy she was not happy and turned Callisto into a Bear.

The Bear ‘Callisto’ gave birth to a son, Arcas, who was then raised by Maia the mother of Hermes

Unfortunately Callisto the Bear wondered into a forbidden sanctuary of Zeus, and was about to be killed by Arcas himself when Zeus took pity and turned her into the Great Bear constellation

40
Q

Who was Orion

A

Son of Poseiden and lover of Eos (dawn)

A mighty hunter who could cross valleys at a bound, and wih the ability to walk on water

41
Q

What did Zeus do to Orion for his boasts

A

Orion, who hunted with Artemis and Leto, boasted that there was no creature he couldn’t bring down

So Zeus put him in a contest with a giant scorpion, which Orion lost

He then bought the two fighters to heaven so that the Scorpion could chase Orion for ever

42
Q

What was the chasing Orion was doing in heaven

A

He was being chased by a giant scorpion (as a punishment for boasting)

and he was in pursuit of the seven daughters of Atlas, the Pleiades

Zeus too mercy on the Pleiades and turned them into stars

43
Q

Who were Hermes’ parents

A

Zeus and the nymph Maia

44
Q

Who made the first lyre

A

Hermes, on the day of his birth he found and killed a tortoise, scooped out its flesh and made a lyre

That same night he stole some of Apollo’s cattle

He then invented the fire stick and roasted a couple of cattle

45
Q

How were Hermes and Apollo briefly at odds and reconciled

A

Hermes, as a baby stole some of Apollo’s cattle

Apollo figured it out and was going to throw Hermes into Tartarus when Hermes made up by giving Apollo his lyre

Apollo responded by giving Hermes a three pronged living, golden staff which was then his symbol

46
Q

Who was Hermes’ son

A

Pan

who invented the pipes when distracted by reeds whilst pursuing a nymph

47
Q

Who is Echo

A

In one tradition, she is a nympth who could imitate any sound in the world

pursued by the god, Pan, she spurned him, so he drove some shepherds instane and they tore her to pieces

In another tradition, she was a talkative nymph who distracted Hera whilst Zeus had his way with other nymphs

In retaliation Hera made it so Echo could only repeat the worlds last said to her

She then fell in love with Narsissus, who spurned her so in grief she faded into just a voice

48
Q

Who was the twice born God

A

Dionysus

He was the daughter of Semele

When Hera found out that Zeus was sleeping with Semele she tricked her into asking Zeus to reveal himself in his God form

He had made a promise so he did, and she died. He saved their son though, by implanting him into his thigh where he was born a second time

Dionysus and he later went down to Hades and brought her back to Olympus

He was a full on God because of this second birth in Zeus’s thigh

49
Q

By what two other names is Dionysus known

A

Bacchus and Bromius

50
Q

Who are the Maenads

A

‘Raving ones’ women who tear apart wild animals and eat them raw

They are followers of Dionysus who drink his blood as wine. Anyway who doesnt pay tribute to Dionysus can expect them to leave the location in utter chaos (like a really mental piss up)

In one tradition they killed Orpheus

51
Q

Who drove the women of Athens mad (literally)

A

Dionysus, because they killed Kind Pandion, who Dionysus had taught wine-making

52
Q

Who turned pirates into Dolphins

A

a young Dionysus

That’s what you get for kidnapping a god

53
Q

Who is Zeus’s cup-bearer

A

Ganymede, once a mortal prince of Troy

54
Q

Who is Hebe

A

Daughter of Zeus and Hera

She supervises the feasts of the Gods

Extra Mythology (4 decks)

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