Greek vocab Flashcards

Question

Persephone, Demeter & Hades

Answer 1

Persephone, daughter of Demeter (goddess of the harvest), is kidnapped by Hades to the Underworld. Her mother mourns her absence by making the earth cold and barren. Persephone is eventually released, but each year she must return to Hades for one month for each pomegranate seed she ate. During this time the Earth suffers through winter.

Answer 2

Cupid and Psyche fall in love and marry, but he will only visit her at night, and she is not allowed to see him. One night, she drips candle wax on him while trying to peek. Psyche is sent away, but eventually, they are reunited.

Answer 3

Theseus, to prove himself, convinces his father to let him fight the Minotaur, a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull. He kills it with the help of Ariadne. Theseus forgets to hoist the white sail of victory on his journey home, so his father kills himself.

Answer 4

Icarus and his father, Daedalus, try to escape King Minos’s labyrinth on the island of Crete by constructing wings made of feathers and wax. Despite his father’s warnings, Icarus flies too close to the sun, causing his wax to melt. He plummets to his watery death. (Icarian Sea)

Answer 5

Echo, a nymph who angered Hera, can only repeat the last words someone utters. She falls in love with Narcissus, a beautiful man who also falls in love with himself. Echo wastes away except for her voice. Narcissus wastes away staring at his own reflection in a pool and becomes a white and purple flower. (Narcissistic)

Answer 6

These young neighbors are deeply in love and plan to run away together. Their secret meeting goes terribly wrong when Pyramus arrives and, spotting Thisbe’s bloody veil thinks a lion has devoured her. He kills himself, and when she discovers what has happened, she joins him in death. The berries on the mulberry tree remain red in their memory.

Answer 7

Athena transforms Medusa into a gorgon, a woman with snakes for hair who can turn men into stone with a glance. Medusa is later killed by Perseus who is aided by winged sandals from Hermes and a shield, invisible helmet, and bag from Athena.

Answer 8

Achilles’ mother dipped her baby in the waters of immortality, but she held him by his heel. No arrow or weapon could harm him until Paris shoots him in the heel during the Trojan War.

Answer 9

Orpheus, the son of Apollo and Caliope, ventured down to the Kingdom of the Dead to retrieve his dead wife, Eurydice. Hades agreed to free Eurydice on one condition – Orpheus was not to look back at his wife on the walk to Earth. When they were almost home, Orpheus looked back and lost his wife forever.

Answer 10

Because Tantalus abuses his privilege of sharing the food of the gods, Zeus punishes him in Hades. Although parched and famished, Tantalus is not allowed to reach the fruit or water that surrounds him. (Tantalizing)

Answer 11

Sisyphus is known for being devious and tricky guests to his home as well as the gods. As punishment, he is forced to roll a giant boulder up a hill every day for eternity

Answer 12

Arachne is a skilled but vain weaver who claims to be superior to Athena. They begin a weaving competition during which Arachne mocks the gods. Athena turns Arachne into a creature able to spin thread forever - the first spider! (Arachnid)

Answer 13

Hera hated Hercules because he was one of Zeus’s (many) illegitimate children. Hera caused Hercules to go mad and kill his wife in children. To atone for his sins, Hercules has to complete 12 labors. Examples of his labors include: defeating the Nemean Lion killing the Hydra cleaning a giant stable in a single day