70 Fun Facts About Hard Greek Mythology

Whose charmed bridle allowed Bellerophon to capture and tame Pegasus?

Bellerophon later overreached by trying to ride Pegasus up to Olympus and lost the gods' favour for it.

Exposed on Mount Parthenion as a baby, Atalanta was nursed by which animal?

The bear was a symbol of Artemis, the goddess Atalanta went on to model herself after.

According to Herodotus, Cadmus introduced what to the Greeks?

Cadmus was a Phoenician prince sent to find his abducted sister Europa, and he founded Thebes instead of going home.

The acropolis of Thebes was originally named what, in honour of the city's founder?

Cadmus is grouped with Perseus and Bellerophon as the great monster-slayers before Heracles.

Which astronomer named a moon of Jupiter after Zeus's lover Io in 1614?

The Ionian Islands are also said to take their name from Io, not from the region of Ionia.

In most versions, Io was the daughter of which river god?

That made her an Argive princess, and her descendants included Perseus, Heracles and Minos.

Which Cretan king was Europa's son?

The earliest vase painting securely identified as Europa dates from the mid-7th century BC.

The Latin form of Ganymede's name gave English which word?

Ganymede was a Trojan prince, son of Tros, carried off to be Zeus's cup-bearer.

Besides receding water and fruit, what punishment for Tantalus is more common in early Greek sources?

Pindar and Archilochus used 'the rock of Tantalus' proverbially, much like the later Sword of Damocles.

After Apollo and Artemis killed her children, Niobe was turned to stone on which mountain?

Her children lay unburied for nine days while she fasted, until the gods themselves interred them.

In Ovid, Arachne's father Idmon of Colophon practised what trade?

Ovid also credits Arachne with inventing linen cloth and nets, and her son Closter with the spindle.

Who was the mother of King Midas of Phrygia?

His father Gordias is the man credited with tying the Gordian Knot at Gordium.

Phaethon's grieving sisters, the Heliades, were transformed into which trees?

Their tears became amber, and Phaethon's body fell into the river Eridanus.

Deucalion, survivor of the Greek flood myth, was the son of which Titan?

His wife Pyrrha's name derives from the Greek for flame-coloured.

Endymion, the sleeping lover of the moon goddess Selene, was said to lie on which mountain in Caria?

Pliny rationalised the myth by calling Endymion the first man to observe the movements of the moon.

Which instrument, discarded by a goddess, did the satyr Marsyas pick up and master?

He then challenged Apollo to a music contest and paid for losing with his skin.

Through his mother Autonoë, the hunter Actaeon belonged to which royal family?

Like Achilles later, Actaeon was trained by the centaur Chiron before Artemis turned him into a stag.

The Mycenaean-era cult of Hyacinth was centred on which town near Sparta?

Hyacinth chose Apollo over rival suitors including the west wind Zephyrus, who in some tellings caused his death.

Which of these was NOT one of the daughters of Asclepius?

Coronis was Asclepius's mother; his daughters personified health, healing and universal remedy.

Chiron differed from the other centaurs because of his parentage. Who were his parents?

Cronus took the form of a horse to father him, which is why Chiron was civilised while his kin were brawlers.

The bronze guardian Talos was invulnerable except for a vein in which body part?

Medea defeated him from the deck of the Argo by making him graze that spot and bleed out.

Which real body of water did Virgil's Aeneid identify as the home of Scylla and Charybdis?

The Calabrian coastal town of Scilla still carries the monster's name.

The Byzantine encyclopedia Suda gave Scylla how many dog heads on each side?

Below the waist, the Suda says, she had a serpent's body.

Later traditions fixed the Sirens' 'flowery' island under what name?

Roman poets placed them instead on small islands called the Sirenum Scopuli.

Circe turned the Italian king Picus into which bird for resisting her advances?

Circe was the daughter of Helios and the Oceanid Perse, and she also transformed the nymph Scylla out of jealousy.

Aeolus gave Odysseus a bag containing every wind except which one?

The crew opened it within sight of Ithaca, close enough to see Odysseus's mother waving from shore.

How many of Odysseus's twelve ships did the Laestrygonians destroy?

Only Odysseus's own ship survived, because he had moored it in a cove outside the harbour.

The land of the Lotus-eaters is traditionally identified with which island?

The lotus fruit, 'sweet as honey', made those who ate it forget home and refuse to leave.

Nausicaa, who helps the shipwrecked Odysseus, was the daughter of which king?

According to a later tradition she went on to marry Odysseus's son Telemachus.

Penelope was the daughter of which Spartan king?

That made her a cousin of Helen, whom she was said to surpass in virtue if not in beauty.

Eumaeus, Odysseus's loyal swineherd, was born the son of a king of which island?

His nurse sold him to Phoenician sailors, and Odysseus's father Laertes bought him on Ithaca.

When Odysseus returns after twenty years, where does he find his old dog Argos lying?

Argos recognises his disguised master, wags his tail, and dies.

Philoctetes, the archer abandoned on Lemnos, was the son of which king?

Of four ancient tragedies written about him, only Sophocles' Philoctetes survives.

Which later poet gave the most detailed account of Laocoön's death in the Posthomerica?

In Quintus's version Athena first blinds Laocoön, and only later come the serpents.

Cassandra was murdered at Mycenae by Clytemnestra and which accomplice?

She had been brought home from Troy as Agamemnon's concubine.

What is the traditional title of the Odyssey's first four books, which follow Telemachus?

His name is usually taken to mean 'far from battle' or 'fighting from afar', like a bowman.

Daedalus was the uncle of which gifted apprentice, whom he grew jealous of?

Sources also name the nephew Talos or Calos; Daedalus's own sons were Icarus and Iapyx.

Who was Icarus's mother?

The wings were built from moulted feathers, blanket threads, sandal straps and beeswax.

Orpheus was killed by which group?

They were said to have grown tired of his endless mourning for Eurydice.

What does the name Oedipus literally mean?

As the son of Laius he also bore the patronymic Laiades.

Which two plays preceded Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes in its 467 BC trilogy?

The trilogy, rounded off by a satyr play called Sphinx, won first prize at the City Dionysia.

Before his famous punishment, Ixion murdered his father-in-law Deioneus by what method?

It was the first kin-murder in Greek myth, and Zeus purified him only for Ixion to lust after Hera.

Patroclus was born in which city before being exiled and adopted by Peleus?

His father Menoetius had sailed with the Argonauts.

Ajax the Great was the elder half-brother of which archer?

Both were sons of Telamon, which made Ajax a cousin of Achilles through Peleus.

Priam, the last king of Troy, was the son of which earlier king?

A folk etymology from priamai, 'to buy', spawned a tale of his sister Hesione ransoming him.

According to Hesiod, the Erinyes sprang from what?

The Giants and the ash-tree nymphs, the Meliae, were born from the same drops.

Which of the Moirai was 'the allotter', measuring out the thread of life?

Clotho spun the thread and Atropos, 'the inevitable', cut it.

According to Hesiod, who were the parents of the three Charites, or Graces?

He names them Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia: Splendour, Joy and Good Cheer.

The Hesperides were also called the Atlantides after whom?

Other sources make them daughters of Nyx, or of Phorcys and Ceto.

According to Hesiod, who were the parents of the monstrous Typhon?

One later source does make him the son of Hera alone, and another the offspring of Cronus.

The lost epic credited with fixing the canonical twelve labours of Heracles was written by whom?

The cycle of twelve was known as the Dodekathlos.

Which two labours did Eurystheus refuse to count, according to Apollodorus?

Iolaus had helped with the Hydra, and Heracles took payment for the stables, so two extra tasks were set.

Which goddess unknowingly nursed the infant Heracles?

Alcmene had exposed the baby out of fear of Hera, who then suckled him out of pity without recognising him.

Heracles cleaned the Augean stables by diverting which two rivers?

Augeas's herds were said to be the largest in the country and had never once been mucked out.

Who made the bronze rattle Heracles used to flush out the Stymphalian birds?

The birds had bronze beaks, could shoot their metallic feathers, and had poisonous dung.

The beast of Heracles' seventh labour escaped from Eurystheus and became known as what?

Theseus later captured it, sheltering from a storm on the way at the hut of an old woman named Hecale.

Which lover of Heracles was torn apart by the Mares of Diomedes?

Abderus, a son of Hermes, was left guarding the horses while Heracles fought the Bistones.

Heracles was sent to fetch Hippolyta's war belt for whom?

Admete was Eurystheus's daughter. Many versions say Hippolyta simply handed it over, impressed by him, until a rumour of kidnap stirred up the Amazons.

Geryon's cattle were guarded by a two-headed hound named what?

Orthrus was Cerberus's brother, and Heracles killed him along with the herdsman Eurytion.

How did Heracles cross the ocean to Geryon's island of Erytheia?

Helios lent it in admiration of his courage after Heracles threatened him with his bow.

Which of the fifty Danaids refused to kill her husband on their wedding night?

She spared Lynceus because he respected her wish to remain a virgin; her sisters were condemned to carry water in sieves.

The dragon Ladon guarded the golden apples. Per Ptolemy Hephaestion, he was the brother of which beast?

Hesiod instead makes Ladon the last child of Phorcys and Ceto.

How is Echidna, the 'mother of monsters', physically described?

She lived alone in a cave and mated with Typhon.

Heracles captured the Erymanthian boar by driving the exhausted animal into what?

He then carried it back to Mycenae slung over his left shoulder.

The Ceryneian hind, object of the third labour, was sacred to Artemis and had what unusual feature?

It was said to be larger than a bull, with hooves of bronze, and Heracles had to bring it back alive.

Ganymede was the son of which founder-figure, from whom Troy is said to take its name?

Homer calls Ganymede the most handsome of mortals.

Jason lost one sandal in which river while carrying a disguised Hera across it?

He arrived at Pelias's games in Iolcus wearing one sandal, fulfilling the prophecy Pelias feared.

The bandit Sciron forced travellers to wash his feet, then kicked them off a cliff to be eaten by what?

Theseus pushed Sciron off the same cliff near Megara, where the giant turtle ate him too.

When Polydectes asked what gift his subjects should give him, what did everyone but Perseus name?

Others answered 'horse'; Perseus rashly named Medusa's head, and Polydectes held him to it.

In the Bibliotheca, Perseus accidentally kills Acrisius with a discus at funeral games held by which king of Larissa?

Acrisius had fled to Thessaly to dodge the oracle; Perseus's errant throw at Teutamides' games fulfilled it anyway.