50 free Troy trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Troy is a story, a place and a movie, and this quiz covers all three. The bulk of the questions follow the legend from the golden apple and the Judgement of Paris through the ten-year siege, the wrath of Achilles, the death of Hector, the wooden horse and the sack of the city, drawing on the Iliad, the lost Epic Cycle and Virgil's Aeneid. Then it moves to the real hill at Hisarlik in Turkey: Frank Calvert, Heinrich Schliemann, the nine layers of the mound, the missing gold of 'Priam's Treasure' and the Hittite name for the city. A final handful covers Wolfgang Petersen's 2004 film with Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and a very unfortunate Achilles tendon. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Trojan War, the archaeological site and the film, so the names, dates and numbers can be relied on when a classics graduate objects.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Trojan War began after Paris took Helen from her husband, the king of which Greek city?
Sparta
Menelaus then called in every prince who had sworn to defend Helen's marriage.
Q 02Which goddess tossed a golden apple inscribed 'to the fairest' into a wedding?
Eris
Eris had been left off the guest list for the wedding of Peleus and Thetis.
Q 03At the Judgement of Paris, which goddess offered him political power and control of all Asia?
Hera
Athena offered wisdom and skill in battle; Paris chose the third goddess's offer of love instead.
Q 04Where was Paris being raised as a shepherd when Hermes led the three goddesses to him?
Mount Ida
The goddesses appeared to him naked after bathing in a spring on the mountain.
Q 05Homer's Iliad covers only a short stretch of the war. In which year of the siege is it set?
The tenth
Its core describes just four days and two nights of fighting.
Q 06Agamemnon, who led the Greek expedition against Troy, was king of which city?
Mycenae
He was Menelaus's brother, and his own wife Clytemnestra was seduced by Aegisthus while he was away.
Q 07According to one tradition, Thetis made the infant Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in which river?
The Styx
She held him by the heel, which stayed dry, mortal and famous.
Q 08To keep Achilles out of the war, Thetis hid him at King Lycomedes' court disguised as what?
A girl
He gave himself away by grabbing weapons when Odysseus laid out trinkets and arms before the women.
Q 09Odysseus tried to dodge the war by feigning madness and sowing his fields with what?
Salt
Palamedes put the infant Telemachus in front of the plough, and Odysseus swerved, proving he was sane.
Q 10Whom did Agamemnon sacrifice at Aulis to appease Artemis and free the fleet from the calm?
Iphigenia
In some versions Artemis swapped in a deer at the last moment and carried the girl away.
Q 11According to the Iliad's Catalogue of Ships, how many Greek ships sailed for Troy?
1,186
Thucydides rounded the tradition to about 1,200, implying an army of 70,000 to 130,000 men.
Q 12King Cinyras of Cyprus promised 50 ships but sent only one real vessel and 49 made of what?
Clay
It is one of the more elegant ways of breaking a promise recorded in Greek myth.
Q 13Philoctetes was abandoned on Lemnos for ten years after suffering what injury?
A snake bite
The festering wound smelled so bad that Odysseus advised leaving him behind; his bow was later needed to take Troy.
Q 21Which queen of the Amazons arrived to fight for Troy shortly after Hector's burial?
Penthesilea
In one version Achilles killed her and then mourned her; the ugly soldier Thersites mocked him and paid with his life.
Q 22Memnon, son of Eos, who aided Troy and was slain by Achilles, was king of which land?
Ethiopia
Zeus weighed the fates of the two heroes on a scale, and Memnon's side sank.
Q 23In an alternative version of his death, Achilles was stabbed while marrying which daughter of Priam?
Polyxena
Both versions of his death deny his killer any valour: Achilles was never beaten in open battle.
Q 14Who was the first Greek to land at Troy, and the first to die, in fulfilment of a prophecy?
Protesilaus
Odysseus dodged the curse by throwing his shield down and jumping onto it instead of Trojan soil.
Q 15Legend said the walls of Troy were built by Apollo and which other god during a year of forced service?
Poseidon
They laboured for the Trojan king Laomedon, which explains why the walls held for ten years.
Q 16Achilles withdrew from the fighting after Agamemnon took which captive woman from him?
Briseis
Agamemnon had been forced to give back his own prize, Chryseis, to end a plague sent by Apollo.
Q 17Who wore Achilles' armour into battle and was killed by Hector?
Patroclus
Hector stripped the armour from the body, and Achilles' grief brought him roaring back to the fight.
Q 18Which god forged the new set of arms that Achilles wore when he returned to battle?
Hephaestus
Memnon later fought Achilles wearing armour from the same divine smith.
Q 19With Athena's help, Diomedes wounded Ares and which other deity on the battlefield?
Aphrodite
He also killed Pandaros and nearly finished off Aeneas before the goddess whisked her son away.
Q 20Guided by Hermes, who came to Achilles' tent to beg for the return of Hector's body?
Priam
The Iliad ends with the funeral of Hector, not with the fall of the city.
Q 24When Ajax fell on his sword after losing the contest for Achilles' armour, where did it pierce?
His armpit
It was his only vulnerable spot; he had first slaughtered a flock of sheep believing them to be his comrades.
Q 25Paris was finally shot dead by Philoctetes using a bow that had belonged to which hero?
Heracles
The prophecy said Troy could not fall without that bow, so Odysseus and Diomedes fetched its owner from Lemnos.
Q 26Which sacred Trojan statue did Odysseus and Diomedes steal because Troy could not fall while it stood?
The Palladium
The captured seer Helenus had revealed the conditions for the city's fall.
Q 27Who physically built the wooden horse, working under Athena's guidance?
Epeius
The wood came from a cornel grove sacred to Apollo, and the ruse itself was Odysseus's idea.
Q 28What inscription did the Greeks put on the wooden horse?
A thank-offering to Athena for their return home
The rest of the army burned its camp and sailed just out of sight to Tenedos.
Q 29Which Trojan priest warned against the horse and was devoured by serpents that came from the sea?
Laocoön
The portent alarmed the followers of Aeneas, who withdrew to Mount Ida and survived the sack.
Q 30Cassandra also warned the Trojans about the horse. Why did nobody listen?
Apollo had cursed her never to be believed
Apollo had given her the gift of prophecy and then, when she spurned him, made it useless.