Troy Trivia
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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
Sparta was ruled by Menelaus, Helen's husband; when Paris carried her off, Menelaus invoked the oath of Tyndareus, under which her former suitors had sworn to defend the marriage.
Q 02Which goddess tossed a golden apple, a prize 'for the fairest', among the guests at a divine wedding?
Eris
Eris, goddess of strife, had been left off the guest list for the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and the quarrel over her apple led to the Judgement of Paris.
Q 03At the Judgement of Paris, which goddess tried to win the prize by offering him rule over a vast kingdom?
Hera
Hera, queen of the gods, offered Paris a throne and Athena offered victory in war, but he took the third goddess's bribe: the most beautiful woman in the world.
Q 04Where was Paris living as a shepherd when Hermes led the three goddesses to him?
Mount Ida
Mount Ida, near Troy, is where baby Paris was left to die after a prophecy that he would ruin the city; in one telling a she-bear nursed him until a herdsman took him in.
Q 05In which year of the siege of Troy is Homer's Iliad set?
The tenth
The tenth year of the war is the Iliad's setting; the poem covers only a few weeks of it, from the quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon to the funeral of Hector.
Q 06Agamemnon, who led the Greek expedition against Troy, was king of which city?
Mycenae
Mycenae was Agamemnon's seat in Homer; while he fought at Troy his wife Clytemnestra took Aegisthus as a lover, and the king was murdered on his return.
Q 07According to one tradition, Thetis made the infant Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in which river?
The Styx
The Styx, the river of the underworld, is where Thetis dipped the infant Achilles in the later tradition; she held him by the heel, which stayed dry, mortal and famous.
Q 08To keep Achilles out of the war, he was hidden at King Lycomedes' court disguised as what?
A girl
A girl was the disguise: Achilles hid among King Lycomedes' daughters until, in the usual telling, Odysseus set weapons among gifts of finery and the hero gave himself away by grabbing them.
Q 09In the familiar telling, Odysseus feigned madness to dodge the Trojan War, ploughing his fields and sowing them with what?
Salt
Salt in the furrows is a later touch to the tale; in the usual version Palamedes set baby Telemachus in the plough's path, and Odysseus swerved, proving he was sane.
Q 10Whom did Agamemnon lead to the altar at Aulis to appease Artemis so the Greek fleet could sail?
Iphigenia
Iphigenia, Agamemnon's daughter, was lured to Aulis on the pretext of marrying Achilles and sacrificed to Artemis; in Euripides' version the goddess swapped in a deer at the last moment and carried her off to Tauris.
Q 11Homer's Catalogue of Ships tallies the Greek fleet sent against Troy at roughly how many vessels?
1,200
About 1,200: the contingents listed in Iliad Book 2 add up to 1,186 ships, a figure Thucydides rounded to twelve hundred while suspecting the poet of exaggeration.
Q 12King Cinyras of Cyprus promised 50 ships but sent only one real vessel and 49 made of what?
Clay
Clay was the material: Cinyras sent Agamemnon a breastplate as a gift and pledged fifty ships, then sent one real vessel and moulded the rest out of earth.
Q 13In Homer's telling, Philoctetes was marooned on Lemnos after suffering what injury?
A snake bite
A snake bite left Philoctetes with a festering wound so foul that the Greeks marooned him on Lemnos, then had to fetch him back years later when a prophecy said Troy would not fall without his bow.
Q 21Which queen of the Amazons arrived to fight for Troy shortly after Hector's burial?
Penthesilea
Penthesilea, daughter of Ares, brought her Amazons to Troy after Hector's funeral and was killed by Achilles, who then mourned her beauty; when Thersites mocked his grief, Achilles killed him.
Q 22Memnon, son of Eos, who aided Troy and was slain by Achilles, was king of which land?
Ethiopia
Ethiopia was Memnon's kingdom: he led a great Ethiopian force to Troy and killed Nestor's son Antilochus before Achilles killed him in turn.
Q 23In an alternative version of his death, Achilles was ambushed after seeking to marry which Trojan princess?
Polyxena
Polyxena's hand was the bait: in this telling Achilles came to arrange the marriage and was killed by Paris and Deiphobus; after the sack the Greeks sacrificed her at his tomb.
Q 14Who was the first Greek to land at Troy, and the first to die, in fulfilment of a prophecy?
Protesilaus
Protesilaus leapt ashore first and was killed, as an oracle had warned the first Greek to land would be; the gods then pitied his widow and let him return from the underworld for a brief reunion.
Q 15Legend said Troy's walls were built for King Laomedon by Apollo and which other god?
Poseidon
Poseidon and Apollo built Troy's walls for King Laomedon, who then refused their wages; in revenge Poseidon sent a sea monster against the city.
Q 16Achilles withdrew from the fighting after Agamemnon took which captive woman from him?
Briseis
Briseis, Achilles' war-prize from Lyrnessus, was taken by Agamemnon after he had to return his own captive Chryseis to her father to end the plague sent by Apollo.
Q 17Who wore Achilles' armour into battle and was killed by Hector?
Patroclus
Patroclus borrowed Achilles' armour to rally the Greeks and was killed by Hector outside the walls; Hector stripped the armour from the body, and Achilles' grief brought him back to the fight.
Q 18Who forged the new arms that Achilles wore when he returned to battle?
Hephaestus
Hephaestus forged the arms, great shield included, to repay Thetis: in the Iliad she had sheltered him in her sea cave after he was thrown down from Olympus.
Q 19With Athena's help, Diomedes wounded Ares and which other deity on the battlefield?
Aphrodite
Aphrodite was cut on the wrist by Diomedes' spear in Iliad Book 5 as she carried her son Aeneas from the field; later in the same book he wounded Ares, who bellowed like ten thousand men.
Q 20Guided by Hermes, who came to Achilles' tent to beg for the return of Hector's body?
Priam
Priam, the aged king of Troy, crossed the Greek camp by night with Hermes as guide and kissed the hands that had killed his son; Achilles relented, and the Iliad ends with Hector's funeral.
Q 24In the tradition that gave Ajax a single vulnerable spot, where did his sword pierce when he fell on it?
His armpit
His armpit was his one weak point in this tradition, a twin to Achilles' heel; maddened at losing the dead hero's arms to Odysseus, he had first slaughtered livestock he took for his Greek comrades.
Q 25Paris was finally shot dead by Philoctetes using a bow that had belonged to which hero?
Heracles
Heracles' bow passed to Philoctetes, in the usual telling as thanks for lighting the hero's funeral pyre when no one else would; a prophecy later said Troy could not fall without it.
Q 26Which sacred Trojan statue did Odysseus and Diomedes steal because Troy could not fall while it stood?
The Palladium
The Palladium, a small wooden image of Athena said to have fallen from heaven, guaranteed Troy's safety; Odysseus and Diomedes crept in and carried it off after the captive seer Helenus revealed the conditions for the city's fall.
Q 27Who physically built the wooden horse, working under Athena's guidance?
Epeius
Epeius, a Phocian craftsman and champion boxer, built the horse under Athena's direction; the ruse was Odysseus's idea, and Epeius himself hid inside with the other warriors.
Q 28What did the wooden horse's inscription say?
A thank-offering to Athena for their return home
A thank-offering to Athena for their return home, dedicated by the Greeks, is the inscription Apollodorus records on the horse; the rest of the army burned its camp and sailed just out of sight to Tenedos.
Q 29In the best-known telling, which Trojan priest warned against the horse and was killed by serpents from the sea?
Laocoön
Laocoön hurled a spear into the horse's flank and, in the Aeneid, was crushed with his two sons by sea serpents; the Trojans read it as punishment for sacrilege and dragged the horse inside.
Q 30Why did the Trojans ignore Cassandra's warnings about the wooden horse?
Apollo had cursed her never to be believed
Apollo had cursed her never to be believed: in Aeschylus he gave Cassandra the gift of prophecy and, when she then refused him, twisted it so that her true warnings fell on deaf ears.