Zodiac Trivia
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99 free Zodiac trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free zodiac trivia questions with answers. The zodiac is older than horoscopes and stranger than star signs. This zodiac trivia quiz covers all twelve Western signs, their symbols, elements, modalities and ruling planets, and the myths behind them, from the Nemean lion and the Dioscuri to Ganymede and Astraea. It also covers the astronomy: the ecliptic, the Babylonian 30-degree divisions, MUL.APIN, Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, precession and why the 'first point of Aries' is now in Pisces, and the recurring fuss over Ophiuchus. The Chinese zodiac gets its due too: the Jade Emperor's race, the 60-year cycle and Vietnam's cat. So does the history of horoscopes, from Cicero calling it pseudoscience to R. H. Naylor's 1930 column on the newborn Princess Margaret. Astrology is described here as a tradition, not endorsed as fact. About a third of the questions are for anyone who knows their sign, a third for people who know their rising sign, and the rest for those who can name the star at the scorpion's heart. Every answer is checked against a cited source shown under the question.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'zodiac' comes from a Greek word meaning what?
Of little animals
Zodiac comes from the Greek zōidiakos kyklos, 'circle of little animals': zōidion is the diminutive of zōion, animal, fitting a ring of signs that are mostly beasts or hybrids.
Q 02Into how many equal signs is the zodiac divided along the ecliptic?
12
The zodiac has 12 signs of 30° each, dividing the full 360° of the ecliptic into equal parts modelled on the months of an ancient lunisolar calendar.
Q 03The zodiac and its 360-degree measurement originated with which ancient civilisation?
Babylonian
The Babylonians divided the ecliptic into equal 30° signs during the first millennium BC, a 360° scheme rooted in their base-60 mathematics; Greek astronomers took it up in the 4th century BC.
Q 04What is the ecliptic?
The Sun's apparent yearly path across the sky
The zodiac is the band about 8° either side of it, where the planets also travel.
Q 05Because of precession, the March equinox point has moved from Aries into which constellation?
Pisces
It shifts about one degree every 72 years, a full circle in roughly 26,000 years; Hipparchus is credited with discovering it.
Q 06Which star catalogue, compiled around 1000 BC in Mesopotamia, did the zodiac draw on?
MUL.APIN
MUL.APIN, a Mesopotamian compendium named for its opening words 'the Plough', lists the constellations along the Sun's path, and the later zodiac drew on it; some figures, such as the Great Twins, are even older.
Q 07Which 2nd-century work by Ptolemy laid the basis of Western astrology?
Tetrabiblos
The Almagest was his astronomy; the Tetrabiblos, 'four books', is its astrological companion.
Q 08The Dendera zodiac, a circular ceiling relief now in the Louvre, comes from which country?
Egypt
The Dendera zodiac was carved about 50 BC in the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, Egypt; removed by the French in 1821, it hangs in the Louvre in Paris.
Q 09Which is the first sign of the zodiac?
Aries
The Sun enters it at the March equinox, typically March 21; it is a cardinal fire sign ruled by Mars.
Q 10What animal represents Aries?
Ram
The Latin ariēs simply means ram; the Hindu equivalent is Meṣa.
Q 11Which planet rules the second sign, the bull?
Venus
Venus rules the bull, the second sign, whose season the Sun enters around April 20; in classical astrology Venus governs love, beauty and material comfort, themes traditionally tied to this sign.
Q 12Which three signs make up the earth element?
Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn form the earth trigon, the element linked with practicality and the body; each element's three signs sit 120° apart around the zodiac.
Q 13Gemini is represented by which mythological twins?
Castor and Pollux
Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri of Greek myth, were twin sons of Leda; the constellation's two brightest stars carry their names, and the Mesopotamians already called the pair the Great Twins.
Q 21What is the opposite sign of Aquarius?
Leo
Aquarius is ruled by Saturn in traditional astrology and Uranus in modern astrology.
Q 22Which figure from Greek myth did the Aquarius water carrier come to represent?
Ganymede
Ganymede, the Trojan prince carried off by Zeus in the form of an eagle to be cupbearer of the gods, became the Greek identity of the water-bearer; in Mesopotamia the figure had been the god Ea (Enki) pouring water.
Q 23The astrological symbol for the twelfth sign shows two fish joined by what?
A string
The two fish are tied by a string (or cord) at their tails, a detail from the myth of Aphrodite and Eros leaping into the Euphrates as fish, bound together so as not to lose each other.
Q 14What is the ruling 'planet' of the fourth sign, the crab?
The Moon
The Moon rules the crab, the cardinal water sign; older charts drew the sign as a lobster, crayfish or even a turtle, and the Moon's phases were linked to its changeable temperament.
Q 15In Greek myth, Zeus placed Leo in the sky to commemorate which of Heracles' labours?
The Nemean lion
The Nemean lion, whose hide no weapon could pierce, was strangled by Heracles as his first labour; Zeus then set the beast among the stars as the lion constellation.
Q 16Virgo is associated with which figure from Greek mythology?
Astraea
Astraea, the virgin star-maiden of Greek myth, was the last immortal to leave a corrupted Earth, fleeing to the heavens where she became the constellation Virgo.
Q 17Which is the only zodiac sign represented by an inanimate object?
Libra
The scales belong to Themis, Greek personification of sacred law; Libra shares Venus with Taurus.
Q 18According to Greek myth, why does the constellation Orion set just as Scorpius rises?
A giant scorpion stung him to death
Orion was killed by the scorpion, so the two are never in the sky together; Scorpio is a fixed water sign.
Q 19Which sign completes the fire trigon with Aries and Leo?
Sagittarius
Sagittarius, the archer, is the third fire sign; the Sun enters it around November 22, and it is traditionally ruled by Jupiter.
Q 20Capricorn is ruled by which planet?
Saturn
Saturn rules Capricorn in traditional astrology, as it does the water-bearer; the sea-goat's season begins at the December solstice.
Q 24In Western astrology, which planet traditionally rules both Gemini and Virgo?
Mercury
Mercury, the swift messenger planet, traditionally rules both Gemini and Virgo, the two mutable signs linked with communication and analysis; the five classical planets each rule two signs.
Q 25Which constellation has been proposed as a '13th sign' of the zodiac?
Ophiuchus
Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer, straddles the ecliptic between the scorpion and the archer, with the Sun in front of it from about November 30 to December 18; Steven Schmidt pushed it as a sign in his 1970 book Astrology 14.
Q 26Which body did Schmidt and Berg suggest as the ruler of their proposed 13th sign?
Pluto
The 13-sign idea took off in Japan in the 1990s via Walter Berg and Mark Yazaki.
Q 27What does it mean to be 'on the cusp' in astrology?
Arriving as the Sun straddles two signs
The solar disc is about half a degree wide, so it can genuinely sit across the boundary at the moment of birth.
Q 28How long is an astrological 'age', such as the Age of Aquarius, said to last?
About 2,160 years
An astrological age lasts about 2,160 years, the time the equinox point takes to drift back through one 30° sign; the Age of Aquarius is said to follow the current age.
Q 29The Chinese zodiac assigns an animal to each what?
Year
The Chinese zodiac assigns an animal to each year, cycling through the full set of animals before repeating; the same animals are also mapped onto months and the two-hour divisions of the day.
Q 30Which animal traditionally comes first in the Chinese zodiac?
Rat
The Rat comes first: in the legend of the great race it rode across the river on the Ox's back and leapt ahead at the finish line, beating the Ox to first place.