Q 01/05

Which James Bond actor played the centaur Chiron in the 2010 film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief?

A) Pierce Brosnan

B) Timothy Dalton

C) Roger Moore

D) Daniel Craig

Answer · why

A) Pierce Brosnan

Pierce Brosnan spends his first scenes as Mr. Brunner, Percy's Latin teacher, before the mild schoolmaster is revealed as Chiron, trainer of heroes at...

Q 02/05

Which Greek region was the centaurs' traditional home?

A) Thessaly

B) Attica

C) Boeotia

D) Crete

Answer · why

A) Thessaly

Thessaly's wooded mountains were the centaurs' country until they lost their great battle with a neighbouring tribe and were driven out, which is why ...

Q 03/05

The centaurs were said to spring from Ixion's union with what, shaped by Zeus to look like Hera?

A) A statue

B) A cloud

C) A shadow

D) A dream

Answer · why

B) A cloud

A cloud: Zeus moulded it into Hera's likeness to test his guest, and Ixion, pardoned for murder and welcomed to the gods' table, walked straight into ...

Q 04/05

Which lyric poet's ode for Hieron of Syracuse tells how Ixion fathered the centaur race?

A) Pindar

B) Simonides

C) Alcaeus

D) Anacreon

Answer · why

A) Pindar

Pindar holds Ixion up to the tyrant as a warning: in his second Pythian ode the punished sinner calls out to all mortals to repay a benefactor with ki...

Q 05/05

What was Ixion's eternal punishment for lusting after Hera?

A) Eternal thirst in a receding pool

B) Bound to a spinning fiery wheel

C) Chained to a rock for an eagle

D) Rolling a boulder uphill forever

Answer · why

B) Bound to a spinning fiery wheel

Bound to a spinning fiery wheel, Ixion at first whirled across the sky; later tradition moved the wheel to the underworld. In one telling Zeus struck ...