Q 01/05

Hermes is best known as the herald and what of the gods?

A) messenger

B) cupbearer

C) blacksmith

D) judge

Answer · why

A) messenger

His winged sandals let him move freely between the mortal and divine worlds and down to the underworld.

Q 02/05

Hermes is the son of Zeus and which of the Pleiades?

A) Electra

B) Maia

C) Taygete

D) Merope

Answer · why

B) Maia

The eldest of the seven sisters, daughters of Atlas; Zeus visited her secretly in a cave on Mount Cyllene.

Q 03/05

According to some myths, Hermes was born on which mountain in Arcadia?

A) Mount Olympus

B) Mount Ida

C) Mount Cyllene

D) Mount Parnassus

Answer · why

C) Mount Cyllene

His epithet Cyllenian recalls it; the nymphs washed the newborn in the three springs of the Tricrena mountains nearby.

Q 04/05

On his first day, the infant Hermes crawled off to Thessaly and stole what from Apollo?

A) his bow

B) his chariot

C) his laurel crown

D) his cattle

Answer · why

D) his cattle

The Homeric Hymn to Hermes tells the story; the two eventually swapped the herd for a new instrument.

Q 05/05

The infant Hermes invented the lyre from what?

A) a tortoise shell

B) a ram's horn

C) a hollow reed

D) a cattle skull

Answer · why

A) a tortoise shell

Apollo accepted the lyre in exchange for his stolen cattle, and it became one of Apollo's own emblems.