Q 01/05

'Werewolf' descends from wer(e)wulf, a compound from which historical language in which wer meant 'man'?

A) Old English

B) Old Norse

C) Old Saxon

D) Old Frisian

Answer · why

A) Old English

Old English werwulf joined wer, 'man', to wulf, so the word is literally 'man-wolf'; it is cognate with Middle Dutch weerwolf and German Werwolf.

Q 02/05

The word 'lycanthropy' comes from an Ancient Greek term meaning what?

A) Moon-sickness

B) Wolf-man

C) Night-hunter

D) Beast-curse

Answer · why

B) Wolf-man

Lykánthrōpos joins lýkos, 'wolf', and ánthrōpos, 'man', so lycanthropy literally means wolf-man; the same root appears in the name Lycaon.

Q 03/05

In Greek myth, Lycaon was turned into a wolf by Zeus after serving the god a meal of what?

A) Sacred cattle

B) Rotten fish

C) His own son

D) Poisoned wine

Answer · why

C) His own son

Lycaon killed and cooked his son Nyctimus to test whether Zeus was truly a god. Zeus later restored the boy to life.

Q 04/05

Which ancient historian reported that the Neuri were said to turn into wolves once a year?

A) Herodotus

B) Thucydides

C) Tacitus

D) Pliny the Elder

Answer · why

A) Herodotus

Herodotus recorded the claim in Book 4 of his Histories, attributing it to the Scythians and to Greeks settled in Scythia, and said he did not believe...

Q 05/05

Which Roman work has a soldier urinate in a circle around his clothes and turn into a wolf?

A) Ovid's Metamorphoses

B) Petronius' Satyricon

C) Virgil's Aeneid

D) Apuleius' The Golden Ass

Answer · why

B) Petronius' Satyricon

In Petronius' Satyricon the freedman Niceros tells the tale at Trimalchio's dinner; the soldier's clothes turn to stone until he returns to them.