Classical Mythology: Final Exam

Which of the following is NOT one of the 4 words of love?

agape, eros, philia, storge (4 words of love)

From among which three goddesses must Paris choose "the fairest" to give the Golden Apple to?

Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite (Aphrodite won)

The story of Hippolytus and Phaedra recalls the story of...

Ovid's Amores? Euripides? (but the myth goes.. Phaedra is married to Theseus but falls in love with his son from another marriage (step-son) named Hippolytus. He rejects her. She claims he raped her and Theseus has him killed)

How does Homer's Iliad end?

Achilles kills hector in battle and desecrates his body by dragging it behind his chariot around the city. Eventually he realizes the crime he has committed against the gods and allows Priam to collect the body and conduct funerary rights

As Pentheus was punished by Dionysus in the Bacchae, so Hippolytus is punished by...

Aphrodite

What does Circe do to Odysseus men?

drugs them and turns them into pigs

How long was Odysseus gone from Ithaca?

20 years

The name Oedipus may be a play on the Greek word meaning...

oida, "I know."

During the dark ages of Greece, information was remembered and transmitted by...

by word of mouth and telling stories

An important variation on the Oedipus myth reports that...

From which people did the romans take as their wives?

Sabines

One lesson found in Greek tragedy is that there is learning through...

The city from which the Argonauts started their journey was...

Iolcus

Aristotle thought that Oedipus Rex was the greatest Greek tragedy because...

It has perfect recognition (anagnoresis) and a great reversal of fortune (peripateia); best exemplified how he thought a drama should be made.

Which of the following individuals was not a member of the Argonauts?

boreads

heracles

philoctetes

peleus

telmaon

orpheus

caster and polux

atalanta

meleager

euphemus

(these are the members)

Greek athletic contests for women were intended to...

tame young girls (parthenoi) for marriage

Why did Athena wish to punish the Achaeans after supporting them during the Trojan War?

massacred citizens

Ancient Greek athletics may have functioned to...

training for war; teach young men about competition

associated with heavy rituals and sacrifice

What was the name of the Amazon that fought with and was killed by Achilles during the Trojan War?

Penthesilea

One issue in Euripides Medea is the problems raised by...

One of the central themes of the play - the confrontation between what is justice and what is convenient or expedient - was being played out in the politics of the day, as both the Athenians and the

Spartans' allies, especially the Corinthians, argued to this effect.

In the Trojan Women, what dire proclamation does Talthybus bring to Andromache?

her baby son, Astyanax, has been condemned to die. The Greek leaders are afraid that the boy will grow up to avenge his father Hector, and rather than take this chance, they plan to throw him off from the battlements of Troy to his death.

Medea is the only figure in the Greek tragedies we have who:

In which a kin-killer makes it unpunished until the end (never punished for killing family)

The Roman counterparts to Hera, Demeter, and Artemis are (in order)

Juno, Ceres, Diana

Euripides Trojan Women solidified his reputation for posterity as a(n):

An advocate for women and as anti-war

Archaeologists think the founding of Rome was by a process called:

synoikismos

Those who question the historical accuracy of the legends of early Rome are called:

hypercriticals

How long does Odysseus struck on Ogyia following the loss of his ship and men?

Seven years

_________ made Hercules writhe in agony until he decided to commit suicide

Ovid's Hydra poison

What is the translation of Oedipus name?

swollen foot

In Oedipus at Colonus, when his son asks for his support in the battle to capture Thebes, Oedipus reacts by:

Eteocles and Polynices will each die by the other's hand, he says, for that is the curse Oedipus put on them when they exiled him from Thebes.

What is the meaning of Hippolytus name?

Breaker of Horses

Unfortunately for Minos, Scylla's father was invulnerable as long as:

He had the magical lock of purple hair on his head

In Oedipus the King, who tells Oedipus that he was the one who killed king Laius?

Teiresias

Oenomaus died when the wax axle-pins of his chariot melted during a race. His death made possible the marriage of:

Hippodamia and Pelops

What did Atreus of that made Thyestes believe he deserved to be king?

Made a bet that whoever had the golden fleece deserved to be king

In Oedipus at Colonus, Theseus prevents Creon from:

Bringing Oedipus back to bury him at Thebes

How did Medea help Jason?

Helped him overcome the obstacles that Aeetes set for him in getting the golden fleece

According to Roman myth, the Tarquin kings were expelled and the roman Republic was established right after the tragic self-sacrifice of:

Lucretia?

Who was not very important in Greek mythology, but Shakespeare and Chaucer loved him?

Troilus

Meleager died when:

Burning of a stick the Fates predicted that would lead to his death

Why was the priest asking the gods for help in the beginning of Oedipus the King?

there is a plague in the city

The _____ resulted from drunken guests trying to rape the bride and her attendants at a Lapith wedding

Lapiths?

Who was the leader of Penelope's suitors, and the first of them to die?

Antinous

One was turned into a cow, one was abducted by a bull, but both were loved by Zeus. Who were they?

Io (cow) and Europa (abducted by bull)

What is another name for someone who continually predicts that catastrophes will happen?

The Messenger to be cassandra???

Who says the following to whom: "How many times did I not remonstrate with you and say:/"Listen, my girl - just go!/My sons can always find other women./I'll help you to slip away to where their navy is/and stop this senseless war between Greece and us.'/But no, this wasn't to your taste./You luxuriated in Alexander's palace./You basked in the obsequiousness of us Orientals."

Hebuca to Helen

How many kings and Roman kings were there in the Alban Dynasty?

14 kings; 7 Roman kings

Who was punished by the Furies for Killing his mother?

Orestes

Define the term euhemerism

approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages

Danaus instructed his fifty daughters (the Danaids) to__________. All but who obeyed

The daughters were ordered by their father to kill their husbands on the first night of their weddings and this they all did with the exception of one, Hypermnestra, who spared her husband Lynceus because he respected her desire to remain a virgin.

She stayed at the side of her blind father, Oedipus, despite the terrible fate that had happened to him

Antigone

Served by the Vestal Virgins, the Roman numen Vesta was associated with:

the hearth, home, and family

Kills herself to avoid the shame of falling in love with her own son.

Jocasta

"He nerved himself to be his daughter's butcher,/to prosecute a war fought over a woman,/ to make this payment on his navy's budget." The "daughter" referred to in this quotation from Aeschylus is:

Iphigenia

It was foretold that Pelias would be killed by a man with one:

shoe

In Sophocles' play Oedipus the King, Oedipus experiences a brief glimmer of hope when he learns (incorrectly) that __________ had killed the former king

a group of thieves

________ died when struck by the prow of the Argo

Jason

The Boreads (Zetes and Calais) freed the hungry king _________ from the foul Harpies.

Phineus

In Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus hears thunder and sees lightning. With these, he knows that:

his death is near

Who said this to whom: "If you hadn't gotten your life into such a muddle/and rally were a level-headed woman,/ I'd not be urging you to a course of lust and pleasure./ But we're fighting for your life:/there's nothing ignoble in that."

the nurse to Phaedra

At the end of Oedipus the King, what does Oedipus ask Creon to do?

He asks Creon to take care of his daughters

In her suicide note, Phaedra falsely accuses Hippolytus of what?

raping her

Artemis promises the dying Hippolytus that she will:

avenge is death by inflicting a comparable punishment on Aphrodite's next mortal favorite

Also known as the Dioscuri, these half-brothers of Helen share immortality on alternate Days.

Atreus and Thyestes

Who delivers the deadly gifts to Jason's bride?

Medea's sons

The Sparti who made peace with Cadmus and the armed warriors who fought Jason were all:

sprung from the teeth of a dragon planted in the ground

When Jason offers to provide for her and the children in exile, and to "send letters of introduction for [her] to friends abroad who will be kind," how does Medea react?

She angrily rejects his offer

The most famous version of Jason and the Argonauts is by:

Apollonius of Rhodes

Helen blames Priam and Hecuba for not killing a baby. Who is this baby?

Paris

Reluctantly, Creon grants Medea's request to:

stay in the kingdom

Who came up with the idea of making Helen's suitors swear the "oath of Tyndareus?"

Odysseus

Odysseus plugs his crew's ears with wax and has himself tied to the mast in order to pass safely by:

the sirens

Which of the following DOES NOT describe critical reaction to Jason?

The folklore pattern of "the girl's tragedy" includes all of the following elements EXCEPT:

Who was the famous female athlete who joined the Caledonian boar hunt?

Atalanta

"So hungry to overthrow me/he sets this wizard on me, this scheming quack,/this fortune-teller peddling lies, eyes peeled for/for his own profit--seer blind in his craft." Oedipus here refers to the alleged conspiracy of Creon and:

Tiresias

What is the Greek word for "homecomings" that describe the stories of all the Greek heroes returning home after the Trojan war?

nostos

Who were Oedipus' birth parents?

King Laius and Queen Jocasta

Which son of Pelops was tricked by his brother into eating his own children?

Thyestes

Who says this to Medea? "My proposition, then is this:/get yourself to Athens,/and there as is incumbent upon me/I shall do my utmost to protect you./However I must tell you clearly,/I cannot take you with me out of Corinth;/but if you reach my palace on your own,/there you shall have sanctuary/and to no one shall I give you up."

Aegeus

What fateful gift did King Aeolus give to Odysseus?

a fair west wind and a bag of stormy winds

What do Eteocles and Antigone have in common?

Oedipus is their father

How did Medea escape punishment for killing Jason's fiance, the king, and her sons?

a chariot pulled by dragons

Melanion (or Hippomenes) dropped golden apples during a footrace so that he could marry:

Atalanta

Neoptolemus sacrificed Priam's daughter ______ over his father Achille's tomb.

Polyxena

What happened to hector's son, Astyanax, at the end of the Trojan War?

flung from the battlements of Troy, in order to avoid vengeance when he became of age

The ________ had only one tooth and one eye among them. Perseus forced them to help him find the nymphs.

Graeae also called the Grey Sisters

Who ends up marrying Achilles in Elysium?

Medea

How does Oedipus become blind?

He stabs his own eyes out

Jocasta's brother who appears in both Oedipus plays is:

Creon

He ordered his child to be left to die to avoid his fate from dying at the hands of his own son, but eventually he is killed by that child anyway.

King Laius to Oedipus

He built a wooden cow for a lustful queen and then built the labyrinth to hide her monstrous offspring. Who was he?

Daidalos (Daedalus)

For his final labor, Theseus kills Procrustes, who had been murdering travelers by:

stretching them or cutting off their legs, so as to force them to fit the size of an iron bed

After killing Medusa, Perseus rescued _______ from the sea monster.

Andromeda

Oedipus' children:

Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, Ismene

The Epigone are:

the sons of the Dead Seven

Why did the Argonauts stop at Lemnos and why did they not want to leave?

on a journey to retrieve the golden fleece, didn't want to leave because the island was only populated by women

We call a play "Senecan" because it is full of:

tragedy

Who sent the hunter Orion to his death?

the Earth Goddess Gaia who sent a giant scorpion to sting him

A cycladic storage jar depicting the Trojan Horse is one of the earliest clear references to that myth. what is its approximate date?

circa 650-675 BC