Greek Mythology Test CHAT

5th Grade Study Guide Import

Amphitrite

Queen of the sea, wife of Poseidon, and a daughter of Nereus; one of the fifty Nereids and mother of Triton.

Aphrodite

Goddess of love and beauty; rises from sea foam, reaches Cythera with the West Wind's help, and marries Hephaestus. Eros is her son.

Apollo

God of light, music, and reason; son of Zeus and Leto and twin of Artemis. He kills Python and takes possession of the oracle at Delphi.

Arachne

A talented mortal weaver who challenges Athena and makes a tapestry mocking the gods. Athena changes her into a spider.

Ares

God of war and son of Zeus and Hera; enjoys violence and bloodshed. Otus and Ephialtes imprison him in a bronze jar.

Artemis

Goddess of the hunt and newborn creatures; daughter of Zeus and Leto and twin of Apollo. She asks to remain unmarried and hunts with nymphs and hounds.

Athena

Goddess of wisdom and useful arts; daughter of Zeus and Metis. She emerges fully grown from Zeus's head and wins Athens with her gift of an olive tree.

Cronus

Titan son of Gaea and Uranus, husband of Rhea, and father of Zeus and his siblings. He overthrows Uranus and swallows his children to prevent them from overthrowing him.

Cyclopes

Three powerful one-eyed smiths, children of Gaea and Uranus. They make Zeus's thunderbolts, Poseidon's trident, and Hades's cap of invisibility; they also work in Hephaestus's forges.

Demeter

Goddess of the harvest and mother of Persephone. Her grief when Persephone is in the underworld makes Earth barren; their reunion brings growth again.

Dionysus

God of wine; son of Zeus and the mortal Semele. He teaches people to make wine and turns the pirates who kidnap him into dolphins.

Echo

A nymph punished by Hera so she can only repeat others' words. She loves Narcissus, wastes away after his rejection, and leaves only her repeating voice.

Eris

Goddess of discord, or strife; associated with Ares and the quarrels and conflict surrounding war.

Eros

Aphrodite's mischievous, winged son; his arrows cause those struck to fall in love.

Gaea

Mother Earth; mother of living things. With Uranus she has the Titans and other powerful children; Pontus later becomes her husband.

Hades

Lord of the dead and ruler of the underworld; brother of Zeus and Poseidon. He kidnaps Persephone to make her his queen and possesses the treasures beneath the ground.

Hephaestus

God of smiths and fire; a skilled maker of weapons, jewels, thrones, and mechanical helpers. Son of Zeus and Hera and husband of Aphrodite; Thetis nurses him after he lands on Lemnos.

Hera

Queen of Olympus, wife and sister of Zeus. Her jealousy drives her to persecute Io and Leto.

Hermes

Messenger of the gods and patron of travelers, merchants, shepherds, and thieves. Son of Zeus and Maia; he invents the lyre, frees Io from Argus, and guides dead souls toward the underworld.

Hestia

Goddess of the hearth and eldest sister of Zeus. She tends the sacred fire on Olympus; household hearths are sacred to her.

Ilithyia

Goddess of childbirth, also spelled Eileithyia. Hera keeps her from Leto until persuaded to release her, allowing the twins to be born.

King of Chios

King who promises Orion his daughter if he clears Chios of dangerous beasts. He breaks the promise, gets Orion drunk, and blinds him; he later flees when Orion returns with restored sight.

Leto

Mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus. Pursued by Hera's jealousy, she finds shelter on floating Delos and gives birth there with Ilithyia's help.

Metis

Goddess of prudence, Zeus's first wife, and Athena's mother. She helps free Zeus's swallowed siblings; Zeus later swallows her after she changes into a fly.

Narcissus

A beautiful youth who rejects Echo and falls in love with his own reflection. He wastes away and becomes the narcissus flower.

Nereus

Older sea god, son of Gaea and Pontus, and father of the fifty Nereids. He gives Poseidon his daughter Amphitrite as queen and his underwater palace as their home.

Nike

Spirit or goddess of victory; Athena's constant companion.

Niobe

Proud queen of Thebes with seven sons and seven daughters. She claims superiority to Leto; Apollo and Artemis kill her children, and she becomes a rock that continues to weep.

Orion

Giant hunter, son of Poseidon, and hunting companion of Artemis. He is blinded by the King of Chios and healed by the rising sun; in this book, Apollo sends a scorpion that kills him, and his image becomes a constellation.

Otus

Giant son of Poseidon and brother of Ephialtes. He wants to marry Artemis; the brothers threaten Olympus and trap Ares, but Artemis tricks them into killing each other while chasing her deer form.

Pan

God of nature, son of Hermes and a nymph; has goat legs, horns, pointed ears, and shaggy hair. Protector of hunters, shepherds, and sheep; his terrifying cry explains the word panic.

Pandora

Woman created by Hephaestus and given gifts by the gods, including curiosity from Zeus. She marries Epimetheus and opens a forbidden jar, releasing miseries while Hope remains inside.

Pelops

Son of Tantalus, restored to life by the gods with an ivory shoulder bone. With horses from Poseidon he races Oenomaus, marries Hippodamia, becomes king of Elis, and establishes the Olympic Games in this myth.

Persephone

Daughter of Demeter and queen of the underworld after Hades kidnaps her. Eating pomegranate seeds requires her to spend part of each year with Hades.

Pontus

Personification of the sea; Gaea's second husband and father of sea deities, including Nereus.

Poseidon

Lord of the sea and earthquakes, brother of Zeus and Hades, and husband of Amphitrite. His weapon is a trident; he competes with Athena for Athens and offers a saltwater spring.

Prometheus

Titan who creates and protects humans. He steals sacred fire and tricks Zeus over sacrificial meat; chained in the Caucasus Mountains, he has his liver eaten daily by an eagle and regrown nightly.

Python

Dragon that guards the oracle at Delphi and threatens Leto. Apollo kills him and claims the oracle.

Rhadamanthus

Judge of the dead in the underworld; also spelled Radamanthus. Son of Zeus and Europa, known for wisdom and for judging and punishing great sinners.

Rhea

Titaness, wife of Cronus, and mother of Zeus and his siblings. She saves Zeus by hiding him on Crete and giving Cronus a swaddled stone to swallow.

Sibyl

Prophetic priestess at Delphi; sits on a tripod above a cleft and speaks prophecies that priests interpret for visitors.

Thetis

Gentle sea goddess who nurses Hephaestus after he is thrown from Olympus and lands on Lemnos. Do not confuse her with the Titaness Rhea or Athena's mother Metis.

Three Graces

Goddesses of beauty who welcome Aphrodite to Cythera, dress and adorn her, and become her attendants.

Titans

The older generation of gods, children of Gaea and Uranus. Cronus is one of them; Zeus defeats the opposing Titans and imprisons them in Tartarus.

Triton

Son of Poseidon and Amphitrite; has a fish tail and blows a conch-shell trumpet while riding a sea monster.

Uranus

Personification of the sky, first husband of Gaea, and father of the Titans and Cyclopes. Cronus overthrows him.

West Wind

Gentle wind that blows Aphrodite to Cythera when she rises from the sea. Also known as Zephyr or Zephyrus.

Zeus

King of the gods, ruler of the sky, and wielder of thunderbolts. Son of Cronus and Rhea, husband of Hera, and father of many gods and heroes.

Acropolis

High, flat-topped rocky hill above Athens; site of Athena and Poseidon's contest and Athena's temple.

Athens

Greek city named for Athena after her olive tree is judged more useful than Poseidon's saltwater spring.

Crete

Island where infant Zeus is hidden and raised. Europa later becomes its queen; Artemis also hunts there with Orion.

Cythera

Island where Aphrodite first comes ashore after rising from the sea and being carried by the West Wind.

Delos

Floating island that shelters Leto and becomes the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. Zeus later anchors it to the seabed.

Delphi

Sacred oracle on the slopes of Mount Parnassus; guarded by Python until Apollo kills the dragon. A sibyl delivers prophecies there.

Greece

Country and principal setting of these myths; its people worship the gods and tell stories explaining nature, customs, and human behavior.

Lemnos

Island where Hephaestus lands after being thrown from Olympus; associated with his forge. Orion receives help there when blind.

Olympus

Mountain home of the Olympian gods and their palace; source of the sacred fire Prometheus steals.

Styx

River surrounding the underworld; dead souls reach it with Hermes and cross with Charon. An oath sworn by the Styx binds the gods.

Ambrosia

Food of the gods; paired with nectar, their drink.

Constellation

A group of stars seen as a recognizable pattern, often named for a mythological figure such as Orion.

Divine ichor

The divine fluid that flows in the gods' veins instead of human blood.

Fate

Destiny, or the course of events a person cannot escape; the three Fates determine the thread and length of a mortal's life.

Fleet-footed

Very fast or swift on one's feet.

Horn of plenty

A magical horn that supplies an endless abundance of food or drink; also called a cornucopia.

Immortal

Unable to die; living forever.

Impenetrable

Unable to be pierced, passed through, or entered.

Iridescent

Showing shimmering colors that seem to change with the light or viewing angle.

Mason

A person who builds with stone or brick.

Nectar

Drink of the gods; paired with ambrosia, their food.

Nereids

The fifty sea-nymph daughters of Nereus; Amphitrite is one of them.

Nymph

A female nature spirit associated with a place such as a tree, spring, mountain, or stream; in this book, nymphs are very long-lived rather than fully immortal.

Offspring

Children or descendants.

Prudence

Good judgment and care in thinking about consequences before acting; the quality associated with Metis.

Smith

A craftsperson who heats and shapes metal to make objects such as tools or weapons; Hephaestus is a divine smith.

Sprite

A spirit or fairy-like supernatural being, often associated with nature.

Tell the story of Io in 3-5 complete sentences.

Zeus changed Io into a white cow to hide her from Hera, but Hera demanded the cow and set the hundred-eyed Argus to guard her. Zeus sent Hermes, who played music, told a dull story, and used his wand to put Argus into eternal sleep, freeing Io. Io scratched her name in the sand to identify herself to her father Inachos, while Hera sent a gadfly to torment her and placed Argus's eyes in the peacock's tail. Io fled across Greece and the Bosporus to Egypt, where people worshiped her. Hera finally allowed Zeus to restore Io's human form after he promised to leave her alone, and Io became a goddess-queen of Egypt.

Explain how Athens got its name in 3-5 complete sentences.

Athena and Poseidon both wanted to claim the same Greek city, so they competed to give it the better gift. On the Acropolis, Poseidon struck the rock with his trident and produced a spring. Its water was salty, so it was not very useful to the people. Athena planted an olive tree, which provided food, oil, and wood. Her gift won, and the city became Athens, named for Athena, who watched over it from her temple.

Tell the story of the birth of Zeus's twins in 3-5 complete sentences.

Leto was expecting Zeus's twins, and jealous Hera ordered all lands to refuse her shelter. The floating island of Delos welcomed Leto because it was not yet fixed land and could escape Hera's command. Hera also kept Ilithyia, the childbirth goddess, away, so the other goddesses offered Hera a gold-and-amber necklace nine yards long to persuade her to release Ilithyia. Iris brought Ilithyia to Leto, who gave birth first to Artemis and then to Apollo beneath a palm tree. Zeus gave the twins silver bows and arrows and anchored Delos to the seabed, blessing the island.

Explain the change of seasons in 3-5 complete sentences.

Hades kidnapped Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, and took her to the underworld as his queen. Demeter searched in grief and refused to let crops grow, leaving Earth cold and barren. Zeus ordered Hades to release Persephone, and Hermes escorted her back, but she had eaten pomegranate seeds in the underworld. Zeus ruled that she must return to Hades for one month for each seed she had eaten. When Persephone is away, Demeter mourns and winter comes; when she returns, Demeter brings back flowers, warmth, and growing crops.

Io: Who was her father?

Inachos, a river-god; Io scratched her name in the sand because she could not speak while a cow.

Io: Why did Zeus turn her into a cow?

To hide her from Hera and protect her from Hera's jealousy.

Io: Who was Argus?

Hera's hundred-eyed watchman, assigned to guard Io; even when sleeping, he kept some eyes open.

Io: How did Hermes defeat Argus in this book?

He lulled him with music and a dull story, then used his wand to close his eyes forever; this version describes Argus as bored to death.

Io: What two things did Hera do after Argus died?

She placed his eyes in the peacock's tail and sent a gadfly to sting and chase Io.

Io: Where did she finally find refuge?

Egypt, where she was worshiped and later regained her human form; she became a goddess-queen.

Io: What is the Bosporus connection?

Io crossed the strait between Europe and Asia Minor during her flight; the name means cow ford.

Athens: Where did the contest take place?

On the Acropolis, the rocky hill above the city.

Athens: What was Poseidon's gift?

A spring of salt water produced by striking the rock with his trident.

Athens: What was Athena's gift?

An olive tree, which supplied food, oil, and wood.

Athens: Why did Athena win?

Her olive tree was more useful to people than the saltwater spring.

Twins: Who were the parents of Apollo and Artemis?

Zeus and Leto.

Twins: Why could Delos shelter Leto?

It was still a floating island, not firmly established land, so Hera's order did not bind it.

Twins: Who delayed the birth, and how?

Hera; she kept Ilithyia, the goddess of childbirth, from helping Leto.

Twins: What persuaded Hera to release Ilithyia in this book?

A necklace nine yards long, made of gold and amber, offered by the other goddesses.

Twins: Who brought Ilithyia to Leto?

Iris, who brought her down the rainbow.

Twins: Which child was born first?

Artemis, followed by Apollo.

Twins: What did Zeus give his children and do for Delos?

He gave each twin a silver bow and arrows and fixed Delos to the sea floor, blessing it.

Seasons: Why did Demeter stop the crops from growing?

She grieved and searched for Persephone after Hades kidnapped her, and refused to restore growth until her daughter returned.

Seasons: Who helped Demeter learn what had happened?

Triptolemus, whose brother had seen pigs disappear into the earth and heard a girl's cries.

Seasons: Who ordered Persephone's release, and who fetched her?

Zeus ordered it, and Hermes went to escort her from the underworld.