The Iliad!
Homer, the essential Greek! The greatest epic poet of all time!
If you can answer five of the questions below, you are one
well-read, intelligent human being. Ten even with a few
guesses would be extraordinary. Fifteen means you are
downright lucky, or teach this subject at a university.
And twenty? You are a god. You were there!
1. What is an "epic" poem?
a. any long poem
b. any long poem that
has a plot
c. any long poem whose
lines are all in the same meter
2. What has Coca Cola got to do with the Iliad?
a. cocaine is a substance
first mentioned in this work
b. cola is a poetic
term referring to metrical limbs
c. absolutely nothing
3. The first printed edition of Homer was produced in
Florence in the year:
a. 745 B.C.
b. 1666 A.D.
c. 1488 A.D.
4. The Iliad is part of a cycle of epic poems about:
a. the lives of the
gods
b. the Trojan war
c. a hero's travels
5. The Iliad's story takes up where a previous epic ends.
This earlier epic is called:
a. The Theogony
b. Cypria
c. Aethiopus
6. The first word of the Iliad is:
a. Polymetus (adventurous)
b. Areiphilos (dear to Ares,
meaning Mars)
c. Menis (wrath, or
anger)
7. Who was Chrysus?
a. an achean poet
b. the guardian of
the gate
c. an Apollonian priest
8. Who was Smintheus?
a. the deity of physicians
b. the mouse god
c. none of the above
9. Who was Hephaestus?
a. Odysseus' helsman
b. the god of craft
c. Agamemnon's daughter
10. The most youthful hero of the Iliad was:
a. Menelaus
b. Phoenix
c. Diomedes
11. Zeus and Hera are levitated. What lifted them up?
a. flowers
b. sea birds
c. the wind
12. Who was Priam?
a. the son of Apollo
b. the king of Troy
c. a servant of Achilles
13. What threat did Achilles make to the dying Hector?
a. to eat his corpse
b. to feed his corpse
to the dogs
c. to raze his city
14. The best friend of Achilles was:
a. Diomedes
b. Idaeus
c. Patroclus
15. The god Hermes flies by way of:
a. a winged helmet
b. golden sandals
c. braided hair that
caught the wind
16. Why was the Trojan war fought?
a. to protect the
laws and customs of marriage
b. because of a golden
garment stolen from Achilles
c. it was a land dispute
17. What did Achilles mean when he said that his honor
depended on the ordinance of Zeus?
a. that the god of
gods would provide invincible weapons
b. that Fate ordains
all things
c. that he now believed
honor had nothing to
do with the opinions of others
18. The father of Odysseus was:
a. Deucalion, king
of the Cretans
b. Atrius, king of
Sparta
c. Laertes, king if
Ithaca
19. Poseidon is the god of the sea, and what else?
a. the four winds
b. earthquakes
c. the home
20. Who is the god of poetry?
a. Artemis
b. Leto
c. Apollo
The answers
1c, 2b, 3c, 4b, 5b, 6c, 7c,
8ab, 9b, 10c, 11a, 12b,
13a, 14c, 15b, 16a, 17c,
18c, 19b, 20c