Mythologies are found in every culture on Earth (even modern societies with their urban myths and characters such as Father Christmas), and so they must have some king of importance. A culture’s shared stories grant a sense of belonging, a guide to expected behaviour and lessons in morality. It has also been suggested (most notably by Joseph Campbell) that myths are a means of understanding universal psychological truths and a necessary part of life.
This is the second of our two quizzes on mythology. In it you’ll find more taxing questions about gods and goddesses, heroes, monsters and magical beings. Are you up to the task? You are required to recollect such names as Volturnus, Oedipus, Zeus, Odin, the Dioscuri, the Naiads and Thor – and not only their names but also the cultures they came from and the roles they had; alternatively you could always go to another quiz!
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
His feast day, Volturnalia, was held on the 27th of August and was celebrated with food, wine and games
|
The tree trunks, Askr and Embla, were washed up on the shore
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Oedipus killed his father and then married his mother - but in his defence, he didn't know who they were!
|
The twin horsemen who became the constellation Gemini. Their sister was Helen of Troy
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ares was a Greek god - the Romans called him Mars
|
There were many other types of nymphs - the spirits of trees, flowers, glens, pastures, mountains, stars, caves... etc.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cronus was the King of the Titans. He heard in a prophecy that he would be overthrown by his son - so he ate his children!
|
The cosmic serpent (Jormungandr) was thought to surround the world
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
The ancient historian, Pseudo-Herodotus, says that Homer was born 622 years before Xerxes I of Persia's invasion of Greece in 480 BC. That would be 1102 BC, 168 years after the fall of Troy in 1270 BC
|
Persephone was the goddess of vegetation and in her absence every winter, the ground became barren
|