It's All Ancient Greek to Me Trivia Quiz

The ancient Olympics were part of a tetrad of religious festivals called the Panhellenic Games. The four festivals were; the Olympic and Nemean Games, which honoured Zeus, the Isthmian Games, honouring Poseidon and the Pythian Games, in honour of Apollo. The Olympics were an athletic contest that was conducted amongst the city-states and were held every four years. Each period of four years would become a chronological unit of time, known as an Olympiad. Each Olympiad, from 776 BC to 724 BC, would be named after the winner of the major event, the standion sprint. For example, the winner of the first standion was Coroebus of Elis... so, when an event was chronicled it would be along the lines of "in the third year of the first Olympiad, when Coroebus of Elis won the standion..."

The Olympics continued even after the Romans took over the rule of the Greeks in the second century BC. Whilst it is believed that the Games continued after this date, the last recorded entry of the Games was in 393 AD, under the rule of Emperor Theodosius I.

This was a conflict between Messenia and Sparta, which was an extension of the rift between the Achaeans and the Dorians, two of the four major tribes into which Herodotus divided the Greeks. The rivalry between the pair culminated in full scale war, a conflict that lasted almost twenty years (743 BC to 724 BC). The Messenians would eventually lose the battle and the city was left depopulated as the Achaeans scurried to escape. Those that remained were held by the Spartans as serfs and kept in servitude until the Spartan empire collapsed some 350 years later.

The reason Pausanias was recorded in brackets as the dates pertain to his writings, findings that he'd drawn from the epic poetry of Rhianus of Bene and the works of Myron of Priene. This is important as the dates were disputed by John Coldstream, in his work "Geometric Greece: 900-700 BC" (2003), who places the dates at 730 to 710 BC. Neither has been categorically disproven.

Due to the lack of written records, this war is another that is not blessed with an explicit time frame. A number of scholars place the conflict between the years 710 to 624 BC, though this continues to be debated.

The fighting was between the two ancient Greek city states Chalcis and Eretria over possession of the Lelantine Plain on the island of Euboea. As the area was highly fertile, it would have provided either side with a strategic economic advantage. Its importance, however, expanded well beyond these two states, so much so that the war spread out far and wide, to the point where the majority of Greece was drawn into the war. This proved to be one of those rare occasions in Greek conflicts that didn't involve (just) two states against each other, becoming one where other states allied themselves to a side, even switching sides if they saw a shift in advantage.

The result was an inconclusive victory to Chalcis, however, it would be fair to say that it was closer to a stalemate. Its protracted nature would eventually cripple both states and they would lose their standings as two of Greece's dominant powers.

This is another conflict where scholars argue about the date, with some using Sparta's defeat at the First Battle of Hysiae in 668 BC as the trigger for the war.

The Second Messenian War began, roughly forty years after the end of the First, as an uprising by the helots - those that were subjugated after the initial conflict. Led by Aristomenes, the helots won such a decisive battle at Deres that the Messenians made him their king, and then marched across Sparta where they placed a shield in the temple of Athena as a scare tactic. Despite assistance from the Argives and the Arcadians, the Messenians were, after ten years of defiance, quelled by the Spartans. The conflict was a powerful lesson to the Spartans who then focused on becoming a powerful militaristic force to ensure that they kept firm control of their holdings along the Peloponnese.

Legend also shrouds the founding of Byzantium though the generally accepted tradition stands that it was founded by Byzas of Megara. The date of 667 BC stems from the works of Herodotus (Greek historian and geographer from Halicarnassus) who states that it was founded 17 years after the founding of Chalcedon (684 BC). This was contested by Eusebius of Caesarea, a Christian historian and polemicist, who places the date at 656 BC. Despite the works of Eusebius, Constantine the Great, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, held the findings of Herodotus in higher regard.

Because of its location on the Black Sea, Byzantium became a major trading hub and, eventually, a strategic naval port. This would eventually be recognized a thousand years later by Constantine, who would move the capital of the Roman Empire to there. The city would eventually be named after the emperor though, today we know it as Istanbul.

Solon (630-560 BC) is regarded as one of the "Seven Sages of Greece" and his impact on the nation was such that Aristotle declared him the "first people's champion".

Appointed Archon (magistrate) around 594 BC, Solon had stepped into the role at a time that the country was on the point of civil war. His reforms led to relief in the nation's economic and social structures and guided the country out of the crisis. Foremost amongst these reforms were the introduction of debt relief and the overturning and restructuring of many of Draco's harsh laws.

Very little is known about Draco, but tradition dictates that he was active between the years 625 to 600 BC and, during this period of time, became the first legislator of Athens. He instituted a set of written laws that replaced the existing oral codes and grievances that would be settled by blood feud. These laws became known as the Draconian Constitution and, by their nature, were harsh. Most of the crimes were punishable by the extreme measure of a death penalty.

So little is known of the man that, some scholars, still consider him to be fictitious. Tradition also indicates that he was replaced by Solon, who would repeal the death penalty for all of the crimes except those pertaining to homicide.

(Footnote) The hint "Malfoy" alludes to the character, Draco Malfoy, from the "Harry Potter" series of books by J.K. Rowling.

Hailed by many scholars as, possibly, the "Tenth Muse", Sappho's work placed her in the canon of the "Nine Lyric Poets".

Despite living during a time of significant political upheaval, her work was rarely influenced by, or strayed into, those realms. This was a far cry from her contemporary Alcaeus, who made a name for himself as the crafter of fiery political verse and boisterous drinking songs. Instead, Sappho's poetry, renowned for its concise, direct and picturesque phrasing, dealt with love and desire, particularly among women. Even today, her work continues to shape the perceptions of female yearnings and pleasures.

The war was initiated by the Amphictyonic League, an ancient religious association made up of the twelve main tribes of Ancient Greece, formed to protect the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. Their target was the city of Kirrha, upon whom they'd leveled the charge of abusing and robbing pilgrims attempting to make their way to Delphi. The siege lasted ten years, leading to the eventual destruction of Kirrha and consolidating the League's control over Delphi.

One of the legends to emerge from the conflict was that of Solon, the Archon of Athens, assisting the League by introducing the toxic plant hellbores into Kirrha's water supply. This resulted in the city's residents and soldiers becoming wracked with severe diarrhea, leaving them too weak to defend the walls.

(Footnote) "Sanctum bellum", the hint, translates to "Holy war" which, in this case, was used to allude to the word "Sacred".

Often described as the world's first "pure mathematician", Pythagoras was also a philosopher and an astronomer, whose principles were a massive influence on the likes of Plato and Aristotle, as well as modern western philosophy.

Pythagoras has been given credit for a range of theories and discoveries, such as Pythagorean tuning, the five solids in geometry, identifying Venus as being both the morning and the evening stars and, among others, the Pythagorean Theorem i.e. the sum of the areas of the two legs of a triangle being equal to the sum of the square on the hypotenuse. Scholars, however, still debate whether some of these should be attributed to him, claiming that a certain number were the work of others. A good example of this is the above-named theorem, which is a concept that the Babylonians had been using for almost a thousand years. However, the key, in this instance is, that it took Pythagoras to prove the theory.