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Quiz about The Women In Heracles Life
Quiz about The Women In Heracles Life

The Women In Heracles' Life Trivia Quiz


Few things are more exciting as a 'script' for an adventure story than the Life and Works of good old Heracles, the man who fought his way to immortality. But what about the women in his life?

A multiple-choice quiz by flem-ish. Estimated time: 9 mins.
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Author
flem-ish
Time
9 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
68,868
Updated
Jul 29 23
# Qns
20
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
13 / 20
Plays
1582
- -
Question 1 of 20
1. Who was Heracles the bastard son of? Hint


Question 2 of 20
2. Though Heracles was not Hera's son at all, but rather an illustration of her husband's infidelity, his name linked him with Zeus's wife. What did it mean? Hint


Question 3 of 20
3. How did Hera try to kill Heracles when he was still a baby? Hint


Question 4 of 20
4. Why did Athena always come to the rescue of Heracles whatever trouble he ran into? Hint


Question 5 of 20
5. How did Heracles win the hand of his first wife, Megara ? Hint


Question 6 of 20
6. Though Heracles loved Megara all right, he killed her children. How come? Hint


Question 7 of 20
7. How did Athena save Heracles from further trouble after he had killed his children? Hint


Question 8 of 20
8. Heracles felt the need for atonement and purification after his misbehaviour. The gods agreed with Hera's proposition that he must do penance - he would have to serve as a slave exactly like that man whose children he wanted to kill, Eurystheus. During twelve years, he would have to carry out all the tasks laid upon him. Athena managed to obtain a reward for her protege in case he was successful in his 'Labours'. What would that reward be? Hint


Question 9 of 20
9. The tasks he had to carry out often imply 'neutralising dangerous animals' or 'catching animals, objects, etc.': The Nemean Lion, the Hydra, the Hind of Ceryneia, the Erymanthean Boar, the Stymphalian Birds, the Cretan Bulls, the Horses of Diomedes. One task specifically implied travelling to the land of Queen Hippolyta. Whose leader was she? Hint


Question 10 of 20
10. Eurystheus wanted Hippolyta's Belt, which she had been given by the war god Ares. She wore it across her chest and used it to carry her sword and spear. Heracles diplomatically explained the situation and Hippolyta agreed to give away the belt. Yet once again Hera intervened to spoil the situation. How? Hint


Question 11 of 20
11. Another task of Heracles' was to carry to Greece the herd of red cattle belonging to Geryon, a descendant of the Gorgon Medusa. The herd was guarded by Orthus, a two-headed hound, a brother of the Hound of Hell, Cerberus. Heracles successfully defeated all this opposition, but still Hera found a trick to cause new trouble. How did she manage to scatter the herd far and wide? Hint


Question 12 of 20
12. Normally, after completing ten tasks Hercules would have had to be released from his servitude to Eurystheus, but almost like a clever lawyer, Eurystheus found subtle tricks to have some of the labours disqualified. His pretext was that Heracles got help, was paid for the job, etc. His second last task now is to fetch the Apples of the Hesperides. The gods granted Heracles some latitude, so when he had completed this task, he was to be allowed to accept Athena's help for a little extra. What extra? Hint


Question 13 of 20
13. True or false? The very last task obliged Heracles to pay a visit to the Underworld. Heracles had to bring back Cerberus without using weapons against him. He got help from Persephone, who gave Cerberus a sleeping-potion.

Answer: (One Word)
Question 14 of 20
14. After having completed the required number of labours, Hercules heard that Eurytus, the prince of Oechalia, was organising an archery contest. What was the prize for the winner? Hint


Question 15 of 20
15. Heracles won the contest, but he did not get the reward. Why not? Hint


Question 16 of 20
16. Apollo, of course, could not accept the theft of the tripod. Nor was Zeus happy with the killing of Iphytus. Once again, Heracles would have to go through a period of atonement. What was his new punishment ? Hint


Question 17 of 20
17. Heracles then married a second time. To win her hand, he had to fight with the river-god Acheloos, who took the form of a centaur. During the fight Heracles broke off one of his horns. What was the name of Heracles' second wife? Hint


Question 18 of 20
18. Heracles' second marriage was not really much happier than the first. Deianira's attempt to tie Heracles to her with magic love-tricks would tragically have the opposite effect. How did she lose her husband through her own stupid fault? Hint


Question 19 of 20
19. The pains Heracles had to endure were so terrible that he preferred to die, and a funeral-pyre was made ready for him. The pile of wood was already burning when the gods started a discussion as to whether they should save Heracles or not. In the end, Hera had to give in; Zeus ordered one of the Olympians to go and save Heracles and take him in her chariot up to the Residence of the Gods. Who got that task? Hint


Question 20 of 20
20. Peace and quiet were restored for a while on Mt Olympus. Hera was threatened with being hanged from the edge of Olympus if she caused further trouble. Who then finalized the mood of pardoning and forgiving by asking to be allowed to marry Heracles and become his third and 'definitive' wife? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Who was Heracles the bastard son of?

Answer: Zeus and Alcmene

Hephaistos = Vulcanus. Aphrodite = Venus. Alcmene was a royal princess who lived with her husband Amphitryon at Thebes. Zeus disguised himself as Amphitryon and slept with Alcmene. When Amphitryon came home, he noticed his wife was quite surprised. He saw that as an indication that she had been unfaithful to him. Fortunately, Zeus himself came and explained what had happened. Alcmene gave birth to two children: Heracles, Zeus' son, and Ifikles, Amphitryon's.
2. Though Heracles was not Hera's son at all, but rather an illustration of her husband's infidelity, his name linked him with Zeus's wife. What did it mean?

Answer: Ironically enough, it meant 'Hera's glory'

Hera would forgive indeed, but only after a lot of suffering. At the very moment that the funeral pyre of Heracles was about to be ignited, last-minute negotiations between Hera and Zeus led to a happy end: Athena was allowed to save her half-brother and take him up to Mt Olympus.
3. How did Hera try to kill Heracles when he was still a baby?

Answer: She sent snakes into his crib, but baby boy Heracles gripped and strangled them

The Nemean lion appeared in the first Labour ... a lot later!
4. Why did Athena always come to the rescue of Heracles whatever trouble he ran into?

Answer: After all, Heracles was her half-brother.

Well, one might look for other psychological motivations. Was she not the goddess of wisdom AND military victory? Maybe she was impressed by his potential as a soldier, his virility, etc. He may have been her natural complement.
5. How did Heracles win the hand of his first wife, Megara ?

Answer: By helping King Creon defeat the Minyans

The battle between Creon and the Minyans took place near Orchomenos. Together, Hercules and Megara had anywhere between three and eight children. The Nemean Lion episode was one of the Labours of Heracles, which were a consequence of his murdering the children he had with Megara. The story about Diomedes's horses and the Cretan Bull are also part of the Twelve Labours .
6. Though Heracles loved Megara all right, he killed her children. How come?

Answer: Just after Heracles had saved Megara from the ferryman Lycos, Hera sends him a fit of lunacy which made him mistake his own children for those of an enemy of his, Eurystheus.

Hera sent a fit of madness that put Heracles in such a rage that he murdered his children (and, in some versions, also Megara herself). According to Euripides, Lycus had tried to overthrow Creon in Heracles' absence. Just when Lycus was about to murder Megara and their children, Heracles arrived on the scene and rushed to the defense of his family.

A little later, Hera misled Heracles into thinking the kids he saw in front of him were not his own, but Eurystheus' sons.
7. How did Athena save Heracles from further trouble after he had killed his children?

Answer: Just when he was about to kill his own adopted father Amphytrion, she knocked him out with a well-aimed piece of rock

Heracles not only failed to recognize his own kids (taking them for Eurystheus's), he also thought that the old man who accompanied them was not his adopted father Amphitryon, but his enemy Eurystheus' father, Sthenelus. After having been knocked out cold by Athena, Heracles regained consciousness and saw what disasters he had caused.

He wanted to commit suicide, but this time it was his friend Theseus who intervened, and proposed another solution: exile.
8. Heracles felt the need for atonement and purification after his misbehaviour. The gods agreed with Hera's proposition that he must do penance - he would have to serve as a slave exactly like that man whose children he wanted to kill, Eurystheus. During twelve years, he would have to carry out all the tasks laid upon him. Athena managed to obtain a reward for her protege in case he was successful in his 'Labours'. What would that reward be?

Answer: Immortality

The club Heracles usually carried was a tool he had always been using, and not any new piece of weaponry. The lion's skin he was often depicted wearing was the skin of the Nemean lion, the lion he had to eliminate in his first 'Labour'.
9. The tasks he had to carry out often imply 'neutralising dangerous animals' or 'catching animals, objects, etc.': The Nemean Lion, the Hydra, the Hind of Ceryneia, the Erymanthean Boar, the Stymphalian Birds, the Cretan Bulls, the Horses of Diomedes. One task specifically implied travelling to the land of Queen Hippolyta. Whose leader was she?

Answer: the Queen of the Amazons

The Amazons were a tribe of women warriors. Amazon literally means missing one breast. Indeed, they considered that their right breasts got in the way when they threw spears, and so they had them amputated.
10. Eurystheus wanted Hippolyta's Belt, which she had been given by the war god Ares. She wore it across her chest and used it to carry her sword and spear. Heracles diplomatically explained the situation and Hippolyta agreed to give away the belt. Yet once again Hera intervened to spoil the situation. How?

Answer: She disguised herself as an Amazon and told the others it was a trick: Heracles wanted to carry off their Queen.

When Heracles saw himself suddenly surrounded by Amazons in full armour (including his 'friend' Hippolyta), he knew there had been foul play. He saw no way to solve the problem other than killing a woman who had been very kind to him, to say the least.

Heracles, who for this labour had got the help of a small expeditionary corps of Greek assistants, then sailed home, via a stop-over at Troy, and gave the belt to Eurystheus in Mycene.
11. Another task of Heracles' was to carry to Greece the herd of red cattle belonging to Geryon, a descendant of the Gorgon Medusa. The herd was guarded by Orthus, a two-headed hound, a brother of the Hound of Hell, Cerberus. Heracles successfully defeated all this opposition, but still Hera found a trick to cause new trouble. How did she manage to scatter the herd far and wide?

Answer: She sent a gadfly that attacked the herd.

During this trip Heracles first reached the so-called Pillars of Hercules (a variant spelling of his name used by the Romans), which are nothing else but the narrow thoroughfare between Africa and Europe, near the Rock of Gibraltar. Heracles then returned via Spain, Southern-France, Italy and Sicily to the Balkans and finally back to Greece.
12. Normally, after completing ten tasks Hercules would have had to be released from his servitude to Eurystheus, but almost like a clever lawyer, Eurystheus found subtle tricks to have some of the labours disqualified. His pretext was that Heracles got help, was paid for the job, etc. His second last task now is to fetch the Apples of the Hesperides. The gods granted Heracles some latitude, so when he had completed this task, he was to be allowed to accept Athena's help for a little extra. What extra?

Answer: After the apples had been shown to Eurystheus, Athena would take them back to the Garden of the Hesperides.

For this labour an expedition had to be organised 'to the north of the known world'. In the garden of the Hesperides there is the hundred-headed dragon, Ladon, and the Hesperides, the daughters of Atlas, who guard those magic apples. After various fights (Kyknos, Nereus, Anntaeus, Poseidon...), Heracles met Prometheus and killed the eagle that daily tortured Prometheus. Atlas then helped him to find the apples.
13. True or false? The very last task obliged Heracles to pay a visit to the Underworld. Heracles had to bring back Cerberus without using weapons against him. He got help from Persephone, who gave Cerberus a sleeping-potion.

Answer: f

Cerberus was one of the children of Echidna (half-woman, half-serpent) and Typhon (a fire-breathing giant covered with dragons and serpents). The other children were Orthus, a two-headed hound, the Hydra, and the Chimaera. Cerberus had three heads, a serpent for a tail, and heads of snakes all over his back.
14. After having completed the required number of labours, Hercules heard that Eurytus, the prince of Oechalia, was organising an archery contest. What was the prize for the winner?

Answer: his daughter Iole

Originally his 'punishment' had been to carry out ten labours, but Eurystheus disqualified a couple of them.
15. Heracles won the contest, but he did not get the reward. Why not?

Answer: Eurytus was unhappy when he heard about Heracles' violent past and his moments of insanity

Disappointed, Heracles left Oechalia. Only Iphytus remained on friendly terms with him. He was also the only one who believed in Heracles' innocence when cattle get stolen by Autolycus, but Heracles got the blame. Alas, another fit of insanity led to a tragic incident: Iphytus was hurled to his death from the top of the walls of the town where they are staying, Tiryns.

In his anger and disappointment, Heracles also stole the Delphic tripod, thinking he could set up his own oracle with it.
16. Apollo, of course, could not accept the theft of the tripod. Nor was Zeus happy with the killing of Iphytus. Once again, Heracles would have to go through a period of atonement. What was his new punishment ?

Answer: Hercules was sold to Omphale, the Queen of Lydia

While in the service of Omphale, Heracles continued his amazing feats. In one episode Heracles helped the gods kill Alkyoneus by dragging him to Thrace. Closely assisting the gods, Heracles also killed Porphyrion. Apollo, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, Artemis, Hephaistos, ... they all had their share in the slaughtering of the remaining giants.

Another of his feats was his intervention in favour of Hesione. For this he raised an army of Greek volunteers, one of them being Telamon, the father of Ajax.

Hesione then married Telamon. With her Telamon has another child, Teucer.
17. Heracles then married a second time. To win her hand, he had to fight with the river-god Acheloos, who took the form of a centaur. During the fight Heracles broke off one of his horns. What was the name of Heracles' second wife?

Answer: Deianira

Hera knew that Zeus had fallen in love with Io, and to thwart his plans she changed Io into a cow. Argos, who was to keep 'an eye' on her, was killed by Hermes. Hera then sent a warble-fly to follow Io wherever she went. Danae was the daughter of the King of Argos.

She was locked up underground in a bronze cellar. In spite of that, Zeus managed to have intercourse with her by entering her 'prison' in the shape of golden rain. Because Cassiopeia had claimed she was prettier than the daughters of Nereus, Poseidon wanted to punish her.

He sent a sea monster that attacked her home country, Ethiopia. The sea monster would only withdraw if Cassiopeia was ready to hand over and sacrifice her daughter Andromeda.
18. Heracles' second marriage was not really much happier than the first. Deianira's attempt to tie Heracles to her with magic love-tricks would tragically have the opposite effect. How did she lose her husband through her own stupid fault?

Answer: She gave him a magic 'love-shirt ' that actually caused burning pain

The shirt has been drenched in the blood of Nessus, a centaur who tried to assault Deianira when he was ferrying her across a river, and was killed for that act by Heracles. As he was dying, Nessus made Deianira believe that his blood would work as a love-potion, but it was in fact a burning poison.
19. The pains Heracles had to endure were so terrible that he preferred to die, and a funeral-pyre was made ready for him. The pile of wood was already burning when the gods started a discussion as to whether they should save Heracles or not. In the end, Hera had to give in; Zeus ordered one of the Olympians to go and save Heracles and take him in her chariot up to the Residence of the Gods. Who got that task?

Answer: Athena, Heracles's protectress

Nectar was what Hebe served the gods to drink. Ambrosia was what they ate.
20. Peace and quiet were restored for a while on Mt Olympus. Hera was threatened with being hanged from the edge of Olympus if she caused further trouble. Who then finalized the mood of pardoning and forgiving by asking to be allowed to marry Heracles and become his third and 'definitive' wife?

Answer: Hebe, the cupbearer of the gods

Hebe was the goddess of peace and pardon. Freed prisoners would hang their chains in the sacred grove of her sanctuary at Phlius.
Source: Author flem-ish

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor CellarDoor before going online.
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