Honouring the Ancient Greek Gods Quiz

Answer: Athena

The city is of course Athens and the "prominent hill" is the Acropolis. The temple of Athena the Maiden (parthenos) is called the Parthenon, and was built during the 440s and 430s BC by architects Ictinus and Callicrates, with sculpture by the brilliant craftsman, Pheidias.

Some of these sculptures (now known as the Elgin Marbles) were taken to the British Museum by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century. The Greeks are very keen to have these returned.

Answer: Hephaestus

There was a temple of Theseus in the agora but the impressive building we see today should more probably be called the "Hephaesteion" after the Greek god of the forge. It is the best preserved of all surviving Greek temples.

Answer: Demeter

Eleusis was famous for its mysteries in honour of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and growth, and her daughter Persephone, married to Hades, god of the Underworld. Men and women could be initiated to this cult, whose rituals have remained secret even to this day.

The ceremony was preceded by fasting and washing in the sea, and then "things were done, things were shown, things were said". Initiates who followed a moral life would achieve some sort of "salvation" in the next life.

Answer: Nemesis

The Greeks and Romans did honour gods that were more concepts than personalities, such as Justice, Law, Fortune, and Nemesis. Hesiod (7th c. BC) gives her a genealogy as daughter of Darkness and Night. Her temple at Rhamnous contained a statue sculpted by a pupil of Pheidias, who did the sculptures on the Parthenon.

Answer: Poseidon

The shining columns of the temple of Poseidon at Sounion was the first sight of land for sailors approaching Attica and the last thing that those leaving would see. The fifth-century temple whose remains survive would have closely resembled the more intact temple of Hephaestus in the agora at Athens.

Answer: Asclepius

The theatre at Epidauros is more than 90% intact and still used for performances today. The adjacent sanctuary contained a stadium, a temple in honour of the god of healing Asclepius, and the dormitories where the sick pilgrims would stay. Those cured often made grateful donations to the shrine and a great number of inscriptions testifying to cures have been unearthed.

Answer: Hera

Hera was the sister and wife of Zeus, queen of the Olympians, and the patron of marriage and family values. Her special sites in the ancient world were at Carthage, Samos, and near Argos where the Argive Heraion ("temple of Hera") was located in a valley just north of the city.

Answer: Zeus

Nemea is not as well-known as other sites in the Peloponnese, unfairly so since the archaeologists have discovered an ancient stadium with a tunnel through the athletes would enter. Ancient graffiti etched on these walls can still be read. The Nemean Games were one of the four great games of ancient Greece (the others being the Olympics (in honour of Zeus), the Isthmian (Poseidon at Corinth), and the Pythian Games (Apollo at Delphi).

The site also includes some fourth-century BC baths and parts of the Temple of Zeus, where several columns have been rebuilt.

Answer: Apollo

The "Homeric Hymn to Apollo" (late 7th c. BC) tells the story of how Leto, pregnant with twins by Zeus and pursued by the anger of Hera, wanders from island to island seeking a place to give birth. Finally the tiny island of Delos ("clear" or "shining") allowed her to give birth to Artemis and Apollo.

Answer: Artemis

Ephesus was famous for its worship of the goddess Artemis, who in this cult is closer to an Earth Mother than a virgin huntress. In the "Acts of the Apostles" (chapter 19) a riot breaks out when Paul begins to preach the gospel and a crowd gathers in the theatre and shouts for hours "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians".

In 356 BC the temple was consumed by fire, allegedly on the same night that Alexander the Great was born. When the perpetrator was asked why he had set the blaze, he replied, "so that everyone would remember my name".