The Ancient World in Modern Culture Trivia Game | Entertainment

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In the movie "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief", Percy discovers that he is the son of what ancient Greek god?

Answer: Poseidon

The basic theme of Rick Riordan's novels is that the gods of ancient Greece and Rome still exist with great powers and that Olympus is now located on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building. As a twelve-year-old he discovers that he is a demi-god and because his father is the sea-god Poseidon he has power himself over water.

2. In 1962 Jimmy Clanton had a hit with what song based on a Roman deity of love?

Answer: Venus in Blue Jeans

Songs with "Venus" or "Cupid" in the title are not unusual in today's pop culture. The bands "Shocking Blue", "Bananarama", and Frankie Avalon all recorded hits just called "Venus". Howard Greenfield and Jack Keller wrote "Venus in Blue Jeans", which Jimmy Clanton took into the Top Ten in 1962.

3. Frank Miller's comic book series "300" leads up to what famous battle during the Persian Wars?

Answer: Thermopylae

The comic book series "300" tells the celebrated exploits of Leonidas, king of Sparta, who led the Greeks at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. This was an attempt to halt the land advance of the Persian invasion, while the Greek fleets tried to defeat the Persian naval force. Leonidas and his 300 Spartans fought a rearguard suicide action.

The sea-battles were inconclusive and the Persian army continued its advance into Greece.

4. In what TV mini-series did Ryan Gosling play a heroic son of Zeus?

Answer: Young Hercules

"Young Hercules" was a series set in the same world as "Hercules: the Legendary Journeys", in which the adult Hercules was played by Kevin Sorbo. The fifty episodes of series "Young Hercules" were filmed principally in New Zealand and aired on Fox in 1998 and 1999.

5. What musical comedy, and later film, was based on a play by the Roman comic poet Plautus and an adaptation of that play by Shakespeare?

Answer: The Boys from Syracuse

Around 200 BC the Roman comic poet Plautus wrote a comedy set in Epidamnus about a pair of twins, "The Brothers Menaechmus", who get mistaken for each other. Shakespeare took the story and turned in into "The Comedy of Errors", setting the play in Syracuse and changing the twins' name to Amphibolus.

In 1938 Rodgers and Hart made the same plot into a musical comedy, "The Boys from Syracuse". Perhaps the best-known song is "Falling in Love with Love".

6. What video game has Kratos of Sparta as its main character?

Answer: God of War

"God of War" is one of the three related and very popular video games made for Playstation 2. Kratos is a servant of the Olympian gods, especially of Athena, and an enemy of Ares (god of war) who is besieging Athens. His mission is to discover and bring back the one thing that can stop Ares, Pandora's Box.

7. What TV series of 2005-2007 was set during the transition of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire and had as main characters Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo?

Answer: Rome

The twenty-two episodes of this well-received series, which ran in 2005 (twelve episodes) and 2007 (ten), cover the last years of the Roman Republic and conclude with the triumph of Octavian (Augustus) in the Civil Wars. Characters include Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, Cicero, Brutus and Cassius, Octavian and his sister Julia, Mark Antony, and Cleopatra.

8. Eric Shanower's comic book series "The Age of Bronze" is set during what period in the ancient world?

Answer: The Trojan War

This series began in 1998 and as of the end of 2012 has published thirty-two issues. Shanower intends to cover faithfully all aspects of the story, beginning with the 'abduction' of Helen by Paris. The Trojan War has become one of the most popular themes from the ancient world in movies, TV series, comic books, novels etc.

9. The Oscar-winning film "Gladiator" (2000) was set during the reigns of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. But what film from 1964 had previously covered the same period with a reasonably similar plot?

Answer: The Fall of the Roman Empire

Both "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964) and "Gladiator" (1999) have the old emperor Marcus Aurelius die under suspicious circumstances, his son Commodus as an unpopular emperor, and a climatic duel in which the sympathetic main character slays Commodus.

Despite good reviews and some big names such as Sophia Loren, James Mason, and Alec Guinness, "The Fall of the Roman Empire" did not do all that well at the box office and was nominated for only one Oscar, that for score.

10. What movie of 2011 was set in the reign of the emperor Hadrian and located mostly in the former Roman province of Caledonia?

Answer: The Eagle

"The Eagle" starred Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell in the two lead roles, and was based on a very popular young adults' novel by Rosemary Sutcliff, "The Eagle of the Ninth" (1954). the story concerns a Roman soldier named Marcus Flavius Aquila (Channing Tatum) who with his servant (Esca) goes north into Scotland (Caledonia) to seek the lost standard (eagle) of the ninth legion, in which his father had served.

Source: Author Ampelos

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor kyleisalive before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

The Ancient World in Modern Culture Quiz

The ancient Greek and Roman world has always been a source of characters and stories in Western culture. This is a quiz on modern popular culture has used people and themes from the ancient world.

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