Minor Villains from Greek Mythology Quiz

Answer: Gaia

Antaeus, son of Gaia (Earth) could not be defeated so long as he was touching the ground. Heracles picked him up off the ground, and killed him in the air.

Answer: Crafty, royal Theseus

Procrustes kept an inn with a short bed and a long bed. Tall travelers slept in the short bed, and their legs chopped off so they could fit it. Short travelers were stretched to fit the long bed.

Answer: Demi-equine Nessus

Heracles and his wife Deianira needed to cross a {river;} Heracles crossed himself and Deianira was to be carried by the centaur Nessus. Nessus changed his mind and decided to carry her off and ravish her. Heracles shot Nessus with his poisoned arrows.

The dying Nessus told Deianira to save some of his blood, and if she ever suspected Heracles of betraying her love, to put it on his undershirt. When eventually this transpired, Heracles was killed by the poison.

Answer: Sent his nephew on a suicide mission.

Pelias was the uncle of Jason; rather than abdicate and give Jason his rightful throne when he came of age, he sent him to retrieve the golden fleece.

Answer: Tantalus

Tantalus -- eponymous origin of the word tantalize -- was doomed after his death eternally to feel great hunger and thirst, but never to reach the fruit hanging above his head or the water in the stream beneath him.

Answer: Lycaon, King of Arcadia

Lycaon lends his name to the modern word 'lycanthropy' -- he was history's first werewolf.

Answer: Pine trees

Sinis would bend down trees, then ask passers-by to hold {them;} when they did, he would release and throw them miles in the air. Theseus tricked him into being ripped asunder by two trees Sinis bent down himself. ...It was also Theseus who killed Scion, whose modus operandi was throwing people into the sea to be eaten by his turtle, and Periphetes, a son of Hephaestus, who used a brass club or crutch as his murder weapon.

Heracles stole the four flesh-eating mares of Diomedes as one of his twelve labors.

Answer: Proetus

Proetus was jealous of Bellerophon and sent him to be killed; Proetus' father-in-law, the king, was not quite willing to violate the hospitality laws as egregiously as Proetus wanted, so sent Bellerophon to kill the chimera instead.

Answer: Erisichthon

Erisichthon chopped down a sacred tree, committing human murder in the process but also killing a nymph sacred to Demeter. Demeter responded by delivering him to Famine. Famine made him hungry with a big capital aitch. He sold everything for food until he had only his daughter left.

He quickly sold her as well, but Poseidon thought she deserved better so transformed her so she could return to her father. Erisichthon, profane but no fool, made a living out of selling her repeatedly and letting the god help her return, until eventually he died. ...BTW, there is a sort of clue in the phrase 'deeply discordant'; 'Eris' is the goddess of discord, and 'chthonic' refers to the subterranean.

Answer: Aristaeus

The death of Euridyce caused Orpheus to enter the underworld in search of her. It also angered certain well-placed nymphs, who arranged for the death of Aristaeus' bees. Seeking the cause of his bees' death, Aristaeus received the advice to force an answer out of Proteus, a minor sea-deity famous for his ability to change his shape.

There followed a famous wrestling match in which Aristaeus hung on no matter what form Proteus assumed, including that of fire.