Pluto of the Depths Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jove/Jupiter and Neptune

The goddess Ops (also spelled Opis) was an ancient Roman fertility and earth deity, the personification of riches, goods, abundance, munificence, etc. Her brother and consort Saturn was a god of fertility, agriculture, vegetation, dissolution, and renewal. After Rome conquered Greece, Saturn and Ops were equated with the Greek Titans Kronos (latinized to Cronus) and Rhea. Kronos and Rhea were the parents of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades (later called Plouton), and so Saturn and Ops became the parents of the Jove, Neptune, and Pluto.

As depicted in the Caravaggio painting, Jove is lord of the sky whilst Neptune is lord of the sea (represented by the white horse). The bident as an attribute of Pluto may have originated with the writings of Seneca (4 B.C. - 65 A.D.).

Pluto also had three sisters (with their Greek equivalents): Juno (Hera), goddess of women, marriage, and childbirth, also queen of the Olympians and matron to all the deities; Ceres (Demeter), goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility, and motherly relationships; and Vesta (Hestia), goddess of hearth, home, and family, and protector of Rome.



[Category: General | Family Life]

Answer: Both of these

Graeco-Roman mythology can be quite confusing and is much more complicated than the simple stories usually taught in school.

Aïdes, "The Unseen", latinized as Hades, is the original name of the Greek god of the Underworld. Hades was a feared god, associated with the abduction of Persephone. In time, however, Greeks focussed on different aspects of Hades. Hades became conflated with Ploutus (latinized as Plutus), the personification of wealth, and the King of the Underworld became known as Plouton. Whenever Greeks emphasized the dreaded aspects of the Lord of the Underworld, they might still use Hades, but whenever they spoke of him as as loving spouse or the god of riches, he was Plouton. Eventually Hades became the name for the Underworld itself.

After the Romans conquered Greece, they adopted Plouton and conflated him with the Roman deity Dīs Pater and latinized his name to Pluto. Dīs Pater was lord of fertile soil and of the mineral riches of the Earth -- which, after all, are underground. Rites of initiation by a cult known as the Eleusinian Mysteries emphasized Pluto's relationship with his queen Proserpina, and her annual return to the Earth and her mother Ceres. That Pluto's mother Ops was herself goddess of the Earth and its riches as well as of generosity made the transition easy.

It is from the Greek word 'ploutos' (Latin 'plutus'), meaning "wealth", that we get the English words plutocracy (rule by the wealth), plutolatry (worship of wealth or material possessions), and plutomania (an obsession with wealth).

[Category: Humanities]

Answer: Etruscans

The Estrucan civilization preceded and influenced Roman civilization. Etruria, a region stretching from Tuscany to western Umbria and parts of Campania and Lombardy, flourished from about 700 to 400 B.C. Eventually Rome surpassed Etruria, and the Etruscan language, culture, and identity were completely subsumed and absorbed by 200 B.C. Their language was written in Old Italic script, a descendant of Phoenician script, which gave rise to Latin script (which we use today), but the language itself is of unknown origin, not belonging to the Indo-European family of languages of which Greek, Latin, and English are a part.

Orcus was primarily worshipped in the countryside; there were no urban cults of Orcus. The Romans sometimes referred to Pluto or Dīs Pater as Orcus particularly when speaking of his dark and punitive side. The word 'ogre' (in Italian, 'orco') comes from Orcus, as do the 'orcs' invented by J.R.R. Tolkien in 'Lord of the Rings'. Orcus also lives on as Prince of the Dead in the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game.



[Category: History]

Answer: No

Atop Mytikas peak, rising 9570 feet (2917 m) on the border between modern Thessaly and Macedonia, lived the Twelve Olympians: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Demeter, Hephaestus, and Hestia (sometimes replaced by Dionysus). In the Roman religion, the Twelve Great Gods were 'Dii Consentes', the Deities of the Forum: Jupiter (also known as Jove), Juno, Neptune, Minerva, Mars, Venus, Apollo, Diana, Mercury, Ceres, Vulcan, and Vesta.

Neither Pluto (also called Dīs Pater) nor his Greek equivalent Hades (also called Plouton) appear. Although Pluto was among the first generation of deities born of the Titans, he was ever the outsider in his dark lower realm, far away from the heights of Olympus. Pluto was also the lone bachelor god until he married Proserpina, daughter of Ceres and Jupiter. Unlike his philandering and procreative brothers Jupiter and Neptune, Pluto was depicted almost universally as monogamous, and in most ancient texts, childless.


[Category: Geography]

Answer: pomegranate

The fruit of the pomegranate tree (Punica granatum) has a tough reddish rind and contains membranous chambers filled with numerous seeds surrounded by tart, juicy, red pulp. Its name in Latin is pōmum grānātum and literally means "seedy apple". The seed coverings themselves, called arils, are a good source of vitamins C and K.

When Romans conquered Greece, they adapted the Greek explanation for the seasons of the year, in what is commonly called the Abduction of Proserpina. "Proserpina" was a corruption of the Greek "Persephone", the daughter of Pluto's siblings Jupiter (Zeus) and Ceres (Demeter). One version of the story has Cupid striking Pluto with an arrow just before he spies Proserpina. He takes her below the earth, where she is unhappy and nearly dies. Because Ceres mourns her daughter, nothing on Earth grows, and the trees begin to die, so Jupiter sends Mercury to negotiate with Pluto. Eating while in the Underworld seals a soul's fate there, and since Proserpina ate six pomegranate seeds, it is agreed that she will stay below with Pluto for six months of the year. During that time, Ceres grieves for her daughter, and that is why we have the changing seasons.



[Category: Hobbies | Food & Drink]

Answer: Cypress

The Mediterranean cypress, also called the Tuscan cypress, the Persian cypress, or the pencil pine, is an evergreen tree that ranges from Libya to Bulgaria to Israel as well as Turkey, Italy and Iran. You may also recognize it from travel posters to Italy especially. It is the type species for the Cupressus genus, though it is just one of dozens of species in the cypress family around the world. In Greek myth, a boy and favorite of Apollo named Cyparissus accidentally killed a tame stag, and he was so disconsolate that he was transformed into a cypress tree, with sap for tears. It has long been a symbol of mourning and was used in Roman funerary rites, during which they were burnt. Statues of Pluto might be adorned with cypress wreaths. Unfortunately, cypress trees are extremely allergenic, perhaps an explanation for their association with weeping.



[Category: Science | Botany]

Answer: Black bulls

Not only black bulls, but also black sheep, goats, and pigs would be sacrificed over a pit at a 'plutonium' (Greek 'ploutonion'), a sanctuary dedicated to Pluto, so that the blood with seep into the ground and reach the Lord of the Underworld. One such place was Avernus, a volcanic crater near Cuma, Naples, Italy, as it was believed to be an opening to Hades.

It is written in some ancient texts that Pluto rode a chariot pulled by four black horses. And Cerberus, the three-headed canine companion of Pluto, was often drawn or painted with black fur.

Pluto would greet the new arrivals to the Underworld on the shores of the River Styx, and escort them in chains to be judged. The good went to the paradisaical Elysian Fields, and the wicked went to Tantalus, the darkest of the dark and deepest of the deep, for eternal punishment.


[Category: Animals]

Answer: the Devil or Satan

According to Varro Reatinus (116-27 B.C.), the Roman deities were spatially divided into 'di superi' (the heavenly ones), 'di terrestres' (the terrestrial ones), and 'di inferi' (the ones below). Early Roman Christians such as the poet Prudentius (348-c. 413), thought 'di superi' and 'di terrestres' to be euhemeric; that is, they were actually mortals who became legends after death and falsely worshipped as divine. But 'di inferi' were demonic; in other words, they were malevolent, and they were real. Pluto as the King of the Pagan Underworld was not a far step from Ruler of the Christian Hell.

In the 9th century, the monk Abbo of Saint-Germain described the Vikings in the Siege of Paris in 845 A.D. as "spawn of Pluto". As the Middle Ages progressed, Pluto more and more became identified as an associate or subordinate to the Satan, or even as the Devil himself.


[Category: Literature]

Answer: Orpheus

In the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, the musician Orpheus goes down to the Underworld to rescue his wife, Eurydice. He plays his lyre so beautifully that Pluto is moved to tears, and urged by his queen Proserpina he lets Orpheus take Eurydice back (although in some versions of this myth there is a twist). Claudio Monteverdi wrote his opera 'L'Orfeo' based on this myth in 1607, as did Luigi Rossi in 1647, Antonio Sartorio in 1672, and Christoph Gluck in 1762. George Balanchine wrote a neoclassical ballet of Orpheus and Eurydice in 1947, with music by Igor Stravinsky (a score very understated in comparison to his 'Rite of Spring' some decades earlier).

In Greek texts of Orpheus and Eurydice, writers use Hades' alternative name Plouton to emphasize the god's aspect as patron of wealth and generosity, the object of desire being a human soul rather than mineral riches. It is from the Greek word 'ploutos' meaning "wealth" (romanized to "plutus") that we get the English words plutocracy (rule by the wealthy), plutolatry (worship of wealth or material possessions), and plutomania (an obsession with wealth).

The term "classical tradition" refers to the reception and revival of Graeco-Roman antiquity in the West, beginning with the Renaissance, in literature, art, and music.


[Category: Music]

Answer: the earth

Practitioners of neopagan religions have argued that many of the negative associations of Pluto come from Christian and pagan authors alike who misunderstood Pluto/Hades (or Plouton/Aïdes in Greek). As Jove is king of the sky and Neptune is king of the sea, Pluto is king of the earth. Furthermore, in their modern Hellenistic religion, Plouton is not lord of the dead but lord of those who will die someday, i.e. mortals. As one practitioner explains it, "Plouton is not the god under the earth, where there is nothing but worms and microbes; rather, he is the god of our world, the world of the mortals" and he is king of "the magnificent verdure and abundance of the earth." When the ancients spoke of the dark world, say the neopagans, they meant our world, the Earth, as opposed to the light of the Heavens.



[Category: Religion]