Deck 12: Myths of Death: Encounters With the Underworld

Question 1

Which of the following are other names by which Hades was known to the Greeks and Romans?

A) Satan
B) Dis
C) Pluto
D) Atma

Answer 1

B,C

Question 2

In ancient Greece, the soul of a dead body survived as a sort of eidolon, or "_______."

A) image
B) growth
C) attachment
D) residue

Answer 2

A

Question 3

In Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Hebrew, the words for which two things are related?

A) "breath"
B) "death"
C) "fire"
D) "wind"

Answer 3

A,D

Question 4

_______, such as those at funerals and weddings, will traditionally frighten a ghost.

A) Ceremonial toasts
B) A song
C) A loud noise
D) Kisses

Question 5

Which philosopher was among those who claimed that death was the soul's end as well as the body's?

A) Heraclitus
B) Anaximander
C) Epicurus
D) Anaxagoras

Question 6

Odysseus travels to the land of the dead in the Odyssey in order to consult _______.

A) Hades
B) Orpheus
C) Melampus
D) Tiresias

Question 7

How did Tiresias become blind?

A) His eyes were clawed out by the Sphinx
B) He asked Zeus for the gift of prophecy ("inner sight"), which meant that he lost his "outer sight"
C) He ruled in favor of Zeus that women get more pleasure out of sex, and Hera struck him blind
D) He got drunk, lost a bet, and poked his eyeballs out

Question 8

How did Elpenor die, according to his own ghost?

A) He was accidentally drowned by an amorous nymph
B) He fell off the roof of Circe's palace and broke his neck
C) He was bit by a poisonous snake in his sleep
D) He drank himself to death

Question 9

How did Anticlea die, according to her own ghost?

A) Plague
B) Poisoned wine
C) Fighting the suitors who were trying to take over his palace on Ithaca
D) Grief over Odysseus' long absence

Question 10

Whose ghost famously tells Odysseus that he would prefer "to serve as a hireling to another, a man who is / landless and hungry himself, than here to be ruler / of all the shriveled-up dead"?

A) Ajax
B) Agamemnon
C) Heracles
D) Achilles

Question 11

Which of the following serve as judges of the dead in later accounts of the underworld?

A) Rhadamanthys
B) Minos
C) Aeacus
D) Daedalus

Question 12

Who was famous for tricking Death, and even escaped from the underworld to live a second life ?

A) Sisyphus
B) Odysseus
C) Nestor
D) Tantalus

Question 13

Why does Odysseus end up making a rapid departure from the underworld?

A) Cerberus finally finds him
B) He sees a massive crowd of angry Trojan ghosts approaching him
C) He can bear the grief of his dead comrades' stories no longer
D) He fears that Persephonê might send some destructive Gorgon

Question 14

Which of the following statements are true of Orpheus?

A) He was an Argonaut
B) According to some accounts he invented the lyre
C) His music enchanted wild animals
D) He was the only son of Aphrodite and Adonis

Question 15

After his death, Orpheus was killed by _______.

A) the Nemean lion
B) Thracian Bacchae
C) Heracles
D) A poisonous snake

Question 16

According to the Orphic cosmogony, in the beginning was _______.

A) Erebus, "darkness"
B) Clotho, "spinner"
C) Chronos, "time"
D) Logos, "reason"

Question 17

Who distracted Dionysus Zagreus with toys and tore him limb from limb?

A) Lycurgus
B) The Titans
C) Typhoeus
D) Hades

Question 18

The origin and nature of Orphic teachings seem to be connected with the equally obscure doctrines of _______.

A) Clement of Alexandria
B) Lycophron
C) Pythagoras
D) Heraclitus

Question 19

In Plato's myth about Er, the destiny that each soul chose was confirmed by the third of the fates, _______.

A) Atropos
B) Dia
C) Danaë
D) Clotho

Question 20

Who was famous for violating a cloud in the shape of Hera, and creating the father of the Centaurs by spilling his seed on the ground?

A) Tantalus
B) Ixion
C) Danaus
D) Teucer

Question 21

Hermes is depicted on the left here in what capacity?

A) As psychopompos
B) As thanatophoros
C) As aoidos
D) As a follower of Orpheus