Deck 7: In Touch With the Gods: Apollos Oracle at Delphi

Question 1

In some versions, Apollo kills the monster Typhoeus, while other versions have him kill the monster Python.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The priestess Pythia would sit on a trident in an underground chamber, inhale vapors from below, and utter prophecies in Greek verse.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Hera gave birth parthenogenetically to the serpent Python.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The facade of the temple at Delphi was inscribed with the maxim "Love Your Neighbor."

Question 5

Delphi was believed to be the location of the center of the earth's surface.

Question 6

The Oracle lied when it told King Croesus that if he crossed the Persian border, a great nation would fall.

Question 7

The cult of Asclepius used the symbol of the omphalos, two snakes entwining a winged rod, as the symbol of healing.

Question 8

The princess Coronis carried a mortal man's child when she fell in love with Apollo; that child became the first physician, Asclepius.

Question 9

The youth Cyparissus loved his pet stag so much that when he accidentally killed it, Apollo granted his wish to be transformed into a stag.

Question 10

Delphi represents a new order in which guilt can be atoned rather than paid for in blood.

Question 11

The caduceus is Asclepius's symbol of healing.

Question 12

When Asclepius learned to revive the dead, Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt.

Question 13

After killing the dragon, Apollo exiles himself to atone for his guilt.

Question 14

Artemis and Apollo both were concerned with the important transition from childhood to adulthood.

Question 15

Every eight years Apollo's slaying of Python was reenacted in a religious drama, the Stepterion, by priests at Delphi.

Question 16

Only three years old, Apollo kills a bear.

Question 17

Sophocles uses the myth of Oedipus to confirm that no one can escape fulfilling Delphi's prophecies.

Question 18

Since Apollo's name is mentioned on the Linear B tablets, he clearly was one of the earliest gods in the Greek pantheon.

Question 19

Apollo and his sister Artemis were born to Leto, who sought refuge from Hera's wrath in a cave on Mount Parnassus, later to become the Oracle at Delphi.

Question 20

Every four years the slaying of the monster was reenacted at the Pythian games.

Question 21

What is an oracle?

A) the prophetic shrine of a god
B) the gods' words spoken at such a shrine
C) a person authorized to convey and interpret the gods' words
D) all of the above

Question 22

The ritual of Brauronian Artemis intended to teach adolescent girls

A) to dance in the theater.
B) that they should honor their "wild side."
C) that they needed to suppress their natural wildness and become "tamed" for marriage.
D) that competition was an important element in life.

Question 23

What happened to Asclepius?

A) He became so great a physician that he learned to revive the dead, so Zeus killed him.
B) He became so great a physician that he learned to make men give birth, so Hera killed him.
C) He rejected the love of Athene and was killed by her sword.
D) He became so great a blacksmith that he forged an unbreakable sword for Athene, so she rewarded him by making him immortal.

Question 24

What happened to Daphne?

A) She was transformed into a laurel tree as punishment for rejecting Apollo's advances.
B) She was transformed into a cyprus because she was grieving over her pet stag.
C) She had a child fathered by Apollo, the first physician Asclepius.
D) She was transformed into a laurel tree to escape Apollo's advances.

Question 25

What is sympathetic magic? Choose the most precise definition.

A) magic performed by someone who does not want to harm you
B) a ritual acting out what one wants to take place
C) a ritual transfer of the powers of a part onto the whole
D) magic involving feelings, not reason

Question 26

What is an omphalos?

A) a column raised in the honor of Apollo at the Pythian games
B) the navel of the world, displayed in Delphi as a piece of rock
C) Asclepius's symbol of healing: two snakes entwining a rod
D) the sound of Zeus's thunderbolt

Question 27

What was Themistocles's interpretation of the Delphic Oracle's advice to the Greeks to defend Greece with a wooden wall?

A) that they must build a wall around Athens
B) that they must build a large hollow wooden horse to invade Persia
C) that they must gather their warships to attack the Persian armada
D) that a defense of Greece was hopeless

Question 28

The birth of his son Asclepius transformed Apollo from a cool, distant god into a caring god who was closely related to human beings.

Question 29

Since Apollo knew the arts of song and dance and persuasion, he was usually lucky in love.

Question 30

Although an ancient tradition attributed the Delphic oracle's trance and utterances partly to intoxicating fumes from underground, archaeologists have recently been able to disprove that idea definitively.

Question 31

Young Greek men studied the arts-and cultivated the Muses-as they prepared to become soldiers and undertake the other diverse responsibilities of citizenship.