Midterm Review - Names of Gods and Heroes

Question 1

Zues

Answer 1

supreme god, father of many of the gods and of human heroes such as Hercules and Sarpedon.

Question 2

Hera

Answer 2

queen of the gods, sister and wife of Zeus, goddess of marriage, angry at the Trojans because of the Judgment of Paris.

Question 3

Athena

Answer 3

daughter of Zeus, distinguished by her scary blue eyes and her birth from Zeus’ head (i.e., has no real mother), also called Pallas Athene. Goddess of female crafts, wisdom, and war (strategic fighting). Her attributes are shield, spear, and helmet; her animal is the owl, a symbol of wisdom. She also wields Zeus’ aegis, a primitive shield made of goat-fur that causes earthquakes and fear. Angry at the Trojans because of the Judgment of Paris.

Question 4

Ares

Answer 4

god of war (mindless killing), son of Zeus and Hera, supports Trojans, wounded in the gut by Diomedes in Iliad 5, lover of Aphrodite in the Odyssey.

Question 5

Aphrodite

Answer 5

goddess of love and sex, not interested in marriage, through the Trojan Anchises mother of Aeneas and supporter of the Trojans. She promised the married Helen to Paris if he declared her the most beautiful goddess. Her attributes are myrtle twigs and doves.

Question 6

Apollo

Answer 6

archer god, protector of young, unmarried men; god of healing & sickness: can send plague with his arrows and take it away again, as in book 1; also god of prophesy (unsuccessful lover of Cassandra, whom he curses with the gift of prophesy) and poetry; son of Zeus and Leto, twin brother of Artemis, and supporter of the Trojans. His attributes are the lyre and laurel twigs.

Question 7

Artemis

Answer 7

archer goddess, protector of virgin girls and mothers in childbirth, goddess of the hunt, mistress of wild animals, twin sister to Apollo, supporter of the Trojans.

Question 8

Hephaestus

Answer 8

son of Hera (has no father), the lame and hunchbacked god of the smithy and male crafts, in the Iliad husband to one of the Graces, in the Odyssey husband to Aphrodite, creates Achilles’ new armor in Iliad 18.

Question 9

Hermes

Answer 9

son of Zeus and the goddess Maia, messenger god (attributes: traveling hat [petasos], herald’s staff [kerykeion], and wings on sandals), psychopompos (escort of the souls of the dead to Hades), escorts king Priam through the Myrmidon guards to Achilles’ tent in Iliad 24; supports the Trojans.

Question 10

Iris

Answer 10

the rainbow, female messenger of the gods

Question 11

Poseidon

Answer 11

God of the sea (attribute: trident) and of earhquakes, brother of Zeus, built the walls of Troy together with Apollo, but King Laomedon cheated them out of his wages, so now he supports the Greeks.

Question 12

Hades

Answer 12

God of the Underworld, Brother of Zeus

Question 13

Thetis

Answer 13

Nereid (sea nymph), wife of the mortal hero Peleus, mother of Achilles; once helped free Zeus when the other gods ganged up against him and put him in shackles.

Question 14

Olympians

Answer 14

the Greek gods; their home is on Mt. Olympus in Northern Greece.

Question 15

Achaeans

Answer 15

Homeric name for the Greeks, later just one of the Greek tribes; other alternative names are Argives or Danaans.

Question 16

Achilles

Answer 16

demi-god, son of the mortal king Peleus of Phthia (thus also known as Pelides) and the sea nymph Thetis, invulnerable except for his heel, leader of the Myrmidons, for most of the Iliad on strike because of his anger at Agamemnon, but returns to battle in Iliad 20 order to revenge the death of his older friend Patroclus.

Question 17

Agamemnon

Answer 17

king of Mycenae and commander of the Greek army before Troy; older brother of Menelaus; both are sons of Atreus (thus: Atrides).

Question 18

Menelaus

Answer 18

red-haired king of Sparta and cuckolded husband of Helen; he duels and almost kills his rival, the Trojan Paris, in Iliad book 3. As the younger brother of Agamemnon, he is also a son of Atreus and thus an Atrides.

Question 19

Briseis

Answer 19

(lit. “Daughter of Briseus”), a captive and the prize of war that Agamemnon takes away from Achilles at the beginning of the Iliad.

Question 20

Patroclus

Answer 20

son of Menoetius, grew up with the somewhat younger Achilles and was with him trained in the arts of healing by the centaur Chiron. Achilles lets him fight in his own armor and lead the Myrmidons to drive Hector and his Trojans out of the Greek camp in Iliad 16. But despite Achilles’ warnings, Patroclus drives the Trojans back even further, up to their walls, and is killed and robbed of Achilles’ armor by Hector.

Question 21

Odysseus

Answer 21

king of Ithaka, the smartest of the Greeks and their most persuasive speaker; thus sent on all important embassies, such as the embassy at the beginning of the war, when he and Menelaus demanded Helen back from the Trojans, the embassy that returns Chryseis to her father Chryses, the priest of Apollo, and the embassy that tries to persuade Achilles to return to battle in Iliad 9. Has an aristeia together with Diomedes in Iliad 10 (the Doloneia), when they reconnoiter the Trojan camp at night, kill the Thracian king Rhesus, and steal his horses.

Question 22

Ajax Telamonius or Big Ajax

Answer 22

a.k.a. Big Ajax, son of king Telamon of Salamis, the tallest and strongest of the Greek heroes; fights with a special eight-hide thick Mycenaean tower shield. His half-brother is the archer Teucer.

Question 23

Ajax Oïleus,

,

Answer 23

a.k.a. Little Ajax, son of Oïleus, commander of the Lokrians. Both Ajaxes together are called the Aeantes or Aiantes (which is the Greek plural of the name Ajax).

Question 24

Diomedes

Answer 24

son of Tydeus (thus also: Tydides), king of Argos, the youngest and most hot-headed of the Greek kings. During his aristeia in Iliad 5, he wounds Aphrodite and, with Athene’s help, even Ares.

Question 25

Nestor

Answer 25

king of Pylos, the oldest of the Greek kings, respected for his advice, but also a source of comic relief because of his bragging; his son is young Antilochus.

Question 26

Pheonix

Answer 26

exiled from his home for allegedly sleeping with his father’s young wife, he became a second father to Achilles; used to feed him as a baby and is one of the members of the Embassy to Achilles in Iliad 9.

Question 27

Idomeneus

Answer 27

king of Crete, one of the major Greek heroes, together with his aide Meriones. Both have an aristeia during the battle for the Greek ships in Iliad 13, after first spending some time in conversation “bragging like boys.”

Question 28

Calchas

Answer 28

Greek seer, blames Agamemnon for angering Apollo and causing the plague that ravages the Greek army in Iliad 1 because Agamemnon refused to accept ransom for Chryseis, the daughter of a priest of Apollo.

Question 29

Priam

Answer 29

aged king of Troy, among his 50 sons and 12 daughters are Hector, Paris, Helenus, and Cassandra. Ransoms his son’s body from Achilles in Iliad 24.

Question 30

Hecuba

Answer 30

aged queen of Troy, meets her son Hector in Iliad 6 when he asks her to sacrifice a robe to Athena, and begs her son Hector not to fight Achilles outside the walls in Iliad 22.

Question 31

Hector

Answer 31

prince of Troy, son of Priam and Hecuba, the best Trojan fighter whose death against Achilles’ in Iliad 22 foreshadows the eventual defeat and destruction of his city, Troy.

Question 32

Paris

Answer 32

prince of Troy, good-looking with splendid hair, younger brother of Hector, lover of Helen; at the Judgment of Paris he declared Aphrodite the most beautiful goddess and received Helen’s love as a reward for this. Outside of narrative frame of the Iliad, he will later kill Achilles with an arrow.

Question 33

Andromache

Answer 33

daughter of Eetion, the king of the Cilicians (killed by Achilles), wife of Hector, mother of his son Astyanax. Hector visits her in Iliad 6, and she starts mourning for him before he is even dead.

Question 34

Helen

Answer 34

wife of king Menelaus of Sparta, sister of Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra, daughter of Leda, who committed adultery with Zeus in the disguise of a swan. Has a love-hate relationship with Paris, the Trojan prince who seduced her and persuaded her to follow him to Troy.

Question 35

Helenus

Answer 35

son of king Priam, Trojan seer. In Iliad 6, he sends Hector during a crisis for the Trojans back to the city to initiate special sacrifices to Athena.

Question 36

Aeneas, ## Footnote son of the mortal Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite, a nephew to king Priam of Troy and one of the greatest Trojan heroes. Aphrodite and Apollo save him when Diomedes wounds him with a huge rock in Iliad 5.

Answer 36

son of the mortal Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite, a nephew to king Priam of Troy and one of the greatest Trojan heroes. Aphrodite and Apollo save him when Diomedes wounds him with a huge rock in Iliad 5. Is destined to survive the Trojan War and lead the survivors to Italy.

Question 37

Sarpedon

Answer 37

son of Zeus and the mortal Laodamia, co-commander with Glaucus of the Lycians, a Trojan ally, killed by Patroclus during the latter’s aristeia in Iliad 16.