Ancient Greek Games Quiz (challenging)
This female warrior was forbidden to accompany Jason on his quest for the golden fleece. However, she was the only Ancient Greek heroine to compete against men in games.
- Medea was a princess of Colchis who aided Jason in his quest and later married him. Alcestis was the wife of the hero Admetus. She gave her life for his but was rescued from the underworld by Herakles.
In Homer's Illiad the hero Achilles briefly halts the war on Troy to hold games in honor of:
- Achilles put on a splendid funeral for Patroclus. Twelve captured Trojan soldiers were sacrificed at Patroclus� pyre. He also held funeral games in which the Greek heroes competed in chariot-racing, boxing, wrestling, running, armed combat, shot-put, archery, and spear-throwing.
The Hyacinthia was an annual Spartan festival featuring athletic contests. It was held in commemoration of Hyacinth. According to myth, Hyacinth died . . .
- Narcissus was captivated by his own reflection. The hunter Actaeon spied Artemis bathing and was punished by being turned into a stag.
The Olympic games were held every four years from 776 B.C. (date of the first recorded Olympics) to
- After their abolishment in 393, the Olympics were revived some 1,500 years later when Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France saw his dream of reviving the Olympics realized in 1896.
Women competed in these games, which may predate the Olympics:
- The Heraean games were held in honor of the goddess Hera. They were held at the site of the Olympics every four years. However, they featured fewer events and were open only to unmarried women. The winners of the Heraea, like those of the Olympics, were crowned with chaplets of wild olive. Known to have been conducted as early as the 6th century B.C., the Heraea were discontinued about the time the Romans conquered Greece.
The earliest Olympic games comprised foot races exclusively. What was the first new type of contest to be added to the Games?
- The pentathlon, involving leaping, foot racing, wrestling, discus throwing, and casting the javelin, was added in 708 B.C.. Boxing was added in 688 B.C., and chariot racing in 680 B.C..
Athletic games were held at funerals, religious celebrations, and other public events. The largest games were attended by citizens of all the Greek city-states, who would declare a truce if they were at war. The Olympic games are the most famous of the four Panhellenic games. Which are the other three?
- The Hyacinthia, Delia, Panathenaea were local festivals. Both the Thesmophoria, which honored Demeter, and the Pyanopsia, which honored Apollo, marked the end of summer. The Dionysia was held in honor of Dionysus and was celebrated in Athens with drama contests.
According to Greek myth, the Olympic games originated how?
- Herakles is said to have also taught men how to wrestle and measured out the stade, the length of the footrace.
Which two city-states vied for control of the Olympic Games?
- Elis and Pisa maintained a bitter rivalry over the Olympics. In 364 B.C. Pisa had taken over the games. Elis was so outraged it attacked Pisa during the games, violating the Olympic truce and setting off a full-scale battle involving thousands of soldiers.
The Great Panathenaea was held every four years in the city of Athens. Besides games, the festival included a torchlit procession to the Acropolis, recitals of epic poems (and later music contests), and a ceremony to commemorate those who had fought in the:
- In 490 B.C. an army of Athenians defeated a Persian invasion force although they were heavily outnumbered. They had sought the help of Sparta, by way of the Athenian courier Pheidippides, who covered the distance (150 miles) from Athens to Sparta and back to Athens again within two days. A decade later, a massive Persian force reached Greece. The route of their army lay through the narrow pass of Thermopylae. The pass was defended by the Spartan king Leonidas; his small army held back the Persians but was eventually trapped by a Persian detachment; the Spartan contingent chose to die fighting in the pass rather than flee.
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