Mythology Quiz

About this test

The four mythologies in this quiz are built differently, and the difference is the easiest way to keep them apart. The Greek pantheon is a family: the gods marry, cheat, retaliate, and nearly every myth turns on a quarrel between relatives. The Egyptian pantheon is cosmic and funerary first — it explains the sun's journey and the fate of the dead rather than divine feuds. The Norse pantheon is the only one of the four that knows it is doomed: Ragnarök is foretold, and the gods march into it anyway.

The Greek-to-Roman matches are where most people lose points, precisely because they look easy. Zeus becomes Jupiter, Hera becomes Juno, Athena becomes Minerva, Aphrodite becomes Venus, Ares becomes Mars, Hephaestus becomes Vulcan, Poseidon becomes Neptune. But it is not a straight translation: Mars held a far more honourable place in Rome than Ares ever did in Greece, where the war god was widely disliked. Apollo is the one major god who keeps the same name in both systems.

One last shortcut that pays off: Greek monsters are almost always hybrids, and their anatomy identifies them. A bull's head on a man's body is the Minotaur; a woman's head on a winged lion is the Sphinx; a single eye means a Cyclops. When the name escapes you, describe the body first.