The Iliad!Homer, the essential Greek!  The greatest epic poet of all time!  If you can answer five of the questions below, you are one well-read, intelligent human being.  Ten even with a few guesses would be extraordinary.  Fifteen means you are downright lucky, or teach this subject at a university.  And twenty?  You are a god. You were there!

1. What is an "epic" poem?
        a.  any long poem
        b.  any long poem that has a plot
        c.  any long poem whose lines are all in the same meter

2.  What has Coca Cola got to do with the Iliad?
        a.  cocaine is a substance first mentioned in this work
        b.  cola is a poetic term referring to metrical limbs
        c.  absolutely nothing

3.  The first printed edition of Homer was produced in Florence in the year:
        a.  745 B.C.
        b.  1666 A.D.
        c.  1488 A.D.

4.  The Iliad is part of a cycle of epic poems about:
        a.  the lives of the gods
        b.  the Trojan war
        c.  a hero's travels

5.  The Iliad's story takes up where a previous epic ends.  This earlier epic is called:
        a.  The Theogony
        b.  Cypria
        c.  Aethiopus

6.  The first word of the Iliad is:
        a.  Polymetus (adventurous)
        b. Areiphilos (dear to Ares, meaning Mars)
        c.  Menis (wrath, or anger)

7.  Who was Chrysus?
        a.  an achean poet
        b.  the guardian of the gate
        c.  an Apollonian priest

8.  Who was Smintheus?
        a.  the deity of physicians
        b.  the mouse god
        c.  none of the above

9.  Who was Hephaestus?
        a.  Odysseus' helsman
        b.  the god of craft
        c.  Agamemnon's daughter

10.  The most youthful hero of the Iliad was:
        a.  Menelaus
        b. Phoenix
        c. Diomedes

11.  Zeus and Hera are levitated.  What lifted them up?
        a.  flowers
        b.  sea birds
        c.  the wind

12.  Who was Priam?
        a.  the son of Apollo
        b.  the king of Troy
        c.  a servant of Achilles

13.  What threat did Achilles make to the dying Hector?
        a.  to eat his corpse
        b.  to feed his corpse to the dogs
        c.  to raze his city

14.  The best friend of Achilles was:
        a.  Diomedes
        b.  Idaeus
        c. Patroclus

15.  The god Hermes flies by way of:
        a.  a winged helmet
        b.  golden sandals
        c.  braided hair that caught the wind

16.  Why was the Trojan war fought?
        a.  to protect the laws and customs of marriage
        b.  because of a golden garment stolen from Achilles
        c.  it was a land dispute

17.  What did Achilles mean when he said that his honor depended on the ordinance of Zeus?
        a.  that the god of gods would provide invincible weapons
        b.  that Fate ordains all things
        c.  that he now believed honor had nothing to do with the opinions of others

18.  The father of Odysseus was:
        a.  Deucalion, king of the Cretans
        b.  Atrius, king of Sparta
        c.  Laertes, king if Ithaca

19.  Poseidon is the god of the sea, and what else?
        a.  the four winds
        b.  earthquakes
        c.  the home

20.  Who is the god of poetry?
        a. Artemis
        b.  Leto
        c. Apollo

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The answers
1c, 2b, 3c, 4b, 5b, 6c, 7c, 8ab, 9b, 10c, 11a, 12b, 13a, 14c, 15b, 16a, 17c, 18c, 19b, 20c