Iliad
Zeus turned himself into a swan in order to get with this Spartan Queen, mother of Helen and Clytemnestra.
Who is Leda?
Telemachus leaves Ithaca because these ungrateful guests plan to take his life in order to clear the path to the throne.
Who are the suitors? (Or, Who are Antinous, Eurymachus)
Ariadne gives this to Theseus so he can escape the Minotaur's Labyrinth.
What is thread/string/yarn?
These animals were sent to kill the baby Herakles while he was sleeping, but he strangled them with his bare baby fists.
What are two snakes?
Moral pollution, that, in Oedipus Rex, manifests as a physical contagion in the form of a plague.
What is miasma?
The wedding of Peleus and Thetis is crashed and subsequently ruined when this goddess gives a golden apple "to the most beautiful."
Who is Eris?
What is their marriage bed?
Perseus acquired the location of Medusa's lair from the Grey Sisters/Graiae by withholding this from them.
What is a single eye?
Invented by philosopher Prodicus, this question (must like the Choice of Achilles) that Herakles had to answer related to the outcome of his life: live for easy pleasure, or hard virtue?
What is the Choice of Herakles?
Businessman and Homer fanatic who used dynamite to excavate what he believed to be the site of the fabled city of Troy.
Who is Heinrich Schliemann?
This Trojan prince is the one who purportedly ends up killing Achilles with an arrow to the heel, with the assistance of Apollo.
Who is Paris?
Played both a song about the affair between Ares and Aphrodite, as well as the Song of Troy, which made Odysseus burst into tears and reveal his identity.
Who is Demodocus the bard?
Oedipus' answer to the Sphinx's riddle: "What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?"
What is man/mankind?
This queen gave her life for her husband, Admetus, but was rescued from her fate by Herakles after he challenged Death to a wrestling match-- and won.
Who is Alcestis?
As discussed in Aristotle's Poetics, it's the purging of emotion (fear and then pity) that comes at the end of a tragic play.
What is catharsis?
Husband to Andromache, and Trojan war hero who eventually is killed by Achilles; the epic ends with his funeral.
Who is Hector?
The daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of Phaeacia, who was doing laundry when Odysseus asked her for help.
Who is Nausicaa?
Poseidon sends a sea monster that Perseus kills with the head of Medusa after this person bragged that her daughter Andromeda was more beautiful than the sea nymphs.
Who is Cassiopeia?
The meaning of Herakles' name, given to him by his mother Alcmene in order to shield him from the wrath of Zeus' wife.
What is "glory of Hera" ?
American classicist who pioneered the study of oral tradition and Homer.
Who is Milman Parry?
This hero tried to "dip out" of fighting in the Trojan War by acting like he was mad by plowing fields of stone.
Who is Odysseus?
The challenge that Penelope gave to the suitors and the "mysterious stranger" that eventually revealed Odysseus' identity and led to the slaughter of the suitors.
What is the stringing of the bow?
One of the tasks Aphrodite assigned Psyche was to endure a katabasis to collect in a box the beauty of this goddess.
Who is Persephone?
"Nymphs of the West" who possess the golden apples that Hercules must retrieve from their garden.
Who are the Hesperides?
The moment of discovery or recognition; oftentimes leads to peripeteia, or the "turning point" of a narrative.
What is anagnorisis?