Download Greek Gods/Goddess Research Sheet for

The Greek Gods
Name ___________________________________
Date ________
Period_______
Complete the following questions or fill in the blanks with the answers found in the documentary about
the Greek gods and other mythological figures.
The Gods of Olympus
1) Return to the fabled heights of Mt. Olympus, home of larger than life beings who were lovers,
warriors and sacred healers-- ____________ ____________ with failings that made them all too
human.
2) How were stories of the Greek gods handed down?
a.
b.
c.
3) What were the two books Homer wrote?
a.
b.
The Titans
4) According to Greek legend, the first rulers of the earth were the ____________, Cyclopes, and
____________.
5) Cronos and Rhea, the Titans who were the children of ____________ ____________, were said
to give birth to the future rulers of the ancient world: Demeter, Hestia, Hera, ____________,
Poseidon, and ____________.
6) What did Cronos do when he feared that he’d lose power to his children?
7) How did Rhea deceive Cronos?
8) When Zeus matured, how did he seek revenge against his father Cronos?
9) What happened in The Battle of the Titans?
Zeus
10) Zeus and his siblings were proclaimed the ____________ of the ____________ and given special
powers (ugh, that screams Marvel comic!)
11) Zeus was crowned the ____________ ____________ of gods and mortals; he was given the
powerful ____________ of lightning as his weapon of war.
12) Where did the gods live?
13) What did the gods eat?
14) Name two reasons Greeks prayed to Zeus. 1)
2)
15) When Zeus interacts with humans what do most of the stories revolve around?
16) Why do these stories matter to the Greeks?
17) Name one way the Greeks paid tribute to Zeus?
1
Demeter
18) By 700 B.C. pagan worship of the gods was ____________ in Greek life, and the ancient Greeks
would organize ____________ to appease their temperamental gods.
19) The ancient Greeks were especially superstitious about the spirits of the underworld which gave
rise to cults called ____________. The most famous of these cults was founded in a city called
____________.
20) What are the Eleusis mysteries?
21) What happened to Demeter’s daughter, Persephone?
22) What happened to the crops while Demeter searched?
23) How did Hades trick Persephone?
24) What was Persephone’s punishment?
25) The legend of Demeter and Persephone is used to explain what?
26) What was the importance of the fall festival of the Elysian cult?
27) How many people would make the pilgrimage from Athens to Eleusis?
28) What animal was sacrificed in this ceremony?
29) What is one theory for the secrets about the initiate ceremonies?
30) The Elysian cult was one of the most popular cults in antiquity and was a big rival of
____________.
Dionysus
31) Greek women whose lives were often consumed with domestic drudgery sometimes became
involved in the cult of Dionysus, the god of ____________.
32) Dionysus was born from an affair between ____________ and his mortal lover Semele.
However, the pregnant Semele was killed in a plot orchestrated by Zeus’s jealous wife, _______.
It was said that Zeus later rescued his ____________ son out of Semele’s ____________ and
sewed him into his thigh. When the time was right, Dionysus ripped through the stitches and
was, therefore, twice ____________.
33) Since his birth was born from a love affair that ended in death, Dionysus became the god of
____________.
34) How wild did the cult followers of Dionysus get during a celebration?
Apollo
35) ____________ was the god of light, music and prophecy.
36) He was the second generation of Olympian gods. The son of Zeus and goddess Leto. He was
born on the island of ____________ with his twin sister Artemis, the goddess of ____________.
37) What did Apollo do every morning?
38) Identify one of Apollo’s evil traits.
39) Apollo fell in love with a nymph named ____________ who could not return his ____________.
He chased her through the woods and she turned into a Laurel ____________.
40) Apollo proclaimed that if he couldn’t have Daphne as a wife, he would make the Laurel tree
____________ and so the laurel wreath became the symbolic prize the Greeks awarded at the
Olympic Games.
41) What did Apollo kill in the city of Delphi?
42) People rejoiced and made Delphi a sanctuary for ____________. By the 8th century B.C. the
____________ of Delphi became on international sanctuary and pilgrims traveled to stand in
line and ask advice.
43) Describe the role of the Pythia at the oracle.
44) What would pilgrims ask the oracle?
Asclepius
45) Who was Asclepius?
46) What happened in the sanctuary of Epidaurus?
The Goddesses of Olympus
Hera
47) Hera, the matron goddess, was the protector of ____________ women, and she was wedded to
____________.
48) Name one way Hera got revenge against Zeus’s lovers?
Aphrodite
49) Aphrodite, the goddess of ____________, became the instigator of love affairs between gods
and ____________. The Greeks believed she symbolized essence of beauty, love and desire.
50) Name of two ways the Greeks believed she came to exist.
51) She was married to the lame god Hephaestus, who protected ____________.
52) Describe the myth surrounding her love affair with Ares and how she was caught.
53) Who was her famous son?
Athena
54) Athena was the goddess who never ____________.
55) Why did Zeus eat Athena’s mother when she was pregnant?
56) Athena was the goddess of ____________ and righteous warfare.
57) Describe what happened when Poseidon and Athena competed to rule a new city?
58) What’s the name of the city that Athena won? ____________
59) On the ancient citadel called the ____________ the Greeks build the Parthenon, a temple
devoted to the worship of Athena.
Greek Heroes
60) Most Greek heroes were called ____________ because they were born from a union from a
____________ father and a mortal mother.
Hercules
61) ____________ was born from a mortal woman and Zeus.
62) How did Hercules defeat Hera’s plan to kill him and his mother?
63) Describe the cross roads Hercules comes to in his life?
64) What are the Twelve Labors of Hercules?
Trojan War
65) How long did the Trojan war last?
66) How did the Trojan war start?
67) How many ships did Helen’s face launch?
68) In ____________ Heinrich Schliemann, a self-made ____________, excavated a site he believed
to be the city of ____________. Today, many scholars speculate as to whether the Trojan war
really occurred.