CONTENTS

Introduction

Puzzles

Solutions
 INTRODUCTION
Hercules. The Trojan Horse. The Odyssey. Medusa. The Amazons.
Classical mythology, also known as Greco-Roman Mythology, is a
big part of modern culture. Why, the very planets of our solar system
are named after the Roman Gods! Countless businesses and fashion
brands bear the name of classical Gods and heroes. And what are
modern superhero stories if not retellings of some of these incredible
tales?
The vast quantity of myths and legends that originate from Ancient
Greek and Roman culture are stories bursting with passion, intrigue,
mystery and adventure.
These tales have come to us through different means. Originally
the stories and legends would survive in oral histories and retellings,
and in the everyday culture of the civilisation in question, whether
visiting a temple or holding a festival. Mosaics, statues and decorated
vases and urns would depict them. Then manuscripts, and later
printed documents, would preserve these stories in physical text.
 But the origin and true nature of some of these tales is sometimes
mysterious, despite the sheer volume of study. Myth was recorded as
history or as legend, changing as time went on. Even the authors of
these works were possibly legendary and mythical, like the poet
Homer.
When the Romans adopted the Greek Gods as their own and mixed
them with their own legends and stories, this muddied the waters of
time further, especially as the Roman way of life and worship was not
the same as that of Greece.
Presented here for the first time is a retelling of some of the most
compelling stories in Greco-Roman mythology, in the form of a
series of mysterious puzzles. In the spirit of the centuries of
reinvention that the myths have already faced, these stories have
been changed, remixed and reinterpreted, and so details from them
may differ from the traditional telling.
However they are told, the core power of classical myths endures,
and as you read this book you will find in them something new or
exciting you never knew before!
 TROJAN HORSE
After a 10-year siege of the city of Troy, the Greek army, led by
Odysseus, devised a clever plan: they would build a wooden horse
and pretend to leave, suggesting it had been left as a gift for their
“victorious” foes (the horse being the symbol of the city). However,
inside the horse would be hidden 50 of Greece’s greatest warriors,
including Odysseus himself. Once the horse was brought into the
city, the warriors would emerge and attack the city from within,
conquering Troy! The horse would be 12 podes wide, 31 podes tall,
and 18 podes long.

[NB: Podes is the plural of pous, a Greek unit of measurement as

long as the average Greek sandal (size 10).]

However, there was a major problem with the construction of the

horse: its chief builder, Epeius, did not have enough materials to
make one that would allow 50 soldiers to be inside; he could only
build one that had room for 40 soldiers. This smaller horse was,
however, still effective, and the Greeks’ plan worked, and became
legend.
Question: What are the dimensions of the 40-man horse
they built (width, height and length) in feet?

ANSWER
 ESCAPING THE LABYRINTH
In the legend that we all know, every year 14 young nobles would be
sent into the labyrinth at Knossos to be consumed by the Minotaur,
the monstrous half-man, half-bull created by Minos and Poseidon’s
actions. Theseus joined the group with the intention of slaying the
Minotaur and ending the sacrifices. The king’s daughter Ariadne had
fallen in love with Theseus and given him a ball of thread with which
to retrace his path and leave the maze.

“Take care of this,” she said, placing it in his left hand.

“Without it you may find what you think is the right way is wrong.”

As they entered the labyrinth, Theseus fixed the thread to the

entrance.
But what is unknown is that after Theseus slew the Minotaur in a
great battle, he found that the string had become waterlogged and
rotten, destroyed by Poseidon himself in a rage at Theseus’
arrogance.
The weary Theseus leaned on the wall of the labyrinth, peering
forward at the impossible path that lay ahead.

“So many walls to pass,” one of the youths muttered, feeling

defeated.
“There is but one wall, really,” said another, “winding around
itself.”
Theseus looked at his hand on the wall, then at the labyrinth, and …
he knew how to get them out. It would take a long time, but it was
guaranteed to work.

Question: What is the guaranteed way for Theseus to

lead them out of the labyrinth?

ANSWER
PERSEUS AND THE HESPERIDES
Perseus had foolishly promised Polydectes any gift he desired, and it
was the head of Medusa that Polydectes demanded! But even if he
managed to take her head, he could not carry it safely.

Luckily, he tricked the Graeae into telling him the location of the
Hesperides, the beautiful maidens who tended to Hera’s orchard.
They had a magical knapsack called a kibisis, which could bear any
object, even Medusa’s head.
 When he arrived at the garden he found seven women, rather than
the three he expected. They said their names were Aiopis, Antheia,
Donakis, Calypso, Mermesa, Nelisa and Tara – but they didn’t say
who was who!

“If you want the kibisis, you must discover our names!” they
laughed, standing in a line, 1 to 7. The girl at number 6 has it, but
who is she?

We will give you the following clues:

• Mermesa is number 2.
• The person to the left of Nelisa has a name beginning with A.
• The person to the right of Nelisa has 4 letters in their name.
• Donakis is 4 to the left of Tara.
• The woman at number 3 has a name ending with S.
• Antheia is at an odd number!

Question: In what order are they standing, and who has

the knapsack?

ANSWER
 PANDORA’S JAR
Knowledge of Pandora’s box – the magical artefact that, when
opened, released things like cruelty and illness into the world – is so
universal that the name itself has become synonymous with the idea
of unintentionally releasing some threat to humanity to disrupt its
harmony. But the details of the myth itself, like many classical
myths, differ based on who is telling it.
Interestingly, the artefact was actually a jar. In the original myth,
Zeus, the father of the gods, was driven nearly to madness by the
perceived injustice of Prometheus taking fire from the gods. And,
after ensuring the security of Olympus, Zeus commanded that
Hephaestus create Pandora, the first woman. They then sent her
bearing the jar to Epimetheus, Prometheus’ brother, in a supposed
“olive branch” of peace.
In the 17th century, in his Latin translation, Erasmus replaced
pithos (jar) with pyxis (box) – so, in all fairness, scholars have the
freedom to use either term without being accused of ignorance.
The second thing is that not every version of the story says the jar
was full of evils and designed to cause sadness. There is some conflict
between accounts, because in some retellings, the jar contained all
the good things of the world, her gift to them as an act of mercy for
the future health of humankind.
 In most retellings, one thing remained in the jar: hope. Whether
this is a source of joy or a harbinger of discord also differs. Trying to
square all the different versions with each other has tested many
scholars’ sanity. But rather than despair at this, most realize that the
numerous differences show the changing perception of morality
through time.

Question: In this text, there are 10 vices and 11 virtues.

Find them all and match them with their opposites,
revealing the unmatched virtue that remained in the jar.

ANSWER
 DIP STYX
Another phrase from Greek mythology that everyone uses is
“Achilles’ heel,” meaning a singular weakness that can be exploited.
Achilles was a legendary Greek hero and formidable fighter, famed
for his activities in the Trojan war. His talents were often attributed
to the fact that when he was a baby his mother bathed him in the
river Styx in a bid to grant him immortality. But she had to hold him
by his heel to do so, and that part of his body was never submerged,
leaving it vulnerable to attack; ultimately, he was killed by an arrow
hitting his heel in battle.
Less well known are the other Greek heroes who were dipped into
the Styx by their parents or guardians! This is because their deaths
were much less heroic.
Achaeus bled out after receiving a paper cut from a particularly
sharp piece of papyrus when he was beginning to write his memoirs.
For that reason, we do not know what he did, but we have a sample
of his blood and a fingerprint.
Bienor was killed by the terrible wailing lament that his parents
had arranged for his leaving party. He therefore never made it to the
Trojan war at all.
Caucon was undone by vanity, as the olive oil he used to condition
his hair after washing it had been poisoned by a rival.
Demodice, surprisingly, died during a particularly strenuous
version of an ancient Greek ballgame. Its name is lost to time, but in
many ways, it resembles the modern game of tennis.
Epicasta is the strangest, as she fought an entire horde of Harpies
to a standstill; but when she dropped her shield and knelt to pick it
up, she perished immediately.

Question: Which body parts were each of these heroes

held by when they were dipped into the Styx?

ANSWER
 CIRCE’S CURSES
During the Odyssey, Odysseus’ one remaining ship – its crew tired
and partially bitten – came to a mysterious wooded island called
Aeaea. At its middle was a strange stone house occupied by a
beautiful, friendly goddess named Circe.

But Odysseus and his men did not realize that Circe was also an
enchantress who had the power to transform men into animals. She
served Odysseus’ men a specially prepared mess of cheese, honey,
meal and Pramnian wine, which they ate hungrily, only to find
themselves transforming into swine! Ultimately, with the assistance
of Hermes, Odysseus himself was able to avoid transformation, and
Circe took pity on them and returned them to human form.
They remained there for a year, and during this time Odysseus saw
many other oddly sized animals on the island: a snail crawling across
a pile of gold. A magpie darting around with incredible speed. A
gentle deer, cowering from predators. A wolf pack in which one of
the wolves had a strangely glittering coat. A muddy brown tortoise he
briefly mistook for a rock. And a huge fish in the crystal-clear water
of her fountain.

“Are they…men?” Odysseus asked Circe.

“They were, yes,” Circe said. “Each of them came here for something
they thought they wanted. And instead, I gave them what they
needed.
A drunkard came here, a disciple of Dionysus, because he had
sworn to drink only wine and heard the finest vintage lay in my
cellar.
A hermit came here to isolate himself from society. On my island!
An idle man came because he had heard there were maidens here
who would wait on him hand and foot.
A thief came here to steal the treasures he had heard I had
gathered, as did a pirate, looking for more jewels and gaudy
trinkets to add to his bright outfit. And a man came to murder me
on behalf of his patron, the goddess Artemis.”

Question: Can you guess which man became which

animal?

ANSWER
HERCULES’ FIRST LABOUR: THE
NEMEAN LION
Hercules (originally known by his Greek name, Heracles) was a
legendary figure, a son of Zeus and an indomitable hero.
The famous 12 labours were undertaken by Hercules to atone for a
terrible, violent act he committed under the influence of his worst
enemy: Hera, Zeus’ wife. He was told by Pythia, the oracle of Delphi,
to go and serve King Eurystheus for 10 years as a way of atoning,
little knowing that Eurystheus served Hera. The labours that
Eurystheus assigned him were designed to be impossible, or
incredibly dangerous, in the hope that Hercules would die or be
tarnished.
His first challenge was to slay an unkillable lion, which had been
prowling around the hills surrounding the town of Nemea. No-one
had been able to defeat it, and when Hercules first engaged it in
battle he learned why: The arrows he fired simply snapped as they
struck the Nemean lion’s impenetrable golden skin! He tried again
with spear and sword, but nothing could penetrate its fur, and when
it slashed him with its razor-sharp claws, the enormous, bloody
lacerations it left proved that Hercules’ skin was nowhere near as
tough as the lion’s.
Its strength, while not quite the match of Hercules, was
formidable, and he had to dodge blow after blow; the lion even
smashed a tree to splinters with its huge paws! Some versions of the
story claim that he bested it by firing an arrow into its mouth, but its
enormous teeth were more than capable of biting any arrow in two
long before it could damage anything within its throat.
Hercules, bloodied and exhausted, knew he could not beat it in
hand-to-hand combat, and could not penetrate its fur. The lion, too,
was tired, and retreated to its lair. Seeing his advantage, Hercules
followed stealthily, but even his bravery shrank when he saw that
lying at the mouth of the cave was the slashed body of another lion!
Its fur was just as golden and impenetrable as that of their kin, so the
lion he fought was not just mighty, but mighty enough to kill its chief
rival.
And yet it gave him an idea. He approached the body, took
something from it, and was able to not only kill the Nemean lion, but
skin it and wear its pelt!

Question: How did Hercules kill and then skin the

Nemean lion?

ANSWER
 THE SECOND LABOUR: THE
LERNAEAN HYDRA
For his second labour, the king tells Hercules to defeat the Hydra, a
gigantic water serpent that dwells in the lake of Lerna.

“She is the child of Typhon and Echidna, but her power and
hideousness outweigh even theirs. Her breath is poisonous and her
blood too, and even if you smell it, you will die. It has three mighty
heads, with blazing eyes as big as shields and jagged, sharp teeth
like dorata,” the king said. “Well…good luck.”

Hercules marched off boldly, rebuffing the king’s attempts to scare

him. But what the king had not told him was that whenever one of
the Hydra’s heads was severed from its neck, the neck would split in
twain and grow into two new heads!
Athena, goddess of wisdom, sought out Hercules’ nephew Iolaus
and told him of this.

“Once the head is severed, it takes as long to grow back as it does

for Hercules to sever it. But if you cauterize the stump with a
firebrand, it will not grow back. It should take you 29 seconds to do
this. Go to him!”

Iolaus ran to the lake and as he arrived, he saw that Hercules had
already severed a head and was in the act of severing a second. The
first head had not grown back yet, and Hercules greeted his nephew
cheerily.

“Well met, Iolaus! I am halfway through this beast’s second neck…”

he shouted, as Iolaus immediately began cauterizing the first
stump.
“HOW LONG DID THE FIRST TAKE YOU?!” Iolaus shouted,
holding his nose against the poisonous fumes.
“I don’t recall. But halfway took me 15 seconds.”
“Ah.”

Question: How many heads will Hercules have to sever

before the beast is defeated?

ANSWER
 THE THIRD LABOUR: THE
CERYNEIAN HIND
After these two shows of might, Eurystheus decided the next labour
should be a test of Hercules’ speed.
In Ceryneia there was an enormous hind, a female deer that
nonetheless had huge golden antlers and bronze hooves, and snorted
fire. It was the fastest land animal in the world. Hercules had to
capture it, but he wanted to do so without harming it because it was
beloved of Artemis, goddess of the hunt, and she would exact a fierce
revenge on him unless he showed her due consideration.
Hercules was very swift of foot, and chased the hind for an entire
year. But ultimately he concluded that he would have to wound the
beast if he were to have any chance of stopping it. He knew that the
hind was capable of running twice the speed of any normal arrow,
but he had been gifted a silver bow by Apollo, and he knew that any
arrow fired from it would initially travel at the average speed of an
arrow (300km an hour), but then would increase in speed by 1km a
second every minute.

Question: What is the speed of the hind; and if Hercules

fires an arrow from this bow at the hind from 10km
away, and there is no obstruction or other adverse effect
from wind or anything else, can it strike the hind?
ANSWER
 THE FOURTH LABOUR: THE
ERYMANTHIAN BOAR
Eurystheus grew increasingly furious at Hercules’ success. Then he
learned about a boar that lived on Mount Erymanthos that generated
a great fear in any who saw it – even the famously staunch Centaur
tribe that lived there. He gave Hercules the task of capturing it alive,
in the hope that he, too, would be too cowardly to succeed.
After an unfortunate encounter with the Centaurs, Hercules finally
came to the boar’s territory at around dawn. Unlike the hind, the
boar was hated by Artemis, but she had been forbidden to hunt it by
her twin brother, Apollo (who rode the sun chariot), as he claimed it
as his own personal quarry.
When Hercules spotted the boar in the distance to the north, he
did not find it frightening to look upon. In fact, maybe the boar was
afraid of him, as it quickly began running to Hercules’ left! He gave
chase and followed the boar as it ran west. Surprisingly, the boar was
very fast, and for hours Hercules chased the boar as its path changed
from running west to north, and then finally running east! Hercules
caught up to the boar just as the sun had finally set… only for it to
immediately turn around and snarl directly into Hercules’ face with
incredible ferocity before goring him with its tusks! As Hercules
retreated in the dark, he reasoned that it must not have been him
that the boar was running from. Suddenly Hercules laughed as he
realized the truth of the matter,, and with that information was able
to corner the boar in a snowbank.

Question: What was the boar running from?

ANSWER
 THE FIFTH LABOUR: AUGEAN
STABLES
The judge peered cynically at Hercules as he stood in the witness box
of the court of King Augeas.

“And you say that you cleaned out the Augean stables single-
handedly?”
“That’s correct,” said Hercules boldly. “The cattle were each
producing 30 kilograms of manure a day. For 30 years! No-one
had cleaned it, and yet I did it in a day. That’s a great achievement
if you ask me! And the king promised me 300 of the cattle in
return.”
“His majesty’s offer of 10% of the cattle is not the source of this
dispute,
Mr. Hercules,” said the judge. “And what is a kilogram?”
“We’re using metric measurements today, Judge,” said his clerk.
“It’s a modern translation for the purposes of a puzzle. We’re also
using the Roman calendar.”
“Ah, yes, discounting leap years, I hope,” the judge said, examining
his papyrus. “Nevertheless, the reason we are here is that his regal
majesty, lord of all he surveys, accurately observed that it was not
you who cleaned out the stables.” Hercules scoffed at this. “I
rerouted two entire rivers so that they would flow through the
stables! I dug giant trenches from the rivers to the stable, so that
they would wash away the enormous quantities of manure! No-one
helped.”
“This is true…but does that not mean the rivers themselves were the
ones that cleaned out the stables?” asked the judge with an air of
satisfaction.
“If you sweep a courtyard clean, is it you who gets the credit, or the
broom?” asked Hercules, visibly tiring of this debacle.
“But the ‘courtyard’ isn’t clean, Mr. Hercules. You flushed over a
billion
‘kilograms’ of cow dung across the entire kingdom!” said the judge,
who had been in his garden at the time.
“Before I washed it away, the mound of manure was bigger than
Mount Olympus!” replied Hercules.

The judge considered this, then was handed a piece of paper by the
clerk.

“Ah, I see the king has decided to just banish you from the country
anyway. And have me executed. Shame.”
“Sorry, sir,” said Hercules. “I suppose I’ll just kill him and install his
son on the throne instead. I’ve had enough of this.”

Question: How much cow dung was at the stables when

Hercules arrived to clean them?

ANSWER
 THE SIXTH LABOUR: DEFEAT
THE STYMPHALIAN BIRDS
Enraged at Hercules’ smug success, Eurystheus decided to use
Hercules’ incredible strength against him. At this point Eurystheus
had taken to hiding in a large pithos, a storage jar that dwelt in his
basement, because he had been so frightened by the lion and the
boar. Hercules descended to the basement and at first could not hear
what Eurystheus was saying, until his attendant opened the lid.

“... irds.”
“What?”
“I said, you must journey to Lake Stymphalia and kill the dreaded
birds!” Eurystheus shouted, and Hercules noted that the hollow
aperture of the jar actually amplified the king’s normally weak
voice.
“A bunch of birds? No problem.”

Hercules thought this labour was much easier than killing an

indestructible lion or a regenerating sea snake, even though he had
heard the Stymphalian birds had bronze beaks and metal feathers
they could fire like arrows. The birds had been attacking and
destroying the local area in huge flocks.
However, when he arrived, it seemed the birds had anticipated his
arrival and retreated to the now swamp-like lake area. As he entered
this zone, he suddenly found his feet sinking into the mire, his
legendary muscular bulk pulling him down!
This was a conundrum. He left the area, and the birds resumed
their attacks; but no matter how he tried to sneak back, they would
immediately retreat to the swamp.
Feeling defeated, he was surprised to see the figure of Athena,
goddess of wisdom, appear before him bearing some kind of castanet
or rattle.

“This krotala was built by Hephaestus to aid you. His legendary

skills of manufacture have ensured its noise will agitate and
frighten the birds into flight.”

Bearing the krotala, Hercules climbed a nearby mountain, pausing

only to refresh himself in a small lake near the peak. When at the
optimum point, he began using the krotala, and it produced a loud,
rhythmic clacking sound, like none he had ever heard.
And yet it was not loud enough to reach the ears of the birds in the
swamp. He needed to enhance the sound somewhat. Thinking
quickly, Hercules remembered something he had done just before he
had come to this spot, and also how he had solved the fifth labour.
Soon he had a place to stand where the sound was loud enough, and
as the birds flew into the air, he slaughtered most of them, shooting
them out of the air with arrows poisoned with the Hydra’s blood!

Question: How did Hercules amplify the sound of the

krotala?
ANSWER
 THE SEVENTH LABOUR:
CAPTURE THE CRETAN BULL
Eurystheus, angry and feeling cramped in his jar, decided to try and
get the other gods to become angered toward Hercules, so he
instructed Hercules to capture the famous Cretan bull. This
legendary creature had been presented to King Minos by Poseidon so
he could sacrifice it to the sea god. But Minos liked the bull so much
he let it live, and Poseidon’s rage led – through a series of escalating
circumstances – to Minos’ wife Pasiphaë giving birth to Asterion, the
half-human, half-bull Minotaur.
Unsurprisingly, when he arrived at Knossos, King Minos was quite
happy for Hercules to remove the bull from the kingdom. And the
actual capture of the bull was also much easier than that of the hind
or the boar, as it was not supernaturally strong or fast, just very
charismatic. Hercules snuck up behind it and got it in a chokehold,
releasing it once it was unconscious, and shipped it back to
Eurystheus, who didn’t know what to do with it!
He proposed sacrificing it to Hera, but she felt that Hercules would
get reflected glory from this act, and ultimately the bull was once
again released! It wandered to a place where, many years later, a
great battle would take place. Philippides, a mere messenger, would
undertake an act that would cement the name of this place in history,
not because of its people or its culture but simply because of its
distance from Athens. It was part of a famous series of sporting
events almost two millennia later, and was in fact also based on a
place supposedly founded by Hercules, just after he had cleared out
the stables.

Question: To which place did the bull wander?

ANSWER
 THE EIGHTH LABOUR: THE
MARES OF DIOMEDES
“Hercules can transport a wild beast on its own… but can he
transport the four wildest horses in the land?”

Eurystheus roared to himself in his pythia. He sent a servant to

Hercules with a demand: “Bring him the mares of Diomedes!”
Hercules had heard tell of the monstrous beasts, kept as pets by
King Diomedes and fed primarily on the flesh of anyone unfortunate
enough to be captured by – or stumble upon the land of – the
Bistones, Diomedes’ tribe.
Hercules considered taking a full complement of men, but was
wary of the thought that it would mean he would not take sole credit
for the labour. Instead he went alone, and made a big show of
visiting the court of King Diomedes, feigning ignorance of the mares
and their true nature. He made a big show of getting drunk, but as
everyone joined in and then shortly after passed out, he snuck off,
carrying the unconscious form of the king himself.
The giant mares were tethered by iron chains to a huge bronze
trough, so mighty was their strength. One had a bright yellow mane
and skin, and was sleeping on the ground. A second had strangely
shining fur, like gold, and was licking at the empty trough with its
back to Hercules. A third was leaning up against a tree, the chain
pulled as taut as possible, its eyes closed in slumber. And a fourth
stood staring directly at him, its eyes almost burning with rage.
He knew their names: Deinos. Xanthos. Lampon. Podargos. And
he’d overheard that of that group only Podargos (the swift) had not
eaten recently. When their bellies were full, the mares were pliable;
but he had to ensure that the fourth horse had a fine meal…that of
the tyrannical king they served. But which horse was which? The
only other things he knew were that Lampon was not asleep;
Xanthos had a yellowish hue of some kind (or was it gold?); Athena
had whispered to him that neither Lampon nor Podargos could see
him; and Deinos was standing up.

Question: Which horse is Podargos?

ANSWER
 THE NINTH LABOUR: THE BELT
OF HIPPOLYTA
For his ninth labour, Eurystheus sent Hercules to claim the belt of
Hippolyta, the leader of the warlike Amazons, an all-female tribe of
hunters who dwelled on the island of Themiscyra. Eurystheus
claimed he wanted it for his daughter Admete, but in truth he and
Hera hoped that Hercules would immediately be rejected by them.
Hercules decided to take a retinue of men and set off on an ocean
journey; but he accidentally ended up on the island of Panos, which
was inhabited only by the sons of King Minos: Eurymedon, Chryses,
Nephalion and Philolaus.
They took against him, and in their attack killed a third of the men
who had sailed with Hercules. Hercules in turn killed half of their
own forces. Then his remaining men besieged the group until they
agreed to replace those that they had killed. As the crew departed,
this left the island uninhabited.
Question: How many men left on the journey, and how
many arrived in Themiscyra, including Hercules?

ANSWER
 THE TENTH LABOUR: THE
CATTLE OF GERYON
“This ninth labour was most dismaying,” Hercules said
as he handed Eurystheus’ servant the belt.
“I met Hippolyta alone, and then thought she had set an
ambush; so I killed her and took the belt. But I realize now
that a dark force had turned the Amazons against me.”

Eurystheus remained quiet, as he knew it was his goddess, Hera,

that had done this. But annoyingly, Hercules had still completed the
labour.

“Um…go get me the cattle of Geryon,” he blurted out.

“The three-headed giant who lives at the very edge
of the world? How many of his cattle?”
“All. Bring them all here alive. Then you have completed your
labours.”

At this point, the events of Hercules’ journey have become

distorted by time, and the following events are not chronological.
Can you discern their true order?
1. Hercules gives the cattle to Eurystheus, who sacrifices them to
Hera.
2. The sun god Helios admires Hercules’ bravery and gives him a
magical golden cup.
3. Hercules gathers the scattered cattle and gets them across a
river by filling it with rocks.
4. Hercules journeys through the Libyan desert. Enraged by the
heat, he fires an arrow at the sun!
5. Hercules is able to travel across the sea in the golden cup.
6. Hercules fights the three-headed Geryon and is able to kill him
with poisoned arrows.
7. Hera sends a gadfly, and the cattle disperse.
8. Upon arrival at the island of Erythia, Hercules is immediately
attacked by Orthrus, the two-headed guard dog, which he slays.
9. Hercules puts the cattle into his goblet and sails them back
across the sea.
10.Hercules returns the goblet to the sun and sets off with the
cattle.

Question: What’s the correct order of these events?

ANSWER
 THE ELEVENTH LABOUR: THE
GOLDEN APPLES OF THE
HESPERIDES
Eurystheus told Hercules his labours were not over.

“You did not defeat the Hydra alone!” the king shouted from his jar.
“And it was the rivers that cleaned the Augean stables, not thee! You
must complete two more labours. Bring me…golden apples from the
garden of the Hesperides!”

Hercules lured the Old Man of the Sea to the shore and trapped
him, suspecting he knew where the legendary garden was. And he
did: in the same place where Geryon lived!

“Eurystheus will never release you, Hercules,” the Old Man of the
Sea hissed. “He hates you. Everyone knows.”

On his way back to the islands he saw the Titan Prometheus,

chained to a rock and cursed to forever have his liver pecked out by
an eagle. Hercules freed him with an arrow, and Prometheus told
Hercules he couldn’t take any golden apples from the garden, as it
was guarded by an invincible dragon called Ladon. He suggested
instead that Atlas, another Titan, could get the apples, as the
Hesperides were his daughters.
 Atlas was cursed to bear the entire sky on his shoulders as a
punishment, and was exiled on a mist-shrouded island. Hercules
travelled there and offered to bear the sky. Atlas would be permitted
relief from his torment as long as he went to get the apples.

Atlas kept his word, and got them, but as he returned to Hercules,
he suddenly realized he had an idea. He would return the apples
himself to Eurystheus as a favour to Hercules…while Hercules
continued to hold the sky.
This loophole would mean that Atlas could walk free and Hercules
would bear the sky forever! Some tales say that Hercules tricked
Atlas into taking the sky back by asking for a moment free of it to
adjust his tunic, so the sky would sit better on his shoulders. But an
earlier version of the legend has Hercules find a stranger solution. As
Atlas prepared to leave, Hercules prayed to Athena and asked that
she tell his men to sail toward this island bearing two lamps of Greek
fire and using Hephaestus’ krotala.

Question: What does Hercules say to Atlas to make him

take back the sky?
a. That holding the sky is actually very enjoyable.
b. That a huge monster is coming and that only he,
Hercules, can defeat it.
c. That Eurystheus would only accept the apples from
Hercules.

ANSWER
 THE TWELFTH LABOUR:
CAPTURE CERBERUS
For the twelfth labour, Eurystheus sought a task impossible for even
the mighty Hercules. So he commanded him to enter the Underworld
– the kingdom of Hades, where mortals went to die – and bring back
Cerberus, the giant, demonic, three-headed dog that guards its
entrance.
First Hercules was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries; he
learned the story of Persephone’s abduction by Hades, and
Demeter’s desperate quest to secure her return from the
Underworld.

“Young man, remember that this tale, like all, serves the purpose of
its teller,” said the priest mysteriously. “And if you find yourself
doubting, there is nothing wrong with going back.”

Hercules took that to mean that he would be better off tackling

Cerberus from behind than by facing it head on. Knowing that
Cerberus guarded the Underworld’s entrance at Tainaron, he instead
travelled to an alternative entrance in Acherusia. This was usually
used as an exit, so it was not as well known – or well guarded.
Hercules then journeyed through the entire Underworld before
arriving behind the monstrous hound. Only by using chains was he
able to subdue and bind it.
 Once he was finished, he looked up and saw that there were three
identical sealed doorways.
Cerberus’ middle head spoke.

“Three doors there are, and three heads have I. One door leads to
escape, the other two to eternal imprisonment. Of my heads, one
speaks the truth – except for questions about the Underworld. One
speaks only lies – except for questions about the other heads. And
one speaks the truth if the head that has spoken before it has lied,
but speaks lies if the previous head has spoken the truth. You may
ask only two questions.”

Hercules turned to the first head.

“Which door leads to the surface?”

“The third door,” the dog’s first head uttered gruffly.

He turned to the third head.

“Does the first head speak truly?”

“No,” the dog’s third head intoned.

Hercules considered this and realized which exit he needed to use.

Question: Which exit should Hercules use to leave the
Underworld?

ANSWER
 THE FALL OF ICARUS
After Theseus made his way through the labyrinth and killed the
Minotaur, King Minos decided to imprison the maze’s designer,
Daedalus, as well as his son Icarus. He suspected them of telling
Ariadne to give Theseus the thread, although Daedalus suspected he
simply wanted someone to blame…

“This tower cannot be escaped,” Minos growled. “The exit has been
sealed and you are 200 feet up. I have included a window, though. I
am not a monster.”

What Minos did not consider was that he had imprisoned the
greatest inventor of the age, and Daedalus began the construction of
wings for both himself and his son, gathering the feathers of flocking
birds and using beeswax to glue them to structures made from
clothing and linen and wood.
Finally their wings were complete, but they needed to test them to
ensure they would work.
On the first day, Daedalus was concerned about the dim daylight
and choppy seas with occasional bursts of wind. But they managed to
glide from the tower and then circle back with little effort, even if the
humidity led to some of the feathers becoming unstuck.
 Icarus was excited to go out on the second day, as he had found the
flight exhilarating. The humidity had reduced, and although the
daylight was still dim, there were hints of light in the distance. Birds
were flying higher in the sky, so they had to dodge them somewhat.
But they found they could fly even further than before, and they
returned to rest for the next day, and their hopeful escape.
On the last day, all the signs seemed to be on their side. The birds
were flying higher than ever. Visibility was much better, depending
on the angle at which you were flying. It was warmer but less humid.
The sky was blue.
I think many of us know what happened next. Icarus flew too close
to the sun and his wings disintegrated, while his father survived. But
there was another factor that made the first two days more successful
than the last.
Question: What was it that ensured that Icarus survived
the two days of tests they made, but died on the third?

ANSWER
 THE QUEST OF PERSEUS
Four generations earlier lived another of Zeus’ children: Hercules’
ancestor Perseus. As a child he was thrown into a wooden crate,
along with his mother, Danaë, by her father, King Acrisius. Acrisius
was fearful of a prophecy that said his grandson would kill him, but
was too afraid of Zeus’ retribution to execute either of them, so he
had the crate tossed into the ocean. They ended up on an island,
where they were hauled out by Dictys the fisherman, and ended up
joining the court of his brother, King Polydectes. It is here that
Perseus’ adventures began…
 PERSEUS PART I: BYOH
As Perseus grew up, he could not fail to notice King Polydectes’
interest in his mother and, as she did not share this interest, he
would protect her. The scheming Polydectes therefore sought to get
rid of Perseus, either through disgrace or death.
He decided to do this in the most obvious way: He threw a “bring
your own horse” party, knowing that Perseus didn’t have one and
would therefore be unintentionally insulting his host. The party was
in honour of Hippodamia, and to drive home his point Polydectes
told the story of the famous legend about her suitors:

“King Oenomaus had been told a prophecy that he would be killed

by his son-in-law. A lot of that going around in those days! So he
declared that any man who sought to be her suitor had to defeat
him in a chariot race. And he was excellent at chariot racing. He
successfully defeated and executed 18 of her suitors and used to
decorate the spires of his palace with their severed heads. Pelops
wanted to marry Hippodamia and had no intention of becoming
head No. 19. So he spoke to Poseidon about how to defeat
Oenomaus.
‘Seek the aid of Myrtilus the charioteer,’ Poseidon said. ‘He will help
you tamper with the king’s chariot. Just remember that he could
take away the suitors’ lives, but only you can take away their
names from where they are displayed.’”

“Pelops found this confusing, but travelled to the court nonetheless.

Oenomaus gave him a tour and made a big show of pointing out
particular heads on the spires that he liked.”

“Look there, on the eleventh tower – that one was Tricolonus! And
on the fifteenth tower, the noble Aeolius! And see there on the ninth
tower, it is Lasius! How handsome he still seems, despite the decay.”

Finally Pelops was able to meet Myrtilus, and convinced him to

help sabotage the king’s chariot in exchange for half the kingdom
and a night with Hippodamia. Once the sun set, and the palace slept,
the two of them snuck to the stables where the chariots were kept.
However, Myrtilus had not anticipated that Oenomaus would have
three potential chariots for the race the next day, each marked with a
different number!

Question: Which numbered chariot was the king going

to use the next day?
a. 11-15-09
b. 7-4-23
c. 1-8-3

ANSWER
 PERSEUS PART II: FIFTY
SHADES OF GRAEAE
Perseus offered to bring Polydectes any gift he desired.

“I want the head of the Gorgon Medusa,” Polydectes replied.

Athena told Perseus he would have to seek the Graeae, three

creatures that looked like old women: Pemphredo, Enyo and Persis.
They had only one eye and one tooth among the three of them.
They agreed that at no point would any of them have both the eye
and the tooth, and if they received one they would have to pass the
other.
As Perseus approached, all three sat outside their lair looking to
lure in victims. They were clustered around a pot in which some foul-
smelling stew bubbled.

“I see a man approaches!” the first screeched.

“Who is it, Enyo?” asked the second.
“A stranger,” said the first. “He looks tough.”
“Hopefully not as tough as our last visitor,”
grunted the third Graia, chewing determinedly
on a piece of meat. “Let me see him.”
“No, I want to see him!” said the second.
“My name is Perseus,” he shouted as the three
women scrambled amongst themselves.
“Persis?” asked the second. “That’s my name! You can’t have it!”
“Per-see-us,” the first said. “And he can see
us. Though I can’t see him now.”
“Shut up and eat something,” the third muttered,
then in a much sweeter voice she trilled, “Come, my
poor fellow, you must be tired after your journey.”
“Ooh, he’s handsome!” said the second.
“I will stand,” said Perseus.
“You sound tired,” the third continued. “Does he look tired?”
“See for yourself,” the second said, touching
her face and throwing something.
“Be careful with that!” the third said. “Ah, yes. You must sit.”
“Ptui!” spat the first. “Ooh, it came out.
Stick your hand in there and get it.”
“Do it yourself!” said the second.
“Not you, her!” said the first.
“Maybe he can get it for us,” said the
second. “Now that he’s sat down.”
“He hasn’t,” said the third.

Perseus realized he had to steal the eye if he was to force them to

reveal the garden’s location. So he sat carefully with the women, and
waited for it to be passed.
The second woman said, “Just stick your hand in the pot there.”
Perseus stuck his arm in the hot stew and got the tooth.

Question: To which sister should he give the tooth:

Pemphredo, Enyo or Persis?
ANSWER
 PERSEUS PART III: SNAKE
GOOD HAIR OF YOURSELF
The Graeae finally revealed the location of Medusa. She dwelled
within a ruined temple on Sarpedon, but despite her isolation she
was still visited by many warriors hoping to vanquish her. She had
been tragically transformed into her current form by Athena, and
Perseus had heard tales that she was either incredibly beautiful or
shockingly hideous, but he wondered if this ambiguity was yet
another thing designed to drive people to look upon her.
He arrived at the temple and moved past the porch to the ranks of
columns that formed the outside. These had fallen and were so
tangled with vines and other plants that there was no way to enter
but through the central doorway. Taking care not to look too closely,
he observed that there were three main pathways through the broken
stone and seats that led up to the furthest wall, where he could hear a
laboured, rasping breath.
Now to put his plan into action. He took the mirrored shield of
Athena that the Hesperides granted him and used it to see where
Medusa was. The Gorgon sat on a throne against the furthest wall,
apparently not seeing him, her face twisted in regret.
He also saw that the room was filled with what seemed at first to
be statues but were clearly Medusa’s previous victims – dozens of
them!
Men, women, even some animals, all frozen in their poses of shock or
dismay as they had looked upon her and turned to stone.

As long as he looked only at the mirror and not at her, Perseus

could avoid their fate. But Medusa also clearly had incredible
strength, speed and venomous snake hair, so Perseus also wanted to
get to her without being seen.
Of the three pathways, the first had the most statues, an enormous
cluster of them. The second had fewer statues, more widely spaced
apart. And the third was almost empty, just a few here and there. A
blind spot?
Gazing into the mirrored shield, he knew his presence here could
not remain secret forever. Time to choose.

Question: Which path should Perseus choose: the first,

second or third?

ANSWER
 PERSEUS PART IV: GOING,
GOING, GORGON
Perseus surged forward, and before Medusa could even move he
decapitated her with his magical sword! The body plunged forward
and as her venomous blood flowed onto the stone floor something
incredible happened: two identical winged horses sprung from the
blood, just as the Hesperides suggested!
But before Perseus could say anything to them, Medusa’s severed
head emitted one last, horrifying screech that echoed through the
temple.

Then Perseus heard another snarling voice shout, “Sister? What has
happened?” followed by a second howling, “We are coming!”

Perseus had not realized that the other two Gorgons, Euryale and
Stheno, also dwelled here. They could also turn people to stone and,
unlike Medusa, were immortal. Quickly putting her head in his sack,
he saw the entrance to an underground tunnel and quickly darted
inside.
But he’d been too late.

He heard Euryale’s horrifying howl of despair followed by Stheno

saying, “He went into the catacombs! Quickly, sister!”
 He saw only one recourse: He quickly put on the helm of darkness,
a gift from Hades that would grant him invisibility! But what Hades
neglected to mention was that the helmet had no eyeholes! Perseus
was now invisible, but also blind. A helm of darkness indeed.
Nonetheless he continued forward, using his sense of touch and his
exceptionally sharp hearing, with the Gorgons screeching their
confusion at his disappearance. He felt along the damp walls of the
tunnel.

“We must stop him before he gets to the lake!” Stheno screeched,
before being shushed by her sister.

A possible method of escape? He had heard the Gorgons could not

step onto still water.
Eventually he came to a kind of crossroads. He could tell he was at
the nexus of five different tunnels, all of which were possible exits,
but he still could see nothing and the Gorgons were right behind
him.
The first tunnel had the sound of whooshing waves. The second
had the sound of dripping, glutinous slime. The third sounded like
some kind of roaring fire. The fourth had the sound of cawing birds.
And the fifth had some kind of sinister subterranean rumbling.

Question: Which tunnel leads to the lake, and therefore

escape?

ANSWER
PERSEUS PART V: GET A HORSE
As he emerged onto the shores of the lake, he heard the angry cries of
the Gorgons in the tunnels behind him. Removing his helm, he saw
that the lake was huge, and he saw no way that he could return to the
king to give him his prize.
It was at this point that the two winged horses, born from
Medusa’s blood, emerged from among some nearby trees. They
approached Perseus warily.
The Hesperides had told him that upon Medusa’s death these two
stallions with wings would be created. One of them, Pegasus, would
prove a faithful companion and fly him anywhere he desired,
adventuring at his side once he stroked his mane. The other was his
brother, Chrysaor, who would be immediately hostile to him and any
human, attacking him if he dared touch him.
He would have to choose carefully – but the horses seemed
identical except for a few small details. They both had blinding white
coats and manes. The first horse had light brown eyes; wide, dark
wings with pointed feather tips like an ostrich; and strong, muscular
legs. The second had darker, redder eyes; a black diamond shape on
his forehead; and multi-layered wings, like an eagle.
Question: Which horse is Pegasus?

ANSWER
PERSEUS PART VI: PERSEUS VS
CETUS
Perseus now flew across the sky on the back of Pegasus, making his
way back to Polydectes to show him Medusa’s head. But as he flew
over the coast of Aethiopia, he witnessed a young woman chained to
a large rock.
He landed nearby and set about freeing her.

“You must go! Mother said she was more beautiful than the Nereids,
the sea nymphs. And Poseidon was not happy. So he flooded the
coast and sent a huge sea beast! Then mother consulted the
oracle…”
“And the oracle told her to sacrifice you?” Perseus asked, still
struggling with the chains.
“Yes.”
“Seems like the oracle’s main solution to everything,” Perseus said,
finally removing the chains.

The young woman introduced herself as Andromeda, but just as

she stepped off the rock the enormous sea beast emerged from the
water, howling and blowing water out of its blowhole. Cetus was a
gargantuan whale with the head of a giant, enraged, snarling boar!
It immediately lunged for the two of them with its gaping mouth.
 Perseus noted that its entire face was covered in sea creatures, with
hundreds of barnacles on its tusks and its cavernous nostrils
seemingly clogged with coral.
Perseus had to think fast, as the creature could swallow both of
them without even needing to chew. He grabbed the chains that had
bound Andromeda and, leaping into the air, whirled them around
the beast’s enormous jaws, binding them tightly shut!
The beast tumbled into the water, unable to release the chains. For
minutes there was no sign except for a few bubbles, and he was ready
to tell Andromeda to run before the beast suddenly reared up again,
smashing into the shoreline and impeding their escape.

“I thought it would suffocate,” said Perseus with confusion.

“I think you need this,” said Andromeda, and with surprising
strength she uprooted a small nearby tree.

Question: What should Perseus do with the tree to

defeat Cetus?

ANSWER
 PERSEUS PART VII: THE FINAL
CHAPTER
As Perseus and Andromeda flew away on Pegasus they fell deeply in
love, and they were resolved nothing would stand in their way.
Not Phineas, to whom Andromeda had already been promised in
marriage by her parents, King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. At
Perseus and Andromeda’s wedding, Phineas attacked Perseus, but
Perseus defeated him without even touching him.
Not King Polydectes, who sent Perseus on the quest in the first
place. He had heard of Perseus’ success so, to try and hide from the
hero, he had extinguished all the lights in his palace and covered all
windows and doors so not a single beam of light could enter. But
Perseus killed him and made his brother Dictys, the true love of his
mother, the new king.
Not King Proetus, brother of Perseus’ grandfather King Acrisius.
He had forced Acrisius into exile and stolen his throne; and despite
this, in broad daylight, Perseus killed him in seconds and restored
the throne to Acrisius.
And not King Acrisius, who, seconds after thanking Perseus for
restoring him to power, suffered the same fate as his brother. This
was Perseus’ final revenge for his grandfather exiling him and his
mother, and the fulfilment of the prophecy that led to that exile in
the first place.
 What was the way that Perseus did this? The severed head of
Medusa retained its ability to turn any who gazed at it to stone. But
the truth is, one of the above people was not killed in this way.

Question: Who did Perseus not turn to stone with

Medusa’s head?

ANSWER
 NARCISSUS
Narcissus was a famous hunter, but it wasn’t his ability to fire arrows
or track prey that gave him fame; it was his incredible beauty.
His mother, Liriope, knew from his birth that his appearance was
remarkable, and out of curiosity visited the seer Tiresias to ask about
his future.

The old man said that Narcissus would live for a long time, “Only if
he does not discover himself.”

Liriope did not understand this at the time. So when, many years
later, Narcissus was a fiercely handsome young man, she didn’t
worry about his incredible vanity.

“I am the most gorgeous in all creation,” he would say in the

mornings.

All the girls and many of the boys desired him, and every fashion
choice he made became a trend. He parted his hair to the left and so
did every man in the village. He wore a silver hair clasp on the right
of his scalp and these items suddenly became a form of currency!

He took to wearing a single leather bracer on his left arm so he could

rest his arrow on it when using his bow, and they had to kill the
entire herd of cattle to keep up with the demand for these items.
 But he rebuffed every single advance, saying he would know his
true love when he saw them.
And so he did when one day he stopped to take a drink from a
mountain pool and saw, swimming in it, the most beautiful youth he
had ever seen.
He tried to tell the youth that they were the love of his life, even if
they were wearing their bracer on the wrong arm, but they simply
mouthed his own words back to him.
They could never be together because, as you may have already
guessed, it was his own reflection. He wasted away staring at it and
died by the pool, the ground spouting the gold and white flower that
bears his name.
Why didn’t he recognize his own reflection? Well, he was
remarkably stupid. But there is another reason.

Question: Why didn’t Narcissus think the youth in the

pool was him?

ANSWER
 HYPNOS
Hypnos was the Greek god of sleep. Unlike many of the other gods,
he was usually considered gentle and calm, although he could be
persuaded into acts of mischief by the other gods. But his greatest act
of passion came through his love for Endymion. Selene, the moon
goddess, adored him too, but Hypnos sought the young man for
himself. In some retellings, Hypnos let Endymion sleep with his eyes
open, so he could gaze upon him during this time. But other myths
say that Hypnos’ love caused Endymion to sleep more and more until
eventually he never woke again.

If we imagine we are using the 24-hour clock, on the first day

Endymion was awake for 6 out of every 8 hours.
On the second day, he slept double the time he slept the day
before.
 On the third day, he slept 3 times the amount he slept the first day.
On the fourth day, he slept the total of the hours he was awake the
first day, plus the total of the hours he was awake the third.
On the fifth day, he slept twice the amount he slept on the second
day.
And on the sixth day, he slept 4 times the amount he slept on the
first.

Question: From which day was he no longer awake at

any time?

ANSWER
 SISYPHUS
Sisyphus was the first king of Ephyra and was notorious for
repeatedly defying the gods, whether it was by killing his guests (and
therefore breaking the Greek tradition of xenia, or hospitality) or by
tricking the various gods and denizens of the Underworld into
releasing him. After managing to anger Zeus, Ares, Hermes and
Hades, Sisyphus was sentenced to his famous punishment: to roll a
boulder up an enormous hill in the Underworld. As soon as he got
close to the top the boulder was enchanted to roll back down to the
bottom again, making his punishment theoretically eternal, and
inventing the adjective “Sisyphean” for a task that is futile or
unending.
As decades, then centuries, passed, the endless drama of the gods
and the chthonic residents meant that Sisyphus was almost
forgotten. When clearing out his realm to accommodate the new
casualties of an immense war, Hades was extinguishing several
streams of magma when he suddenly came across Sisyphus sitting
next to his boulder at the bottom of the hill.
Sisyphus’ brow was sweaty and his hands bore many scars. His
clothes were stained and torn from centuries of toil, but still intact.
His boulder, five times his size and pitted with cracks, moss and
blood stains from his hands, was at rest next to him. He eyed Hades
with a look both cunning and maddened by isolation.

“Why are you not pushing the boulder, penitent?”

Hades intoned in his rumbling voice.
“It has just rolled back down the hill,” Sisyphus panted.
“And I was resting for a few moments before beginning the next
push.”
“No,” said Hades grimly. “You have not pushed it for years. Perhaps
decades.”

Question: How does Hades know that Sisyphus has not

been pushing the boulder up the hill?

ANSWER
 THE ADVENTURES OF
BELLEROPHON PART I: XENIA
AND THE WARRIOR PRINCE
Bellerophon’s origins are murkier than those of other mythical
heroes, but it is widely agreed that he was the child of Queen
Eurynome, and his father may have been Poseidon. He was exiled
from his home kingdom for the murder of Belleros, but any detail of
who that might be has been lost to history.
In his exile, Bellerophon went to visit King Proetus, who was able
to cleanse him of his disgrace. But he soon ended up in disgrace
again when Proetus’ wife falsely accused him of attacking her.
The ancient Greeks followed a principle known as xenia, or “guest-
friendship” – a ritualized form of hospitality born out of Zeus’ status
as the god of guests, and also being rather fond of throwing lightning
around. It was also a good idea as the gods would often walk in
disguise among mortals.
Under xenia, hosts had to provide food, drink, accommodation and
other amenities as well as give gifts, and not ask a person’s name or
business until these had been provided, because it had to be
unconditional.
They also couldn’t kill their guests, like Prometheus did. The guest,
in turn, had to accept any offered hospitality, tell stories of their lives
and the world, and not overstay their welcome!
Proetus wanted to kill Bellerophon, but as he was his guest he
could not. But he thought he’d found a loophole. He wrote a tablet to
his father-in-law, King Iobates, detailing Bellerophon’s supposed
crime and asking Iobates to remove him from the world. He sealed it
and gave it to Bellerophon, asking him to deliver it to Iobates,
reasoning that, as he was not his guest, Iobates could kill
Bellerophon for him!
However, when Iobates read the message he found himself unable
to kill Bellerophon too.

Question: Why couldn’t King Iobates kill Bellerophon?

ANSWER
 THE ADVENTURES OF
BELLEROPHON Part II:
CAPTURING PEGASUS
Finding himself in the same bind that Proetus was in, King Iobates
fell back on what had become an increasingly popular way to try and
sidestep xenia: Challenging your guest to defeat a monster!
Iobates asked Bellerophon to defeat the Chimera, a vicious
monster terrorizing the countryside of the nearby region of Caria.
Obligated to comply, and eager to impress Iobates’ daughter
Philonoe, Bellerophon set out, and on the way met the seer Polyeidos
of Corinth. The seer advised that if Bellerophon wanted any chance
to defeat the creature, he should try to capture the famous Pegasus,
who had taken to living wild in the area after its adventures with
Perseus.
The flying horse could not be captured in the air, so Bellerophon
would have to wait until it landed. Pegasus’ eyrie was inaccessible, so
it would have to be when the beast stopped to drink. Even when it
did so, though, Bellerophon knew Pegasus was wild and strong and
liable to attack him if on peak form. Athena gave him a golden bridle,
which would calm the beast – but he had to get it on Pegasus first.
Bellerophon knew that Pegasus had three preferred watering
places. The first was in a shady glen surrounded by trees, their
branches groaning with fruit; but none dared pick it, so it rotted and
fermented on the branches, only occasionally falling into the
otherwise clean water.
The second was a rushing river near a wide plain, with only sparse
foliage dotting the landscape.
The third was a waterfall in an area thick with other wild animals,
which would also come to the drinking hole. They tolerated Pegasus’
presence, but would react to Bellerophon with aggression or fear.

Question: Which place would be best for Bellerophon to

capture Pegasus?

ANSWER
 THE ADVENTURES OF
BELLEROPHON PART III: THE
CHIMERA
Once he was wearing the bridle, Pegasus was considerably calmed,
and seemed happy to be accompanying a hero on their adventures
once again. Now to find the lair of the Chimera…
The beast was an unnatural union of three different animals. It had
a lion’s head and body; a goat’s head that could breathe fire sprouted
from its back; and instead of a tail it had a huge, venomous snake
with incredibly sharp teeth.
The term “chimera” has latterly been used to describe any such
hybrid animal in folklore or legend, and there are many in Greek and
Roman mythology, although most are a mix of only two animals.
There were Satyrs that were half human, half goat (humans are
animals, of course), and Centaurs that were half human, half horse.
Pegasus was a mix of horse and bird, and the Echidna (whose name
was later given to a real animal) was half human, half snake. And of
course we have the half-lion, half-bird Griffin, and the vicious half-
human, half-bird Harpies.

Question: If we imagine these creatures randomly

lettered A to F, can you work out which is which, using
the following clues?

• Creature B has no animal in common with the

Chimera.
• Creature A shares one animal with the Chimera and
one with Creature B.
• A, B, C and D all have the same animal.
• Creature E shares one common animal with Creature
F, but has no common animal with Creature A.
• Creature C has hooves.

ANSWER
 THE ADVENTURES OF
BELLEROPHON PART IV: EAT
LEAD, CHIMERA!
Bellerophon stopped at a small camp and learned from the men
there that the Chimera was nearby. Setting off, he approached the
lair from the air while riding Pegasus and shouted for the creature to
emerge. After a second, the Chimera came leaping out of the cave, all
three heads snarling! Bellerophon flew just out of the range of its
attack, dodging the blasts of fiery breath from its goat head. But,
while it couldn’t hurt him, Bellerophon found that he couldn’t hurt it
either! Any arrows he fired were immolated in moments. Any
weapons he threw were dodged expertly or simply bitten into pieces
by its powerful jaws.
Ultimately, he realized how to defeat the creature. If he put a large
piece of lead on the end of his spear, the beast’s fiery breath would
melt the metal as it was inside its mouth, choking it. But where could
he get lead so quickly? Its soft nature meant that – while Greeks
sometimes used it in its pure form for lamps and small statues, and
on tablets as a writing medium – it was usually alloyed with bronze
to make it stronger.
Back in the camp, he found that most of the metallic objects there
were alloys, and unsuitable. He had to act fast before the beast came
and killed any of the men. Then a messenger arrived with a letter
from Iobates suggesting that if Bellerophon took any longer, he
would assume he had run away in cowardice! Looking at this
message, Bellerophon knew he had found his answer.

Question: What did Bellerophon use to defeat the

Chimera?

ANSWER
 PART V: BOLDER ADVENTURES
The monster defeated, Bellerophon rode Pegasus back to the court of
King Iobates with its head as evidence. Iobates, not to be thwarted,
decided to instead send Bellerophon on more and more dangerous
errands, fighting pirates and armies and, in one infamous episode,
the Amazons.
Bellerophon’s triumphs were much more the result of his cunning
than his martial ability, and defeating the Amazons was going to be
difficult. He had been unable to face them one on one, or even
engage them at all without being spotted! But he had Pegasus, and
therefore an unfair advantage.
Loading Pegasus up with a small variety of boulders in a net, he
used the beast’s incredible strength and superb flying ability to dive-
bomb the surprised warrior women. He aimed to get them to
surrender in confusion as quickly as possible before they realized
what was happening or how to counter it. But he had been uncertain
whether to use heavier boulders to injure and kill as many Amazons
as possible, or lighter ones to allow him to drop more of them in a
short period of time.
In the end he decided to use both, levelling a 1kg boulder at the
queen and a 5kg boulder at her second in command.

Question: If neither woman moves, and both boulders

are dropped at exactly the same time from exactly the
same height, which Amazon would be hit first?

ANSWER
 PART VI: THE STING
After Bellerophon defeated the Amazons, Iobates decided he could
no longer try to defeat him and, upon learning of Proetus’ wife’s
deception, permitted Bellerophon to marry his daughter.

For a while, all was well. Bellerophon and Philonoe had many
children, and Bellerophon settled down to help rule the kingdom.
But his memories of his victories caused him to become arrogant.
He had tamed Pegasus! Killed the Chimera! Defeated the Amazons!
His father was a god. Surely he, too, should dwell on Olympus.
 So one day he saddled up Pegasus and set out across the sky to fly
up to Olympus and claim his place in the pantheon!
The Olympian gods, however, disagreed. A hero may do many
great deeds, but it does not make them a god. They discussed
attacking him with wind, lightning or many terrible monsters. But in
the end Zeus decided the best message was to send a tiny insect to fly
and sting Pegasus. When this happened, Bellerophon was thrown
immediately and fell many miles to the ground. Whether he died or
lived in agony is widely disputed. Pegasus himself arrived at
Olympus and was immediately claimed by Zeus to carry his
thunderbolts while he was roaming.
But which tiny creature did Zeus send? When he put out a call
among the mini beasts of Olympus, five answered: a spider, a
housefly, an ant, a butterfly and a hoverfly.

Question: Which insect did Zeus choose to sting

Pegasus?

ANSWER
 DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
Demeter was the goddess of agriculture, in particular grains like
wheat and other seasonal crops. The Eleusinian Mysteries that
Hercules studied to gain access to the Underworld told of her
daughter Persephone’s abduction by Hades. He was infatuated with
her, and Zeus gave him permission to take her. But Demeter was so
enraged and upset by this that she made it so nothing could grow
anywhere across the world, and set off searching for her daughter.
The god’s worshippers starving in the bleak, famine-ridden
landscape meant that Zeus had to order Hades to return Persephone.
But Hades tricked Persephone into eating something and, by the
laws of the Underworld, if you eat any food there you are obliged to
remain. However, as the food was only six pomegranate seeds,
Persephone was required to remain there for just six months.
So every year Persephone would spend six months on the surface
world with her mother, then travel back to the Underworld, and
Demeter’s despair would cause the land to become cold and plants to
stop growing, die or hibernate. This is what caused the seasons of
autumn and winter.
Of course, Demeter’s despair did not mean that nothing at all grew.
In fact, some plants, like evergreen trees, were blessed by her and
had magical properties. There are even some plants, including
brassicas, that would seem to defy the forces of time. There is a tale
of a type of chard that was sown in 1798, and yet grew and was
reaped in 1797.

Question: How is it possible for seeds planted in 1798 to

result in plants in 1797?

ANSWER
 PIECES OF PELOPS
One of the reasons why Greek heroes – even those who were children
of the gods – were not welcomed in Olympus was the actions of one
of Zeus’ children, King Tantalus.
He was brought to the table at Olympus and given food and drink
by the gods. But Tantalus considered himself cleverer than the gods,
and stole ambrosia and nectar to give to his people.
While this could be seen as an act of charity, or a rebalancing of
power, Tantalus’ main crime was much worse. He wanted to learn if
the gods were truly as omniscient as they claimed. But rather than
engage them in a game of “guess which hand the coin is in,” he chose
to murder his son Pelops, chop him up and serve him to the gods as a
stew.
This horrific act was to no avail, as the gods did in fact realize what
he had done and refused to eat the stew (except for Demeter, who
was distracted by the situation with Persephone and accidentally ate
Pelops’ shoulder). Tantalus was immediately thrown into the
Underworld for a particularly grim punishment, and the parts of
Pelops were given to Clotho, one of the Moirai, or Fates. They were
the personification of people’s destiny and, as such, had incredible
powers, and the gods knew that this was not the final fate of poor
Pelops.
Clotho got her magic cauldron and put the pieces inside, boiling
them again in a magical fluid that would reconnect them. But she
had to get them in the right order, which was:

1: Head; 2: Neck; 3: Torso; 4: Arms; 5: Hands; 6: Legs; 7: Feet

But as she put them in, she saw that they were in this order:

5: Hands; 3: Torso; 4: Arms; 1: Head; 7: Feet; 2: Neck; 6: Legs

However, Clotho knew that every time she stirred the magic
cauldron, any body part that was a lower number than the one to its
left would move left by one. Each body part would only move once
per stir, unless of course displaced by another one moving left.

Question: How many times would Clotho have to stir the

cauldron before Pelops’ body was in the right order?

ANSWER
 THE TORMENT OF TANTALUS
Tantalus’ punishment in the Underworld was uniquely harsh, so
much so that the word “tantalizing” has its origins in this myth.
He was cursed to stand with his feet in a pool of clear, fresh water
underneath the branches of an enormous, lush tree on which grew
the juiciest fruit imaginable. But if he ever tried to reach up with his
hands to grab the fruit, the branches of the tree would lift up out of
his reach, no matter how high he jumped. The fruit would never fall
off naturally, either, or be shaken off by anything.
Furthermore, if he tried to bend down to drink the cool water, it
would drain away from him, even if he literally laid down on the
bottom of the pool. For centuries he had to remain like this, unable
to leave, as a giant rock hung over him and would crush him if he
ever left the pool, and he would immediately return, still starving and
emaciated but unable to die.
What Tantalus didn’t realize, however, was that there was a way he
could have had some of the fruit – a loophole in the curse that he
never discovered.

Question: How could Tantalus have had some of the

fruit?

a. Shake the tree.

b. Climb the tree.
c. Stand on his head.
d. Crouch down and leap up quickly.
e. Jump out of the pool so that the boulder hits the tree.

ANSWER
 A ZEUS CONNECTION
One of the interesting consequences of the gods having so many
children but being functionally immortal (or at least incredibly long-
lived) is that their children spanned many generations. Centuries
could pass between some of the Greek heroes who were sired by
different gods at different times.
In some situations, these heroes were even said to be descended
from each other, both as a sign of their own “pedigree” and as a
recognition of the interconnectedness of their mythological world
and their journey.
One of the biggest ones was that Hercules was said to be descended
from Perseus. Some accounts say that he was his great-grandson. But
as they were both the sons of Zeus, that means they were also half-
brothers.
This puts Zeus in an interesting but probably not unique situation
of being related to himself.

Question: Based on this information, what relation is

Zeus to himself in this scenario?

ANSWER
 JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS
THE ARGONAUTS PART I: THE
CREW
Another famous mythological saga is that of Jason and his crew’s
journey in the Argo to get the Golden Fleece.
Jason’s birth was originally kept secret, as his uncle Pelias had
usurped his father Aeson’s throne and killed all his descendants.
Sent away for his protection by his mother, he returned to confront
his uncle when he was a man. On the way, he lost a sandal in a river,
and as Pelias had heard from an oracle that a one-sandalled man
would kill him and inherit his kingdom, he knew who Jason was. But
once again, according to the rules of hospitality, Pelias could not
have him executed. So instead he set Jason a challenge: If he brought
him the Golden Fleece, he could have the kingdom.
Jason quickly arranged for a boat to be built: the Argo, named
after its designer, Argus. And he knew he’d need a large crew, as he
was not beloved by the gods (or so he thought) and would need their
help at every turn.
His crew was about 50 men, but if you read the following five
descriptions, you will realize that one of them could not have been on
board:
1. Orpheus: Legendary bard and court musician, who later
descended into the Underworld to retrieve his love, Eurydice.
2. Hercules: The famous warrior, he of the 12 labours.
3. Autolycus: Compatriot of Hercules and later the founder of
Sinope.
4. Perseus: The hero, defeater of Medusa and rider of Pegasus.
5. Castor and Pollux: The famous twins, known in Latin as the
constellation Gemini.

Question: Which of these men was not an Argonaut?

ANSWER
THE ARGONAUTS PART II: ARGO
ROW
The Argo had many amenities, including different types of sacred
wood and a legendary prow that could speak with a human voice and
tell oracles.
Some storytellers claim it was the first boat; this has been
contradicted by multiple other sources, but it can be agreed that it
was an advanced ship with special sails. However, it could not rely on
these to convey it all the way, as the crew’s protection came primarily
from Hera; and Poseidon, while not planning to sink the vessel, also
had no particular interest in its success, as Pelias was his son. For
that reason, the Argonauts found themselves becalmed and had to
resort to the boat’s second form of propulsion: two rows of 25 oars
each side, to be rowed by the 50 men.
At first they made good progress. But as water supplies dwindled
and the sun beat down, the men found themselves delirious and
close to passing out. Twenty-five of them collapsed and were unable
to row, and the 25 who remained, after attending to their comrades,
sat down and did their best to try to row to dry land, which was
100km away.
But strangely, when there were 50 men feeling strong, they
progressed about 30km toward dry land in two hours. When the
same 50 were feeling weaker, they managed to travel about 15km
toward dry land in the same time. But when the 25 men sat down
they found that, despite rowing at about the same speed, they could
not make any progress at all toward dry land.

Question: Assuming that Poseidon had not played a

trick on them or blown wind against them, why could
the 25 Argonaut rowers not make any progress?

ANSWER
 THE ARGONAUTS PART III:
CYZICUS’ PARTY
After a brief, somewhat shameful detour to the island of Lemnos, the
Argonauts found themselves among the Doliones, a coastal tribe
whose king, Cyzicus, extended incredible hospitality to them. He was
in fact delighted to meet so many great warriors, in particular some
of the famous heroes whom the Argonauts counted amongst their
number. Orpheus even composed a new song in honour of the tribe
and their remarkable generosity.
The Argonauts intended to go past Bear Mountain, and the king
fully intended to tell them what lived in the land beyond there. It was
occupied by the Gegeines, a cluster of six-armed giants who hated
humans – except as a mid-morning snack. But the king was
distracted at the huge party he threw for the group and neglected to
mention this fact. And because of this, while Jason led the majority
of the group into the forest to look for more supplies, their ship was
ambushed, and it was only with Hercules’ intervention that the
giants could be defeated.
As they hung their palace with black cloth and doused their lights
in premature mourning of the horrible fate the Argonauts would
suffer, the king was asked why he had neglected to tell them about
the murderous giants. Cyzicus could only splutter that he had been
enraptured in conversation with one of the Argonauts:
“He has done so much… He’s been a drover and a musician, a
weightlifter and a spelunker – even a hydrological engineer!”

Question: Which Argonaut is he talking about: Orpheus,

Jason or Hercules?

ANSWER
 THE ARGONAUTS PART IV:
JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS
After their terrifying encounter with the giants, the Argonauts were
rattled, but also slightly resentful of the Doliones. How could they
not have warned them about the Gegeines? But Jason reminded
them that the Doliones may have been unaware of the giants.

“They live to the south of the mountains and may never have
ventured past them to this land. The Argo allowed us to come to
their lands, but they have no vessel of their own. They are not
explorers or adventurers.”

Finding no way forward, the Argonauts decided to board the now

somewhat damaged Argo and sail from the beach they were on, west
of the Gegeines’ camp. It was incredibly dark, without even the stars
to guide them, but they feared remaining and facing other unknown
threats.
They kept sailing west but then decided to tack south, then further
west, before coming back east almost as far as they had gone west
and finally heading to the north, where they found another beach. As
they disembarked they found the land to be just as dark as the sea,
and when a cry went up from a guard, the now paranoid Argonauts
launched into battle and were joined in their energy by the armed
forces of the place where they had just landed.
 It was only once the fight was over and their opponents lay dead on
the ground that the Argonauts realized what a terrible thing had
happened.

Question: Why was it terrible that the Argonauts had

killed their mysterious opponents?

ANSWER
 THE ARGONAUTS PART V:
POLLUX VS AMYCUS
The Argonauts continued on their series of unfortunate events,
having strange encounters and mysterious adventures. They came to
the land of the Bebryces, who were ruled over by the arrogant,
seemingly indestructible King Amycus.
Amycus, a son of Poseidon, was rude and aggressive and widely
disliked. His worst quality was that anyone who came within his
kingdom who he took personal offence to – which was most – he
would challenge to a boxing match.

“Look at these pathetic worms!” he roared as the Argonauts

entered the king’s combination throne room/boxing ring.
“Where is Hercules, the so-called mighty hero?”
“He left us a few adventures back,” said Jason, eyeing Amycus
warily.
“So the coward didn’t have the guts to face me? He’s been
to the Underworld but couldn’t square up to little old me?
I wanted to share reminiscences of seeing Charon…”
“I’m pretty sure he’s never heard of you,” said Pollux dismissively.
Amycus glared at Pollux with gritted teeth.
“YOU. In the ring, now.”
 Pollux squared up against the king. Even though he was twice
Pollux’s age, Amycus looked in incredible health. And as they began
trading blows, nothing Pollux did could seem to hurt Amycus. Every
blow landed seemed to have no effect, while Amycus’ punches were
seriously damaging Pollux.

“You could hit me with the whole Argo and it wouldn’t even bruise
my little finger, boy!” Amycus gloated. “Ever since my mother took
me by the arm and washed me, I can beat any man in the ring!”

Pollux was weakening, his left arm broken; but then he

remembered something the oracular mast of the Argo had whispered
to him once. It was the tale of a young warrior who would be born
generations from now, who would gain great strength from an
unexpected source – but with it, an unusual weakness.
Pollux wound up his right arm and in a swift blow hit Amycus
precisely on… the elbow! And yet somehow this one punch
immediately killed the king!
He dropped to the floor of the ring like a sack of olives.
Question: How did Pollux know that hitting Amycus’
elbow would kill him?

ANSWER
 THE ARGONAUTS PART VI:
PHINEAS AND HERBS
Finally the Argonauts came to a temple in Salmydessus where the
seer, Phineas, lived. He had been cursed with blindness by Zeus for
daring to use his powers to reveal the activities of the gods. And for
continuing to use his powers in defiance of this, he had been beset
with the “hounds of Zeus” known as the Harpies, half-human, half-
bird monsters that constantly hovered over where he lived.
The people of the town still cared for Phineas, and although they
could not come near his temple for fear of being attacked by the
monsters, they would come daily and leave food and water for him
on a table at the edge of the entrance.
However, as soon as Phineas touched the food, the Harpies would
descend! They could not attack him personally, but they would eat as
much as they could and befoul anything left!

“Why do they not attack you?” Jason asked Phineas

once they came to the temple and found him sitting on
the steps, looking barely more than skin and bones.
“Apollo, he who gave me the gift of prophecy, could not restore
my sight nor drive away the Harpies, but he has given me
this chiton that the Harpies find repulsive to their touch
and taste, so they cannot attack me directly. But they hound
me nonetheless, attacking all around me and taking any
food I try to eat. And the chiton is falling apart as well.”
Phineas scratched his arm and little threads
and pieces of the chiton flaked off.
Jason nodded. “Worry not, old man. We shall find a way to
kill these creatures. But how long have they hounded you?”
“Nigh on 10 years now,” he sighed.
“And yet you are still alive, even though they always
attack the instant you approach the food?”
Phineas tapped his nose. “Well… let me just say I have a special
herb that makes one or two of the foods inedible to the Harpies.”

Question: What is Phineas’ secret ingredient to keep the

Harpies away from some of the food?

ANSWER
THE ARGONAUTS PART VII: THE
DOVE FROM ABOVE
Luckily two of the Argonauts, Zetes and Calais, had winged feet and
helmets, and so were able to pursue the Harpies through the air and
slay them with ease. Thus released from his curse, Phineas happily
explained the precise route the Argonauts must take to get to the
Golden Fleece.

This route would, however, be perilous, and the most dangerous

part would be from the clashing rocks. These two cliffs lay at the end
of a narrow inlet and – through means magical or physical – would
clash together at a regular pace, crushing anything that tried to pass
between them!
It was very difficult for the Argonauts to judge whether, even with
the magical assistance and heroic efforts of its crew, they could make
it through the rocks without being crushed.

“It is not easy to see through the myths, but I can say that at rest
they stand about 500km apart,” said Autolycus, using modern
measurements to help avoid confusion.
“Every five minutes they begin rushing together, and it takes only
two minutes for them to smash into each other. They stay that way
for a mere five seconds and then pull apart at the same speed,
returning to their previous space.”
“How long is the face of each cliff?” Jason asked.
“From here I cannot tell,” Autolycus said sadly. “The Argo is 30m
long.”

A plan was formed to see if the cliffs were survivable. One of the
Argonauts had a pet dove, an adult male 30cm long (10cm of that
being its tail), and it was decided that they would sail as close to the
edge of where the cliffs met as they could and release the dove,
seeing if it would survive the passage through the cliffs. At the
moment just after the cliffs had clashed and were coming apart,
Jason released the bird and it flew directly forward as fast as it could,
and as the cliffs hurtled toward each other the entire crew gasped as
the dove was suddenly blocked from view by their collision.
Minutes later, the dove returned to the boat alive. However, it was
now missing its tail, which they realized had been caught between
the clashing rocks at the last second!

Question: If the dove flew at its top speed of 60km/h

through the cliffs, and the Argo normally travelled at
about 30km/h (much faster than most boats of its type),
at about what minimum speed would the Argo need to
travel to survive the clashing rocks?

ANSWER
 THE ARGONAUTS PART VIII:
DEATH IN THE WILD
The Argonauts rested briefly in the court of King Lycus, who
supported them greatly as they had killed King Amycus. Amycus had
been a fool to Lycus on multiple occasions, including pretending to
hold his hand out to shake it, and then pulling it back at the last
minute and adjusting his hair instead.
While there, a few of the Argonauts ventured into a nearby forest
for hunting and upon return had dire news: Idmon had been slain.
This was not necessarily surprising to the group, because Idmon
had prophetic abilities, and he had foreseen his own death on the
journey yet had still joined up out of a sense of adventure and
destiny.

“How did he die?” asked Jason. “I remember he said he saw he

would be slain by a mighty warrior who bore two curved spears!
They were short and very hirsute, with a mighty, matted beard!
They would stab him in the thighs, and then relentlessly keep
attacking until he fell! The warrior was from the same tribe that
once contended with Hercules, and a half-brother of theirs also
fought Perseus near the coast…” “Well,” said one of the other
hunters, “that does describe his killer. In a way.”

Question: Who, or what, killed Idmon?

ANSWER
 THE ARGONAUTS PART IX:
STYMPHALIAN RESURRECTION
Once again aboard the Argo, the crew felt relief that their journey
must almost be at an end; what else could possibly beset them?
The answer, they soon found, was the Stymphalian birds that
Hercules once faced! After that mighty warrior had scared them with
the incredible sound of the krotala rattle, they’d fled the swamp
they’d been living in and found a new habitat on the island of Aretias,
attacking passing boats by firing their razor-sharp feathers at them
like arrows, then feasting on any murdered sailors.
Unfortunately, Hercules was no longer with the Argonauts, and
even if he had been, he had told them he no longer had the rattle,
having dropped it somewhere in the Underworld, “probably in the
Styx or something.”
Luckily, the Argonauts still had some shields to protect themselves
from the feathers – but not enough to protect everyone. And their
arrows bounced off uselessly, as did their spears.
They had to resort to hunkering down on the deck behind their
shields as the birds’ relentless onslaught of feathers made a rat-a-tat
noise on the shields, like hail on a tin roof.

“Maybe if one came closer we could stab it between the

feathers, like so!” said Castor, jabbing Jason’s shield
with his spear and making a loud clanging noise.
“They won’t descend,” Jason replied. “But I might have a… musical
idea.”

Question: How can the Argonauts scare away the

Stymphalian birds?

ANSWER
THE ARGONAUTS PART X: YOKE
THE BULLS
The Argonauts finally arrived at the location of the Golden Fleece!
Now they had to convince King Aeetes to relinquish it. The king
had been told by an oracle that if he gave up the fleece he would lose
his kingdom, so it was guarded by an enormous dragon with 100
razor-sharp teeth.
Luckily the xenia hospitality tradition meant that Aeetes could not
directly deny the fleece to the Argonauts.

“That old thing? Of course you can have it!” he said. “I just need you
to do me a little kindness. I need you to yoke my bulls. They were
given to me by Hephaestus, and they are enormous, with brazen
feet and nostrils that shoot fire. And they attack most things on
sight. Animals, people, anything they’ve set on fire... but not
ordinary objects, it seems.”

Jason tried multiple times to sneak up on the bulls, from behind

curtains and at night-time with no lights. But they always saw him
immediately and came roaring at him, and it was the same for every
other Argonaut. The only time they paused was once when Pollux
leapt out at them from a cool lake they were drinking at; but after
brief confusion, they once again attacked.
 Luckily Jason had an advantage of sorts: Hera was well disposed to
Jason and asked Aphrodite to send dreams about him to Medea, a
high priestess who also happened to be the daughter of the king.

“I have watched carefully, and I know how to protect you from the
bulls, so you can get closer and yoke them without them attacking
you.” said Hera. “It’s this thick wool blanket – put it over your
head.”
“Will it make me invisible?” asked Jason.
“In a way. But not with magic.”
“I’m feeling very hot in here!” he said in a muffled voice.
“As long as that’s where it stays, then you’ll be fine,” she said
knowingly.

Question: Why will the blanket enable Jason to be

invisible to the bulls?

ANSWER
 THE ARGONAUTS PART XI:
SHOULDN’T SOWING DRAGON’S
TEETH GIVE YOU DRAGONS?
King Aeetes seemed suspiciously pleased when Jason presented him
with his newly yoked brazen-footed bulls. He ordered them
personally attached to his royal plough, and then rode them up and
down the fields outside, ploughing up the dirt and throwing some
kind of large white objects into the ground.

“I have one more challenge for you, Argonauts,” Aeetes said,

grinning, and they watched in horror as 100 armed, grey-skinned
human warriors grew up out of the field like corn. They marched
implacably into the courtyard and stood silently awaiting the king’s
orders, with looks of hatred on their faces.
“Grown from dragon’s teeth! They are skilled and ferocious and
looking for any reason to attack. I’m not a complete monster, so I’ll
give you two minutes to hide, and then my warriors will hunt you,
and you must see to it that they all die. Then the fleece will be
yours!”

Seeing no alternative, Jason and his men immediately ran in

several directions, taking up positions in different parts of the palace.
Medea sought out Jason again.
“These warriors may seem inhuman, but their passion and rage are
real,” she said. “And I have noticed that, although they seem
identical, there are in fact two factions; they have split almost into
two groups. Maybe it was the top teeth and the bottom teeth? I don’t
know.” “How does that aid us?” Jason asked desperately. “If you
can make the two groups fight each other, they will mostly wipe
themselves out before they even raise a sword to you! Don’t you
have any experience of allies killing each other?” “So how do I do
it?” asked Jason quickly, avoiding the subject. “It’s best to strike
now, before they leave the central courtyard. See the two groups?
All you need do is throw a stone to strike one of the warriors and
they will assume it came from the other group. Then it will
escalate.”

But Jason needed to know which way to throw the rock.

“If I throw it to the left, I can strike the leader of the first group
square on. If I throw it into the middle, I could miss entirely – but
there’s a chance it will ricochet off the central pillar and hit one of
the soldiers in the second group. And if I throw it to the right, I can’t
hit the second group’s leader, but I can probably strike and even kill
the soldier right next to him.”

Question: In which direction should Jason throw the

rock?

ANSWER
 THE ARGONAUTS PART XII:
HOW TO TAME HIS DRAGON
King Aeetes looked around at 100 dragon-tooth warriors, his
countenance grave.

“Where are the Argonauts?” he muttered to his son, Apsyrtus.

“Medea has taken them to the shrine, father,” Apsyrtus said with
clenched teeth. “Shall we dispatch more forces?”
“Go to the Argo and make a pyre of it. But do not go to the shrine.
My dragon will make swift work of them.”
It was true that Aeetes’ dragon had killed many; the shrine was
littered with the bones of warriors. But the dragon was now asleep,
having been tricked into eating a sheep laced with a potion that
Medea had concocted. “It took the beast much longer to eat the
sheep than I thought it would,” she said. “But you can now get the
fleece.”
As Jason stepped forward, Medea threw her hands out.
“WAIT! You cannot touch the dragon. If you do, it might stir and
attack you in its sleep.”
“But I don’t see how I can get the fleece without touching it,” Jason
said, pointing out how it blocked all four possible paths.

Its tail blocked the first path and was covered in poisonous spikes
that would kill a man the instant they touched them. Its back legs
blocked the second, and they had razor-sharp claws that could
decapitate you in moments. Its front legs blocked the third, and the
claws on them were somehow even longer and sharper! Its immense
head blocked the fourth – and although its mouth was closed in
almost a smile of slumber, Jason had heard many stories of warriors
chewed up by its 100 infamous sword-like teeth.

Question: Which path would be the safest for Jason to

use?

ANSWER
 THE ARGONAUTS PART XIII:
CIRCE’S BACK
As Medea and the Argonauts fled to the Argo bearing the magical
Golden Fleece, they found Medea’s brother Apsyrtus waiting for
them. His men had not yet begun to burn the Argo, but they stood
firm against the warriors.
Jason drew his sword, but Medea stopped his hand.

“Wait, Jason! You cannot strike a blow against him; you are still
my father’s guest!”
Medea took Jason’s sword as her brother stepped forward,
smirking. “But I can!” she suddenly exclaimed, and with
superhuman speed spun around and sliced her brother into five
pieces!

Apsyrtus’ men were so shocked that they were taken off guard by
the Argonauts and quickly dispatched. They got onto the ship and
were soon away, but found themselves in the middle of an enormous
tsunami.

“Zeus is angry,” intoned the ship’s prophetic stern. “The blow was
struck with Jason’s sword, and so he must take the test of purity
before you can proceed.”
 The only person who could purify them was Circe, the minor
goddess, who lived on an island nearby. With great difficulty they
made their way there and found her in her house, smiling with
wicked amusement.

“You seek to purify yourself of this murder? Very

well, I have no love for this Apsyrtus. But I have
no love for thee too, Jason. So here is my test.”

She placed in front of them three identical bottles with three

identically purple liquids inside.

“One of these bottles has my sacred potion for purifying

transgressions. The other two will change you into a pig or a goat.
If you are fated to be purified, you will choose correctly!”

Jason peered at the bottles. There was no indication of any

differences whatsoever. He shrugged and reached out to grab bottle
1, but then Circe held up her hand.

“Wait!”

Circe picked up bottle 2 and, with a flourish, flung its contents over
Iphitos, one of the other Argonauts. With a strange bleating shriek
his arms twisted into legs and his skin grew grey fur. After a few
seconds, he was a strangely placid goat.
Circe replaced the empty bottle and fixed Jason with a stare,
indicating bottles 1 and 3 with her hands.

“Now…do you wish to change your mind?”

Jason thought carefully.

Question: Is there any advantage to be had from Jason

changing his mind?

ANSWER
 THE ARGONAUTS PART XIV:
SIRENS’ SONG
They returned to the Argo and set sail to return to King Pelias, who,
you may recall, sent them on this quest to begin with. Their voyage
would take them past the Sirens – the part-woman, part-bird
creatures whose magically alluring voices would cause all who heard
them to willingly go to their own death!
At the beginning, when they were assembling the crew for the
Argo, Jason was told by the ship’s prophetic mast that Orpheus, the
famous musician, should join their crew. Jason knew not why, as he
had been very ineffective at rowing, fighting and navigating. But as
they heard the first strains of the Sirens’ song in the distance and
began to feel its call, Orpheus ordered them to turn about and stop
for a while.

“I’ve heard enough of the Sirens’ tune,” Orpheus said. “I can write
something that will counter it. My melody will cancel out their
voices so totally, we could sail the Argo right onto their laps and
they couldn’t do anything about it. But I have to get it down on a
tablet first.”

As we have little evidence of the true ancient Greek musical scale,

we will say that Orpheus used a numerical music system.
 “I counter tunes by playing another one that’s got a special
connection to the original note,” he said to a barely comprehending
Jason. “So if they’re belting out 4-10-6-3-8, I can play 2-5-3-1-4 and
they’re history!”
“Yes,” said Jason, shaking his head.
Orpheus finished writing down the Sirens’ melody; it was 5-11-7-
2-13. “Ah,” he said. “Wow. What a bummer.”

Question: Which five numbers should Orpheus play to

counter the Sirens’ tune?

ANSWER
THE ARGONAUTS PART XV: THE
TALE OF TALOS
As the returning Argonauts passed Crete, they found their ship
attacked by huge boulders, and they soon realized the cause: On the
beach stood Talos, an enormous bronze giant, and he was hurling the
rocks.

“I heard he is the last of the race of brazen men, living creatures of

pure metal,” said Pollux.
“Pollux! You are wrong. It’s a machine shaped like a man, built to
defend Crete from invaders by Hephaestus himself,” said Castor, his
brother.
“Whatever it is, we must defeat it, or we cannot pass,” said Jason.

A small group of Argonauts swam stealthily to the beach to observe

Talos.
Talos paced up and down the beach in a seemingly random way:
They saw him take nine large steps to a small pile of boulders he had
made, lift one, then take two steps and hurl it in the direction of the
Argo.

“If he is a living being, I can drive him into madness with a

concoction of my own,” said Medea. “I need but pour it in his ear.”
 Talos now took seven steps closer to the water to see if his boulder
had hit the ship. Then he walked four steps toward a tree that grew
on the beach.

“If it is an automaton, your poison will do nothing but lubricate its

mechanisms!” said Castor. “I see that it has a long vein running up
its body, secured by a nail. If we remove that, perhaps the fuel that
drives it will be released, and it will stop working.”

Talos ripped the tree up from its roots and, taking five steps, threw
it like a javelin toward the ship! As the tree struck the Argo,
damaging its side, Talos took six steps backwards, either to enjoy its
success or simply to get another boulder. Jason was unsure.

“If he is alive, pulling the nail out might simply enrage him further,”
said Medea. “What say you, Jason – is he man or machine?”

Jason knew that if Talos was alive, his actions need not make
logical sense, whereas if it was a machine, its actions would follow
some kind of pattern.

Question: Is Talos a man or a machine, and how do you

know?

ANSWER
 PELOPS’ PROGRESS
After they brought him back to life, Tantalus’ son Pelops became
strangely beloved of many of the gods of Olympus, especially
Poseidon. They considered that since Pelops had been reborn
through magic, he was no longer a mere mortal, especially as he now
had an ivory shoulder made by Hephaestus. Poseidon taught him
how to ride the divine chariot, and they would engage in many races.
In fact, it was one such race that caused him to be expelled from
Olympus. The gods had been drinking and decided to race each
other, 12 laps of the course, with the rule that all their chariots would
be the same, all their horses the same, and they would not use any of
their divine gifts to cheat.
On the oval chariot track, they all waited in their chariots at the
single starting line: Zeus, Poseidon, Artemis and Pelops. At the
correct moment, Hera raised the traditional bronze eagle and the
charioteers surged out of the gates! They were all equally matched,
and in fact equally drunk. But at the end, despite having no special
skills, Pelops beat the other chariots quite handily. It was at this
point that Zeus began asking questions about this young upstart and,
realizing he was Tantalus’ son, threw him off the mountain.

Question: If all the chariots were equal, the horses equal

and the drivers of equal skill, why did Pelops so easily
beat the other three charioteers?
ANSWER
 TARQUIN’S HAT
Before Lucius Tarquinius Priscus became the fifth King of Rome, he
had faced challenges in his political success. He had inherited his
father’s fortune but was barred from holding any official role in
Tarquinii because of his father’s Corinthian heritage.
Tanaquil, his wife, suggested they move to Rome, where he might
find more advantage. As they drew nearer, they knew Rome must be
close, as they saw a statue of the she-wolf who had suckled Romulus
and Remus, the twins whose legend led to the founding of Rome. In
fact, Tarquin had worn a hat made of the finest wolf-cub skin in the
hope that the Romans would take it as a sign of respect.
As they rode further, suddenly an eagle swooped at Tarquin and in
one swift move grabbed his hat in its talons and took it away. It
circled for a moment, screeching, and began flying away from them
before suddenly reversing its course and placing the hat back on his
head, then flying away!
Tarquin was stunned. His wife offered an explanation:

“You shall become king of Rome! The eagle is the symbol of Jupiter;
it came from the sky, which is his realm; and it touched your head,
the noblest part of a man – and where a crown sits!”

Tarquin was happy to accept this prognostication. However, even

though it turned out to be true, there was another possible, if no less
ridiculous, explanation for these events.
Question: Why else might the eagle have stolen and then
replaced Tarquin’s hat?

ANSWER
 THE COUNTERFEIT COIN
A Roman shopkeeper, Gaius, once called a friend of his into his
taverna.

“I have a… quandary, Septimus. Do you see these five coins?”

Gaius spread out five golden Aureas. This was during the height of
the empire’s power, and they would, or should, all be pure gold.

“I was just given these in payment for some of my finest cloth. And
the man who bought them… was Mercury.”

Septimus briefly thought to scoff at the idea that his friend had met
the god of messengers, but the serious expression on his sober
friend’s face stopped it in his throat.

“Well, this is a great blessing for you!” Septimus exclaimed.

“Mercury is the god of commerce!”
“He is also the god of theft and trickery,” said Gaius. “Don’t
misunderstand me, he is wise and beneficent,” he added swiftly so
as not to anger Mercury.

Gaius explained his interaction. Mercury had cast the five coins –
much more than the cloth was worth – in front of him. But then
Mercury counselled him that he was not to boast of possessing “the
gold of Mercury,” and so one of the coins was in fact counterfeit –
not gold at all! If he spent that one by accident, a terrible curse would
fall upon his entire family!

“Ah, this should be easy. Let me get my scales,” said

Septimus. But Gaius held up his hand.
“It would not work. Mercury told me he had enchanted the coin not
only to look exactly like gold but also to weigh exactly the same,
even though the coin is mere copper. Scales will not help.”
Septimus laughed. “Did he say he had made any other
enchantments?”
“No, that’s it.”
“Well then, my friend, to find it is even easier. Anyone could do it,
unless they were a newborn babe.”

Question: What’s the quickest, easiest way to find the

fake coin?

ANSWER
 A FLAMING TRICKY PUZZLE
In his youth, Achilles was raised by the Centaur Chiron. He taught
his young charge everything from astrology to combat, from playing
the lyre to the taxonomy of the creatures and monsters that dwelt in
the world.
Achilles was particularly fascinated by the phoenix, the magical
bird that, when it reached a great age, would burst into flame and,
from the ashes, be born anew.

“Is the phoenix immortal, then?” Achilles asked with enthusiasm.

“No, child,” Chiron answered. “Only the gods are immortal, and
even they may die on occasion. The phoenix can only renew itself so
many times, but it is indeed probably the most long-lived creature
on earth. There’s a riddle that can tell us its age, but I will leave out
the animal names to make it more challenging:

“A chattering 1 lives now nine generations of aged 2,

but a 3’s life is four times a 1’s,
and a 4’s life makes three 3s old,
while the 5 outlives nine 4s.

“The animals, my child, are a phoenix, a man, a stag, a crow and a

raven – but not in that order.”
Question: If Chiron tells Achilles that a raven lives 102
times the lifespan of number 2, and that the phoenix has
25 ½ times the lifespan of a stag, which number
matches which animal?

ANSWER
 WHERE’S SPARTACUS?
During the Third Servile War – the major slave uprising against the
Roman empire – one man stood out among the leaders of the
revolution: the former gladiator known as Spartacus.
One legend tells of how, when Spartacus and many of his men were
captured after a disastrous battle, the Romans sought to locate
Spartacus to give him a particularly harsh punishment. As the story
goes, the Romans threatened to execute everyone unless Spartacus
stood forward. But before he could do so, every man there declared
himself to be Spartacus. This condemned them all to death, but
showed their loyalty and dedication to him and their cause.
The truth was somewhat stranger. In real life, Spartacus was not
an idealistic preacher but a pragmatic man, enslaved for desertion
from the army, and all his men were not asked to identify him.
Instead, the Romans captured six men who declared their names to
be Artacus, Bartacus, Cartacus, Dartacus, Eartacus and Felix.

“Tell us – which of you is Spartacus?” the general shouted.

“Sir, they have sworn by all the gods that they will each only speak
once, and that Spartacus will tell the truth and the others will lie.
They say a master of logic like yourself must easily be able to find
Spartacus this way, or else it would be honourable to release them
all.”
The general stroked his chin. “Very well… speak.”
Artacus said, “Bartacus is Spartacus!”
Bartacus said, “Dartacus will tell the truth!”
Cartacus said, “Eartacus and Bartacus are liars.”
Dartacus said, “Cartacus is lying!”
Eartacus said, “Bartacus is Spartacus.”
And Felix said, “I am Spartacus!”

Question: Who is Spartacus?

ANSWER
 THE SIX LABOURS OF THESEUS
Less well known than Hercules’ 12 labours, Theseus’ labours
happened when he dug up his absent father’s sandal and sword, and
left to travel and meet him, deliberately choosing the more difficult
land path rather than going by sea. His mother used her powers of
sight to tell him that he would pass six entrances to the Underworld,
each guarded by a particular chthonic bandit who menaced and
attacked locals. He would have to defeat each with his skill and wit.

The First Labour: The Club of

Periphetes
His first challenge was outside the entrance that lay in Epidaurus.
Theseus had advance warning of the bandit here, known as
Periphetes. A child of Hephaestus, like his father he needed a stick to
walk. But as he ambled up to wanderers, they did not realize that his
walking cane was also a hefty bronze club, and as soon as they came
within his range he would swing it in the air, knock them onto the
ground with a flurry of precise blows, and rob them of their
possessions.
As Theseus approached him, Periphetes hobbled in his direction
with an innocent smile on his face, but Theseus held out his hand.
“Halt! I know of thee, Periphetes the club-bearer. The legend of your
clubbing abilities has not escaped me. You cannot surprise me, and
yet I suspect you will not simply let me pass, so I propose a contest.”

Theseus suggested that they stand two sticks in the ground; then
each could take a turn pounding their stick into the ground, and the
one who used the fewest blows would be the winner.
Periphetes went first. He raised his club over his head and
WHACK! He knocked the stick all the way into the ground in a single
blow.
He turned and smiled smugly at Theseus, who held out his hand
for the club.

“But you cannot win!” said Periphetes with confusion and anger.
“Can’t I?” said Theseus, and Periphetes reluctantly handed him the
club.

Sure enough, Theseus ended up walking away as the victor, having

used two blows!

Question: How did Theseus win?

ANSWER
 THE SECOND LABOUR: SINIS
THE TREE-SPLITTER
At the Isthmus of Corinth lay the second entrance and the second
robber. Sinis was notorious for asking explorers if they would help
him with two pine trees that he had tied down. While they were
holding one of them, he would quickly lash their hand to it, then to
the second, and then, releasing both trees, he would tear the people
in half!
Luckily Theseus had also received warning of Sinis’ trick and
undertook to beat him at his own game. Unfortunately, he decided to
do this by trying to pull Sinis’ exact trick on him.
And so Sinis was returning to his lair when he chanced upon
Theseus with two tied-down pine trees near a sheer cliff face. He was
so baffled and amused by someone clearly trying the same trick on
him that he decided to play along for a moment.
As he was helping Theseus with the first tree, he allowed him to tie
his hand to it. Sinis had a concealed dagger in his belt, and as soon as
Theseus tried to tie his second hand, he would stab him in the chest!
As Theseus reached over, Sinis readied himself. But Theseus
spotted the dagger and quickly moved out of range.

“You fool!” Sinis hissed. “Did you really think you could gull me with
my own trick? I’ll never let you tie my second hand!”
 A minute later, Sinis was dead, most of the bones in his body
shattered. And yet he was right: Theseus could not tie his second
hand.

Question: How did Sinis die?

ANSWER
 THE THIRD LABOUR: THE
CROMMYONIAN SOW
The third menace roamed near the village of Crommyon, and was not
a human at all, but an immense sow taken to attacking people in the
area at night, although recently there had been fewer assaults.
Theseus had heard that a wise woman and seer lived in the woods
and might be able to give him knowledge about the beast.

“You must ensure her safety!” his mother told him.

But when he arrived at her house, he found that the door had been
smashed outwards!
Entering the woman’s dwelling, he saw that her furniture had been
smashed and her clothes torn and strewn around the place. Her
cupboards were also torn open, although they all seemed to contain
only acorns.
He moved through the rooms, one of which seemed full of wet
mud! In the farthest one, he found what seemed to be a wooden cage.
It was broken, but it had strong wooden bars in a lattice.
Looking for signs of the beast, he found many hoof shapes in the
mud on the floor, as well as human footprints (the woman?) and
some strange kind of third footprints that didn’t look exactly like that
of a beast or a human, but something in between.
 Leaving the house, he ventured further into the woods and saw the
tracks and broken branches that indicated the creature’s trail; soon
enough he came across the monstrous sow, twice as large as a
human, making its menacing way through the trees.
He notched an arrow. But then suddenly he paused and decided
not to fire. Instead, he thought he might contact one of the gods and
see if they would help.

Question: Why does Theseus not shoot the sow?

ANSWER
 THE FOURTH LABOUR: SCIRON
Near Megara, another robber would waylay wanderers and murder
them in an unusual way.
Sciron would stop people who were moving along a path that ran
along the south-facing cliffs of the area. He would hold them at
knifepoint and force them to clean his feet. But he would be standing
facing south near the edge, and as soon as they bent down and began
cleaning, he would sharply kick them over the cliff and onto the
sharpened rocks below! He’d descend at the end of the day to collect
his prizes.
Luckily, Theseus once again knew that this is how Sciron would
murder people. So when he walked along the path, he feigned
ignorance, and when Sciron drew his dagger and ordered him to
wash his feet he agreed to comply.
Then, as he was beginning to kneel, Theseus confused Sciron with
a series of seemingly innocuous statements. First, he said that Sciron
surely wouldn’t want to be staring right at the sun as he washed his
feet. Sciron agreed, and they turned. Then Theseus said that Sciron
would probably want a pumice stone, and Sciron permitted him to
grab one. Then Theseus said that the wind blowing from the east
would be too harsh; Sciron agreed and they turned again.

Then Theseus asked if he could cover his face with a cloth to avoid
the smell; Sciron agreed to that too.
 Finally, Theseus knelt; but 10 seconds later, Theseus was not
plummeting off the cliff. Instead, Sciron himself was dead.

Question: Why couldn’t Sciron kill Theseus with his

usual trick?

ANSWER
 THE FIFTH LABOUR: KING
CERCYON
Unfortunately, Theseus was not warned about the fifth bandit. He
stopped at a small taverna near the holy site of Eleusis and rested,
before doing the usual ablutions that were customary at the time:
Instead of washing with soap and water, Theseus covered himself in
a mix of clay and ashes before dousing on a lot of olive oil. Before he
could begin scraping the mix off with a strigil, one of the serving
maids ran into the room.

“Sir, Cercyon is on the path... You said we should tell you…”

Without saying anything, Theseus threw on a loin cloth and leapt

from the room and out of the building.
As he raced up the path, he could see an incredible, tall,
musclebound man flexing and fixing Theseus with a manic glare.
King Cercyon’s chosen pastime, you see, was to wrestle anyone
who came along the path and, once he’d beaten them, kill them. Sort
of like King Amycus, but with more full-body contact.
Nobody had ever defeated Cercyon because of his incredible
physical strength, which exceeded even that of semi-divine heroes
like Theseus. His preferred opening gambit was grabbing his
opponent in a grappling clinch hold like a bear hug – and nine times
out of 10 he could simply squeeze the life out of them!
 In the end, Theseus defeated him with his superior skills,
practically inventing the more skilful form of wrestling that the
ancient Greeks preferred. But he would have been unable to do that
if he had not survived the moment where Cercyon lunged forward
and grabbed him in a bear hug!

Question: If Theseus was not as strong as Cercyon, and

Cercyon got him in a bear-hug hold at the beginning,
why did it not crush him?

ANSWER
 THE FINAL LABOUR:
PROCRUSTES THE HOTELIER
His final challenge was the Underworld entrance on the plains of
Eleusis. There dwelled the worst one of all – or so Theseus had
heard. Procrustes the feared! The vicious! The… landlord of a small
hostel where people could stay.
Theseus arrived at the rather well-maintained lodgings and was
greeted at the door by Procrustes.

“Ah, well met, young sir! We happen to have a full complement of

beds available if you would like to rest here tonight.”

However, Theseus already knew Procrustes’ little secret: He would

deliberately give his guests a bed either too small or too big for them,
and then “help” them by either stretching them to be taller or
chopping off their feet or head if the bed was too short.
Theseus needed to make sure that whichever bed he ended up in
would be exactly the right size for him, so that when night-time came
Procrustes would be unable to act.
For that reason, he swiftly ran into the sleeping area and perused
the beds. Theseus was 1.9m tall by modern standards.
Each of the beds was a different size, wildly varied, but all were
half as wide as they were long. There was a 2m-long bed, a 1.7m-long
bed, a tiny 0.5m-long bed, a giant 3.8m-long bed and a 1.8m-long
bed.
Theseus made his choice, and that night Procrustes found Theseus
sleeping sweetly, fitting perfectly on the bed.

Question: Which bed did Theseus choose, and how did

he fit on it?

ANSWER
 THE CHALLENGE OF THE
PALLANTIDES
Finally Theseus arrived at Athens to meet his father, King Aegeus.
But tales of his deeds had preceded him. The 50 sons of Aegeus’
younger brother Pallas, known as the Pallantides, decided to
seperate into two groups and attack Theseus in a pincer movement.
But Theseus and his men easily discovered both groups.
“I know you wish to fight me for the right to inherit my father’s
kingdom,”
Theseus said. “But you cannot all attack me at once – it wouldn’t be
fair.”

The Pallantides admitted that it might be unfair, not quite realizing

that Theseus meant he could easily kill all 50 of them himself.

“I suggest you choose one of you to face me in battle, and when… if I

defeat him, you abandon your claim to the throne and support me
instead. If one of you cannot fight me on his own, you forfeit.”

The brothers discussed this and agreed in principle, but couldn’t

decide who should face him. They all considered themselves the
greatest fighter in the group. In the end Theseus had another
suggestion.
“It is simple. The direct heir would have the most to gain, so
whoever amongst you has the earliest birth date must fight me.
Swear to it now, on the gods.”

The brothers all agreed that this was the fairest way, and swore to
it. But then they suddenly realized that they had been tricked! None
of them could fight Theseus, and they would indeed be forced to
forfeit.

Question: Why, based on the rules that Theseus laid out

and the brothers agreed upon, is no-one able to fight
him?

ANSWER
 THE TRIBUTES
Now we come again to the labyrinth. King Minos, the owner of the
labyrinth, had made a dark agreement with King Aegeus after his son
was murdered at a sporting event hosted by the Athenians. In
exchange for “peace,” the Athenians had to choose seven young men
and seven young women every year and send them to Crete as
“tributes” to be put into the labyrinth, where the Minotaur would
devour them.
After a couple of years, Theseus decided this could not continue.
He would have to go to the labyrinth himself and see if he could
somehow reason with the beast – or if not, then defeat it.
He disguised himself and replaced one of the tributes aboard the
boat.
However, when it arrived at the port it seemed that somehow word
had got out about Theseus’ plan. So Minos’ men decided to search
the tributes to see if Theseus hid among them.
However, after searching the seven young men, they found no
evidence of any of them being Theseus and decided the reports had
been false.

Question: How was Theseus able to avoid detection?

ANSWER
 FINDING THE ENTRANCE
Theseus separated from the group to investigate the palace, which is
how he met Ariadne and got the string, as well as a poisoned magical
sword and a brooch that she said protected against bludgeoning.

“Wait, they have already taken the other tributes to the labyrinth!”
Ariadne said, looking out the window. “You must hurry!”
“Where is the entrance?”
“That’s the thing – finding the entrance is part of the challenge! The
walls surrounding it seem unbroken,” said Ariadne. “All I know is,
the key is three.”

Theseus didn’t understand this, but set off toward the labyrinth
and saw that it truly did seem to have no entrance. Then he saw three
women sitting nearby, sewing. The Fates?
Perhaps this was the three.

“Tell me, ladies, where is the entrance to the labyrinth?”

The first lady said, “I know you! If you must interfere, please go.”
The second lady said, “Go to east, then west, find half of three.” The
third lady said, “Words like vines! Broken vases and rotten
mountains climb!”

At first Theseus didn’t understand at all. But then he realized the

truth.
Question: How did Theseus figure out how to get into
the labyrinth?

ANSWER
 RIDDLE OF THE MINOTAUR
Finally, Theseus found the middle of the labyrinth. He could see in
the gloom a huge, looming figure, its breath deep and loud. It
lurched forward and knocked him unconscious in an instant!
When he awoke, he found the creature going through all his
possessions: the string, his magical sword, his protective brooch, his
sandals. When it saw Theseus was awake, it stared at him with eyes
that seemed almost human.

“You came to kill me?”

“No, to talk. To ask you…not to kill any more of these young
people.”
“But I have to feed. And it is all the meat I get. And besides…I enjoy
it.”
The Minotaur smiled, showing its huge teeth. “But I do not often get
conversation. So here is my idea: I will tell you a riddle. If you get it
wrong, I will crush all your bones.”
“And if I get it right?”
“I will use the answer to kill you.”
Theseus saw he had little alternative, so he nodded assent.
“Here’s the riddle: Made of metal. Sharp at one end. If I stab you
with it, you bleed. What is it?”

Theseus felt like it wasn’t much of a riddle. But he had an idea. And
when he gave his answer, the beast was unable to kill him.
Question: What answer did Theseus give?

ANSWER
 THE ODYSSEY PART I:
PENELOPE’S ONE-HUNDRED
AND EIGHT SUITORS
Odysseus was one of the greatest warriors of his time and a key
figure in the Trojan war. But he is more famous for what happened
afterwards, as he tried to return home to his wife and son.
The story begins at his palace, where his frustrated wife, Penelope,
had waited years for his return. In that time the house had filled with
many young suitors trying to court her, but primarily just exploiting
xenia to live there, eat all the food and basically enjoy luxury. There
were 108 of them! However, they were still required to try to woo her
while there, but were aware that if all 108 tried every day it would be
intolerable. So they agreed that only one would woo her per day, and
it would be chosen at random.
Every day the suitors would split into groups of 1-12 and a 12-sided
die would be rolled. Whichever number came up meant the members
of that group would be eligible to woo. They would then be
numbered individually and roll the die again. If the individuals’
number was rolled, they would woo Penelope. However, if none of
their numbers came up, she would have a day off.
Question: What is the percentage chance of Penelope
having a day off?

ANSWER
 THE ODYSSEY PART II:
CALYPSO’S ISLAND
Odysseus’ son Telemachus worked with his mother to entreaty the
gods to allow him to return home, as he had angered them. Poseidon
would not relent; but in his absence, Zeus decided he would help.
The problem was that no-one was certain where Odysseus was. He
had actually ended up shipwrecked on the island of Ogygia, the home
of Calypso, a nymph and a daughter of Atlas.
Calypso had kept Odysseus captive there for seven years. The
island was beautiful, and all his needs were met. Calypso loved him
and wanted him to join her in immortality, but as time went on, he
managed to break the hold of her magical singing, and began to ask
more and more to return to his wife and family. Calypso hoped he
would come around to her way of thinking, but eventually, one day,
she confronted him in the gardens, bearing a gleaming spear.

“Odysseus, I ask you this one last time: Do you want to be

immortal, or do you want to die?”

Odysseus considered this carefully and then answered.

Within the hour he had set sail on a raft that Zeus had provided for
him.
Question: What did Odysseus answer, and how was he
able to leave the island?

ANSWER
 THE ODYSSEY PART III: DON’T
FORGET THE LOTUS
Eventually Odysseus’ raft landed at Schere, the island of the
Phaeacians. He dwelled with them for a few days, recovering, not
telling them his name. But his reaction to a song about the Trojan
Horse led them to realize his true identity, and he began telling them
how he came to be on the island of Ogygia.
His men had set sail in 12 ships after the war, and all seemed well;
but foul winds had led them to become becalmed for nine days, and
when they landed, they feasted well on a strange flower with a blue
middle and golden petals with vermilion edges.
Other people occupied the island too, in robes of magenta and
apricot and saffron, with headpieces of crystal and cobalt. Their blue
and brown and green eyes seemed unfocused and their smiles,
though wide, were sloppy, and soon Odysseus’ crew realized why.
The flower they ate was a lotus that was so delicious, when you ate it
you cared about nothing else – not the golden sands of your home, or
the auburn hair of your wife, or the vivid red of blood drawn in
battle. Only the flower. Odysseus hadn’t eaten any of the lotus, so he
had to physically drag each of his men back to the boats and lock
them there until they had left the island and its strange powers of
forgetfulness.
Question: Without rereading the passage, can you say
what shade the lotus was?

ANSWER
 THE ODYSSEY PART IV:
SLEEPING CYCLOPS
Once his men had recovered, they sailed until they came to a lush,
seemingly uninhabited island. They ventured inland until they found
a cave to the west, filled with wine and meats and cheeses and, most
importantly, no lotuses.
But of course, the island wasn’t unoccupied; it was the home of the
fearsome monocular Cyclopes, and the cave was the residence of
their leader, Polyphemus. He sealed the east-facing entrance with an
enormous boulder, and then proceeded to treat it as a larder,
opening it and eating a couple of the crew before resealing.
Polyphemus was cunning but in many other ways quite naive,
happily tending his sheep during the day and then sleeping in the
cave with Odysseus and his crew at night, sealing the entrance with
the boulder and then lying down next to them, seemingly unafraid of
them causing him any harm.

“Little men hurt me?” he scoffed. “Fleas bite dog, not kill dog.”

But he had underestimated Odysseus’ natural strength. And once

Odysseus had eaten and drunk enough of Polyphemus’ copious food
supplies, he felt that he would have enough strength to kill the one-
eyed giant by driving a sharpened spear deep into his eye!
“It must be a swift strike. I would suggest you all hold him down,
but we are not as strong as him, even with all our brawn
combined.”

As he said this, suddenly Odysseus changed his mind.

“Actually, no. We shouldn’t kill him in his sleep. We must find

another way.”

Question: Why should Odysseus and his men not kill

Polyphemus as he sleeps?

ANSWER
THE ODYSSEY PART V: OL’ ONE
EYE IS BACK
Odysseus pondered the situation for a while, keeping the Cyclops
from eating more of his men by getting drunk with him. When
Polyphemus asked Odysseus his name, he lied and said, “Nobody.”

“Tough to be nobody,” Polyphemus said. “I’m somebody. All

Cyclopes do what I say. I’m important. Nobody tell Cyclopes what
to do except me and the gods.”

Odysseus had an idea. He waited until Polyphemus passed and

stabbed his eye with the sharpened stake – not to kill but instead to
wound. He hoped the other Cyclopes would pull the boulder away
when they heard Polyphemus’ cries of distress, but when
Polyphemus shouted, “Nobody has attacked me!” his brethren
assumed his pain was some kind of act of the gods and stayed away
from his cave.
In the morning, as the sun rose, Polyphemus recovered slightly,
not totally blind but very wounded, his eye much more sensitive to
light. But his sense of smell and hearing were still incredibly acute.
He now rolled the boulder away himself, peering out of the cave to
see if he could summon his fellow Cyclopes. Odysseus and his men
positioned themselves around him, one behind, one in front and one
on either side. One of them would have to lead the attack on
Polyphemus before he could get help.

Question: Which of the four men has the best chance of

attacking Polyphemus?

ANSWER
 THE ODYSSEY PART VI: THE
OLD WINDBAG
After they escaped Polyphemus’ island, Odysseus’ crew found sailing
difficult. After offering a tribute to Aeolus, ruler of the winds,
Odysseus received a gift.

“This bag contains all four winds of the sea: north, east, south and
west. They are held in place within, as they are held in place upon a
map,” said Aeolus.
“As long as they remain within, your sailing will be smooth and
unimpeded by any storms.”

The original tale says that Odysseus, after peering in the bag, did
not inform the crew of the true nature of the bag’s contents, but
instead kept it secret and apart from them. They coveted it, thinking
it was treasure, and when he slept, they opened it and all the winds
escaped, bringing storms upon them and practically sinking the ship.
What is not widely reported is that in truth one of the winds, the
north, had already escaped before the crew had come anywhere near
the bag, and therefore they were already doomed before they even
made their mistake.

Question: Why, of all the winds, had the north escaped?

ANSWER
 THE ODYSSEY PART VII: SIREN
SIGNS
Because of their erratic course, the crew could not avoid the island of
the Sirens. Luckily, they had anticipated this, and they all put
beeswax into their ears, except for Odysseus.

“I need to hear their song,” he said. “I have heard tell that those who
hear their songs can learn truths, provided they survive.”

The crew agreed to lash him to the mast, and not release him, no
matter how much he begged or threatened them.
Once he was secured, they sailed near the island, and through the
mists came two eerily beautiful voices, tempting, controlling his
desires. He thrashed against the ropes, pleading desperately with the
sailors and then swearing oaths of furious vengeance if they didn’t
untie him that second!
But they stood firm, tightening the ropes, and through the mists
they finally saw the Sirens. They were out on a small beach at the
edge of their island, with an enormous tumbling waterfall to the east
churning out water with an almost deafening roar, and a dense,
jungle-like forest to the west teeming with strange creatures.
There were three of them, sitting on three particular carved stones
that they could see had some kind of musical symbols upon them.
One sat on the central stone plucking a lyre as she belted out the
hypnotic tune; one sat on the western stone and was beating some
kind of enormous drum as she emitted a piercing counterpoint; and
the third was not singing at all, but seemed to be trying to do some
kind of alluring interpretive dance instead, although her eyes
registered a kind of mute fury that suggested this wasn’t what she
wanted to be doing.
They made it past the island and eventually the sailors unplugged
their ears and brought Odysseus down.

“Did you learn any truths?” his first mate asked.

“I learned something very important,” he said, but would not
elaborate.
“Did you learn why the third one wasn’t singing?” asked his friend.
“Not exactly, but I think I know anyway,” he said.

Question: Why wasn’t the third Siren singing?

ANSWER
THE ODYSSEY PART VIII: STEER
CLEAR
Having only just survived their encounter with the Sirens, and the
aforementioned issues with Circe, Odysseus and his remaining men
decided to try to be more cautious.
They found themselves at a port beyond which nothing could be
seen, and concluded that they had reached the western edge of the
world. There, Odysseus performed a nekyia ritual, sacrificing to the
dead to summon the ghost of the legendary prophet Tiresias.

“Listen closely, Odysseus,” said the ghost, almost transparently pale

in thin, ashen robes, his wispy long beard blowing in some unseen
spectral wind. “Set sail from here and you shall return home, and
escape the interventions of Poseidon: churning oceans, rumbling
earthquakes, enormous tempests, and… horses.”
“Great!” said Odysseus.
“If you can,” continued Tiresias, “avoid one thing: You must not
steal the cattle from the island of Thrinacia. They are owned by
Helios, god of the sun, rider of the golden chariot, lord of sight and
sacred oaths.”
“OK. Don’t steal Helios’ cows. Understood.”

They set off, and as they came close to the island of Thrinacia,
Odysseus insisted that they keep their distance. But the crew were
hungry and thirsty, and so ended up landing there anyway.

“OK, go and find food, but if you encounter any cattle do not eat
them,” he said.

His men ventured further into the island and came across a large
number of cows grazing in a field. A herder sat nearby mounted on a
large steed, his three-pointed crook strangely mottled, his dark beard
covering his face like a cloud.

“Uh… are these Helios’ cattle?” a sailor asked.

“Nay,” came the shepherd’s rumbling voice, casting a spray of
saliva across their faces. “They are native to this land; I watch over
them only. Eat your fill, starving men.”

And so they did – and obviously it turned out that they were
Helios’ cattle. They had been misled.

Question: Who is the herder who led them astray?

ANSWER
 THE ODYSSEY PART IX:
ODYSSEUS, MASTER OF
DISGUISE
“And that is why what remained of my crew were shipwrecked by a
vengeful Helios and Poseidon, and I ended up on Calypso’s island,”
concluded Odysseus to a riveted audience of Phaeacians.

They agreed to help him return to his home, and transported him
in his sleep to a dock near his house. There he met Telemachus and,
with the help of the goddess Athena, disguised himself as a simple
beggar so he could infiltrate his house without being blocked by the
108 suitors.
As he approached the home he had been absent from for many
years, he found that much had changed. He could not enter or even
see into the courtyard of the building without going through a hut
that he remembered belonged to Eumaeus, his swineherd and
former slave. He knocked erratically.

“Excuse me, young fella. I hope I’m not intruding, but me old legs
are very weary, and I saw the blue tiles of your roof and although I
know nothing of your household, I thought this looked like a place of
kindness and generosity,” Odysseus said in a creaky voice.
“Come inside, old man. This place is not as kind as it was, but I can
find a crust of bread for someone such as yourself,” said Eumaeus.
Odysseus toddled in and sat down slowly.
“Oh no, I don’t need any food, although a sip of water from your
courtyard’s clean well would slake my old thirst!” he said.
Eumaeus fetched him the water and sat with him as he gulped it
down. “Ahhh. Thank ye. Is your master a cruel man, then? I saw
your light on and it was like a beacon of provenance in this cold
land.”
“My master was kind and generous, but he has been lost for 20
years, and in his place are parasitic jackanapes,” said Eumaeus,
explaining about the suitors.

Odysseus thanked his servant and, once he was asleep, slipped

further into the house, touched that his swineherd would speak so
kindly about him. What he didn’t realize was that he had made an
error that had meant Eumaeus knew it was not his first visit to the
house, and had figured out his true identity.

Question: How did Eumaeus know the old beggar was

not a stranger to the house?

ANSWER
 THE ODYSSEY PART X:
ODYSSEUS KILLS THE ONE
HUNDRED AND EIGHT SUITORS
Still in his disguise, Odysseus entered the household and, although
treated with disdain and disgust by the suitors, was greeted and
welcomed in by Penelope. However, her warmth dissipated when he
announced his intention to become her suitor as well. Throwing her
hands up in frustration, she proposed a contest where whichever
suitor could shoot an arrow through 12 axe heads could have her
hand.
Needless to say, Odysseus won this contest. In fact, none of the 108
suitors could even string a bow. But they were sore losers, and
prepared to kill the “beggar” after he won, even though his incredible
feat made Penelope realize his true identity.
Odysseus threw off his disguise and the suitors all gasped,
although some of them gasped slightly later than the others because
it took them longer to recognize him. He angled his bow at that and
managed to slay 20 before they could even react. The remaining
suitors quickly dashed in all directions away from the courtyard to
hide all over the house.

“You’d best hunt them down, my love,” Penelope said.

“I have waited 20 years to return home,” Odysseus said. “I will not
spend hours chasing rats out of it. I have learned something during
my journey that will bring them all back here, where I can finish
them off quickly.”

Before Penelope could say anything, Odysseus opened his mouth

wide. And shortly after he had finished, all of the suitors had quickly
returned to the room for him to vanquish in battle.

Question: How did Odysseus bring them back to the

courtyard?

ANSWER
 PSYCHOPOMP, QU’EST-CE QUE
C’EST?
The rivers Acheron and Styx are the means by which those who have
been given burial rites can be taken to the land of the dead in the
Underworld. And the manner by which they make this journey is on
the ferry of Hades’ personal psychopomp (one who guides the dead
to the afterlife).
Charon the ferryman is a mysterious figure whose own thoughts
and desires are shrouded. Some accounts say he is ragged and
vicious-looking, while others depict him as a dignified figure or a
cloaked skeleton, like the reaper. But they all agree that you must pay
the ferryman for your journey or be forced to wander the shores of
the Styx for 100 years before being able to cross.
While some thought it was enough to bury the deceased with
money or other valuable trinkets, in truth the only way to pay was
with two coins placed on the dead person’s eyes.
Many poor people were unable to do this, and were doomed
unfairly to wander. But there was a wealthy tribe who were never
able to pay. Despite using their incredible size and strength to rob
and kill anyone unfortunate enough to chance upon their island,
upon their death the members of this tribe would always come up
short on the payment, even though they had many thousands of
coins of all shapes and sizes.
Question: What is this tribe, and why can’t they pay the
full fee to Charon?

ANSWER
 CROSSING THE RIVER LETHE
The river Lethe flowed through the Underworld too, but its power
was that of forgetting. Anyone who swam in the waters of the Lethe
was destined to lose some of their memories.
Aeneas, the Trojan warrior, went on a search for a new homeland
for his people and was resolved to consult the ghost of his father,
(known as a shade in Greek mythology), so he knew he had to
descend into the Underworld. As instructed by Deiphobe the Sibyl,
he gathered a golden bough from a tree to give as a gift to
Proserpina, the wife of Pluto.
In the Underworld, Aeneas faced many challenges, aided only by
the Sibyl, who was surprisingly spry for a 700-year-old woman. As
they journeyed through the depths, they were able to get a ride on
Charon’s boat by showing the bough. But a lost soul jostled the vessel
and Aeneas dropped it in the river!
After much searching, the golden bough had somehow come to rest
on the far shores of the Lethe.

“I must retrieve the bough. Perhaps I can cross that bridge,” Aeneas
suggested, pointing to an ornate crossing further up, partially
obscured by the gnarled, bare limbs of the local trees.
“Nay, that is guarded by Cerberus, and he only lets people pass
from the left bank to the right, not vice versa,” said the Sibyl,
touching her golden brooch thoughtfully.
 So Aeneas jumped in and swam the eight yards across the river.
When he reached the left bank, he had been so fast that he lost only
one memory. Unfortunately, it was the memory of having to retrieve
the golden bough. He dutifully walked over the bridge past Cerberus
and returned to the Sibyl empty-handed.

“Why did I go over there again?” he asked.

After a couple more attempts, they found that whatever they did,
Aeneas would always forget he had to get the golden bough once he
reached the left bank, and then cross over the bridge to the right
bank. The rushing water of the Lethe made it impossible for Aeneas
to hear the Sibyl from the right bank, even if she shouted.
Question: How can Aeneas ensure he can swim across
the Lethe and retrieve the golden bough successfully?

ANSWER
 OUROBOROS
In the heart of Egypt, at the time of its status as a province of Rome,
certain magical traditions thrived. Historical papyri that describe a
variety of rituals, incantations and even spells show a Hellenized
version of the original Egyptian beliefs, especially in regard to the
cycle of death and rebirth symbolized by Ouroboros, the snake
swallowing its own tail.

The immortality that this creature indicates was different to the

supposed invulnerability of the gods, or even the magical immunity
of heroes like Achilles. This was more akin to someone who, by sheer
magical skill and will, had removed themselves from the circle of life
and rebirth itself to become their own sacred circle of persistence.
One such “sorcerer” was Hermes Trismegistus. While his name
indicated that he was viewed as a combination of Hermes and Thoth,
the supposed author of the famous Hermetica was once a mortal
man.
 This legendarily wise priest king had apparently elevated himself
to the level of a god through his magical spells and potions. The
discussions of astrology and alchemy in his works were impressive,
but any details of how he actually achieved this were, if ever
recorded, lost to time.
What we do now know is that he was not truly immortal, as he was
killed by one of his own students. Despite his many magical
protections, he was murdered with a single act.

The student would not reveal how he did it. He would only say, “He
claimed to be thrice great, but when the snake eats its own tail,
three and three become six.”

He claimed that the mind of Hermes Trismegistus was mortal. But

we must remember that the Greeks did not consider the brain to be
the seat of intelligence when we attempt to learn where he stabbed
him.

Question: Using the symbol of the Ouroboros, how did

Hermes Trismegistus’ student kill him?

ANSWER
 HERCULES AND CACUS
During his tenth labour, after he had just stolen Geryon’s cattle,
Hercules had been forced to stop somewhere for the night with the
cattle and rest them before he could continue moving them to the
kingdom of Mycenae to give to King Eurystheus.
But as he slept, Hercules did not realize he was near the cave of the
creature Cacus, a notorious cannibalistic monster.
Cacus emerged and considered attacking Hercules, but unlike
many other monsters he was able to recognize the hero and knew it
was a battle he could not win. But he did decide to help himself to
three of the cows. However, Cacus realized that Hercules would be
able to see where they had been led from their hoofprints! Thinking
fast, he decided to line them up in a row and walk them backward
into the cave instead. As they were near the river, Hercules would
hopefully think that the cattle had run off in that direction and been
swept away by the water. And they were camped close enough to the
cave that hopefully Hercules would not notice that the hoofprints
“started” near the cave’s mouth.

When Hercules awoke, he noticed the missing cows. He looked at

the placid-looking remaining herd, at the wind blowing in from the
east, at the hoofprints in the ground and the cowpats on the ground,
at the sun rising in the distance, and at the cave mouth. And despite
the hoofprints looking like they were going in the opposite direction
to the cave, he knew what had happened.

Question: How could Hercules tell what Cacus had

done?

ANSWER
 KNOT A GOOD IDEA
The tale of the Gordian Knot is often used as an example of how
Alexander the Great’s lateral thinking enabled him to lead his forces
to conquer almost half the world and found one of the biggest
empires in history. But even this iconic story has elements that have
been disputed.

Gordium was the capital city of Phrygia.

Phrygian legend said that centuries ago the city was without a king,
so an oracle declared that the next person to enter the city would
become king. A simple ox-cart driver named Gordias arrived and was
immediately crowned! In tribute to him, the ox-cart remained in the
palace secured very tightly to a post with a fiendish knot made up of
several different kinds, bound so tightly together it was all but
impossible to discern their solution. The ropes were so tense that the
cart itself almost seemed to vibrate with power, the linchpin rattling
in the yoke.
When Alexander arrived in the city, Phrygia was a mere satrapy, or
province of the Persian Empire, and there were once again no kings.
But a new legend declared that whoever could untie the Gordian
Knot was destined to rule, not just over the Phrygians but all of Asia.
Alexander could not resist the opportunity to solve this riddle. And
the most famous explanation is that he drew his sword and severed it
with a single swipe, demonstrating not only his intelligence but his
ruthlessness as well.
But what if Alexander had chosen not to use his sword? He was a
warrior, but he also understood diplomacy and the power of legend.
If he had slashed it, would it have been disrespectful? Same if he
burned it or dissolved it with something acidic. So there is an
alternative answer for how he solved the puzzle.

Question: How could Alexander solve the Gordian Knot

without cutting it with his sword or any other sharp
object?

ANSWER
ANDROCLES AND THE LION AND
FOUR OTHER GUYS
The tale of Androcles (Androclus in the original Latin) speaks of a
runaway slave who escaped his supposed master, a consul in a part
of Africa then controlled by the Roman empire.
Androcles ran out into the wilderness and was forced to take
shelter in a cave. As he entered, he suddenly heard a strange, echoing
howl, and deeper within he found a lion lying on the ground snarling
and whimpering. He noticed it was holding its paw strangely, and
when he cautiously looked closer, he could see that it had a large
thorn stuck in its paw.
Torn between compassion and fear, Androcles ultimately decided
to carefully extract the thorn. The beast stood quickly, and after a
moment swept out of the cave and beyond his sight.
Years later, Androcles was recaptured and sent to Rome to be
punished for his escape. He was taken to the Circus Maximus, where
he would be part of a group of slaves who would be mauled by wild
animals for the sick amusement of the crowd.
Androcles was part of a group of five former escapees. He stood at
the front of the line. Behind him was Antonius, a bitter man from
Megara. Behind Antonius was Septus, who was terrified; and in the
fourth and fifth positions were two brothers, Simonus and Treva,
both Corinthians and fierce combatants. Antonius refused to be
anywhere near them, as Megarans and Corinthians hated each other.

“Listen, Septus,” said Simonus. “Let me go before you. I cannot wait

to face this beast.”
“Yes, of course!” said Septus tremulously, swapping places with
Simonus. “I did not know we were permitted to move. In fact, can I
change places with you, too, Treva?”
“Why not?!” said Treva boldly. “I do not care.” And they swapped as
well.
“Now I need to move,” said Antonius. “I like not the smell of the man
next to me.” And he swapped with one man.

The gate was opened, and the crowd roared as they saw the first
slave enter the arena. There stood the lion, the same lion whose
injury was soothed by Androcles. It hesitated as it saw the man who
had entered… and then jumped onto him, savagely tearing him to
shreds!

Question: If we accept that the lion is the same one, and

that it is able to recognize Androcles, why did it attack?

ANSWER
 TAKING THE PYTHIA
As is evident in our tales so far, the role of oracles, and their
predictions in the culture and mythology of Ancient Greece, was
significant. Many of their leaders and ordinary people relied on their
predictions, whether it was to make big decisions or avoid tragic
outcomes. However, the role that fate plays in these interactions
means that anyone who seeks to avoid the consequences of a truthful
prediction will always fail, and in some cases ultimately cause the
thing to happen in the first place!
Despite this, the ability of oracles to tell the truth without
consequences was not always guaranteed, as while people often
respected their insight, they could also become enraged by the sad
nature of their prophecies.
The most famed oracle was the Pythia, who lived at the temple in
Delphi. This was a large community of oracles and priests, and the
Pythia proved herself to be the most accurate oracle in the land when
she correctly predicted what Croesus, ruler of the vast kingdom of
Lydia, was eating on a certain day. So when he sought her counsel on
the wisdom of going to war with the Persian Empire, he was
delighted to hear that if he went to war with the Persians, he would
destroy a mighty empire.
After the cataclysmic failure of his campaign and the defeat of his
army, a ragged, scarred Croesus returned to Delphi and held the
Pythia and her attendants at sword-point.
“Your prediction… was wrong,” he hissed.
“Sadly, it wasn’t,” she said.

Question: How was the Pythia’s prediction correct?

ANSWER
 THE SKILLS OF PIRITHOUS
Not every “hero” in mythology was as incredibly skilled as men like
Hercules or Perseus. In fact, Theseus’ best friend, Pirithous, while a
capable warrior in many ways, did not match his comrade’s
incredible abilities. He was somewhat decent with a sword and could
act with great stealth (as demonstrated when he rustled cattle away
from Theseus as a prank), but the one area he could never succeed in
was archery.
Pirithous was notoriously bad with a bow and arrow, and if he ever
picked one up everyone would immediately throw themselves behind
any object or piece of furniture large enough to block an arrow from
accidentally hitting them. After a while he became very frustrated by
this and, despite constant training, never seemed to get any better.
One day Theseus saw his friend marching determinedly off into the
woods with a bow, a handful of arrows and a small pot of red paint.
Curious, he followed, and as he approached a small copse, he could
hear the twang and thud of arrows being fired and hitting a tree.
When he eventually found his friend, he saw something
unexpected: On an enormous oak tree was drawn a large target of
three concentric rings in red paint, and right in the middle of the
middle ring were three arrows.

“What do you think, Theseus?” Pirithous said,

grinning as he picked up the bow.
“It’s a rather large tree. And a rather large target,” Theseus noted.
“I’ll give you that. But I should say it still deserves admiration!”
Pirithous said.
“Where were you standing when you fired the arrows?
At arm’s length?” said Theseus teasingly.
“No! I stood a good distance away!” Pirithous said. And Theseus
had to admit that the time between hearing the arrow loosed and
hearing it hit the tree did suggest that Pirithous had not done this at
pointblank range! Neither had he knocked these particular arrows
in by hand, as Theseus could see around the target the splintered
pieces of tree bark indicating an impact, glistening with specks of
red paint. Theseus looked briefly again at the shafts of the arrows
and then turned to his friend.
“Nice try, Pirithous,” he said.

Question: How does Theseus know Pirithous did not

achieve three bullseyes with his archery skill?

ANSWER
 AN ORACLE MIRACLE
An oracle’s greatest fear was not that their predictions would lead to
woe and bloodshed (this was almost always the case), but that people
would begin to doubt their oracular powers. Some oracles would rely
on particularly vague pronouncements like, “You will come to
misfortune,” but then they would be criticized for not being helpful.
In many cases, if an oracle was inaccurate, it didn’t particularly
matter, as the person who consulted them would often be too
preoccupied with the fallout, or dead.
The oracle at Didyma prided herself on the specificity of her
predictions, so it was a source of concern to her when the leader of
the army arrived to execute her.

“Your predictions simply do not work. You said the enemy would
come by sea, but they entered via the land. You said they would
attack at night; they began their assault in the day. You said that
rain would swamp the field and we should look to archers; but the
sun baked the ground hard, and their ground forces were obscured
by dust! Your predictions are worthless, meaningless.”
“If she said birds could fly, I’d look for them tunnelling
underground!” said a soldier next to him.
“Silence!” shouted the commander to the soldier. “Execute her now!”

The soldier raised his sword to strike her down, and she had to think
fast.
Question: What can she say to save her life?

• If you kill me, you will not learn the secret of

eternal life!
• Your sword blow is destined to miss!
• If you kill me, you will be cursed forever!
• If you kill me, you will have great success in the
future!
• You cannot kill me, I am immortal!

ANSWER
 NOT A WATERTIGHT SOLUTION
A small crew of notably strong and large hunters decided to travel
down the Thermodon in a small but sturdy skiff to hunt a herd of
silver-furred deer they had heard lived in the woods.
What they didn’t realize was that at the mouth of the Thermodon
lay Themiscyra, the home of the Amazons.
Suddenly a volley of arrows cascaded toward their boat, and they
had no sooner held up their shields than a small group of Amazons
appeared in a boat of their own behind them!
The hunters tried to throw off the Amazons’ pursuit but found that
they kept up with them at every twist and turn of the river. Their only
hope was to direct their boat toward the whitewater rapids and hope
that the Amazons’ skiff would be damaged on the jagged rocks.
As they were buffeted by the sharp boulders, they were relieved to
see that the Amazons’ boat had been scraped and was beginning to
take on water. Then they realized that their boat, too, had been holed
and was beginning to fill!
The men saw that the Amazons were using their shields to bail the
water out and began doing this themselves. There were six Amazons
in their boat, and eight men in theirs. The men’s shields were twice
the size of the Amazons’, and the men themselves each had a larger
build than the Amazons as well. They began bailing only 30 seconds
after the Amazons began, and the Amazons had been taking on water
for at least two minutes before they started, whereas the men started
bailing within 20 seconds of their vessel getting a hole!
And yet, despite their two boats being almost identical, the size of
the holes being the same, and the men having a greater capacity to
bail than the Amazons due to having larger, rounder shields, the
women on the boat successfully cleared all the water out of their boat
before the hunters could, and descended on them with raised spears.

Question: Considering all the facts, why could the

Amazons bail their boat out quicker than the men?

ANSWER
 ARTEMIS AND ORION
Artemis, the goddess of the wilderness and the hunt, spent years
trying to find an equal in her abilities to act as her hunting
companion, and it was Orion the giant who finally claimed that role.
The two of them were firm friends and would often spend time in
forests and on plains across the world pursuing and killing many of
the beasts. They would travel between these places using Artemis’
magical golden chariot, pulled by four deer with golden horns that
could fly across the sky at incredible speeds.
But it was during one such flight that Artemis’ chariot was
suddenly struck by a cuckoo in flight and began to lose its magical
abilities! Convinced that the bird had been sent by her vengeful
“stepmother,” Hera, Artemis realized she had to try and stabilize the
chariot or it would crash into the ground, killing them both. But
while she and Orion were the same weight, their weapons and
belongings were not, so the chariot wasn’t balanced! Both of them
wore a helmet with breastplate and shin guards, and had a sword
and shield at their side, and neither of them were willing to throw
any overboard, as they were enchanted and extremely valuable.
• Artemis’ helmet was twice as light as Orion’s.
• Artemis’ shield was the same weight as Orion’s helmet.
• Artemis’ sword weighed 2kg.
• Artemis’ breastplate was twice as heavy as Orion’s shield.
• Orion’s shin guards were each half the weight of Artemis’ sword.
• Orion’s helmet weighed 2.5kg.
• Orion’ sword was one and a half times the weight of Artemis’.
• Orion’s lightweight shield weighed the same as one of Artemis’
shin guards.
• Orion’s breastplate was four times the weight of Artemis’ sword.
• And Orion’s shin guards were each half the weight of Artemis’
helmet.

Question: Considering the relative weights of their

belongings and the fact that they are each on their side
of the chariot and remain there, what would they have
to exchange with each other to make the weight on both
sides equal?

ANSWER
 DEATH ON THE HALIACMON
No sooner had Hercules heard the strange wail from the pleasure
boat than he mightily leapt over the river and onto its deck.
He saw a man lying dead, a crown wedged on his now severed
head. Party guests stood by tables laden with food, looking horrified.
An older woman wept uncontrollably in the arms of a court official.

“What has happened here?” asked Hercules, but everyone just

stared at him fearfully. The man stepped forward.
“Mighty Hercules, I am Alcibiades, royal advisor.”

Apparently, this was a celebratory dinner for the queen’s birthday,

with many guests, and a special golden baklava baked for the
occasion.

“But I cannot say what happened next,” said Alcibiades. He leaned

forward and in a low whisper said, “The Kindly Ones.”

Hercules understood. The Furies. Sometimes called the Kindly

Ones to avoid upsetting them.
They were three female deities dedicated primarily to the death
and punishment of men: Alecto punished those who acted in rage;
Tisiphone killed men who sought disproportionate revenge; and
Megaera was known to execute men for unreasonable jealousy.
The partygoers were too afraid to explain further. So Hercules
looked around. The mess suggested that the Furies had made a
surprise appearance and one of them had killed the man on the deck.
Hercules would need to know which one, so he could inform the
spirit of this river.
He looked at the body. The golden diadem seemed ill-fitting,
almost wedged on. The hands and mouth were covered in golden
flakes. Hercules looked around for the golden baklava and saw only a
broken terracotta bowl on the deck.
He looked at the crying woman, noting her elaborate royal gown. A
man standing next to her, a similar age to the man on the deck,
darted forward.

“He brought it on himself! Father would be so disappointed…Such

petulant disrespect.”

He then saw that the woman was glaring at him and, with the
chastised look of a little boy, stepped back once more. Hercules
noticed that the young man also wore a diadem, but it was much less
resplendent. He also noticed a similar one on the table.

“Of course!” Hercules exclaimed. “I have been the fool!”

Question: Which of the Kindly Ones killed the man on

the deck?

ANSWER
 ROMAN WHISPERS
Romulus and Remus, the legendary twins whose exploits led to the
foundation of Rome, were the grandsons of a deposed king
(Numitor) and the grand-nephews of the man who deposed him
(Amulius). They were raised in secret, away from the palace, by a
family of shepherds, but grew up to be well-respected community
leaders, and eventually suspicion of their true lineage led the
supporters of Amulius to kidnap Remus and imprison him in the
palace.
Romulus was determined to rescue his brother and knew there
were some within the palace that still supported Numitor, so he sent
a messenger to get information about how to break in and free his
twin.
The messenger arrived with a look of confusion.

“I have the message, but I don’t know if you can make sense of it.”
The messenger paused, then said “Aat eexiit froont
noooon too. Aat blaack moooongaatee riight
stoop. Deesceend ceeiiliing froom looweer.”
Romulus blinked. “What??”
“That’s what I was told. It must be a code.”

Romulus consulted with a former palace worker.

“I think I know what’s happened,” the worker said. “The three main
conspirators against Amulius all have strange quirks in their
writing, and I think this message must have passed through all
three. The main source always says the opposite of things that have
an opposite. The second doubles every vowel! And the third puts
each sentence in alphabetical order.” “Of course, it makes perfect
sense,” said Romulus drily.

Question: What is the actual message?

ANSWER
 BAD VIBRATIONS
Orpheus, the musician who sailed with the Argonauts in our earlier
puzzle, was the child of Apollo and the muse Calliope, and therefore
his musical talent was superhuman. Thus, when he met Eurydice, he
knew he had found his match. She was an Auloniad, one of the
nymphs that live in wide, green areas like pastures, and her talent at
dancing almost matched Orpheus’ musical skills. She was so light-
footed that she seemed to barely touch the ground as she danced.

They fell in love and quickly married, and many thought their
union was perfect. But Hymen, the god of marriage, refused to bless
them, saying he foresaw terrible consequences ahead.
Orpheus used to like to play his lyre in the meadows every
morning.

“My love, do you not fear that a viper will attack you as you play?”
Eurydice asked.
“Snakes don’t bother me,” Orpheus responded. “All I need is to play
these little drums once in a while, and the good vibrations shake the
snake, and any python is py-gone in seconds! Vibrations give these
slithers the shivers.”

Taking his advice, Eurydice quite happily danced in the meadow,

and even took to doing it on her own occasionally. And it was at this
time that a viper darted out and bit her on the leg! She immediately
died.

Question: Why didn’t Eurydice’s dancing scare away the

snake?

ANSWER
 ORPHEUS PLAYS THE BLUES
Orpheus was so upset by his bride’s death that he sat down and
played the saddest lament that has ever been performed. It was so
heart-wrenchingly pitiful that it felt like it made everyone in the
world sad. And not just humans, but all supernatural creatures, and
every one of the gods. Even the Furies wept. They even say that it
made plants and inanimate objects tearful.
In truth, it was the music that had this incredible effect. Because,
despite his playful manner of speaking, Orpheus didn’t feel very
confident in writing lyrics. He tried to express his true feelings in the
words, but they came out very stilted and disjointed. Luckily, most of
the world heard only his enchanted lyre and not the words he sang:

By viper’s fang my life’s been split,

Thus, in darker tomb be hope quit,
She fled to worlds under my sight…

Then he found he could not think of another line. His friend

Phocus arrived to offer his condolences.

“I can’t figure out what the next line should be,” Orpheus said. “It’s
all random.” “Orpheus, it is not random, and I know exactly what
your next line should be.”

Question: What should Orpheus’ next line be, and why?

• And now my heart is blackened grit.
• Sadly, our love is broken with it.
• On shadow wings my bird did flit.
• I’ll find another, don’t worry about it.

ANSWER
 COOL CATS
Orpheus’ grief was so strong that he knew he had to travel into the
Underworld to rescue Eurydice. He didn’t have the strength of
Hercules or Theseus, nor the godly powers of Demeter. But his song
had touched the heart of the world, and the gods had decided that if
he could enter the Underworld he would survive.
First he had to pass the twin guardians of the Underworld entrance
at Cape Matapan. They were two Manticores, seemingly identical,
their twitching scorpion tails dripping with venom as their enormous
leonine faces scanned the area for any who dared to try and enter.

“If I play these cats a lullaby, they might fall asleep. But if they
twitch their tails while they’re snoozing, I might end up dead!”
Orpheus said to Phocus as they crouched in the bushes watching the
entrance.
“So they might sting you with their scorpion tails as they sleep?”
asked Phocus. “Well, could you make them dance out of the way?”
“Sure thing. I’ll play a lively jitterbug that’ll make these…”
“Just do it.”

Orpheus emerged from the shrubbery and began playing a tune on

his lyre, hopping from foot to foot in an imitation of Eurydice’s
nimble dancing. The left Manticore began to dance along with him,
moving out of the way of the door. But the right Manticore sat still,
staring ahead and not moving at all.
 Phocus, confused, was suddenly granted a vision by the muse
Calliope, Orpheus’ mother, who told him four statements, three of
which would help him understand.

Question: Three of these statements are true and one is

a lie. Which is which?

1. Manticores do not like music.

2. The left Manticore cannot hear.
3. If Orpheus enters the Underworld, he will die.
4. The right Manticore cannot see.

ANSWER
 THE WALK
Orpheus entered the Underworld, and as he walked, he played. The
shades – spirits of the dead – on the banks of the Styx swayed to the
beat. Chthonic entities bobbed their heads. Even Cerberus began
hopping around like a giddy puppy.

In the palace of Hades, the lord of the Underworld sat regarding

Orpheus with an icy stare.
Orpheus began another lament, just for Hades. The lord began to
weep. He waved his hand and Eurydice appeared, hypnotized.

“Why do you seek Eurydice?” he asked grimly. “She dwells in

Elysium. Can you offer better?”
“We’re like Janus: two faces, same person,” said Orpheus.
“You know everything about her?” Hades asked. “If you think back,
maybe there are details you missed…”
But Hades relented.
“Take her to the surface. She must walk directly behind you the
entire way.

And if you turn to look at her at any point, she will remain here…
forever.”

Orpheus had to accept, so he turned around and began walking

back, too anxious to play anything. The Underworld had gone quiet.
Every shade, creature and chthonic god simply stared at him as he
walked. Some of them clapped slowly or struck the ground, the
sound echoing over the bubbling of the river. The further he got, the
more a thought throbbed and grew in his mind: Why couldn’t he
hear any footsteps?
He knew that shades were insubstantial and wispy. But the
Eurydice he saw was solid and real, exactly as in life.
Was this all some kind of cruel joke on him? But he kept his
course.
As he approached the exit, he suddenly thought that if he left now,
and she wasn’t with him, he could never return!
He turned around in an instant…and had just enough time to see
Eurydice before she was drawn swiftly back into the Underworld by a
spectral wind that seconds later blew him out of the exit.

Question: Why didn’t Orpheus hear Eurydice?

ANSWER
 HOW TO GET AHEAD IN MUSIC
Now in despair at his loss, Orpheus sought to return immediately to
the Underworld. But since people who are alive can only visit once,
he lost all interest in the mortal realm.

He wouldn’t eat or drink, and simply began to waste away. But he

couldn’t die, as the gods and many other powers in the world desired
his singing and music so much that they couldn’t bear to be without
it, in the same way that he couldn’t bear to be without Eurydice.
So he played a final song designed to summon Thanatos himself,
the personification of death, and convince him to take Orpheus’ life.
Thanatos was moved, and seconds later Orpheus was attacked by a
pack of wild dogs, his spirit released to the Underworld to be with his
love.
But strangely, Orpheus’ musical gifts were so strong that his head
somehow survived, and not only that, but it continued to sing. The
songs it sang were still beautiful – although the words were
meaningless syllables called glossolalia – and so achingly sad as to
affect you forever. One of the Muses, the inspirational goddesses of
arts, took Orpheus’ head and kept it as a strange keepsake.
But which muse?
Calliope was Orpheus’ mother. So she would have the greatest
claim to it. But she was not the muse of music, but of epic poetry,
considered at the time to be the greatest of the arts, as it combined
storytelling with history and emotional resonance.
Melpomene was the muse of song, or at least she was once, and
became the muse of tragedy, often depicted with the mask of tragedy
in one hand and a knife in the other.
Euterpe was the muse of music. She was said to have invented
many instruments, including the flute, with which she was often
depicted. Later she became the muse of lyrical poetry, which she
preferred due to her love of words and wordplay.

Question: Which muse took Orpheus’ head?

ANSWER
THE ADVENTURES OF ATALANTA
PART I: CENTAURS OF
ATTENTION
The legendary Greek heroine Atalanta was the fastest runner in the
world.
As a baby, she was deliberately abandoned on a freezing
mountaintop because her father wanted a male child. A passing she-
bear nursed her, and she was eventually adopted by hunters. She
grew up admiring Artemis, the huntress goddess, and followed her
example of asceticism and stealthy pursuit. But the one thing she
could do better than anyone else was footracing, leaving anyone who
tried to compete with her in the dust, and eschewing all vices.
She was also an excellent shot and could hit anything she aimed at
with a normal, non-magical bow, whereas most heroes would rely on
enchanted or blessed weapons.
One day Atalanta was hunting up in the mountains. She was not
running at her full speed because the rocks underfoot were often
loose and could crumble and start a chain reaction. Suddenly two
Centaurs emerged from behind a tree line! Unlike the famous
Chiron, these Centaurs were wild and aggressive, and were getting
ready to attack Atalanta, their huge hooves carefully striding toward
her.
 As the mountain rocks were unsteady, if she turned and ran, she
would not be able to achieve her top speed before they were upon
her. She drew her bow but suddenly realized she had only one arrow!
The Centaurs grinned nastily. Atalanta knew that she could only
shoot one of them and that the other would immediately attack her,
fearless and unconcerned about its fallen comrade. She had to think,
and act, quickly.

Question: Where should Atalanta shoot to escape the

Centaurs?

ANSWER
 PART II: MURDER SHE BOWED
Atalanta’s arrows were personally made for her by her fletcher,
Jessica.

“One day I shall make an arrow that can fly faster than your
fleetest pace,”
Jessica said as she carved some wood.
“If anyone can achieve this, it’s you, my friend,” Atalanta said
kindly.

But suddenly they were both seized by brigands! These hunters

from the forest had long been jealous of Atalanta’s skill. They also
resented that Jessica would only craft arrows for her friend and other
women. So they had brought an enchantment that allowed them to
move silently and sneak up on the women.
They tied Jessica to a tree, and then they marched Atalanta 100
feet away in a straight line.

“You think yourself the finest shot?” one of the hunters sneered.
“Well, here is your challenge.”

One of the other hunters set up a target equidistant between Atalanta

and Jessica, with a hole directly in the middle.

“You have one arrow, and if you score a bullseye directly through
the middle, we will release you and Jessica. We swear on the gods,”
the hunter said with a mean smile.
“It is clear that when the arrow passes through the target it will
strike and kill my friend,” said Atalanta solemnly.
“I don’t think that will happen. Because I don’t think you can make
the shot,” said the hunter. “But if you don’t even try, we will kill you
both anyway.” Atalanta thought. “Do you have any rules about
what I can do after I have fired the arrow?”
The hunter considered this. “No. It seems to me that after that point,
the die is cast.”
“Then I accept your challenge,” said Atalanta.

Question: How can Atalanta score a bullseye through

the target with the hole, and not kill Jessica?

ANSWER
 PART III: DON’T SPEAK
As Atalanta’s fame grew, so did her list of enemies, from envious
warriors and hunters to jealous gods. In particular Aphrodite
resented her, because Atalanta spurned the idea of love or marriage.
She had adventured for several months with Meleager, but despite
his interest in her, she valued him primarily as a friend and gently
spurned any advances.
The two of them were walking through a forest when they came
across a strange, unfamiliar temple. Its courtyard was ringed by eight
doors marked with Roman numerals, blocked by steel lattice gates.
But as soon as they stepped inside, the door behind them slammed
shut! And from each of the doors stepped monsters:

From Door I stepped one Manticore!

From Door II stepped two Centaurs!
From Door III flew three Harpies!
From Door IV stepped four Vrykolakas!
From Door V stepped five Ichthyocentaurs
(like Centaurs, but with fishes’ tails)!
From Door VI stepped six Cyclopes!
From Door VII stepped seven Spartae!
And from Door VIII stepped eight Satyrs!
As the crowd of monsters began to surround them, Atalanta
realized it must have been a trap from one of the gods – a trap for
her specifically, as she noticed that they were circling her and
seemed to be largely ignoring Meleager! She tried to shout to him but
found a further issue: She couldn’t speak!
As Atalanta began to use her speed and skill to fight the monsters,
Meleager found a release mechanism for the doors, but it would take
all his strength to open one, so they had to choose correctly. Luckily,
Atalanta had noticed which door was an exit as the monsters had
entered, but she couldn’t speak, and if she took even a moment to
point at it for Meleager’s benefit she would be overwhelmed by the
monsters!
Meleager watched as Atalanta dashed around the courtyard, but he
noticed that she was dodging most of the creatures, only successfully
killing a single Vrykolakas and two of the Ichthyocentaurs. Suddenly,
he realized which door to open.

Question: Which door must be opened, and how did

Meleager know?

ANSWER
 PART IV: BASILISK FAULTY
Atalanta realized that Aphrodite was behind the attacks. She needed
to make a gift or sacrifice to the goddess to appease her – but without
falling in love or marrying anyone. Artemis spoke to her, saying that
Aphrodite had a beautiful temple on the island of Papho, reputed to
be the sight of her birth. However, noone could attend it, as it had
become the home of three basilisks, horrible lizard creatures that
could strike someone dead with a single gaze.
Aphrodite could not make them leave, as they were beloved of
Cybele, the goddess of wild nature. So if Atalanta could kill them,
Aphrodite might be extremely grateful.
Atalanta journeyed to the island and found that even though no-
one could get past the basilisks, many had tried, driven by their
dedication to Aphrodite. The ground was littered with corpses and
skeletons. She knew that her only chance would be to kill them
before they even saw her. She glimpsed all three silhouetted on the
crest of a hill, as a young warrior charged them! He seemed to feint
toward the left, but suddenly he clutched his chest and rolled down
the hill, clattering over many bodies before falling conveniently next
to where Atalanta was hidden.

“I…was wrong,” he gasped. “One basilisk can see well, but another
is blind in one eye, and the third cannot see at all! It is not evident
from their appearance, but I thought by trial and error I had
learned that the left basilisk was partially sighted, the middle was
blind, and the right had full sight. I thought if I passed on the
correct side of the left one, I had the best chance of survival. Now I
realize I was wrong about every single one…”

And then he died. Atalanta noted that it had been the gaze of the
left basilisk that had killed him. If she knew which basilisk was
which, she could defeat them.

Question: Out of the left, middle and right basilisks,

which is blind, which is partially sighted, and which can
see well?

ANSWER
 PART V: THE THREE GOLDEN
APPLES OF APHRODITE
Aphrodite was appeased by Atalanta’s efforts and left her alone for a
while. However, in the interim she joined the Argonauts on their
quest and was integral in the defeat of the animal that killed Idmon,
although that led to the death of her friend and admirer, Meleager.
News of this passed to her birth father, who arrived to claim her
and quickly began trying to set her up in marriage.
Atalanta was still determined never to wed, so she got her father to
agree to a stipulation: Any potential suitor had to defeat her in a
footrace, and if they lost, they would be beheaded. By her. As her
father was an arrogant man who disbelieved her abilities, he agreed
happily. And as many of her suitors were similarly arrogant and
disbelieving, there followed weeks of races and men being beheaded.
One man who believed in Atalanta’s abilities was Hippomenes, one
of the disciples of the Centaur Chiron. He was not so foolish to
believe he could win against her without cheating. So he prayed to
Aphrodite, who still bore a minor grudge and gave him a gift: three
magical golden apples!

“When these are dropped, no-one can resist picking them up. Not
even a certain fast-footed fan of Artemis,” Aphrodite said softly.
 And so, the legend tells that Hippomenes waited until the race
began and then threw the apples to the ground, causing Atalanta to
stop and pick them up, giving him the chance to get ahead of her.
But we know differently. Even with this trick, Atalanta’s speed was
much greater than Hippomenes’. In fact, Atalanta married
Hippomenes because she found his failure endearingly bizarre and
recognized that he saw her as a skilled runner and not just a
conquest. So she threw the race – much better than how he threw the
apples.

Question: Why did the golden-apples scheme fail?

ANSWER
 THE SEER OF DODONA
After the oracle at Delphi, the next most respected oracle in the
world was the one who dwelled at the temple at Dodona. So
respected was this oracle that the Argo, the ship that Jason and the
Argonauts sailed in, was said to have prophetic powers of its own,
simply because it was partially made from timber from this temple.
So when Aetolus, a Greek hero and son of Endymion, arrived
there, entering the temple and striding manfully but unsteadily
forward in full regalia (briefly tripping over some rubble from the
restoration work in progress), the oracle regarded him with a wary
but amused eye rather than a look of awe and respect.

“Now listen here,” he began. “I have consulted many oracles across

the land to learn my future. All of them have foreseen an imminent
death for me but could not say how or why. I thought them all
charlatans, no doubt in the pay of my enemies, and I put each of
them to the sword! None of them saw that coming, I should say. So I
have come here to seek the advice of the supposed ‘great’ oracle of
Dodona. So tell me, woman: Am I to walk out of here to my doom?”

The oracle thought carefully, noting the sword in his hand.

“Nothing bad will happen to you if you leave this place,” she said
with quiet authority.
 Aetolus watched her for any signs of insincerity, then, apparently
satisfied, spun around and began clanking his way toward the exit.
The seer of Dodona’s prophecy was true. But so were all the other
prophecies he had heard before.

Question: How can all the oracles’ prophecies be true?

ANSWER
 A PAIR OF KINGS
Before his imprisonment, King Tantalus was already a despicable
individual, and his only match in nastiness was his friend Pandareus
(who would later be turned to stone while helping Tantalus steal a
mechanical dog, obviously).
One evening, Tantalus and Pandareus were dining on venison
(once they had both ensured that they hadn’t tried to poison each
other).

“This is a bit stringy, cousin,” Pandareus said acidly.

“Ah, you should taste the deer of the forest at the time of the harvest
season – that’s when they are fattest and juiciest,” said Tantalus.
“Would that I could, but I have to be at my own court at that time,”
said Pandareus.
“Well then, I will have a messenger bring you some of the meat to
enjoy there,” declared Tantalus.
“It would have to be a very swift messenger. My kingdom is at least
five days from yours on foot, and inaccessible on horseback…”
Tantalus waved a dismissive hand. “I have the fleetest messenger in
the land! Oh, except that if
I send him, he may not return. He’s recently been rather grumpy
about his constant punishments.”
Suddenly Pandareus had an idea. “I have a poison that has no effect
for six days, and then, when the sun rises on the seventh, it kills you
on the spot! If I gifted you a bottle of that, and the antidote, you
could give it to your messenger! Then he would have time to bring
the venison to me and return to you to receive the antidote!”
“It is an excellent idea. But there’s no need to provide me with the
poison. I have exactly the same thing,” said Tantalus.

And so, at the time of the harvest, the messenger was given the
venison, poisoned, and sent on his way.
But the mountainous terrain and the weight of the venison meant
that the messenger arrived at the court on the fourth day! He knew it
would take him more than two days to return, even without the
venison. And Pandareus knew that if the messenger did not return,
Tantalus would assume foul play and declare war on his territory!

Question: How can Pandareus ensure the messenger

returns to Tantalus?

ANSWER
 MAKING SACRIFICES
The actors of the auditorium of Dionysus in Athens were preparing
for the first performance of a new play by Cratinus, who at 97 was
certainly the longest-lived playwright of his age, if not the best.
The exarchon, or leader of the group, announced that they would
perform a sacrifice to Dionysus, the patron god of their auditorium
and, indeed, of the cult that owned and maintained it.

“We will kill this goat in his name,” the actor began.
“Only Dionysus?” said Cratinus loudly. “Why not Zeus? My play is a
story of a family destroyed by a rude guest. Should we not pay
tribute to he who is the lord of hospitality with a sacrifice of a bull?”
The actors turned in surprise at this sudden interruption, angered
by the disrespect shown their patron god.
“Perhaps…” said the exarchon. “But…”
“And should we not make a sacrifice to Apollo? He is the lord of the
arts, not to mention the sunlight that permits us to perform this
play here today,” continued Cratinus. “Should we not kill a swan for
him?”
“We could…” said the exarchon.
The other actors muttered among themselves with agitation.
“And my play has a sea battle, so we must sacrifice a horse for
Poseidon! And sacrifice a second bull to Athena, as my play has
much wisdom within. And why not a sacrifice to Artemis, to
apologize for all the animals we are sacrificing?”
“Listen…” said the exarchon through gritted teeth. “There can be
only one sacrifice.”
“But you are bound to disrespect at least one other god!” shouted
Cratinus. “They are petty and vengeful, and not as civilized as you
and me. Well, me at least.”

Question: What is the single sacrifice that the exarchon

decided to make that would appease all the gods?

ANSWER
 VRYKOLAKAS
Belief in the Vrykolakas was first recorded in the 17th century, but
new manuscripts show its existence much longer before then. It has
elements in common with werewolves and revenants in that it eats
flesh and is known for being somewhat feral. But it is the vampire
legend it most closely resembles.
One interesting parallel is with that of visiting houses. Some
legends say that vampires cannot enter a house unless invited – an
interesting connection with xenia. Vrykolakas, by comparison, were
known to go around knocking on the front door of people’s houses,
and if the occupant answered after a single knock, they, too, would
become a Vrykolakas.
A woman lived in a house next door to a very rowdy family that
was often having large parties or arguing with each other. As the
walls were thinly constructed, she felt like they were in the room with
her!
One day she passed their house to find them dressed for a funeral.
But no-one was chanting or wailing laments, and there was no visible
body. Instead, they all looked pale and frightened. When she asked
where the body was, they said with dread that he had blasphemed
against the gods before slipping off a cliff, and therefore the body
could not be recovered.
That night the woman was woken by a strange, cold feeling, and
she was convinced that the dead man had risen as a Vrykolakas. As if
in response to her thoughts, she heard a single sharp knock! She
remained in bed, but mere moments later came another sharp knock
on her front door, and she chided herself for being foolish, reasoning
that it was probably her daughter returning from the temple. Sadly,
she was wrong, and she answered the door and became a Vrykolakas
within moments!

Question: Why did the woman become a Vrykolakas

when there were two knocks, not one?

ANSWER
 PLUTO DWARFS HADES
The nature of the Underworld is so strange that time and space seem
to decay and curdle in its presence, especially around the rivers.
So it came to be that Hades, on a walk by the Styx surveying his
kingdom, slipped and fell in, and when he emerged, he was greeted
by a hulking man twice his size, grinning with gold-plated teeth.

“Welcome to my kingdom,” he leered.

“It’s my kingdom…” rumbled Hades.
“No longer, sadly. I am Pluto – the improved model, shall we say?”
Pluto explained how, while Hades was feared and sometimes
detested by the Greeks, his Roman version was treated with more
respect due to the riches in his underground kingdom.
“Gold, jewels… You never took advantage of them,” said Pluto
smugly. “But I’m sure I can find you a position here. Maybe Charon
would like to retire. How are you at sculling?” Hades spat with
contempt. “You are but a pale shadow of me! I will reclaim my
kingdom!”
“Yes, I remember you being pig-headed,” said Pluto, amused. “Very
well, let’s have a wager.”
Pluto gestured and 10 gold coins appeared between his fingers,
numbered 1 to 10. He produced a velvet sack, which he emptied of
hundreds of gleaming jewels, and put the coins inside.
“Take three coins,” he said, shaking the bag at Hades, who did so,
hiding them from Pluto.
“Now I’ll take three for myself, and that leaves four in the bag,”
Pluto said, doing so. He put the bag on the ground.
“Listen, junior. If you can tell me which coins I have in my hand,
you can share this kingdom. But if not, your head can be a chew toy
for Cerberus. Yes, he’s still around.”

Hades peered at his coins. They were marked 3, 4 and 10.

As Pluto grinned, Hades tried to use his powers to see his coins, or
at least foresee the result, but Pluto’s powers of wealth were blocking
him. All he could sense was that the coins in Pluto’s hand, added
together, had more value than the coins in the bag. Also, one or both
of the values of the bag and Pluto’s hand contained the number 4.

Question: Which coins does Pluto have in his hand?

ANSWER
 ON THE FIDDLE
Hello! It’s me! Nero! The mad emperor! The one who fiddled while
Rome burned! Or did I burn while Rome fiddled?
I know what you’re thinking. What’s he doing in a book of myths?
Wasn’t he a real, devastatingly handsome Roman emperor? Well, I’m
not that Nero – the boring, accurate one. I’m the myth! The
metaphor! And you know how you can tell? Because I’m playing a
fiddle! A violin! An instrument that did not exist in ancient Rome! So
what did I actually play? Maybe it was a cithara – it’s a bit like a lyre
and a bit like a guitar. Or maybe I played a drum, or a flute. Or
maybe I didn’t play anything at all – I was just performing in a play!
Hit it, fellas! “Rome’s Burning,” in the key of G major! See, that’s
how you know I’m not the boring “real” Nero! Greek music didn’t use
the same chord structure as you do now! It’s all quarter tones and
Dorian modes. The songs were hymns and dithyrambs! Nothing you
could really bop to.
Some say I didn’t fiddle, or play music, or act when Rome burned!
It was a story my enemies made up to discredit me. And what a
story! I was accused of so many awful crimes – but it’s the fiddle
thing that really sticks in their head! Is it a sign of insanity? A
metaphor for hubris or for the uncaring elite? An indicator of pure,
unfiltered evil villainy? Perhaps we’ll never know! They’ve debated
for centuries what the key to it is! And now you know.
Question: What is the key to Nero’s fiddling while Rome
burns?

ANSWER
 THE CURSE OF NEPTUNE
The message that echoes across almost all the myths is simple: You
cannot fight fate. Oracles would foresee people’s deaths and great
tragedies, and they could never avoid them. But despite this, they
would always fight, or try to find a way around them.
Such was the case when Prince Charisius consulted the oracle at
Delphi and was told, “Beware the curse…of Poseidon!”

“What curse? Am I cursed? Is Poseidon angry at me?” he spluttered

with confusion.
“I can say no more,” the oracle said.
“What have I done? I’ve always respected Poseidon! Was it that
dolphin I slapped? If so, tell him I’m sorry!”
“I can say no more,” the oracle again replied.
“How can I fix this? A sacrifice? What about a statue?”
“I can...”
“Say no more, yes, I know!”

Charisius marched off and ordered a hecatomb of cattle to be

sacrificed to Poseidon and a big statue of Poseidon to be built,
preferably with a lot of beautiful dolphins. But when he returned to
Delphi, they simply repeated what they had said before: “Beware the
curse of Poseidon!”
So he moved his palace away from the coast as far inland as
possible, into a dry, barren area. No fountains, no running water
near or into his palace. And then he eschewed drinking water, only
drinking wine or other liquids. But even those frightened him, and he
began to eschew those, too.
But it was to no avail. While he was not attacked or killed, and no
disease or accident befell him, Charisius died soon after.

Question: How did the curse of Poseidon kill Charisius?

ANSWER
 ZEUS VS JUPITER
Zeus, the capricious, all-powerful, dreaded father of the Greek gods,
feared few. Whether it was bravery, arrogance or ignorance, he was
not scared of the chthonic deities like the Fates and the Furies, or the
Titans that came before him, or even his own father, Cronus, whom
he tricked into fetching up the other Olympian gods from his
stomach after he had swallowed them.

He didn’t fear Porphyrion the giant, and when the other gods
became animals to flee from Typhon, he alone stood against them
with his mighty thunderbolt.
 So when one day he found himself face to face with Jupiter, his
own Roman counterpart, he could not help but marvel at how scared
he felt.

“Lightning may never strike in the same place twice,” intoned

Jupiter, his voice humming with energy. “But you are not lightning.
You are the mere thunder that anticipated my arrival.” “No, we are
the same,” said Zeus carefully. “Two forks of the same strike. We
need not battle.”
“We are not the same,” said Jupiter with menace. “I am you; it is
true. And we both bear great power. But unlike you, I do not just
submit to fate. I determine it. I control it. I AM FATE. And I cannot
be defeated.”
Zeus did not like this. “That is impossible,” he said.
“Any game, any challenge you engage me in,
I can only win,” said Jupiter smugly.
“That is not true,” said Zeus.

Question: What challenge could Zeus set for Jupiter that

Jupiter could not win?

1. Become Zeus
2. Feel fear
3. Lose
4. Fight Typhon
5. Trick Cronus

ANSWER
 ZEUSICAL CHAIRS
The 12 primary gods of Olympus were summoned to the throne room
to discuss a vital matter: the Trojan War! The throne room had 12
thrones, each assigned to a particular occupant, with Zeus in the
central throne (number 6) and Dionysus, the youngest god, in the
12th.
But Zeus looked addled, confused, unable to tell which was his
throne. The other gods did not want to anger him or imply that he
had been overpowered, so they didn’t say anything.

“I think he has been enchanted by Eris, the goddess of Chaos!” said

Poseidon under his breath.
“Look, let’s just wait for him to sit down,” said Athena. “If he sits in
his throne, good. If he chooses one of ours, we’ll all just sit down one
at a time in our proper thrones – except for the displaced god, who
can just choose another at random.”
“But what if the displaced god sits in my throne?” asked Poseidon.
“Then you just choose at random too! It doesn’t matter.”

It does matter, thought Dionysus. He liked his throne; it was very

comfortable and had its own grapevine. Now he had no idea what his
chances were of getting to sit in it.

Question: What is the percentage chance of Dionysus

getting to sit in his own throne?

ANSWER
 NEPTUNE VS POSEIDON
At the depths of the ocean is a darkness so total that the creatures
there are born and die without ever seeing the sun. The wheel of time
that the sun and moon mark across the sky holds no sway in the
abyss, so it was down there that Neptune, Roman god of the sea,
found his former incarnation, Poseidon, rising toward him with a
furious expression.

“I have seen my brothers Hades and Zeus forced into conflict with
their twisted reflections! So I have decided that I will strike the first
blow personally…” Poseidon shouted.
“I have no quarrel with you,” said Neptune. “Pluto and Jupiter think
there can be only one. But you and I understand the ebb and flow of
the tide, the ever-changing currents of the sea.”
“I’m not interested in sharing anything,” said Poseidon. “You are
naught but a lesser version of myself. I am the god of the noble
horse and you have abandoned that charge.”
“But I inherited all the fresh waters of the world: the rivers, the
lakes... You only rule the sea,” said Neptune, wielding his trident
warily.
“The seas occupy seven-tenths of the earth’s surface! The rivers and
lakes are literally a mere drop in the ocean,” said Poseidon, getting
ready to attack. “Well then, let us have a fight. Ten of my best river-
boatmen, with no provisions and two horses, will sail three days
along the Acheron River toward where it flows into the Ionian Sea.
At the same time, 100 of your best sailors, with no provisions, will
sail three days across the Ionian Sea to where the Acheron River
joins it. When our two forces meet, they will fight, and the winner
has dominion over seawater, freshwater and horses. Agreed?”

Confident in his success, Poseidon agreed. He knew any of his

sailors was a match for any of Neptune’s boatmen, and he would
have 10 times as many.

Question: Why is Poseidon fated to lose this battle?

ANSWER
 THE TALE OF PROMETHEUS

“Tell me your story, Prometheus,” said the eagle as it moved toward

the man chained to the rock.
“You know it, bird,” said Prometheus with effort. “I stole fire from
the gods. And this is my punishment: to be imprisoned here, and for
you to eat my liver every day. A fitting penance for the most famous
thief in history.” “How?” the eagle asked curiously. “Am I stealing
the liver from you? I don’t understand. Did you commit any other
crimes?”
“It depends on what you call a crime. Some think me a mortal, but I
was the one who created humanity from clay! I created Pandora,
the first woman! That is why I stole the fire for them.” “I see,” said
the eagle. “Strange. I had heard that it was actually Hephaestus
who made humanity from clay.” Prometheus shook his head.
“No. It was I. And it was I who taught humanity about art, and
mathematics, and philosophy.”
“Hmm, was it not the muses and Athena who taught mortals about
the arts and sciences?” asked the eagle.
“Them? They came after me! I am a Titan, one of the gods that came
before the Olympian whelps that put me here. In fact, the
Olympians themselves would not exist without me! When the
Titanomachy happened, and my side fought against theirs, I was
the one who aided them in overthrowing Cronus and the others!
Were these crimes? Perhaps to the Olympians, who resent humanity
and hate my kind, they are.”
The eagle ruffled its feathers thoughtfully. “It was my
understanding that you are not one of the original Titans, but a
mere descendent who bears the same name,” said the eagle. “And
the Titans were overthrown by the Olympians’ cunning, not your
own. You are indeed history’s most famous thief. But other than
fire, I can think of only one thing you have stolen.”
Question: What is the one thing, besides fire, that the
eagle thinks Prometheus has stolen?

ANSWER
PSYCHE AND CUPID PART I: MR.
BUG GOES TO LUNCH
A mortal woman named Psyche was renowned as a great beauty; and
Venus, the original wicked queen, was so jealous she sent her son
Cupid to use his arrows and make Psyche fall in love with the most
hideous creature possible. In the original myths he was not a sweet
little angel but a sometimes dangerous god of mischief.
Cupid accidentally nicked himself with one of his love darts and
fell in love with Psyche. A series of misunderstandings led to their
brief union, which angered Venus further, and eventually a
distraught Psyche ended up in the cruel hands of Cupid’s vengeful
mother.
Imprisoning her in a house, Venus feared angering Jupiter if she
was not a good host. But she had to get rid of her somehow. So she
put the poor, starving Psyche in a room filled with a mass of lentils,
beans, barley and wheat.

“Sort these into individual piles, girl!” Venus spat. “You may eat one
of each, but no more! I will return in two hours!”

She slammed the door and Psyche wept at her hopeless task. But
then she saw a tiny ant nearby, with hundreds of his brothers behind
him.
“Sorting beans, huh?” he said. “We could do that in two hours, no
problem. Probably with one minute to spare. But it’ll cost ya, and I
don’t think you’ve got anything we want. So it looks like your
phoenix is cooked.”
Psyche thought. “If you sort the piles for me… you may then eat as
much as you wish.”
“OK, deal,” said the ant greedily. This foolish girl doesn’t know how
quickly we can eat, he thought. The second we’re done, we’ll chow
down on the whole pile in 30 seconds and there’ll be nothing left to
show Venus. But that’s her problem.”

However, when Venus arrived, there were neat piles of each type of
food, and only one missing seed or kernel from each. Psyche’s
intuition had paid off.

Question: Why were the piles of food still almost all

there when Venus arrived?

ANSWER
 PART II: FEELING SHEEPISH
Venus was enraged by Psyche’s success and sought another task to
endanger her.

“I need to knit myself a shawl, child,” Venus said imperiously.

“There are some sheep who graze on the other side of the river near
here. Go fetch me some of their wool. You cannot miss them. They
are golden sheep.”

Sure that this was some kind of trick, Psyche set out toward the
river. She had heard tell of Helios’ flock of golden sheep (which went
nicely with his cattle) grazing nearby. She knew that, although they
might seem docile, they were in fact vicious killers.
She was wrong, but only about the first part. They didn’t seem
docile at all, and as she approached the river she saw them on the
other side, with eyes of fury and surprisingly sharp teeth and horns,
butting up against each other and at anything that came near them in
a frenzy! She could possibly sneak near them, but she was sure if she
tried to get any wool from them at all she would be assaulted
instantly!
At this point she despaired. Either the sheep would get her, or
Venus would punish her harshly for her failure. As she made her way
down to the water, her ragged clothes became tangled in the sharp
briars that grew profusely on both banks of the river, and she
considered simply throwing herself into the stream.
“Do not despair!” whispered a voice, and Psyche realized it was one
of the reeds by the river singing musically to her.
“But I am caught in the currents of the lives of the gods, destined to
be dashed against the rocks of fate,” she replied.
“No, you are merely entangled with them. And the nimblest fingers
can extract the thread of fate.”

Psyche nodded and stood up. She knew what she needed to do.

Question: How can Psyche obtain the golden wool

without being killed by the sheep?

ANSWER
 PART III: EAGLE VS DRAGONS
Once again, Venus was enraged by Psyche’s success. And she knew
that her son was seeking Psyche too, so she had to act fast.

“Child, I am, um...thirsty. Get me some of the black water that flows
from the source of the Styx,” she shouted, giving Psyche a crystal
vessel and pushing her out the door.

Psyche made her way up the steep mountainside. As she walked,

everything around her was ashen, bereft of all life…except dragons!
They slithered around the area watching with hungry eyes. She
knew their curiosity would soon turn to violence, and fell into
despair.
 Jupiter, sensing this, sent an eagle.
It flew swiftly and landed near Psyche. A few dragons were already
approaching.

“Out of the way, lizards,” said the eagle. “I have to get back to
Prometheus, so you had better make room for me to escort Psyche
to the source of the Styx right now.”
“An eagle?” said one with a contemptuous snarl. “Sent by Jupiter, I
suppose.”
“You are correct,” said the eagle.
“And he has endowed you with all sorts of incredible powers?”
asked the dragon pointedly.
“No more incredible than I already had. I can fly and see quite far. I
can peck things. My claws can pick up mice.”
“My claws could slice a Manticore in two,” said the dragon,
unsheathing an enormous talon.
“Or make a shish kebab of a tiny bird.”
The other dragons all laughed with lizard-like hisses,
demonstrating their own teeth and talons.
“I’m not afraid of you,” said the eagle.
“Why not? We are dozens of enormous dragons, almost as powerful
as a god, and you are a tiny, normal eagle. We can easily defeat
you.”
“I do not fear defeat,” said the eagle.
“I think what he is hinting at,” said Psyche, suddenly looking up, “is
that you need to consider the consequences of your actions.”

Question: Why do the dragons allow the eagle to escort

Psyche to the source and then leave?
ANSWER
 PART IV: GOING TO THE DOGS
Venus couldn’t believe that Psyche had somehow survived the trip,
especially since Psyche omitted the eagle’s aid. For this reason, she
decided on one final deadly task.

“Take this pyxis and get some more beauty for me, will you,” Venus
said casually, handing Psyche a small box.
“Beauty? From where?”
“Why, you must go down into the Underworld and obtain it from
Proserpina. She has plenty to spare,” said Venus nastily.

Proserpina was the Roman name for Penelope, making her the wife
of Pluto, the king of the Underworld.
But Psyche could not refuse. She left with the box. But rather than
descend into the Underworld, she climbed a huge tower, planning to
throw herself off the top.
But the tower itself spoke to her! It told her where to find an
entrance to the Underworld, and told her to check a room on its
ground floor. In a cupboard there she found two coins for her eyes,
and five more pyxides.
After she entered the Underworld and had made her way past
various deceptions, she saw Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog,
blocking her way!
She remembered what the tower had told her. In the five pyxides it
had given her were honey-barley cakes to be fed to Cerberus. The
tower had instructed her that each head of Cerberus had to eat the
same amount of cakes: one hēmina! Knowing that there were six
kyathoi in one hēmina, and 10 Kochliara in a kyathoi, she opened
the boxes to inspect their contents:
• Pyxis 1 was a hēmina-sized box, three-fifths full.
• Pyxis 2 was another hēmina box, completely full.
• Pyxis 3 was a two-hēmina box, but was only a third full.
• Pyxis 4 was smaller, a two-kyathoi box, totally full.
• Pyxis 5 was a six-kyathoi box, two-fifths full.

Question: Which boxes should be given to which heads

to make sure they all get the same?

ANSWER
 PART V: AMBROSIA COCKTAIL
And so, Psyche reached Proserpina. And the queen of the
Underworld was amused, and relished an opportunity to get one up
on her rival, Venus. So she told Psyche that she had put some of her
beauty inside the small pyxis that Cupid’s mother had given Psyche,
then sent Psyche back up to the overground.
Some retellings of the story say that Psyche became too curious
about what was inside the box and opened it in the hope of making
herself more beautiful. But inside was actually a spell of infernal
sleep that Proserpina hoped to inflict on Venus, and Psyche was
cursed by it until Cupid found and rescued her.
But that doesn’t fit our resourceful heroine; so let’s imagine
instead that Psyche made it to the surface, and that Venus was
waiting there malevolently after hearing of her surprising success.
Psyche convinced her that there was beauty in the pyxis, so Venus
snatched the box from her hands and shoved her face right into it,
then collapsed immediately into a deep slumber.
Psyche found Cupid, and the two went to Olympus to entreat the
gods. And Jupiter, looking kindly on their union (after getting Cupid
to promise that he’d receive notice of any attractive women the
young god spotted), declared that Venus would leave them alone and
Psyche would be made immortal, provided she could successfully
mix the ambrosian elixir.
“It has four ingredients, my dear,” Jupiter said. “And if you use
them in the wrong quantities, you will be cursed or transformed
into a monster, or, worst of all, be forced to listen to one of
Neptune’s fishing stories.”
“Hey!” said Neptune.
“Listen well, child: 16 ligula of the vessel must not contain
ambrosia; 15 ligula must not have any nectar; 13 ligula must be
free of Styx water; and 19 ligula of it will not have any ichor. Good
luck.”
Psyche nodded.

Question: In what quantities must Psyche use each of

these ingredients?

ANSWER
 END OF THE CENTURY
In modern language, a century is 100 years. But the other idea of a
century, or centuria – that of 100 military units – has not always
been set in stone. From about 100 BC to roughly the end of the
Roman empire, a century meant 80 men, with a centurion in charge
of them.
The reasons for this are disputed. Some say it was simply a matter
of not having enough troops to have 100 men in each group. Others
say it would be a group of 80 career soldiers and 20 support troops,
possibly slaves, who therefore were not considered to be worth
counting. It’s worth considering that, as the empire began to
struggle, many of these groups wouldn’t even have 80 men, due to
death or desertion, and the recorded numbers were simply
manipulated to make things seem better than they were.
For this reason, any mathematics using a “century” as a unit of
measurement might differ wildly, depending on when you were
calculating it. However:
100 x a = b
80 x a = c

Looking at these two equations, there is a value for a that would

mean b and c have the same result.
Question: What value should a be?

ANSWER
 SPHINX OF THE RIDDLE
Oedipus had had quite a day. The oracle at Delphi had told him in
quite clear terms that he would kill his father and marry his mother.
Seeking to avoid this fate, he had left the land of his parents, King
Polybus and Queen Merope, and departed for the city of Thebes to
seek his fortune.
On the way, Oedipus ended up in a quarrel with a wanderer on the
road that ended in the wanderer’s death! Then, when he arrived at
Thebes, Oedipus found out that their king had recently been
murdered by an unknown assailant! Bad luck for him – and for the
city, too – as a sphinx had taken the opportunity to take over the city.
Sphinxes were demonic entities that craved destruction and brought
bad tidings wherever they went. An enormous creature with a
woman’s head, lion’s body and eagle wings, the sphinx roamed the
city attacking everything and refusing to leave unless someone could
answer her riddle. (Some think the sphinx is an Egyptian myth, but
statues found in Egypt were of an older, unnamed creature, and were
nicknamed sphinxes by ancient Greek tourists.)
Oedipus confronted the sphinx in a wrecked marketplace, and
there was something about him that made her pause.
“Oedipus,” she purred. “Oh boy, are you in for a surprise. But not
from me.”

“Enough stalling, demon! Tell me the riddle!” Oedipus declared.

“Understand, Oedipus: I see all of time. I can see my own birth and
my own demise. I see your terrible fate and how it plays out. But I
also see our futures. Mine as a misnamed statue in a country I have
never visited. Yours as a metaphor for serious psychological issues.”
“Enough of your nonsense, creature! The riddle!”
The sphinx smiled.
“I see everything. The births and deaths of every human, every
creature. I see seeds grow into trees, frogspawn turn into frogs,
meadows become deserts. I even see people reading this story,
written in a book far in the future, expecting a particular riddle, one
with an answer that almost everyone already knows.” The sphinx
turns to look at you.
“But I have a new riddle for you – very similar to the original. And
if you cannot solve it, then the fall of Thebes is on your hands.”

Question: What has two legs in the morning, three legs

in the afternoon and four legs in the evening?

ANSWER
 HANNIBAL CROSSES THE ALPS
Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who led the effort against the
Roman empire in the second Punic wars, is primarily known for the
incredible military achievement of getting his troops up and down
the Alps to allow them to attack Rome while bypassing many Roman
ground troops and without having to sail through Roman-dominated
seas – all while using elephants, which, while not uncommon as a
military resource for Carthaginians, could have been bypassed in this
circumstance.

What is sometimes not referenced is that this wasn’t just an

exhausting hiking expedition. It also contained a series of military
battles and skirmishes that had to be carefully negotiated. By the
time Hannibal came to the Alps, he had already lost about 10,000
troops, some by death and some by being dismissed or sent
elsewhere. He began his ascent with 50,000 men in all fighting
disciplines.
They anticipated an ambush by a tribe of Barbarians and were able
to provoke them into springing their own trap; but by the time they
had succeeded in battle, his troops were reduced by 16%.
Luckily a friendly tribe, the Centrones, bolstered them with
supplies and relief troops, and his troop number then increased by
10%.
But subsequently – due to roads blocked by avalanches needing
labour to clear them and another, more successful ambush by
another tribe – Hannibal’s troops were ultimately reduced by 10%
before he came to the place where he could descend to Rome.

Question: How many troops did Hannibal have when he

began his descent to Rome?

ANSWER
 UNICORNS!
The unicorn is now such a ubiquitous fantasy creature that it is easy
to forget its Greek origins. While it’s true that the idea of a single-
horned horse occurs in pre-Greek manuscripts and art, it was
through their writings that the idea really took shape, before being
adopted with enthusiasm during the Middle Ages. One of the earliest
writings on the subject was by Ctesias, a historian and physician who
believed that unicorns lived in India – although he also said they
were black and red, apart from the usual white-haired variety.
Yet unicorns do not occur anywhere in Greek mythology.
Considering the number of creatures they did discuss, of which this
book barely scratches the surface, there are no unicorns in any of the
stories of gods or heroes. There are other horse creatures, like
Centaurs and the famous Pegasus, but no unicorns. There are
creatures even more incredible, like Charybdis, an enormous
underwater creature whose mouth formed a giant whirlpool; and
Laelaps, a legendary dog that could not fail to catch whatever it was
hunting. But those who wrote Greek myths would not include the
unicorn.
Question: Why wasn’t the unicorn present in ancient
Greek mythology?

ANSWER
 PHYLLIS-OPHICAL
One of the greatest, most enduring mysteries in classical mythology
is that of Phyllis and Demophon.
Demophon was the king of Athens and one of Theseus’ sons.
Phyllis, his wife, was said to be the daughter of a king, but which one
differs in the retelling, with most thinking it was King Sithon of the
Odomanti. Some doubt that this was true, and think that she had
some other connection to royalty.
Nonetheless, she lived in Thrace, and when Demophon stopped
there on his return from the Trojan war they quickly fell in love and
married. She begged him to remain there with her, saying that it was
rare for her to receive a gift like his love, and she wanted to hold onto
it. But he was duty bound to return home. He promised her that he
would return, and she gave him a casket, making him promise to
open it only if he had given up hope of returning to her.
Many retellings of the story say that the box contained a sacrament
of Rhea, the Titaness earth goddess, who was a child of Gaia. They
say that when she decided that Demophon would never return, she
took her own life and became an almond (or hazelnut tree).
Some retellings say that Demophon, too curious, opened the box
and was so shocked by what he saw that he fell off his horse and,
fatally, onto his own sword!
But they do not say what was inside the box.
 But the new evidence that we have access to has allowed us to
finally understand the truth of Phyllis and her casket – why it
inspired such curiosity, and why she said he should open it only
when he was without hope. Maybe it helps to think that it may not
have been a casket, but instead a pyxis, or jar.

Question: Who was Phyllis, and what was in the casket?

ANSWER
 TROY, TROY AGAIN
The Trojan war supposedly began when Eris, the goddess of chaos,
was not invited to a wedding party attended by many of the other
gods, so she threw a magical golden apple marked “for the fairest”
into the room. Hera, Aphrodite and Athena all thought the apple
should be theirs. They chose a young shepherd to decide this, not
realizing he was Paris, a Trojan prince. Ultimately, he accepted
Aphrodite’s offer: the love of any woman in the world.
Paris chose Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman that had ever
lived. So Aphrodite worked her magic and Helen left her husband,
the Greek King Menelaus, for Paris. Menelaus then declared war on
Troy to get his wife back.
Many battles and events followed, with the gods’ intervention and
changing sides leading to shock developments like the death of
Achilles and, eventually, the siege of Troy. And by the time the Greek
army built the horse and then sailed away, leaving it as a “gift,” the
weary, half-starved Trojans may not have thought it so strange
considering the deaths that had already occurred on both sides.
Peace may have seemed worth the risk.
Nonetheless, while the Trojans slept, the 40 warriors crept out of
the horse and sacked the city, killing sleeping citizens and opening
the gate for the now returned Greek army to flood inside. Helen’s
attitude to this is reported differently; some say she tried to see if
there were men inside by imitating the voices of their loved ones
outside, to no avail. Others say she knew about the trick and aided it
by throwing a distracting festival.
It took 40 people to overthrow the city. But it could be said that if
the Trojans had done the same and given a wooden horse to the
Greeks during the siege, it would have needed only one person inside
to end the war.

Question: How could one person inside the wooden

horse end the war?

ANSWER
 YOU’LL NEVER OUTFOX THE
FOX
Amphitryon had a challenging problem. His wife, Alcmene, had
refused to marry him until he defeated the Taphians, who had killed
all but one of her brothers. And he couldn’t defeat them unless he
had the help of Creon. And Creon would not help him unless he got
rid of the Teumessian fox!

“It’s a wily creature that Dionysus has set on the Theban

countryside,” Creon said as they crouched behind a bush. “It chases
all who see it and tries to eat them – especially children!”
“Well then, we’ll catch it,” said Amphitryon, getting out one of his
better nets.
“That’s the thing: It’s uncatchable. That’s its power, besides being
large and clever. It is literally its destiny to never be caught,” said
Creon bitterly.
“We’ll see about that!” said Amphitryon, rubbing his hands
together.
So he tried everything. Nets, pit traps, spears, arrows, teams of
men, disguises, pushing giant boulders, and even painting a fake
tunnel on a wall. But to no avail. The fox was always one step ahead,
and seemed merely amused by the attempts to catch the
uncatchable!
In the end, Amphitryon had only one idea left. He would use a
creature mentioned in one of the previous puzzles in this book. Even
this course of action might not lead to the fox being caught, but he
reasoned that, at the very least, it would bring events to a conclusion.

Question: Which creature did Amphitryon get to set on

the uncatchable Teumessian fox?

ANSWER
 CONSTELLATION PRIZE
Many of the classical myths in this book were not only stories to
explain things about nature or philosophy, or consider the nature of
fate, or simply entertain people. They also served a more scientific
purpose, as the gods, heroes, and monsters within were often also
constellations, groupings of stars that allowed them to know their
position, and sometimes navigate on land or at sea.

Question: Here are 10 different constellations. Which

myth does each represent? The final one is a more
modern constellation, but perhaps its name will give a
clue as to which ancient constellation it was once
connected with.

• Gemini: Mirrored siblings, faithfully aiding a

quest for a magical object.
• Canis major and minor: Hunter and prey,
eternally circling.
• Sagitta: A weapon that flies and hopefully finds its
mark – whether bird, beast or one-eyed monster.
• Draco: A scaled monstrosity with fiery breath.
• Leo: An indestructible beast with a single
vulnerability.
• Aquila: A bird assigned to both punishment and
rescue by its master.
• Centaurus: Neither man nor beast, but both.
• Auriga: A pilot of a two-wheeled vehicle used in
races and sometimes transport.
• Lyra: An instrument privileged to play the greatest
music.
• Carina: The lowest part of a famous seagoing
vessel.

ANSWER
SOLUTIONS
TROJAN HORSE

The horse would be 9.6 feet wide, 24.8 feet tall, and 14.4 feet long. The horse is 20% smaller
than the original plan because 40 is 20% less than 50. Pous is the equivalent of the modern
“foot,” because that’s where the term originally came from!

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ESCAPING THE LABYRINTH

If he walks with his hand on the left wall and keeps it there moving forward, they will
inevitably find the exit.

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PERSEUS AND THE HESPERIDES

They are in the following order: 1) Donakis; 2) Mermesa; 3) Aiopis; 4) Nelisa; 5) Tara; 6)
Calypso; 7) Antheia. Therefore, Calypso has the kibisis.

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PANDORA’S JAR

Security–Threat. Harmony–Discord. Fairness–Injustice. Mercy–Cruelty. Peace–Conflict.

Joy–Sadness. Health–Illness. Sanity–Madness. Knowledge–Ignorance. Hope–Despair.
Freedom has no match; therefore, ironically, it is the thing that remained trapped.

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DIP STYX

Achaeus: Hand or finger. Bienor: Ear or ears. Caucon: Hair. Demodice: Elbow (tennis
elbow). Epicasta: Knee.

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CIRCE’S CURSES

The drunkard became the fish, drinking only pure water. The hermit became the wolf,
moving always with a pack. The idler became the magpie, constantly darting from place to
place. The thief became the snail, unable to take any of the treasure. The pirate became the
tortoise, doomed to dullness and slowness. And the murderer became the deer, vulnerable
and hunted.

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HERCULES’ FIRST LABOUR: THE NEMEAN LION

He used the dead lion’s claw. The lions’ skins could be penetrated by them, as shown by
their ability to slash and kill each other. So he was able to stab it and then skin it with the
claw.

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THE SECOND LABOUR: THE LERNAEAN HYDRA

Five. It takes 30 seconds to sever the head, 30 seconds for two to grow in its place, and 29 to
cauterize.
When Iolaus arrives, the first head has been growing back for 15 seconds. He begins
cauterizing, but after 15 seconds two new heads spring up, meaning the beast now has four,
except Hercules then succeeds at severing the next head so it’s back to three. Iolaus begins
cauterizing this one while Hercules hacks at the next, and therefore he prevents any more
growing, as he can always cauterize before any grow back. Once Hercules has severed the
third original head, he can return to the two new ones and chop them off to be cauterized –
therefore five.

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THE THIRD LABOUR: THE CERYNEIAN HIND

The hind’s speed is double that of a normal arrow, so 600km per hour. When the arrow is
initially fired it begins at 300km an hour and accelerates by 1km a second every minute.
600km per hour is 10km per minute. 300km an hour is 5km per minute. 1km a second is
60km per minute. So when the arrow is fired, after the first minute the hind has travelled
10km and the arrow has travelled 5km, putting it 15km away from the hind (as it was
already 10km away). The arrow now speeds up to 65km a minute! The hind now travels
another 10km, but the arrow travels 65km and, as the hind was only 15km away, the arrow
easily covers the 25km and hits the hind in the leg.

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THE FOURTH LABOUR: THE ERYMANTHIAN
BOAR

The sun. At dawn the boar ran west, as the sun came up in the east, and as it changed
position in the sky the boar ran in different directions, ending up running to the east as the
sun went down in the west. Apollo drives the sun chariot, and the boar thought he was being
hunted by him.

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THE FIFTH LABOUR: AUGEAN STABLES

There were 3,000 cattle (Hercules was promised 10% of them, which was stated to be 300).
They each produced 30kg of manure a day, which is 90,000kg a day in total. 30 years
=10,950 days, not counting leap years. 10,950 x 90,000=985,500,000kg!

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THE SIXTH LABOUR: DEFEAT THE STYMPHALIAN
BIRDS

He drained the mountain lake, then stood at the bottom. Like the hollow pithos, the bowl
shape of the empty lake acted as a natural amplifier.

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THE SEVENTH LABOUR: CAPTURE THE CRETAN
BULL

It wandered to Marathon. Philippides famously ran from Marathon to Athens to deliver

crucial information; and in 1893 the founders of the modern Olympic Games included a
special race that spans 42.195km, the supposed distance of Philippides’ run, creating the
marathon as we understand it today.

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THE EIGHTH LABOUR: THE MARES OF
DIOMEDES

The trough horse must be Lampon, as it cannot see Hercules but is not asleep. That means
the horse lying on the ground must be Xanthos, as it is the only other yellow one. Therefore,
Podargos the swift is leaning on the tree, because the other horse can see Hercules, meaning
it must be Deinos the terrible.

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THE NINTH LABOUR: THE BELT OF HIPPOLYTA

Seven left, and seven arrived. There were four sons of King Minos, and they killed a third of
Hercules’ men. Hercules killed half of them (two) and took the remaining people as a
replacement. As there are only two left, that means there must have been six men originally
(two is one-third of six); so six and Hercules arrived and left.

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THE TENTH LABOUR: THE CATTLE OF GERYON

4, 2, 5, 8, 6, 9, 10, 7, 3, 1.

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THE ELEVENTH LABOUR: THE GOLDEN APPLES
OF THE HESPERIDES

b) That a huge monster is coming. On the misty isle, the lamps would look like huge glowing
eyes, and the krotala made a loud, terrible sound.
a) Would not trick Atlas, as he has held the sky for a long time and knows it is tough. And c)
would not work, because the Old Man of the Sea said that everyone knows of Eurystheus’
hatred of Hercules.

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THE TWELFTH LABOUR: CAPTURE CERBERUS

He should use none of the three doors, but the place where he entered, in Acherusia. The
riddle has been spoken by Cerberus, who could therefore be lying about every aspect of it.
The priest told Hercules to remember that tales serve the purpose of the teller, and it would
serve Cerberus’ purpose for Hercules to be imprisoned. Instead it is better for him to go
back and exit the way he entered.

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THE FALL OF ICARUS

Clouds. On the first two days it was much cloudier; there had recently been a storm, as
evidenced by the dimmer daylight, choppy seas and increased humidity. But as the days
wore on, the light in the distance and the higher-flying birds showed it was passing, and on
their flight day there was a bright blue sky with a sun unobstructed by any cloud cover, in an
ideal position to melt his wings.

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THE QUEST OF PERSEUS

c) 1-8-3. You achieve this by subtracting the number of letters in each suitor’s name from
the number of the tower their head is mounted on. 11-10=1; 15-7=8; 9-6=3.

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PERSEUS PART II: FIFTY SHADES OF GRAEAE

Pemphredo, because she is the one who currently has the eye and she would therefore have
to pass the eye to one of her sisters so that Perseus could steal it.

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PERSEUS PART III: SNAKE GOOD HAIR OF
YOURSELF

The first path. Perseus’ aim is not to avoid seeing Medusa (he has the shield) but to avoid
Medusa seeing him. The first path’s many statues mean that he can hide behind them as he
approaches before going in for the kill.

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PERSEUS PART IV: GOING, GOING, GORGON

The fourth tunnel. Lakes don’t have waves (still water), dripping slime, fire or subterranean
rumbling, but often have wildlife, like birds.

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PERSEUS PART V: GET A HORSE

The second one. The first horse has the wings of an ostrich, which is a flightless bird. The
second has eagle wings.

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PERSEUS PART VI: PERSEUS VS CETUS

He needs to block the creature’s blowhole, through which it is able to breathe even if its
mouth and nose are sealed.

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PERSEUS PART VII: THE FINAL CHAPTER

King Polydectes. Knowing that Perseus had the head, he had deliberately plunged his palace
into darkness so that he could not gaze at it and be turned into stone. Unfortunately for him,
Perseus already had practice moving around in complete darkness.

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NARCISSUS

Because his image was flipped left to right; therefore his hair was parted differently, his hair
clasp was on the other side of his head, and his bracer was on the wrong arm.

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HYPNOS

The fourth day. On the first day he slept 6 hours (6 out of 8 in a 24-hour cycle). On the
second, the double of 6 is 12. On the third day,
3 x 6 =18. On the fourth day, 18 hours of wakefulness plus 6 hours of wakefulness makes 24.
The fifth and sixth days also add up to 24.

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SISYPHUS

The boulder has moss growing on it. As the adage says, a rolling stone gathers no moss.

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PART I: XENIA AND THE WARRIOR PRINCE

Because Iobates was obligated by xenia to welcome Bellerophon as a guest before he asked
him his business. Therefore, he couldn’t read the tablet until Bellerophon was already his
guest and covered by xenia. In fact, Iobates didn’t read the tablet until nine days later!

Next case

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PART II: CAPTURING PEGASUS

The shady glen would be the best place to capture Pegasus. The river is too wide open, and
the waterfall would be filled with creatures that could either attack him or alert the horse.
But the glen was more enclosed, and the fermented fruit dropping into the water could
make it mildly alcoholic, impairing Pegasus’ abilities.

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PART III: THE CHIMERA

A: Griffin; B: Harpy; C: Satyr; D: Echidna; E: Centaur; F: Pegasus

Next case

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PART IV: EAT LEAD, CHIMERA!

The tablet that bore Iobates’ message. It was made of lead, and therefore could be affixed to
the end of his spear.

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PART V: BOLDER ADVENTURES

They would both be hit at the same time. The weight of the boulders is immaterial; they
would both drop at the same speed due to the momentum cancellation effect.

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PART VI: THE STING

The ant. Spiders can’t fly (and are arachnids), and houseflies, butterflies and hoverflies can’t
sting. There are, however, many species of ant that sting and fly.

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DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE

The seeds were planted in 1798 BC, and then the plant grew a year later.

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PIECES OF PELOPS

Four. The first time she stirs it, the order will become 3, 4, 1, 5, 2, 6, 7. The second time, it
becomes 3, 1, 4, 2, 5, 6, 7. The third, it becomes 1, 3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7. On the fourth stir, it finally
becomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

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THE TORMENT OF TANTALUS

c) Stand on his head. None of the others are possible. He can’t leave the pool; shaking the
tree in any way won’t dislodge fruit; and jumping does not work. However, it is only when
he is standing on his feet that the branches raise up. If he stood on his head he could, with
effort, pick a piece of fruit with his feet.

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A ZEUS CONNECTION

He is his own great-great-grandfather.

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PART I: THE CREW

Perseus. He was Hercules’ great-grandfather, as shown in a previous puzzle.

Next case

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PART II: ARGO ROW

Because they all sat on the same side of the ship, which then went in circles.

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PART III: CYZICUS’ PARTY

Hercules. Hercules was a drover when he moved the cattle of Geryon, a musician when he
used the rattle to scare the Stymphalian birds, a weightlifter when he took the weight of the
sky from Atlas, a spelunker when he went into the Underworld to fight Cerberus, and a
hydrological engineer when he diverted the rivers to wash out the Augean stables.

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PART IV: JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS

Because they were the Doliones, the group the Argonauts had just left. In the darkness, by
steering west, south, further west, double east and then north, they had come all the way
around the coast, back to the beach where they had landed previously. The palace had been
made dark to mourn their supposed death, so when they arrived they were mistaken for an
invading army.

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PART V: POLLUX VS AMYCUS

Because when he was young, Amycus was dipped in the river Styx by his mother, just as
Achilles would be many years later. Amycus’ strange invulnerability suggested a magical
source, and his familiarity with the Underworld and Charon suggested a connection with the
Styx. When he said his mother had taken him by the arm and bathed him, Pollux
remembered the story of Achilles and correctly guessed that his arm had not been dipped in
all the way.

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PART VI: PHINEAS AND HERBS

The flakes from his enchanted chiton. By sprinkling them in the food, he knows the Harpies
can’t attack or eat it.

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PART VII: THE DOVE FROM ABOVE

They would need to be moving around 80km/h, a third faster than the dove. The dove’s tail
got caught, and that is a third of its length (10cm of 30cm). So if they went through at the
same speed, it’s likely that a third of their boat would be crushed behind them. If they travel
a third faster, they should make it out in time.

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PART VIII: DEATH IN THE WILD

A boar: short and hairy, with a beard and two tusks (curved spears), known for goring
people in the thigh and attacking relentlessly. Hercules fought the Erymanthian Boar and
Perseus fought Cetus, the half-boar, half-whale monster.

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PART IX: STYMPHALIAN RESURRECTION

By clashing their spears against their shields! This would create a loud rattling noise similar
to the krotala, and scare the birds away.

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PART X: YOKE THE BULLS

Because the bulls see in infrared – meaning only heat. That’s why they attack fires but not
cold objects. Pollux confused them because he was cooled by the lake, and the blanket will
mask Jason’s body heat.

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PART XI: SHOULDN’T SOWING DRAGON’S TEETH
GIVE YOU DRAGONS?

Into the middle. Although the hit is not guaranteed, the ricochet will make it seem as if the
stone has come from the direction of the first group, whereas the other two hits will more
obviously come from the direction of where Jason is hiding.

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PART XII: HOW TO TAME HIS DRAGON

The fourth path. While the others all have visible dangers, the dragon’s mouth is closed.
Jason knows that 100 dragon’s teeth were sown to create the warriors; therefore the dragon
is probably now toothless, which is why it took it so long to eat the sheep.

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PART XIII: CIRCE’S BACK

Surprisingly, yes. Even though it seems counterintuitive, Jason has more of a chance of
getting the right potion by switching than by remaining with his original choice. When he
makes his first choice there is a ⅓ chance of bottle 1 containing the right potion and ⅔
chance of it being the other two. However, when Circe demonstrates that bottle two has the
goat potion, it means bottle three has a ⅔ chance of being correct. This is known as the
Monty Hall problem and is a classic probability paradox.

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PART XIV: SIRENS’ SONG

1-1-1-1-1. The numbers he plays are a factor of the original number. But the Sirens’ tune is all
prime numbers, which have only two factors: 1 and themselves. Therefore, Orpheus just has
to play the same note over and over (which would explain why he’s so bummed out).

Next case

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PART XV: THE TALE OF TALOS

Talos is a machine, because if you observe the number of steps he takes, they represent odd
numbers descending (9, 7, 5) alternating with even numbers rising (2, 4, 6), forming a
mathematical pattern.

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PELOPS’ PROGRESS

Pelops had the inside track and, as the drunken gods forgot to stagger their start, and used
the same starting line, he had a shorter journey and would easily complete 12 laps before
they did.

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TARQUIN’S HAT

The eagle may have mistaken his hat for prey (a wolf cub) and snatched it up to kill and eat;
but then, as it flew on, it saw the statue of the she-wolf and, mistaking it for the cub’s
mother, placed it back where it had found it so as not to anger her.

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THE COUNTERFEIT COIN

Bite it. The coin may weigh the same and look the same, but copper is harder than gold. So
simply biting each of them should reveal the counterfeit. Newborn babies have no teeth.

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A FLAMING TRICKY PUZZLE

1: Crow; 2: Man; 3: Stag; 4: Raven; 5: Phoenix

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WHERE’S SPARTACUS?

Cartacus. Neither Artacus or Eartacus can be Spartacus, as he must tell the truth and would
not say that someone else is him. Bartacus can’t be Spartacus, as no-one else can tell the
truth, so he couldn’t say that. Dartacus can’t be Spartacus, because if Cartacus is lying, that
means both Eartacus and Bartacus are telling the truth, which is impossible. And Felix can’t
be Spartacus, because if everyone else is lying, then that means there are too many truth-
tellers. Only Cartacus telling the truth and everyone else lying is logically possible.

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THE FIRST LABOUR: THE CLUB OF PERIPHETES

He didn’t hit the stick, but instead hit Periphetes over the head with the club. He hit him two
times when he wasn’t expecting it and left with the club as his trophy.

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THE SECOND LABOUR: SINIS THE TREE-
SPLITTER

Theseus simply released the first tree, and Sinis was catapulted up and forward, shattering
his body on the cliff face!

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THE THIRD LABOUR: THE CROMMYONIAN SOW

Because he suspects it is in fact the wise woman transformed. She is a were-pig, destined to
turn into the sow at night, as evidenced by the acorns and mud bath she keeps in her house.
The cage is designed to keep her in during her transformation, which is why there had been
fewer attacks recently; but she had apparently broken out of it and trashed her house. The
gods may help her – if it wasn’t them who cursed her in the first place.

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THE FOURTH LABOUR: SCIRON

Because Theseus had persuaded Sciron to turn twice, so he was facing north, which means
that Sciron had his back to the cliff and Theseus could easily push him over it.

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THE FIFTH LABOUR: KING CERCYON

Because Theseus was still oiled up from his earlier ablutions! Theseus slipped out of the
bear-hug hold like a bar of soap; Cercyon could not get another grip, allowing Theseus to
then use his superior fighting skills to defeat the mountainous king.

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THE FINAL LABOUR: PROCRUSTES THE
HOTELIER

He slept in the 3.8m bed, but sideways, so that he fit precisely its 1.9m width.

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THE CHALLENGE OF THE PALLANTIDES

Because the two eldest brothers are twins. Therefore, they share the same birthdate; and as
Theseus specified only one man could fight him, they would be unable to do so. If they had
agreed, the eldest brother could fight; then they would have been able to, as even twins are
born in order, which is why Theseus was so careful with his words. (If you guessed triplets,
quadruplets or any other multiple births you may also consider this puzzle solved.)

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THE TRIBUTES

He was disguised as one of the young women, not the young men.

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FINDING THE ENTRANCE

He took every third word of the ladies’ sentences, which makes, “You must go east, find
three vines and climb.”

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RIDDLE OF THE MINOTAUR

The brooch pin. If Theseus had answered “the sword,” as the Minotaur had perhaps
intended, he would have died from the poison. But the brooch pin is also metal and sharp at
one end, and made Theseus bleed slightly when pricked with it.

Next case

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PART I: PENELOPE’S ONE-HUNDRED AND EIGHT
SUITORS

25%. 108 divided by 12 is 9. If the second dice roll comes up 10-12, she can have a day off,
and there’s a 3/12, or one quarter, chance of that happening.

Next case

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PART II: CALYPSO’S ISLAND

He said he wanted to die. But the question did not specify that Calypso would kill him.
Everyone, if not immortal, dies eventually. And so, she let him depart.

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PART III: DON’T FORGET THE LOTUS

It had a blue middle and golden petals with vermilion edges. Well done for not cheating.

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IV: SLEEPING CYCLOPS

Because the cave entrance is blocked by the boulder, and if they kill him while it is sealed,
they won’t be able to roll it out of the way and escape.

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PART V: OL’ ONE EYE IS BACK

The one in front. Polyphemus is staring out of the cave to the east at sunrise, so the sun
would be directly in his wounded eye. Attacking from the back or sides would not convey
significant advantage because of his senses, but his eye is still the most vulnerable spot.

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PART VI: THE OLD WINDBAG

Because the winds lay in the bag as they do on a map, and therefore the north was at the top
and escaped when Odysseus peered inside.

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PART VII: SIREN SIGNS

Because she was in the eastern part of the beach, right next to the very loud waterfall, and
therefore would not be heard even if she did sing.

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PART VIII: STEER CLEAR

The herder is actually Poseidon. He sits on a horse, bears a trident-like crook, has a beard
like a storm cloud and a rumbling voice like an earthquake, and casts a sea-spray-like mist
over the sailors.

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PART IX: ODYSSEUS, MASTER OF DISGUISE

Odysseus asked for water from the clean well in the courtyard, but he could not see it past
the swineherd’s hut, and he claimed he knew nothing about the household.

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PART X: ODYSSEUS KILLS THE ONE HUNDRED
AND EIGHT SUITORS

He sang the Sirens’ song, drawing them irresistibly to him. He learned it from hearing them
on the beach, and the notation on the stones indicated to him the truth that the song is not
some ability possessed only by them, but is in fact something that can be learned.

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PSYCHOPOMP, QU’EST-CE QUE C’EST?

The Cyclopes, because they each only have one eye, and therefore have only one coin to take
to Charon.

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CROSSING THE RIVER LETHE

Using the gold brooch and a branch from a tree, the Sibyl can mime to him what he needs to
do from the right bank while he is on the left; the river is only eight yards wide, so she will
be visible.

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OUROBOROS

His statement “three and three become six” indicates that if you take the last three words of
the puzzle’s text and combine it with the first three (like a word snake eating its own tail)
you get the phrase “he stabbed him in the heart.” That is where ancient Greeks thought
human consciousness and intelligence resided.

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HERCULES AND CACUS

Because of the hoofprints in the cowpats. As the cattle are standing in a row, if they had
genuinely been moving in the direction of their hoofprints they would not have been
stepping in their own cowpats.

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KNOT A GOOD IDEA

He could pull out the linchpin, thus detaching the yoke from the ox-cart and making the
knots loose enough to see their possible solution.

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ANDROCLES AND THE LION AND FOUR OTHER
GUYS

Because the first slave out wasn’t Androcles. Once Septus had swapped with Simonus and
Treva, it meant they were both next to Antonius. As he doesn’t like Corinthians, he had to
swap with Androcles, meaning he was the first out, and the lion didn’t know him at all.

Next case

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TAKING THE PYTHIA

Going to war destroyed the Lydian empire, not the Persian one.

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THE SKILLS OF PIRITHOUS

Because he could tell that Pirithous painted the target on after he had fired the arrows. He
had chosen a very big tree to increase his chances of hitting it, and had been forced to draw a
very large target so that all three arrows would be inside. Furthermore, when Theseus
arrived, Pirithous was picking up the bow, not putting it down, and there were flecks of wet
red paint on the tree’s splinters, suggesting it had only been recently done, and when
Theseus checked the arrow shaft, he saw paint there too.

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AN ORACLE MIRACLE

The fourth answer: “If you kill me, you will have great success in the future.” While the
commander seems to think her predictions are worthless, the soldier seems to understand
that whatever she says is usually the opposite of what happens. Therefore, none of the other
pronouncements hold weight, and the fourth would suggest to him that he’d instead face
misfortune and would be better off letting her live.

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NOT A WATERTIGHT SOLUTION

The Amazons’ boat wasn’t sinking as fast as the men’s boat because there was less weight in
it. The Amazons were smaller and slimmer, there were fewer of them, and their shields were
smaller and fewer as well.

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ARTEMIS AND ORION

Artemis’ item weights:

Helmet: 1.25kg; Sword: 2kg;
Shield: 2.5kg; Breastplate: 2kg;
Shin guards: 2kg. Total: 9.75kg.

Orion’s item weights:

Helmet: 2.5kg; Sword: 3kg;
Shield: 1kg; Breastplate: 8kg;
Shin guards: 1.25kg. Total: 15.75kg.

Therefore, Orion should pass his

sword to Artemis; then it will
weigh 12.75kg on both sides.

Next case

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DEATH ON THE HALIACMON

Megaera, the fury of jealousy. The man on the deck was one of the sons of the queen (the
crying lady). He was jealous of her big day and of the golden baklava, so he ate it and stole
her crown (order unknown), and Megaera then punished this act of jealousy.

Next case

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ROMAN WHISPERS

First, he removed the double vowels: At exit front noon to. At black moon-gate right stop.
Descend ceiling from lower.
Then changed the words that could be written as opposites:
At enter back midnight from. At white sundial left go. Ascend floor to upper. Which can be
reordered as:
At midnight enter from back. Go left at white sundial. Ascend to upper floor.

Next case

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BAD VIBRATIONS

Because her supernaturally light-footed nymph dancing made no vibrations on the ground
as she danced, so it wasn’t scared away.

Next case

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ORPHEUS PLAYS THE BLUES

“Sadly, our love is broken with it.” Each of the lines shows a changing pattern in the number
of letters in each word:

2 6 4 2 5 4 4 – By viper’s fang my life’s been split.

4 2 6 4 2 5 4 – Thus in darker tomb be hope quit.

3 4 2 6 4 2 5 – She flit to worlds under my sight.

Therefore, the next line should be 5 3 4 2 6 4 2, which only matches “Sadly, our love is
broken with it.”

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COOL CATS

Statement 3 – “If Orpheus enters the Underworld, he will die” – is a lie, as the first
paragraph shows the gods are with him. Manticores don’t like music but do seem to like
Orpheus’ dancing, so the Manticore that cannot hear is happily dancing along with him,
while the Manticore that can hear but not see is sitting solemnly.

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THE WALK

As a Auloniad nymph, her footsteps are too light to be heard. If Orpheus had heeded Hades’
advice and thought back to when she was alive (or looked back at page 162-3), he may have
remembered that.

Next case

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HOW TO GET AHEAD IN MUSIC

Melpomene. While Calliope was Orpheus’ mother, she would recognize that it wasn’t him,
and wouldn’t like the glossolalia. The same is true of Euterpe, who preferred lyrical poetry.
But Melpomene, often depicted with a the mask of tragedy and a sharp knife, became the
muse of tragedy, suggesting the head’s songs had a depressive effect on her.

Next case

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PART I: CENTAURS OF ATTENTION

Down at the loose rocks under the Centaurs’ feet. Her arrow could dislodge them, causing
an avalanche that would sweep the Centaurs away.

Next case

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PART II: MURDER SHE BOWED

Atalanta can run faster than the arrow. So once she’s fired it, she can run and catch it after
it’s been through the bullseye but before it strikes Jessica.

Next case

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PART III: DON’T SPEAK

Door VII (or 7). Atalanta killed a Vrykolakas and two Ichthyocentaurs, spelling VII.

Next case

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PART IV: BASILISK FAULTY

The left basilisk’s sight killed the man. If it is not partially sighted, it must be the one with
full sight. Therefore, the other two are the blind and partially sighted basilisks; and since he
said he was wrong about them, that means the middle basilisk must be the partially sighted
one and the right basilisk the blind one.

Next case

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PART V: THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES OF
APHRODITE

Because no-one can resist picking up the apples – including Hippomenes. So when he threw
them down (not far enough away from himself) he immediately sought to pick them up
again, depriving himself of any chance to get ahead of Atalanta.

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THE SEER OF DODONA

The prophecy was, “Nothing bad will happen to you if you leave this place.” However, he did
not leave the temple; he tripped and fell on the rubble on his way to the exit, breaking his
neck – the “imminent death” the other oracles foresaw.

Next case

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A PAIR OF KINGS

Pandareus has the same poison and antidote as Tantalus. So he can give the messenger the
antidote, and then give him the poison again, giving him six more days to return to Tantalus
and receive the antidote again.

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MAKING SACRIFICES

Cratinus.

Next case

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VRYKOLAKAS

The two knocks were on two different front doors! The first was on that of the home next
door, but she heard it clearly because of her proximity and the thin walls of her house. The
second was on her own front door.

Next case

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PLUTO DWARFS HADES

7, 8 and 9. If Pluto’s hand has more value than the bag, then it cannot include 1 or 2.
The only possible combination that leads to the number 4 in the value of the bag and Pluto’s
hand is that Pluto has 7, 8 and 9, which adds up to 24, and the bag has 1, 2, 5 and 6, which
adds up to 14.

Next case

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ON THE FIDDLE

G major.

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THE CURSE OF NEPTUNE

He died of dehydration. It was his fear of Poseidon, and therefore water, that led to his
death.

Next case

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ZEUS VS JUPITER

3 – Lose. Jupiter is Zeus; he did not say he was beyond fear, and he could easily fight
Typhon and trick Cronus. But he himself said he could only win. And if he tried to win by
losing, then he would paradoxically lose anyway, because he would have won!

Next case

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ZEUSICAL CHAIRS

50%. No matter what happens, or which seat Zeus takes, at the end the throne left for
Dionysus will either be his or Zeus’. If Zeus randomly takes his own throne, every other god
sits down normally. If Zeus randomly takes Dionysus’ throne, Dionysus will take Zeus’ and
every other god will sit down normally. If Zeus randomly takes another god’s throne, that
god will have to choose between Zeus’, Dionysus’, or some other god. If they choose another
god’s throne, that god will have the same choice. If any random god takes Zeus’ throne, then
the rest will sit down normally, and if any random god takes Dionysus’ throne, then the rest
will sit down normally – except for Dionysus, who will take Zeus’.

Next case

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NEPTUNE VS POSEIDON

Because most of Poseidon’s men would be dead by the time they reached the river. Sailing
three days with no provisions, including drinkable water, would mean most would die of
dehydration and starvation. But the river-boatmen had access to fresh water in the form of
the river, and in a pinch could even eat one of the horses, so there would be more of them
alive than Poseidon’s men when battle commenced.

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THE TALE OF PROMETHEUS

Credit, by claiming to have accomplished feats that were supposedly done by others.

Next case

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PART I: MR. BUG GOES TO LUNCH

Because the food was poisoned. Venus had hoped Psyche would eat some in her hunger, and
die. When the ants had finished, they had tried the food, but as each ant had died after
eating each type they had stopped and reluctantly withdrawn.

Next case

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PART II: FEELING SHEEPISH

There are sharp briars growing on either side of the river, and the golden sheep are known
for butting up against anything near them. So it seems likely that there would be some
golden wool snared on the briars. Psyche can sneak up near them and extract the wool, just
as the reeds hinted.

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PART III: EAGLE VS DRAGONS

Because while they could probably defeat the eagle, he is the icon of Jupiter, and the
vengeful god would then probably bring his full powers down onto the dragons.

Next case

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PART IV: GOING TO THE DOGS

One head should receive boxes 1 and 5 (36 Kochliara plus 24 Kochliara = 60, or 1 hēmina.)
The second head should receive box 2 (1 hēmina). And the third head should receive boxes 3
and 4 (40 Kochliara plus 20 Kochliara equals 60 Kochliara, or 1 hēmina).

Next case

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PART V: AMBROSIA COCKTAIL

Styx water: 8
Nectar: 6
Ambrosia: 5
Ichor: 2

Next case

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END OF THE CENTURY

Zero. 100 x 0 = 0 and 80 x 0 = 0

Next case

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SPHINX OF THE RIDDLE

Frogspawn and tadpoles. A tadpole begins with no legs but, beginning with the back legs,
grows them over the course of its spawning to become a frog. If you solved this, well done.
We will meet again.

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HANNIBAL CROSSES THE ALPS

41,580. He started with 50,000, which was reduced by 16% (8,000), leaving him 42,000.
They were then reinforced by 10% of 42,000 (4,200), giving them 46,200 troops. This was
then reduced by 10% (4,620), leaving Hannibal with 41,580 troops.

Next case

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UNICORNS!

Because the ancient Greeks considered the unicorn a real animal that lived in another
country, and therefore did not include it in their myths, but instead in their accounts of the
natural world.

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PHYLLIS-OPHICAL

Phyllis is Pandora, the first woman, who opened the pyxis and released either cursed evils or
gifts. Her casket or pyxis was the original box, containing the one thing left inside it: hope.

Next case

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TROY, TROY AGAIN

If the person inside the horse was Helen of Troy, the woman that the war was supposedly
fought over in the first place.

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YOU’LL NEVER OUTFOX THE FOX

Laelaps, the dog that – legend has it – could catch anything it hunted! The two of them
running around created an insoluble paradox that meant Zeus had to intervene by turning
them both to stone.

Next case

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CONSTELLATION PRIZE

Gemini: Castor and Pollux.

Canis major and minor: The Teumessian fox and Laelaps the dog. Sagitta: The arrow that
killed the Stymphalian birds, the Nemean lion or the Cyclops.
Draco: Dragons.
Leo: The Nemean lion.
Aquila: Zeus’ eagle.
Centaurus: Centaurs.
Auriga: The charioteer of Oenomaus.
Lyra: The harp or lyre of Orpheus.
Carina: A boat’s keel – carina is Latin for keel.

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THE END
TO TÉLOS!
This edition published in 2024 by Arcturus Publishing Limited
26/27 Bickels Yard, 151–153 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3HA

Copyright © Arcturus Holdings Limited

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without prior written permission in accordance with the provisions
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damages.

ISBN: 9781398840430
AD011151NT