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20 Mythology Trivia Questions

20 Mythology Trivia Questions

Think you know your gods, heroes, and ancient legends? Put your mythology knowledge to the ultimate test with these 20 brain-busting trivia questions.

20 Mythology Trivia Questions

20 questions|History

Test your knowledge of ancient myths with 20 mythology trivia questions covering Greek, Norse, Egyptian, and more. How many can you get right?

From Zeus’s thunderbolts to Loki’s tricks, mythology is packed with stories that have shaped cultures for thousands of years — and make for seriously good trivia. This 20-question mythology quiz covers Greek, Norse, Egyptian, and more, testing whether you actually remember the details or just the Hollywood versions. Fair warning: knowing that Thor has a hammer won’t be enough.

The Gods Had Worse Drama Than Reality TV

Ancient mythologies read like the most unhinged soap operas ever written. Zeus fathered so many children that keeping track of them is practically a trivia category on its own. Kronos ate his kids to prevent a prophecy, which — spoiler — didn’t work. Norse mythology ends with Ragnarök, a full apocalypse where most of the gods die. Even Egyptian mythology gets wild: Set murdered his brother Osiris, chopped him into pieces, and scattered them across Egypt. Isis had to reassemble him like the world’s worst jigsaw puzzle. These aren’t bedtime stories. They’re the original prestige dramas, and the details make for questions that trip up even confident mythology fans.

Mythology You Already Know (But Don’t Realize)

You use mythology every day without thinking about it. The days of the week? Tuesday is Tyr’s day, Wednesday is Woden’s (Odin’s) day, Thursday belongs to Thor, and Friday to Frigg. The word “cereal” comes from Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain. Nike isn’t just a shoe brand — she’s the Greek goddess of victory. The Muses gave us the word “music,” and Hypnos, god of sleep, is why we say “hypnosis.” Even the planet names are a mythology cheat sheet: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all trace back to Roman gods. Knowing these connections gives you an edge on questions that seem obscure at first glance but are hiding in plain sight.

Beyond Greece and Rome

Most trivia focuses on Greek and Roman myths, but some of the best questions pull from traditions people study less. Norse mythology has a world tree called Yggdrasil connecting nine realms. Hindu mythology features the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, where gods and demons cooperated to produce the elixir of immortality. Japanese mythology tells of Amaterasu, the sun goddess, hiding in a cave and plunging the world into darkness. Mesoamerican mythology gave us Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, and a creation story involving gods sacrificing themselves to become the sun. The wider your mythological knowledge, the better you’ll do — and this quiz doesn’t stick to the obvious pantheons.

Can You Beat the Average Score?

Most people score around 60% on this quiz, which means roughly 12 out of 20. The Greek and Roman questions tend to be where players pick up easy points, but questions on Norse, Egyptian, and world mythology are where scores start to drop. If you can name the ferryman of the River Styx, the weapon Poseidon carried, and what Fenrir is in Norse mythology, you’re in solid shape. Scoring above 75% puts you in rare company — and a perfect 20/20 means you’ve genuinely earned bragging rights.

Mythology has been humanity’s way of explaining the unexplainable for millennia, and the stories are as entertaining now as they were around ancient campfires. Whether you crushed it or discovered some gaps in your knowledge, QuizTopics has hundreds more quizzes across history, science, pop culture, geography, and beyond — so there’s always another challenge waiting.

See all 20 questions and answers Spoilers
  1. What was the punishment for Sysiphus's craftiness?

    • To fell a tree that regenerated after every axe swing.
    • ✓ Cursed to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity. (correct)
    • Tied to a boulder for eternity, being pecked by birds.
    • Standing in a lake filled with water he could not drink.

    Sisyphus was punished by Zeus for cheating death — twice. He tricked Thanatos (Death) into chaining himself, then convinced Persephone to let him return to the living. The word 'sisyphean' now describes any endlessly futile task.

  2. Neptune's greek name was...

    • Ares
    • Apollo
    • ✓ Poseidon (correct)
    • Zeus

    Poseidon was actually older than Neptune in cultural terms by centuries, but the Romans gave him a planet — the eighth from the sun, fittingly covered in raging storms and deep blue atmosphere.

  3. Hera is god of...

    • Sea
    • War
    • ✓ Marriage (correct)
    • Agriculture

    Despite being the goddess of marriage, Hera's own marriage was notoriously unhappy. She spent much of her mythological career punishing Zeus's lovers and their children rather than enjoying domestic bliss.

  4. This Greek goddess's name was chosen for the dwarf planet responsible for discord on Pluto's classification amongst astronomers.

    • Charon
    • ✓ Eris (correct)
    • Dysnomia
    • Ceres

    When astronomers couldn't agree whether Pluto was a planet, the discovery of the slightly larger dwarf planet Eris in 2005 forced the debate. Naming it after the goddess of discord was a deliberate nod to the chaos it caused in astronomy.

  5. Who was the King of Gods in Ancient Greek mythology?

    • Hermes
    • Apollo
    • Poseidon
    • ✓ Zeus (correct)

    Zeus overthrew his own father Kronos, who had previously overthrown his father Ouranos — making divine family dysfunction a three-generation tradition on Mount Olympus.

  6. In Greek Mythology, who was the daughter of King Minos?

    • Alana
    • ✓ Ariadne (correct)
    • Athena
    • Ariel

    Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of thread so he could navigate the Labyrinth and slay the Minotaur. After he abandoned her on the island of Naxos, the god Dionysus found her and made her his immortal wife.

  7. In Norse mythology, what is the name of the serpent which eats the roots of the ash tree Yggdrasil?

    • Odin
    • Ymir
    • Bragi
    • ✓ Nidhogg (correct)

    Nidhogg (meaning 'Malice Striker') gnaws at Yggdrasil's roots from below while an eagle sits at the top, and a squirrel named Ratatoskr runs between them carrying insults back and forth — the world's first internet troll.

  8. Which of these Roman gods doesn't have a counterpart in Greek mythology?

    • Mars
    • ✓ Janus (correct)
    • Vulcan
    • Juno

    Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings, transitions, and doorways, is uniquely Roman with no Greek equivalent. January is named after him — one face looks back at the old year while the other looks forward to the new.

  9. Which Greek & Roman god was known as the god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry, and more?

    • ✓ Apollo (correct)
    • Artemis
    • Aphrodite
    • Athena

    Apollo is one of the few gods whose name stayed the same in both Greek and Roman mythology. He held so many responsibilities that ancient writers joked even the gods needed a workaholic.

  10. Which figure from Greek mythology traveled to the underworld to return his wife Eurydice to the land of the living?

    • Daedalus
    • Hercules
    • Perseus
    • ✓ Orpheus (correct)

    Orpheus's music was so beautiful that it charmed Hades into releasing Eurydice — on the condition he not look back. He looked back at the last moment, losing her forever, giving us one of literature's earliest lessons about trust and impatience.

  11. Nidhogg is a mythical creature from what mythology?

    • Greek
    • ✓ Norse (correct)
    • Hindu
    • Egyptian

    Norse mythology describes Nidhogg surviving Ragnarok (the end of the world) and flying over the new earth carrying corpses — making it one of the few creatures that outlasts the apocalypse itself.

  12. In Greek mythology, who is the god of wine?

    • Hephaestus
    • Demeter
    • ✓ Dionysus (correct)
    • Apollo

    Dionysus was the only Olympian with a mortal mother (Semele). Zeus rescued the unborn Dionysus by sewing him into his own thigh until he was ready to be born — making Zeus literally his birth mother and father.

  13. In most traditions, who was the wife of Zeus?

    • Hestia
    • ✓ Hera (correct)
    • Athena
    • Aphrodite

    Hera was Zeus's seventh wife according to Hesiod, but she demanded — and got — the title of Queen of the Gods. Their stormy marriage became the template for divine soap operas for millennia.

  14. Which of these mythological creatures is said to be half-man and half-horse?

    • Pegasus
    • Gorgon
    • Minotaur
    • ✓ Centaur (correct)

    The most famous centaur, Chiron, broke the stereotype of wild, drunken centaurs by being a wise teacher who tutored Achilles, Heracles, and Jason. He was so respected that Zeus placed him in the stars as the constellation Sagittarius.

  15. What mytological creatures have women's faces and vultures' bodies?

    • Mermaids
    • ✓ Harpies (correct)
    • Lilith
    • Nymph

    The word 'harpy' comes from the Greek 'harpazein' meaning 'to snatch.' They were originally wind spirits who carried people away, and the Greeks blamed them whenever someone disappeared without explanation.

  16. What immense structure is referred to in Norse Mythology as the Yggdrasil.

    • ✓ Tree (correct)
    • Temple
    • Castle
    • Mountain

    Yggdrasil is an immense ash tree that connects nine worlds in Norse cosmology. Its name likely means 'Odin's horse,' because Odin once hanged himself from it for nine days to gain the knowledge of runes.

  17. The Nike apparel and footwear brand takes it's name from the Greek goddess of what?

    • Courage
    • ✓ Victory (correct)
    • Honor
    • Strength

    Nike was the winged goddess who flew around battlefields rewarding victors with glory and fame. The famous 'Swoosh' logo was designed by a college student in 1971 for just $35 — though she later received Nike stock.

  18. Which Norse God has a horse named Sleipnir?

    • ✓ Odin (correct)
    • Thor
    • Frigg
    • Balder

    Sleipnir has eight legs and is the fastest horse in all the nine worlds. In one of mythology's strangest tales, Sleipnir's mother is actually Loki, who shapeshifted into a mare to distract a giant's stallion.

  19. The Norse god Odin has two pet crows named 'Huginn' and 'Muninn'. What do their names mean?

    • ✓ Thought & Memory (correct)
    • Power & Peace
    • Sleeping & Waking
    • War & Learning

    Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory) fly across the world each day and return to whisper news into Odin's ears. Odin once said he feared Muninn might not return — suggesting even the Allfather worried about losing his memory.

  20. What is the name of the first human being in Norse mythology?

    • Asger
    • Asmund
    • ✓ Ask (correct)
    • Ake

    Ask (or Askr) was created from an ash tree, while the first woman, Embla, was made from an elm. Three gods found these trees as driftwood on a beach and breathed life, sense, and warmth into them — the Norse version of creation from nature itself.