QUIZ

MYTHS AND LEGENDS 

1. Which Greek island, the site of a volcanic eruption around 1600 BCE, was a possible inspiration for the legend of Atlantis? Santorini

2. ‘Songlines’ up to 40,000 years old cross which country? Australia

3. Tórshavn (‘Thor’s Harbour’) is the capital of which self-governing island territory? Faroe Islands

4. The West African trickster god Anansi often takes the form of which frequently feared animal? Spider

5. In which country did people thousands of years ago make a distinction between Kemet and Deshret – the fertile Black Land and the arid Red Land? Egypt

6. What problematic anatomical characteristic is said to be shared by the dahu of the western Alps and the wild haggis of the Scottish Highlands? Both have legs shorter on one side than the other

7. What name is shared by a footballing legend and the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes? (Though one is written with an accent and the other without.) Pelé/Pele

8. CzechRusalka, which tells the Little Mermaid-like story of a water sprite, is a 1901 opera in which language?

9. Which country’s mythology had an otherworld known as Tír na nÓg (Land of the Young), fatefully visited by the hero Oisín? Ireland

10. Which country is home to the endangered aye-aye, traditionally feared (though entirely harmless to humans) as a harbinger of death? Madagascar