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50 free Apollo trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Apollo trivia for the god, not just the moon landings (though we cover why NASA borrowed the name). The quiz opens with the myths - Leto's nine days of labour on floating Delos, the slaying of the Python at Delphi, Daphne turned into a laurel, Hyacinthus and the discus, Marsyas flayed for losing a music contest, Niobe's fourteen children, Cassandra's useless gift of prophecy and the arrow that found Achilles's heel. It then covers his cult and character: Phoebus, the lyre traded from Hermes, the Muses, the Pythia and the oracle, the Pythian Games, the animals and epithets, Apollo the plague-bringer and healer, and his later fusion with the sun god Helios. The last questions look at Apollo in Rome and afterwards - Augustus, the Apollo Belvedere and Nietzsche's Apollonian versus Dionysian. Questions run from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our Athena, Hades, Poseidon and Greek Mythology quizzes, and Apollo 13 for the mission.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Apollo is the twin brother of which goddess of the hunt?
Artemis
The two are said to have invented archery together.
Q 02Who was Apollo's mother?
Leto
Hera hounded her from land to land while she searched for somewhere to give birth.
Q 03On which island was Apollo born?
Delos
The island had been a floating rock; the unborn Apollo spoke from the womb and asked to be born there.
Q 04Which musical instrument is Apollo's best-known attribute?
The lyre
Swans circled Delos seven times at his birth, one for each string.
Q 05Apollo was the patron deity of which famous oracle?
Delphi
The priestess there, the Pythia, was said to be filled with the god's breath from a spring in the inner sanctuary.
Q 06Which monstrous serpent did Apollo kill at the site of his future oracle?
Python
The serpent had hounded his mother because it foresaw dying at the hands of her child.
Q 07Which nymph turned into a laurel tree to escape Apollo's pursuit?
Daphne
Ovid blames Cupid, who shot Apollo with a golden arrow of love and the nymph with a leaden one of hate.
Q 08Apollo's chief epithet, meaning 'bright', is what?
Phoebus
The Romans made 'Phoebus Apollo' almost a single name.
Q 09From the 5th century BC, Apollo was increasingly identified with which personification of the sun?
Helios
Latin poets did not fully merge them until the 1st century AD.
Q 10Apollo's worship was imported to Rome in which century BC?
5th
He is one of the few Greek gods the Romans kept under the same name.
Q 11Apollo's son Asclepius was famous as what?
A healer
Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt for raising the dead, and Apollo took a bloody revenge on the bolt's makers.
Q 12Apollo took revenge for his son's death by killing whom, the makers of Zeus's thunderbolt?
The Cyclopes
He buried the arrow he used in a mystical land in the far north.
Q 13As punishment for that killing, Apollo was made to serve as a herdsman to which mortal king of Pherae?
Admetus
The god is said to have been the king's lover as well as his cowherd.
Which satyr challenged Apollo to a music contest and was flayed alive for losing?
Q 21As Musagetes, Apollo led which group in dance?
The Muses
Plato said humanity's delight in rhythm and harmony was the gift of Apollo and these nine sisters.
Q 22In the Iliad, Apollo sends a plague on the Greek camp because Agamemnon refused to return whose daughter?
Chryses, his priest
The Greeks gave the girl back, and Agamemnon took Achilles's captive instead, which starts the whole poem.
Q 23In the Iliad, Apollo's priest addresses him as Smintheus, meaning lord of what?
Mice
The title recalls his ancient role as bringer of plague, and mice were among his sacred animals.
Marsyas
The satyr had taunted the god for his long hair and smooth body; Apollo tore the strings from his lyre in remorse afterwards.
Q 15When King Midas preferred Pan's pipes to Apollo's lyre, what did Apollo give him?
The ears of a donkey
The god decided he would not tolerate 'such a depraved pair of ears' any longer.
Q 16Apollo's beloved Hyacinthus was killed by what, blown off course by the jealous wind Zephyrus?
A discus
From the young Spartan's blood Apollo made the flower that bears his name.
Q 17Queen Niobe boasted she outdid Apollo's mother because she had how many children?
Fourteen
Apollo and his sister shot every one of them; Apollo had prophesied her fate from the womb.
Q 18Apollo gave Cassandra the gift of prophecy; what curse did he add when she rejected him?
No one would believe her
She foretold the fall of Troy and was ignored, as the curse required.
Q 19The Sibyl of Cumae asked Apollo for as many years of life as what?
Grains of sand in her hand
She forgot to ask for youth to go with them, and withered away for centuries.
Q 20Apollo acquired the lyre from which god, who built it from a tortoise shell?
Hermes
Zeus ordered the cattle returned, but Apollo fell in love with the music and swapped the herd for the instrument.
Q 24Apollo caused the death of Achilles by doing what?
Guiding Paris's arrow
He held a grudge because Achilles had killed two of his sons, one of them inside Apollo's own temple.
Q 25What did Apollo do to hide Hector from Achilles during their duel?
Wrapped him in mist
After Hector's death Apollo also shaded the corpse from the sun so it would not rot.
Q 26Which Trojan king did Apollo and Poseidon serve, tending cattle and building the walls?
Laomedon
The king cheated them of their pay, which is why both gods hated Troy.
Q 27Which Panhellenic festival was held at his oracle in Apollo's honour every four years?
The Pythian Games
Winners were crowned with bay laurel, the plant of the god's lost love.
Q 28How long did Apollo's mother labour on Delos before he was born?
Nine days and nights
She clung to a palm tree, and the newborn 'leapt forth' from the womb.
Q 29Which goddess, leaping into the sea to escape Zeus, became Apollo's floating birth-island?
Asteria
She was Leto's own sister, which made her island the one place willing to shelter the pregnant goddess.
Q 30When Apollo learned that his lover Coronis, pregnant with Asclepius, was unfaithful, who told him?
His raven
He sent his sister to kill her, then rescued the unborn child from the pyre.