Libra Trivia
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46 free Libra trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Libra trivia quiz covers the seventh sign of the zodiac from three directions. The astrology questions ask about the scales' dates, Venus rulership, air element and cardinal modality, Saturn's exaltation, the opposite sign Aries, and Manilius's claim that Roman judges are born under it. The astronomy questions turn to the constellation itself: the claw stars Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali, the green-tinged brightest star that may once have outshone Antares, the eclipsing Delta Librae, the misfiled Gamma Scorpii, the Gliese 581 planets that were and were not there, and the Methuselah star that seemed older than the universe. The mythology and history are where Libra gets interesting: the scales of Themis and Iustitia, Egyptian heart-weighing, the blindfold that started as satire, the Babylonian Zibanu sacred to Shamash, the Greek claws of the scorpion, the Egyptian boat, the Roman invention of the constellation, and the libra that gave us 'lb' and the word pound. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question, so the quiz suits a Libra birthday, a pub quiz round or a stargazing night. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Zodiac, Astrology and Planets quizzes next.
30 of 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which abbreviation for a unit of weight comes from the Latin word libra?
lb
lb is short for libra, the Roman pound, so the zodiac's balance hides in every weight written in pounds; the Romans' full phrase, libra pondo, also gave English the word pound itself.
Q 02Libra is unique among the zodiac signs because it is the only one represented by what?
An inanimate object
An inanimate object stands for Libra alone; every other sign is a living creature or a human figure, though old star lore soon gave the pans an owner, a goddess of justice holding them aloft.
Q 03Libra, the seventh sign, is paired with the seventh house of a horoscope, which governs what?
Marriage and partnerships
Marriage and partnerships fill the seventh house, which begins at the descendant, the point of the zodiac setting in the west at birth, directly opposite the ascendant that stands for the self.
Q 04Which planet rules Libra?
Venus
Venus rules Libra as well as Taurus, its two domiciles; the planet of harmony suits the sign of fairness and balance.
Q 05Libra belongs to which element?
Air
Air signs were classed as hot and moist in the old scheme of four humours, the sanguine temperament, which is why Libra gets its sociable, easy-going reputation.
Q 06What is Libra's modality?
Cardinal
Cardinal signs begin the seasons; Libra starts autumn in the northern hemisphere.
Q 07Which sign is opposite Libra on the zodiac wheel?
Aries
The two mark the equinoxes: Aries the spring one and Libra the autumn one.
Q 08Which planet is said to be exalted in Libra?
Saturn
Saturn is exalted in Libra in traditional doctrine, the planet of judgement finding its best expression in the sign of fairness; the Sun, by contrast, is in its 'fall' there.
Q 09The Sun is in the sign Libra between roughly which dates?
September 24 to October 22
September 24 to October 22 sits within a day or two of the standard lists, which differ because the sign opens at the autumn equinox, whose date shifts slightly from year to year.
Q 10On the dates horoscopes give to Libra, the Sun is actually in front of which constellation?
Virgo
Virgo holds the Sun from about September 16 to October 30, so people called Libras were in fact born with it there; the Sun reaches Libra's own stars only on October 31 and crosses them in about three weeks.
Q 11The scales of Libra are often linked to those held by which Greek personification of divine law?
Themis
Themis, a Titan and Zeus's second wife, personified divine law and order; courthouse statues of Lady Justice, scales in hand, are still often called by her name.
Q 12Which daughter of Zeus, one of the Horae, was the Greek personification of justice?
Dike
Dike, one of the Horae with her sisters Eirene and Eunomia, personified human justice; Greek poets told of her leaving the earth in disgust at mankind's wickedness to shine among the stars.
Q 13Justice was one of four virtues honoured on a golden shield the Senate gave to which Roman emperor?
Augustus
Augustus boasted of the shield in his own account of his reign: it hung in the Senate house and praised his valour, clemency, justice and piety.
Q 21Libra's brightest star is often described as showing what unusual tint?
Green
Green is the tint many observers have reported, although a star this hot should look blue-white; others see plain white, and no one has explained the disagreement.
Q 22Which red star did Eratosthenes say Libra's brightest star once outshone?
Antares
Ptolemy later called the two equal, so either Antares brightened or the Libra star is slightly variable.
Q 23Traditionally, which two stars represent the beam of the scales, with Gamma and Sigma as the pans?
Alpha and Beta
Alpha and Beta Librae mark the beam, with Gamma and Sigma as the pans; the pair only look matched, since Beta lies more than twice as far from us as Alpha.
Q 14Weighing a dead person's heart against a feather was which ancient culture's judgement rite?
Egypt
Egypt: in the Book of the Dead the jackal-headed Anubis weighs the heart against the feather of Ma'at, and a heavy heart is eaten by the monster Ammit.
Q 15Which now-familiar feature of Lady Justice was still a novelty when a Bern fountain statue wore one in 1543?
A blindfold
A blindfold was a novelty on Hans Gieng's 1543 Justice in Bern, whose sword and scales were already traditional; only later did the covered eyes become standard, read as equality before the law.
Q 16Libra belongs to the zodiac, a word that comes from the Greek for a circle of what?
Animals
Animals: the Greeks named the band zodiakos kyklos because most of its figures are creatures, and the same root, zoion, gives English the word zoo.
Q 17According to the Roman writer Manilius, which professionals are born under Libra?
Judges
Judges, Manilius wrote in his Astronomica, are born under Libra: its native will weigh life and death, give the world its laws and make cities and kingdoms tremble at his nod.
Q 18The Moon was said to be in Libra at the founding of which city?
Rome
Rome: the astrologer Lucius Tarutius, a friend of Cicero, cast the city's horoscope and put the Moon in Libra at its founding; the poet Manilius later called Libra Italy's own sign.
Q 19What does the name of Alpha Librae, Zubenelgenubi, mean in Arabic?
The southern claw
The southern claw is what the Arabic name Zubenelgenubi means, a relic of the days when the Greeks drew these stars as part of the creature next door, long before they became a balance.
Q 20Which Greek letter is carried by Zubeneschamali, the star in Libra that outshines its Alpha?
Beta
Beta Librae shines at magnitude 2.6 against Alpha's 2.75, because the Greek letters, handed out centuries ago, follow brightness only roughly.
Q 24Sigma Librae's proper name, Brachium, is the Latin word for which part of the body?
Arm
Arm is the meaning of Brachium, the root of the anatomical word brachial; the star was long labelled as part of the constellation next door before astronomers handed it to Libra.
Q 25What makes the star Delta Librae fade by a full magnitude every two days and eight hours?
A companion star eclipses it
A companion star eclipses it, and that fainter star has spilled so much of its gas onto the brighter one that it is now the lighter of the two.
Q 26Which red dwarf in Libra generated some of the first claims of potentially habitable exoplanets?
Gliese 581
Gliese 581, a red dwarf in Libra, made headlines from 2007 with planets 'c', 'd' and 'g' touted as potentially habitable; 'c' proved too hot and 'd' and 'g' were later dismissed as stellar noise.
Q 27How far away is the red dwarf that hosts Libra's best-known planetary system?
20.5 light-years
20.5 light-years is close enough that 501 messages from the public, beamed at the system by a radio telescope in Ukraine in 2008, should arrive in 2029.
Q 28The disputed planet 'g' in Libra's red-dwarf system was nicknamed what by one of its discoverers?
Zarmina's World
Zarmina's World was Steven Vogt's name for the planet, after his wife; he put the chances of life there at '100 percent', yet other teams could not find the planet at all.
Q 29When it was found in 2009, planet 'e' of Libra's red-dwarf system held what record?
Least massive exoplanet around a normal star
Least massive exoplanet around a normal star was the title planet 'e' took in April 2009, at about 1.9 Earth masses; the same announcement put its neighbour 'd' in the habitable zone, a claim that later unravelled.
Q 30Which biblical figure gives the ancient star HD 140283 its nickname?
Methuselah
Methuselah, the Genesis patriarch said to have lived 969 years, lends his name to HD 140283, a star so poor in heavy elements that it must have formed before generations of stars had enriched the galaxy.