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50 free Troy trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Troy is a story, a place and a movie, and this quiz covers all three. The bulk of the questions follow the legend from the golden apple and the Judgement of Paris through the ten-year siege, the wrath of Achilles, the death of Hector, the wooden horse and the sack of the city, drawing on the Iliad, the lost Epic Cycle and Virgil's Aeneid. Then it moves to the real hill at Hisarlik in Turkey: Frank Calvert, Heinrich Schliemann, the nine layers of the mound, the missing gold of 'Priam's Treasure' and the Hittite name for the city. A final handful covers Wolfgang Petersen's 2004 film with Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and a very unfortunate Achilles tendon. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Trojan War, the archaeological site and the film, so the names, dates and numbers can be relied on when a classics graduate objects.
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Q 01The Trojan War began after Paris took Helen from her husband, the king of which Greek city?
Sparta
Sparta was ruled by Menelaus, Helen's husband; when Paris carried her off, Menelaus invoked the oath of Tyndareus, under which her former suitors had sworn to defend the marriage.
Q 02Which goddess tossed a golden apple inscribed 'to the fairest' into a wedding?
Eris
Eris had been left off the guest list for the wedding of Peleus and Thetis.
Q 03At the Judgement of Paris, which goddess offered him political power and control of all Asia?
Hera
Hera, queen of the gods, offered Paris dominion over Asia; Athena offered wisdom and victory in war, and Paris chose the third goddess's offer of the most beautiful woman instead.
Q 04Where was Paris being raised as a shepherd when Hermes led the three goddesses to him?
Mount Ida
Mount Ida, the range above Troy, is where the exposed infant Paris had been raised by a herdsman; Hermes brought the three goddesses to him there and he judged them beside a spring.
Q 05In which year of the siege of Troy is Homer's Iliad set?
The tenth
The tenth year of the war is the Iliad's setting; the poem covers only a few weeks of it, from the quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon to the funeral of Hector.
Q 06Agamemnon, who led the Greek expedition against Troy, was king of which city?
Mycenae
Mycenae, the citadel in the Argolid with the Lion Gate, was Agamemnon's seat in Homer; he was Menelaus's elder brother, and his wife Clytemnestra took up with Aegisthus while he was away.
Q 07According to one tradition, Thetis made the infant Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in which river?
The Styx
The Styx, the river of the underworld, is where Thetis dipped the infant Achilles in the later tradition; she held him by the heel, which stayed dry, mortal and famous.
Q 08To keep Achilles out of the war, Thetis hid him at King Lycomedes' court disguised as what?
A girl
A girl called Pyrrha was the disguise: Achilles lived among King Lycomedes' daughters on Skyros until Odysseus laid out trinkets and weapons, and Achilles gave himself away by seizing the arms.
Q 09Odysseus tried to dodge the war by feigning madness and sowing his fields with what?
Salt
Salt was what Odysseus scattered from his plough as he feigned madness; Palamedes set the infant Telemachus in front of the share, and Odysseus swerved, proving he was sane.
Q 10Whom did Agamemnon sacrifice at Aulis to appease Artemis and free the fleet from the calm?
Iphigenia
Iphigenia, Agamemnon's daughter, was lured to Aulis on the pretext of marrying Achilles and sacrificed to Artemis; in Euripides' version the goddess swapped in a deer at the last moment and carried her off to Tauris.
Q 11According to the Iliad's Catalogue of Ships, how many Greek ships sailed for Troy?
1,186
1,186 ships is the total reached by adding up the contingents listed in Iliad Book 2, led by Agamemnon's 100; Thucydides rounded the tradition to about 1,200 ships.
Q 12King Cinyras of Cyprus promised 50 ships but sent only one real vessel and 49 made of what?
Clay
Clay was the material: Apollodorus records that Cinyras dispatched a single real ship and forty-nine toy vessels of earthenware, crewed by clay figures, to satisfy the letter of his promise.
Q 13Philoctetes was abandoned on Lemnos for ten years after suffering what injury?
A snake bite
Q 21Which queen of the Amazons arrived to fight for Troy shortly after Hector's burial?
Penthesilea
Penthesilea, daughter of Ares, brought her Amazons to Troy after Hector's funeral and was killed by Achilles, who then mourned her beauty; when Thersites mocked his grief, Achilles killed him.
Q 22Memnon, son of Eos, who aided Troy and was slain by Achilles, was king of which land?
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, at the edge of the world in Greek geography, was Memnon's kingdom; he came with an army to aid Troy, and Zeus weighed the fates of the two heroes, with Memnon's side sinking.
Q 23In an alternative version of his death, Achilles was stabbed while marrying which daughter of Priam?
Polyxena
A snake bite, suffered at a shrine on the islet of Chryse, left Philoctetes with a festering wound so foul that the Greeks marooned him on Lemnos; the bow he had inherited was later needed to take Troy.
Q 14Who was the first Greek to land at Troy, and the first to die, in fulfilment of a prophecy?
Protesilaus
Protesilaus of Phylace leapt ashore first and was cut down at once, fulfilling the prophecy that the first Greek to land would die; Odysseus had dodged it by jumping onto his own shield rather than Trojan soil.
Q 15Legend said the walls of Troy were built by Apollo and which other god during a year of forced service?
Poseidon
Poseidon and Apollo, sentenced by Zeus to a year's labour, built Troy's walls for King Laomedon, who then refused their wages; Poseidon sent a sea monster in revenge, and the divine walls held for ten years.
Q 16Achilles withdrew from the fighting after Agamemnon took which captive woman from him?
Briseis
Briseis, Achilles' war-prize from Lyrnessus, was taken by Agamemnon after he had to return his own captive Chryseis to her father to end the plague sent by Apollo.
Q 17Who wore Achilles' armour into battle and was killed by Hector?
Patroclus
Patroclus borrowed Achilles' armour to rally the Greeks and was killed by Hector outside the walls; Hector stripped the armour from the body, and Achilles' grief brought him back to the fight.
Q 18Which god forged the new set of arms that Achilles wore when he returned to battle?
Hephaestus
Hephaestus forged Achilles' new arms at Thetis' request, including the great shield described in Iliad Book 18; Memnon later faced Achilles wearing armour from the same divine smith.
Q 19With Athena's help, Diomedes wounded Ares and which other deity on the battlefield?
Aphrodite
Aphrodite was cut on the wrist by Diomedes' spear in Iliad Book 5 as she carried her son Aeneas from the field; later in the same book he wounded Ares, who bellowed like ten thousand men.
Q 20Guided by Hermes, who came to Achilles' tent to beg for the return of Hector's body?
Priam
Priam, the aged king of Troy, crossed the Greek camp by night with Hermes as guide and kissed the hands that had killed his son; Achilles relented, and the Iliad ends with Hector's funeral.
Polyxena, a Trojan princess, was the lure: Achilles was ambushed and stabbed by Paris at the temple of Thymbraean Apollo during the wedding; after the sack she was sacrificed on Achilles' tomb.
Q 24When Ajax fell on his sword after losing the contest for Achilles' armour, where did it pierce?
His armpit
His armpit was Ajax's one vulnerable spot, so he fixed the sword there; after losing Achilles' arms to Odysseus he had slaughtered a flock of sheep, believing them to be his comrades.
Q 25Paris was finally shot dead by Philoctetes using a bow that had belonged to which hero?
Heracles
Heracles gave his bow and poisoned arrows to Philoctetes for lighting his funeral pyre; Helenus revealed that Troy could not fall without them, so Odysseus fetched Philoctetes from Lemnos.
Q 26Which sacred Trojan statue did Odysseus and Diomedes steal because Troy could not fall while it stood?
The Palladium
The Palladium, a small wooden image of Athena said to have fallen from heaven, guaranteed Troy's safety; Odysseus and Diomedes crept in and carried it off after the captive seer Helenus revealed the conditions for the city's fall.
Q 27Who physically built the wooden horse, working under Athena's guidance?
Epeius
Epeius, a Phocian craftsman and champion boxer, built the horse under Athena's direction; the ruse was Odysseus's idea, and Epeius himself hid inside with the other warriors.
Q 28What inscription did the Greeks put on the wooden horse?
A thank-offering to Athena for their return home
A thank-offering to Athena for their return home, dedicated by the Greeks, is the inscription Apollodorus records on the horse; the rest of the army burned its camp and sailed just out of sight to Tenedos.
Q 29Which Trojan priest warned against the horse and was devoured by serpents that came from the sea?
Laocoön
Laocoön, a Trojan priest, hurled a spear into the horse's flank and was crushed with his two sons by serpents from the sea; the Trojans read the portent as punishment for his sacrilege and dragged the horse inside.
Q 30Why did the Trojans ignore Cassandra's warnings about the wooden horse?
Apollo had cursed her never to be believed
Apollo had cursed her never to be believed: he had given Cassandra the gift of prophecy and, when she spurned his advances, twisted it so that her true warnings always fell on deaf ears.