Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Introduction-Part 1, Chapters 1-6

Reading Check

1. Who are Zeus’s parents?

2. What does Athena teach to men but never to women?

3. What river forms the boundary between the world of the living and the land of the dead?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Zeus make Hera promise before he will release her from the golden chains?

2. How do the Athenians react when Poseidon claims the region of Attica?

3. What happens to the little boy who laughs at Demeter’s tears?

Paired Resource

“The Myth of Hades and Persephone”

• This 6-minute TED-Ed video is a cartoon version of Persephone’s story.
• This resource relates to themes of Moderation and Restraint as Ideals and Love as the Most Powerful Force.
• Which elements of the Demeter and Persephone story are emphasized in this video? How would you compare this emphasis with the elements that are emphasized in Evslin’s telling of their story? In which retelling is it most clear why moderation and restraint are important? Which retelling most clearly communicates the idea of Love as the Most Powerful Force?

Part 1, Chapters 7-13

Reading Check

1. What does Artemis seek from the Cyclopes’ workshop?

2. What does Apollo leave to watch over Coronis while he is in Delphi?

3. Who are Hermes’s parents?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What curse does Hera place on Leto?

2. What was Apollo like as a young god?

3. How was Aphrodite born?

Paired Resource

“Venus Transiens” by Amy Lowell and The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli

• Lowell’s brief and accessible ekphrastic poem refers back to Botticelli’s famous painting The Birth of Venus, in which Venus (Aphrodite) emerges from the sea. [Note: Botticelli’s classic painting contains partial nudity and may not be appropriate for all teaching environments.]
• What aspect of Aphrodite is emphasized in Botticelli’s painting? How does Lowell’s poem comment on this painting? Which aspects of Evslin’s retelling of Aphrodite’s story are most clearly reflected in Botticelli’s painting? Which aspects of this retelling are most clearly reflected in Lowell’s poem? How do you think Evslin would react to Lowell’s poem? Why?

Part 2, Chapters 1-4

Reading Check

1. What gift does Prometheus steal to give to humans?

2. Whom do the gods model Pandora after?

3. What is the name of Orpheus’s wife?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Zeus punish Prometheus for his theft?

2. How does Pandora preserve hope for humanity after she opens the box?

3. What dangerous wish does Phaethon ask Apollo to grant?

Paired Resource

“Orpheus”

• This brief comic version of the Orpheus story conveys both Orpheus’s life with Eurydice and his life after her death.
• This resource relates to Moderation and Restraint as Ideals, The Wisdom of Aligning a Weaker Power with a Stronger Power, and Love as the Most Powerful Force.
• Which part of the comic tells the story of Orpheus you have read in Evslin’s book? What happens in Orpheus’s life after he loses Eurydice? How does the medium of the comic affect the telling of Orpheus’s story? How do both the comic and Evslin’s versions of the Orpheus story emphasize themes related to Moderation and Restraint as Ideals, The Wisdom of Aligning a Weaker Power with a Stronger Power, and Love as the Most Powerful Force?

Part 2, Chapters 5-7

Reading Check

1. What kind of being is Echo?

2. Who deliberately undermines Psyche’s faith in her husband?

3. What creatures rescue Arion and carry him to Corinth?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Hera curse Echo with, and why does Hera do this?

2. How does Eros end up falling in love with Psyche?

3. Why is Arion afraid to travel?

Paired Resource

“Ode to Psyche”

• This speaker in this classic poem by Keats expresses his desire to resurrect Psyche and reincarnate himself as Eros through his worship of Psyche.
• This resource relates to themes of Moderation and Restraint as Ideals and Love as the Most Powerful Force.
• How does Keats’s portrayal of the figures of Eros and Psyche depart from their depiction in Evslin’s retelling of their story? What might Keats’s purpose be in invoking these figures in the loose way he does in this poem? What might Keats’s speaker say about the themes of Moderation and Restraint as Ideals and Love as the Most Powerful Force that are developed in Evslin’s book?

Part 3

Reading Check

1. Who is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters?

2. Who is Daedalus’s son?

3. Who is Theseus’s biological father?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Perseus get the Gray sisters to help him?

2. How does Pasiphae anger Aphrodite, and what is Aphrodite’s revenge?

3. Under what terms does Atalanta agree to marry?

Paired Resource

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel and “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by William Carlos Williams

• Bruegel’s famous painting depicts the fall of Icarus as a relatively insignificant event; it is this quality of the painting that Williams’s brief ekphrastic poem comments on.
• These works connect with the themes Moderation and Restraint as Ideals and The Wisdom of Aligning a Weaker Power with a Stronger Power.
• What commentary on Bruegel’s painting does Williams’s poem offer? What commentary does the painting offer on hubris? How does this compare with messages about hubris in Evslin’s retelling of the Daedalus and Icarus story? Do the painting, poem, and Evslin’s retelling offer audiences similar or different perspectives on the themes Moderation and Restraint as Ideals and The Wisdom of Aligning a Weaker Power with a Stronger Power?

Part 4

Reading Check

1. What does Apollo first do to Midas’s ears?

2. To whom do the women of Cyprus pray?

3. What does Pygmalion name his statue?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What wish does Apollo grant for Midas?

2. What finally causes Midas to feel real despair about his “gift”?

3. How does Pygmalion stall for time after he makes his bargain with a goddess regarding his marriage?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

• This fourth book in Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series—a modernized adaptation of ancient Greek myths—follows Percy and his friends as they try to stop a Titan army invasion.
• Shares themes of Moderation and Restraint as Ideals and The Wisdom of Aligning a Weaker Power With a Stronger Power
• Shares topics of fighting to defend oneself and others and belief in the gods
• The Battle of the Labyrinth on SuperSummary

Medusa by Jessie Burton

• This YA novel is a feminist retelling of the Medusa story from Medusa’s perspective.
• Shares themes of Moderation and Restraint as Ideals, The Wisdom of Aligning a Weaker Power With a Stronger Power, and Love as the Most Powerful Force
• Shares topics of Medusa and Perseus, the whims of the gods, exile and isolation, and the role of women