Vee, that's quite a quiz! I was able to answer perhaps 70% of it (being on the dark side of 40 myself). What was frustrating was knowing that at one point in time I did actually know the answers to almost all of it. Sadly, no matter how much I cudgeled my brain this morning, the answers would not come.

I think my hard drive is full. Or, at the very least, I need more coffee.

One hopeful thought: my kids and their friends have been entranced with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books by Ron Riordan, so at least they're getting some exposure to Roman mythology.

Sadly, I did a very untypical thing in my first year at high school, and skipped reading Men & Gods. My classical knowledge is very limited.
And although I wanted to study it, Latin was not offered in my year.

Neat quiz. I got about 70 % correct, but then, I did have 3 years of Latin, and all my teachers in grammar school were heavy on both Greek and Roman mythologies. I still own a copy of Fraser's "Golden Bough." I must say, with regard to the questions having to do with Britain, there was no way, as an American, I could have known the answers.

I didn't do very well, which is not really surprising considering how lacking I am in both Greek and Roman mythology.

Is there a good all-in-one book around that could tell me the basic tales and perhaps some background? I have the Edith Hamilton one, but was wondering if there was another better one out there. I have always been rather curious about this area of knowledge and could perhaps make it an autumn project...

Thanks for that, very enjoyable! I did well, however I am definitely over 40 and had two years of Latin. I did have to shake the old memory box vigorously. Even got the British ones, but I listen to the BBC news on public radio.

I think I will print this out and save it, it would be fun for a party (well, a certain kind of party).

I aced the mythology part of the quiz and got maybe 1/3 of the rest right. I have been reading mythology books since I learned to read, so that's no surprise. As to the rest, I have picked it up in various places, mostly from reading historical novels and mysteries (mysteries from a certain era are big on using Latin phrases).

I, too, got my right answers more from reading mythology than from a classical education. (And I am a bit (ahem) above the age of 40) Anyone else remember D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths? That was a frequent visitor from the library when I was just a sprout.

Lemonhead, Robert Graves wrote a two volume collection of Greek myth, published in Penguin. Hamilton is a classic. Or you might try to find a translation of Hesiod's Theogony, ancient Greek mythology by an actual ancient Greek. The Iliad, alas, is not terribly interesting unless you have the capacity for gore of a thirteen-year-old boy, but The Odyssey is a great read.

I only got 86%, but then I'm an engineer on the far side of 40.

This time I actually did the quiz and got about 65%. I found I have picked up enough Latin to get some (knew the Wilfred Owen one because we 'did' Owen in Year 12) and a lot of the mythology ones were of the more common myths (the trident, Daphne, Mercuy etc).
Thanks Vee, it was fun.

Like netla, I aced the mythology and got about 1/3 of the others.....did not study Latin, (although I got #3 and 31 right) and I can't even see 40 in the rear view mirror.

A fun quiz which I emailed on to others.

I too got about 70%. The one I'm most annoyed about missing is "hypocaust" because I spent about four hours touring the Roman baths in Bath a few years ago and made a great--and now seemingly unsuccessful--effort to learn all the terms.

On the other hand, there are certainly other common expressions in addition to those listed that begin with "ad". Such as the one I wish for all of you--Ad multos annos!

I, too, came up with a different set of "ad" expressions: "ad hoc" and "ad hominem."

When we were taking Latin in High School, it was pointed out to us that we were building our English vocabulary to our great advantage, as so many of the prefixes and suffixes derive from Latin.

Sheri, if you are on the 'dark side of 40' I am truly in the Stygian gloom of the 60's, so it was lucky we 'did' lots of myths and legends while at junior school. It seems the longer ago I learnt something the better it has stayed in my brain.
I managed about 3/4 of the quiz; didn't know about the Olympic torch or the freeing of slaves for eg.
Mary, I think there must be hundreds of 'ad' words one could have chosen. I didn't think the questions had a particular 'British' bias . . . except maybe the one with Gordon Brown as the answer.:-)
Chris, surely you are an excellent example of a well-read 'all round' woman of today. I don't know how easy it would have been for you to study engineering or if it was very much a man's world in the 60/70's?
And how easy was it to get in to a US good/well regarded/Ivy League university without Latin?

Veer, thank you for the kind words. I suspect that most avid science fiction readers would do well on the quiz. Neil Gaiman did an entire comic, er, graphic novel chapter, on Orpheus. Dan Simmons covered ancient Greece with his Ilium. Zelazny burned a dead friend on a ziggurat. And so forth. Mythology was the first science fiction, wasn't it?

Engineering is still dominated by men. At about 5 years younger than I, men began to be less of an obstacle to women. Still, every profession has its drawbacks.

When I was applying to college in the 60s (before the 1968 revolution:)), you had to have a three-two split between Latin and a modern language. I had three years of Latin and three of French, pretty typical for my entering class.

Great fun! Although I studied Latin for four years, we girls had the same books as the boys. 'Caesar's Gallic Wars' etc. I learned a lot about the Roman military but the mythology answers in the quiz were mainly from general reading and Agatha Christie's 'Labours of Hercules'!
Didn't get the Gordon Brown answer, been away too long, but it reinforces my belief that a classical education helps when being very rude to people whilst sounding erudite...

I was definitely not a classics scholar. I usually snoozed any time mythology was deliberately discussed in any class. But the classic myths and legends have so permeated practically every discipline, that I learned a lot about them without having to suspend my childish concern for realism.

The Quiz: I missed five and a half questions. The half is because I did know that Zeus turned himself into various animals so he could seduce the ladies, but the only one I could think of was the swan (which I knew about because of the ballet Leda and the Swan).

I think I got all the ones involving etymology. Another thing that helped me was I recently read Travelling Heroes: In the Epic Age of Homer by Robin Lane Fox, a lot of which is built around the Greek myths but there's also mention of others, such as myths of the Sumerians, Assyrians, Romans, Carthaginians, and Phoenicians ("The Purple People" -- I love that!). Tie the tales in with history and I'm all right, but a nothing-but-the-story presentation of the tales will frost my eyeballs almost instantaneously.