Skeleton Trivia for Wednesday, 2025-01-29
GUEST POST GUEST POST GUEST POST!!!
[Note from Mr. S: Like I mentioned a couple a’ days ago, today’s gonna be a guest post! I’ll recap yesterday’s answer in Thursday’s issue.]
Hi everyone, my name is Adam, from Scalesia. Like Mr. S, I too write quizzes—so we’re going to be doing a little swap for today. I am here in the Trivia Zone, whilst Mr. S is off writing me some questions. (I’ve got the better end of the deal as I only have 2 to write, whereas he has 10!)
That being said, I feel like I have to live up to the level of context, background and humor you lot are accustomed to over here … so I’m gonna try my best.
Recently I’ve been listening to Stephen Fry’s Audiobooks on the Greek Myths (would highly recommend it, I’m halfway through book 2 out of 4). I am British after all, and therefore am a sucker for Stephen’s (apologies, now SIR Stephen) narration.
Anyways, in these books, he talks a lot about etymology. Many of the words we use everyday in English come from Greek, and more specifically Greek Myths.
Trivia 1
In Greek myth, you tend to see a lot of big people, giants if you will—or “Gigantes” in Greek. This obviously is the origin of our word to mean “very big” but also our use of giga in scientific measurements (such as “Gigawatts” and of course “Gigachad”).
To go back a step, the word “Gigantes” means “Earth-born”—this is due to the race of big boys being born from the union of the primordial sky deity Uranus (an unfortunate name) and the primordial earth deity.
So my question is, what is the name of this primordial earth deity?
Trivia 2
Since we mentioned the unfortunately named Uranus, most people know of him due to the planet named in his honor—there is much debate on whether you pronounce it YOOR-an-us or yu-RAY-nus.
The bloke who discovered it, William Herschel, decided to name the object Georgium Sidus (George's Star), or the “Georgian Planet” in honor of his patron, King George III —thankfully, that name never stuck, ’cos it's boring.
Back to my main point, Uranus is the only planet named after a Greek deity (let's just ignore Earth for this one, as it sort of spoils the previous question)—the rest are named after the Latin Roman versions of the gods.
Mercury is the Roman version of Hermes, the messenger of the gods, as it’s small and quick.
Venus is the Roman version of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, which burns bright and hot.
Earth we're ignoring.
Mars is the Roman version of Ares, god of war, for its blood red color.
Jupiter is the Roman version of Zeus, largest in our solar system.
Uranus is the Greek god of the sky, and its Latin counterpart is Caelus
Neptune is the Roman version of Poseidon, god of the sea, ’cos blue
(Quick little side note here: I'm not counting Pluto as a planet, but the Greek version would be Hades, god of the underworld, as it is distant and cold.)
Oh wait … I've missed one. Let's check: My Very Easy Method Just S… Saturn!!!
Saturn again is a Roman name, and as the second largest, is a fitting name for the now deposed king of the gods—but my question is: what is the Greek name for Saturn?
OK then
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee