Apollo and Daphne quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why does Cupid shoot his arrows at Apollo and Daphne?

   • Zeus ordered Cupid to punish Apollo for disobeying the gods on Olympus
   • Correct answer: Apollo mocked Cupid's bow, so Cupid wanted to teach him a lesson about love
   • Daphne asked Cupid to make Apollo fall in love with her as a special favor
   • Cupid was practicing his archery and accidentally hit both of them at once

   Apollo bragged about his own skill with a bow and told Cupid that such a powerful weapon was not meant for a little boy. Cupid was angry at being mocked and decided to prove that his arrows were the most powerful of all — by making the great Apollo helpless with love.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What do Cupid's two arrows do?

   • Correct answer: The gold arrow makes Apollo fall in love; the lead arrow makes Daphne hate love
   • The gold arrow makes Daphne invisible; the lead arrow makes Apollo lose his memory
   • The gold arrow gives Apollo super speed; the lead arrow makes Daphne want to hide
   • The gold arrow makes Apollo immortal; the lead arrow takes away Daphne's voice

   Cupid's gold-tipped arrow struck Apollo and filled him with overwhelming love for Daphne. The lead-tipped arrow struck Daphne and made her reject all love. This is what makes the story tragic — Apollo cannot stop loving her, and she cannot stop running away.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What is a "nymph" like Daphne?

   • A powerful goddess who rules over one of the twelve regions of the sky
   • Correct answer: A spirit of nature, often connected to rivers, trees, or mountains
   • A human princess who has been blessed with magical powers by the gods
   • A type of monster that disguises itself as a beautiful young woman

   A nymph is a nature spirit from Greek mythology. Nymphs are beautiful, immortal or very long-lived beings connected to natural places like rivers, forests, and mountains. Daphne is a river nymph — her father Peneus is a river god.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How does Daphne escape from Apollo?

   • She hides in a cave so deep that even the light of the sun cannot reach her
   • Correct answer: She prays to her father Peneus, and he transforms her into a laurel tree
   • She jumps into the sea and is carried away by dolphins to a distant island
   • She puts on a magic cloak of invisibility that her father gave her at birth

   When Daphne felt Apollo catching up to her, she called out to her father, the river god Peneus, to save her. He answered by transforming her body into a laurel tree — her hair became leaves, her arms became branches, and her feet became roots.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does Apollo do after Daphne becomes a laurel tree?

   • He becomes angry and burns the tree down with his power over the sun
   • He begs the other gods to change her back but they refuse to help him
   • Correct answer: He declares the laurel tree sacred and wears its leaves as his special crown
   • He walks away sadly and never mentions Daphne or the laurel tree again

   Even as a tree, Apollo still loved Daphne. He declared the laurel sacred to him forever. He wore a crown of laurel leaves, and laurel wreaths became the symbol of victory and honor in ancient Greece — given to winners of athletic games and to great poets.

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6. 6

   Question 6. Apollo is the god of many things. Which of these is NOT one of his roles?

   • God of music, poetry, and art who plays the golden lyre beautifully
   • God of the sun who drives his blazing chariot across the sky each day
   • Correct answer: God of the sea who controls the waves and commands all sea creatures
   • God of prophecy and truth who speaks through the Oracle at Delphi

   Poseidon (Neptune) is the god of the sea, not Apollo. Apollo is the god of the sun, music, poetry, prophecy, healing, and archery. Despite all his powers, even Apollo could not make Daphne love him — which is exactly the point Cupid was trying to make.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

   • Apollo insults Cupid by saying a bow is too powerful a weapon for a little boy.

     Happened

     Apollo had just defeated the great serpent Python and was feeling proud of his archery skills. When he saw Cupid with a bow, he mocked him, saying such weapons were meant for warriors, not children. This insult is what set the whole story in motion.

   • Cupid shoots both Apollo and Daphne with the same type of golden arrow.

     Didn't happen

     Cupid used two different arrows — a gold-tipped arrow for Apollo (causing love) and a lead-tipped arrow for Daphne (causing hatred of love). Using two opposite arrows was the cruelest possible revenge: Apollo would love someone who could never love him back.

   • Daphne enjoys being chased by Apollo and keeps stopping to let him catch up.

     Didn't happen

     Daphne was terrified and ran as fast as she could. She did not want Apollo's attention at all — the lead arrow had filled her with a horror of love. She ran until she was exhausted and then begged her father to save her by changing her form.

   • Daphne's father Peneus is a river god who transforms her into a laurel tree.

     Happened

     Peneus is the god of the River Peneus in Thessaly. When Daphne begged him for help, he transformed her body into a laurel tree — bark covered her skin, leaves sprouted from her hair, and roots grew from her feet into the earth.

   • Apollo makes the laurel tree sacred and wears a crown of its leaves forever.

     Happened

     Unable to have Daphne as his love, Apollo honored her as a tree. He declared the laurel sacred, wore a wreath of its leaves, and decreed that laurel crowns would be given to honor heroes, poets, and champions throughout the Greek world.

   • At the end of the story, the gods change Daphne back into a nymph.

     Didn't happen

     Daphne remains a laurel tree forever. The transformation is permanent. This is what makes the myth bittersweet — Apollo honors her, but she never returns to her original form. The laurel tree stands as an eternal reminder of what happened.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does "transformation" mean in Greek myths?

   • When a character moves from one country to another across the sea
   • Correct answer: When a character's body changes into a completely different form or shape
   • When a character gains a new magical power from one of the great gods
   • When a character changes their mind about something important in the story

   A transformation (also called a metamorphosis) is when someone's body changes into something else entirely. In Greek myths, people are transformed into animals, trees, flowers, and stars. Daphne's transformation into a laurel tree is one of the most famous in all of mythology.

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