Season 26, Day 1 - “Golden State”
It's "Apple" week, and today's quiz is inspired by golden apples in Greek mythology.
Hi everyone, welcome to Season 26 of School of Trivia!
I’ll be sending out a sub-newsletter called “The Answer Key” to make it easier to follow along if you’re not playing in the league. Don’t open that email if you don’t want to be spoiled on that day’s answers!
Returning players: Welcome back! No changes to the rules, so feel free to skip that section.
New players: Welcome! All new players will start out in Freshman-A.
Free subscribers: It would be awesome if you’d join us for Season 26! You’ll receive a free trial season so you can see how you like it before you commit to paying.
Rules and other things to know
I think this pretty much goes without saying, but no Googling or any other form of research in attempt to find an answer is allowed. However, in the rare instance that you do inadvertently come across an answer in the course of life before you've submitted, that's OK.
Scoring: for each quiz, you’ll assign point values of 5,4,3,2,1 to the five questions, 5 on the “easiest” question (highest confidence level) down to 1 on the most difficult, for a max daily score of 15. Based on the other scores in your division that day, this will be converted to an adjusted score (scale of 0-100). The total of your adjusted scores for the season will determine your rank and whether you move up, move down, or stay where you are.
The bolded text in each question points to the type of answer that I'm looking for. If your answer does not match the bolded text, you may still get credit if it is a form of, or adjacent to, the correct answer, but you are leaving it in the hands of the judges, so to speak. This is a pretty easy mistake to make and I see it a lot in grading, so it could help to double-check your answers before you submit.
For a question that asks for a name, a last name by itself is usually acceptable unless otherwise specified (or unless the last name is already provided in the text of the question). One notable exception: for U.S. presidents named Adams, Harrison, Johnson, Roosevelt, and Bush, I will need the full name to distinguish between two possible answers. Other examples of needing a first name to distinguish between two people include Genghis/Kublai Khan and Katharine/Audrey Hepburn. An incorrect first name will not be penalized when I would have accepted a last name by itself, so when in doubt, you can include the first name without fear. For fictional characters, first names are acceptable unless otherwise specified.
Correct spelling is not required unless otherwise specified, however there must be a possible pronunciation of your answer that matches a possible pronunciation of the correct answer. In general, adding or taking away a syllable, and adding or taking away an "s" on the end of a name, will unfortunately both usually result in answers that are not accepted.
Titles must be exact, except for the leading article (A, An, or The as the first word). Example: I will accept "Christmas Carol" or "The Christmas Carol" but not "For Whom a Bell Tolls."
Quotation marks in the bolded text of a question, when not signifying a quote or a title, indicate that the correct answer contains the exact quoted word. Complete answers (including the quoted word) are generally preferred in case there’s any possible confusion as to where the quoted word appears in the answer.
Try to be as specific as you need to be, and submit only one answer, unless more than one is required (I will take the first answer listed if multiple answers are provided when only one is needed.) It is possible for your answer to be not specific enough to be acceptable, despite not technically being incorrect. Example: for a monarch, I will generally need the name and regnal number unless otherwise specified (or unless there is only one monarch with that name). If you have any doubt as to how specific you need to be (hopefully this won't be the case often), you can put the more specific part in parentheses, e.g. “(blue) whale” and I will only evaluate the parenthetical if needed.
The official deadline for all Season 26 quizzes is Monday, April 1 11:59 PM ET, which is the Monday after the last quiz day of the season (Day 20).
I grade all of the quizzes manually, so don't worry when the quiz form marks you wrong for a typo or spelling error. You can receive a copy of your answers by checking the box in the lower left-hand corner, and you can receive your score by email and/or check the leaderboard page, which I update throughout the week.
In case of a misclick in assigning confidence points, I will automatically assign the lowest possible point value to any questions that are left blank. For this purpose, I will consider non-qualifying answers (e.g. the name of a person, when I’m asking for a country) to be equivalent to a blank response.
The season will run for 20 quiz days, with the next season starting on the first Monday of the month (April 1). Don't hesitate to reply to this email (or any email) if you have any questions about any of the above, or anything else. Thank you so much for being here and allowing me to run this trivia game for you! I hope you all enjoy the season (and sorry for the extra reading material today).
Golden apples
Golden apples are an element of three different stories from Greek mythology. Eris, the Greek goddess of discord, crashed the wedding of Peleus and Thetis and tossed up a golden apple with the inscription “for the fairest.” Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all claimed the golden apple and the three asked Zeus to decide who was most beautiful and deserved the apple. Wanting no part of this, Zeus delegated the adjudication to a Trojan mortal named Paris. Each goddess bribed Paris to try to win his vote; Hera would make him king of Europe and Asia Minor, Athena promised wisdom and victory in future battles, and Aphrodite offered the love of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world. In what’s known as the Judgment of Paris, he chose Aphrodite and Helen, a fateful decision which led to the Trojan War. In another story, a beautiful and swift huntress named Atalanta had a number of suitors, but she was reluctant to get married. She finally agreed to marry whichever suitor beat her in a footrace, while all those who fail were put to death. Melanion (a.k.a. Hippomenes) prayed to Aphrodite, who gave him three golden apples to distract Atalanta during the race. The plan worked; Melanion won the race and the two were married. In the third example of golden apples in Greek mythology, stealing three of the golden apples of the Hesperides was the 11th of the 12 labors of Hercules. A group of nymphs called the Hesperides, with the help of a dragon named Ladon, guarded the garden where Hera’s tree (a gift from Gaia) produced golden apples. In one version of the legend, Hercules temporarily held up the heavens so Atlas could steal the apples for him. Upon his return, Atlas did not want to reassume his position, but he was tricked into taking the heavens back when Hercules asked for a moment to adjust his cloak. An alternate version of the tale has Hercules slaying the dragon Ladon and collecting the apples himself.
Links
Season 26, Day 1 - “Golden State”
[Q1] 2023 GOLDEN GLOVES WINNERS IN THIS SPORT INCLUDE ERIC ROSS, MALACHI GEORGES, AND FRANCIS STEWART
[Q2] IN 1960, THE CEO OF THIS COMPANY BASED IN GOLDEN, COLORADO WAS KIDNAPPED AND MURDERED IN A FAILED RANSOM ATTEMPT
[Q3] THE GOLDEN (A.K.A. SYRIAN) SPECIES OF THIS ANIMAL IS THE MOST COMMON BREED FOUND IN U.S. PET STORES — “YOUR MOTHER WAS A ______” IS USED AS AN INSULT IN “MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL”
[Q4] DAMAGED IN A 1984 RAID BY THE INDIAN ARMY, THE GOLDEN TEMPLE OF AMRITSAR IS THE HOLIEST SHRINE IN THIS RELIGION
[Q5] WITH A NAME INSPIRED BY AN 1883 NOVEL, THIS SAN FRANCISCO ISLAND WAS BUILT FOR THE 1939 GOLDEN GATE INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION, A WORLD’S FAIR CELEBRATING THE OPENING OF THE BAY BRIDGE AND THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE