Ancient History Competition 31

Before Manolis went on holidays, he sent me this intriguing quiz

A bird, a wind, a natural phenomenon. These three things gave their names to three Hellenistic rulers. Who were they?

Economic historian and numismatic consultant

5 Comments

  1. Bird: Antiochus VIII Grypos
    Wind: Antipater Etesias
    Natural phaneomenon: Ptolemy Keraunos

    • Very well done! It is hard to believe someone found the answer so quickly! I thought that we would have had to wait until Manolis came back from his holidays!

  2. (blushing…) just trying to stay fit in history :-)

  3. I would reckon that the question for the bird is a bit tricky.
    You see ‘grypos’ in Greek means ‘hook-nosed’ or ‘with aquiline nose’; however, it derives from ‘gryps’, gryphon or griffin, i.e. a mythical creature, not precisely a bird — an eagle/lion hybrid.
    Another answer to the quiz may be Antiochos Hierax (Hawk). One could say that he was a pretender; however he signed his coins as basileus (king).

    • Yianni,

      in all fairness, Manolis had Ierax in his mind. However, I accepted Lucas’ answer because grypos also has something to do with the well known mythical bird. In effect, both answers are correct and should be commended!

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