Question 1

True or false: Homer Hickam, the NASA engineer, was portrayed in the film 'October Sky' by Jake Gyllenhaal.

Accepted Answer

True. The 1999 film 'October Sky' stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Homer Hickam, a real-life coal miner's son who became a NASA rocket scientist.

Question 2

True or false: The Simpsons character Homer once joined the Stonecutters, a secret society parodying the Freemasons.

Accepted Answer

True. In 'Homer the Great,' Homer becomes leader of the Stonecutters, a hilarious secret society with its own song and rituals.

Question 3

True or false: In the Odyssey, Homer’s epic poem, Penelope weaves a shroud by day and unravels it by night for three years.

Accepted Answer

True. To delay remarrying, Penelope tricks her suitors by weaving a funeral shroud for Laertes, then secretly undoing her work each night.

Question 4

True or false: Homer Simpson's middle name is Jay, as revealed in a flashback episode.

Accepted Answer

True. In 'D'oh-in' in the Wind,' Homer says his middle name is Jay, a nod to his original voice actor, Dan Castellaneta’s middle initial.

Question 5

True or false: The ancient Greek poet Homer was actually blind and composed the Iliad entirely from memory.

Accepted Answer

False. The idea of Homer being blind is a legend from ancient biographies, not a historical fact; the epics were likely transmitted orally but authorship is uncertain.

Question 6

True or false: Homer Plessy, of the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, was actually a white man pretending to be Black.

Accepted Answer

False. Homer Plessy was a mixed-race man who was legally classified as Black under Louisiana law; he deliberately sat in a whites-only car to challenge segregation.

Question 7

True or false: Winslow Homer, the 19th-century American painter, was also a famous poet who published multiple collections.

Accepted Answer

False. Winslow Homer was exclusively a painter and illustrator, best known for marine scenes; he never published poetry.

Question 8

True or false: Homer was the first person to use the phrase 'Achilles' heel' in the Iliad to describe a fatal weakness.

Accepted Answer

False. The phrase 'Achilles' heel' is a later mythological addition; in Homer's Iliad, Achilles is invulnerable only in the sense of being a great warrior, not due to a dipped-in-river story.

Homer Trivia Questions