What Does trivia Mean
Trivia is a term that does not appear in the dictionary prepared by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ). The concept, however, is linked to another notion that appears in the publication: trivial , whose first meaning refers to something that is known to all .
The idea of trivia can also be associated with trivia , which is a path that is divided into three different tracks. Finally, Trivia is also the divinity of crossroads in Roman mythology .
From all these definitions, we can understand how the word trivia is used today. A trivia is a series of questions that are asked in the framework of a quiz or game , the answers to which must be chosen from among different options.
As can be seen, what we understand by trivia is linked to shared knowledge (since the questions usually point to general knowledge), to a path divided into different branches (the different tentative answers that are presented for each question) and to a crossroads (linked to the doubt that arises about which is the correct answer in each case).
Suppose a television program presents a question-and-answer contest to the participants. In this way, each of them must correctly answer a question to advance to the next level. If you answer ten questions correctly, you win an important prize.
The trivia begins with the following question: "In what year did Christopher Columbus first arrive on the American continent?" . The options are: "1460" , "1492" , "1496" and "1501" . If the contestant answers "1492" , which is the correct answer, move on to the next question.
Returning to Roman mythology, according to which Trivia is the goddess of the crossroads , we find a very interesting story . First of all, we must say that the Roman poet Publio Ovidio Nasón mentioned it in some of his works. Trivia is a figure that generally does good, since it helps people to achieve success in their companies; however, if you want to, it can also lead to failure. His power is truly considerable, so much so that Jupiter himself (the most important god in Roman mythology, equivalent to Zeus) shows him respect.
Depending on the version we find of Trivia, we can appreciate different facets of this goddess: some present her as a benevolent being, while others show her as someone sinister. As in more than one case, Greek mythology also has a goddess of the crossroads, Hecate, and many consider them equivalent. The role of Hecate in the crossroads that open in three (called trivia ) was of special importance, and the Greeks placed posts at these points of the roads that showed each of their three heads looking in a different direction .
Before embarking on one of the three routes, the travelers had to make some sacrifice to implore Hecate for safety along the way, and this is related to another of Hecate's roles, the original, which defined her as the goddess of the wild lands , and also of the unexplored regions . In the magical texts of Greek mythology, such as the defixios (also known as curse tablets , they were means in which people could ask the gods to harm their enemies) and the magical papyri, Hecate was the goddess who it was mentioned more frequently.
As a curious fact, it is known that throughout the 7th century, Bishop Saint Eligius, born in 588 in the ancient French region of Limousin, used to repeat to his followers that Christians should never be devoted to any of the goddesses. of trivia.