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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Leeming say was the central organizing principle of the Christian Creation myth?
(a) Morality.
(b) Logos.
(c) Reason.
(d) Free will.

2. Which narrative is not an aspect of cosmogony?
(a) The fall from the state of perfection or grace.
(b) How the universe was developed.
(c) The creation of humankind.
(d) Explanation of natural phenomena.

3. Who was the sun god of Heliopolis?
(a) Apollo.
(b) Osiris.
(c) Zeus.
(d) Re or Atun.

4. Where is the first recorded creation myth from?
(a) Egypt.
(b) India.
(c) Greece.
(d) Mesopotamia.

5. What evidence does Leeming cite to argue for a single matriarch at the beginning of the Greek pantheon?
(a) Gaia killed her husbands.
(b) Gaia devoured her offspring.
(c) Gaia fought to enthrone each of her husbands.
(d) Gaia created her own mate.

6. What does Leeming say was the primary difference between the Greek pantheon and the Roman pantheon?
(a) The Romans placed more value on the practical results of myths.
(b) The Romans used the Greek pantheon to justify their wars.
(c) The Romans placed more value on the gods as personifications of abstractions.
(d) The Romans became more philosophical and contemplative about myths.

7. How does Leeming describe Hopi culture?
(a) As warlike.
(b) As patriarchal.
(c) As matrilineal.
(d) As communal.

8. What does Leeming say the gods function as in myth?
(a) Mirrors.
(b) Ciphers.
(c) Self-portraits.
(d) Masks and metaphors.

9. What does Leeming say had to happen before the Olympian gods could reign in the Greek pantheon?
(a) Humans had to offer their worship.
(b) The flood.
(c) Two dynasties of gods had to be overthrown.
(d) The Olympian gods had to create humans.

10. What does Leeming say is consistent from one set of myths to another?
(a) Heroes and heroines.
(b) Monsters and angels.
(c) Transcendent truths.
(d) Universal human concerns.

11. What does Leeming say the flood was for in Mayan culture?
(a) As an attempt to avert a war against the gods.
(b) Destroying an experimental form of humankind.
(c) As a way to help cultivate the earth.
(d) As a punishment for sins against the gods.

12. What does Leeming say the Indian creation myths were concerned with?
(a) The ability of the human will to make moral decisions.
(b) The emergence of the mind from nothingness.
(c) The insufficiency of the human mind to comprehending creation.
(d) The variety of forms the creator made.

13. How does Leeming define cosmic myth?
(a) Myths that define the history of the earth.
(b) Myths that define the order of the world.
(c) Myths that explain the location of different stars.
(d) Myths that define the constellations.

14. What does Leeming say the Egyptian pantheon is centered on?
(a) The balance between free will and fate.
(b) The possibility of self-fulfillment.
(c) Death and resurrection.
(d) Redemption.

15. From what language does the term "Cosmogony" derive?
(a) Urdu.
(b) Gaelic.
(c) Greek.
(d) Egyptian.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Leeming say suggests a desire to escape from earthly existence?

2. What does Leeming say gods are fighting for in the Egyptian pantheon?

3. When was the New Testament book of Revelation likely composed?

4. For what does Leeming say the struggle among gods in the Egyptian pantheon is a metaphor?

5. What does Leeming say the Supreme Being represents?

(see the answer keys)

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