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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Leeming say is the archetypal helper god in the Greco-Roman Pantheon?

2. For what does Leeming say the gods are metaphors?

3. Who does Leeming say is the archetypal helper god in the Meso-American pantheon?

4. Who does Leeming say introduced monotheism to Egyptian culture?

5. Which narrative is not an aspect of cosmogony?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does Leeming say the figures of Supreme Beings came from in myths?

2. How does Leeming define the cosmic myth?

3. What psychological metaphor does Leeming see at the heart of creation myths?

4. Describe the Indian creation myth.

5. What does Leeming say is the creation myth for modern people?

6. Describe the Hopi creation myth.

7. How does Leeming address the fall from grace or perfection in creation myths?

8. How does Leeming define a "cosmogony" and what kinds of stories are contained in cosmogonies?

9. When does Leeming say the Egyptian creation myths were repeated?

10. How does Leeming describe the Greek pantheon as a family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What was the time before the gods like? Not just in the myths, but in the cultural idea of gods: what were the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, or Norse pantheons like before they were seen as pantheons? How did the disparate and local gods become pantheons that seemed to rule over a territory through a religion or system of myths?

Essay Topic 2

Read another book about mythology--even something short, like Karen Armstrong's "A Short History of Myth"--and compare and contrast Leeming's approach to myth to another author's. What are Leeming's main preoccupations, and what are his methods? What is his style for expressing them? What does he tend to include? What does he omit? How can you characterize Leeming's intellectual personality?

Essay Topic 3

Use two different metaphorical frameworks to analyze one myth. For instance, you could describe the myth as a metaphor for political, psychological, spiritual, linguistic, social, or historical realities. Which framework is "better" for analysis in this case? What makes one framework better than another? How can you say when a certain interpretation has gone too far?

(see the answer keys)

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