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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. What does Leeming say the Supreme Being represents?

2. Who does Leeming say is the main god in the Norse pantheon?

3. Whom does Leeming say parallels the serpent in the Christian garden in the Norse pantheon?

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

5. Who was the oldest divine being in the Greek pantheon?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Leeming describe the Hebrew pantheon?

2. Describe the Christian creation myth.

3. How does Leeming define the gods?

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

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

6. Describe the first creation myth to originate in Egypt.

7. How does Leeming say that cultures still worship the Great Mother?

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

9. Who are the primary gods in the Egyptian pantheon?

10. What does Leeming say the Supreme Being represents in myths?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How consistent are the myths from each of the cultures Leeming describes? Do the cosmogonies and the hero myths from Greece, say, demonstrate a unified Greekness? Is there a conflict in values between the different kinds of myths Leeming analyzes? Describe two myths that reveal a conflict in values within the one culture that tells them.

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

Analyze two similar myths from different cultures, and characterize the fundamental correspondence between them. How do you account for the distinct features of each myth? Are they culturally relevant markers that characterize each culture? Are they superfluous to the essential myth itself, and therefore merely personal or individual in nature?

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