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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 Tree of Knowledge in the Hebraic myth foreshadows?

2. What qualities does Leeming say Hercules shares with many heroes?

3. Who attempted to convince the Trojans to accept the wooden horse?

4. What does Leeming say the garden, grove, and cave can be ideal places for?

5. What opposition does Leeming say King Arthur faced in assuming his quest?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Leeming define the term monomyth?

2. What significance does Leeming attribute to Delphi?

3. How does Leeming describe the significance of the city in myth?

4. How does Leeming describe the significance of Jerusalem?

5. What parallels does Leeming say in the Aboriginal myth of the Pleiades?

6. How does Leeming say describe the most important aspect of the hero's myth?

7. What does Leeming say about the importance of death and resurrection in hero stories?

8. How does Leeming describe the hero Herakles?

9. What significance does Leeming attribute to the labyrinth in myth?

10. What significance does Leeming attribute to places and objects?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How useful is the term monomyth for the study of myth? How useful is it for analyzing a particular myth? Analyze a myth of your choice by relating it to its underlying monomyth, and discuss the benefits and limitations of the term "monomyth" as an analytical tool. How useful is it?

Essay Topic 2

Does an interpreter of myth lose any interpretive authority if they come from a culture outside of the myth? Can an American interpret an Indian myth, or vice versa? Do you have to be inside of a myth to understand it? Can all myths be analyzed and entered into? Do some myths simply remain strangers to us?

Essay Topic 3

What is the role of the hero in contemporary culture? Are celebrities heroes, and if so, what traits distinguish them as heroes? Make an argument for the heroic status of a contemporary figure, using the definitions Leeming uses in The World of Myth.

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