View a FREE sample

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 labyrinth represents?

2. What does Leeming say heroes like Karna and Buddha have because of their miraculous births?

3. What does Leeming say the Tree of Knowledge in the Hebraic myth foreshadows?

4. What sign does Leeming say started Moses' myth?

5. In Leeming's account, why are temples and cities founded on mountains?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Leeming describe the myth of King Arthur?

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

4. What traits does Leeming describe in heroes?

5. What significance does Leeming attribute to Delphi?

6. When does Leeming say that heroes tend to be born?

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

8. How does Leeming describe the fall of Troy?

9. How does Leeming describe the story of Joan of Arc?

10. What is the Water Jar Boy myth?

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

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?

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast myths of the industrial or modern age with ancient or primitive myths. How are myths different in industrial times? What aspects of myths have remained the same?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 823 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample