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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 myth of Gilgamesh represents?

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

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

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

5. What was the young girl in the Water Jar Boy myth doing when she got pregnant?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Leeming describe the fall of Troy?

3. How does Leeming describe the myth of Moses?

4. What significance does Leeming attribute to trees in myth?

5. How does Leeming describe the myth of Oedipus?

6. What significance does Leeming attribute to rocks in myth?

7. Where does Leeming see images of the Great Mother in cathedrals?

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

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

10. What does Leeming say the Mountain represents in myth?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How are heroes different from ordinary humans? Is everyone a hero at certain stages of their development, or is the hero a specific cultural response to social problems or situations? Use examples from The World of Myth to define the status of the hero relative to "ordinary" people.

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

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 850 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample