Humanities 115 - World Mythology » Summer 2022 » Test 1

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Question #1
Gilgamesh undertakes a quest to find immortality. He travels to Mount Mashu, where he finds the entrance to another world guarded by:
A.   A dragon
B.   Scorpion men
C.   The goddess Ishtar
D.   Siduri, the alewife
Question #2
In Babylonian mythology, Marduk was the grandson of Tiamat and rallied the gods to rebel against her. When they had defeated Tiamat, Marduk tore her body in half and used it to create:
A.   dry land and sky
B.   sun and moon
C.   sweet water and salt water
D.   night and day
Question #3
Angry with Gilgamesh, the goddess Ishtar asks her father Anu for permission to use a terrible creature against him. He agrees after she tells him that the people of Uruk have enough grain stored for seven years. That terrible creature was:
A.   the Bull of Heaven
B.   the Scorpion Man
C.   the Cyclops
D.   a falling star
Question #4
In Egyptian mythology Nut, goddess of the sky, is the Mother Goddess. Her husband Re, and her lovers Geb and Thoth, all impregnate her. She gives birth to the gods:
A.   during a solar eclipse
B.   during the yearly flood
C.   all at once, over five days
D.   under a new moon
Question #5
Humans created written language as symbols that represented ideas. Some of the earliest writing was rules that everyone agreed to live by, known as:
A.   Civil law
B.   Cuneiform
C.   Moral law
D.   Hammurabi's Code
Question #6
Philosophy is the search for truth through the process of reason. People also accept some things as true without reason, which is called:
A.   religion
B.   theology
C.   faith or belief
D.   history
Question #7
The Epic of Gilgamesh has been written in many languages, and published in many versions, for over three thousand years. The first Gilgamesh stories were written in:
A.   Greek
B.   Persian
C.   Sumerian
D.   Babylonian
Question #8
The Egyptians created documents on papyrus, which is paper made from river reeds. One of the most important documents included hymns, prayers and instructions for the afterlife. It is called:
A.   Rosetta Stone
B.   Hieroglyphics
C.   Cuneiform
D.   Book of the Dead
Question #9
At its greatest, the Babylonian Empire ruled all of the region fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the surrounding areas with enough groundwater to sustain herds of animals. That region of the Middle East is called:
A.   the Fertile Crescent
B.   the Nile Valley
C.   the Assyrian Empire
D.   Persia
Question #10
After he defeats Tiamat, Marduk and the other gods create the magnificent palace of Babylon before creating human beings. In Babylonian mythology, the purpose of humans is to:
A.   sing the praises of heroes
B.   serve the gods at ease
C.   create temples and homes
D.   cultivate food for the gods
Question #11
Because he is the son of a goddess and a mortal man, Gilgamesh is:
A.   two thirds god and one third man
B.   half man, half god
C.   able to cross the ocean
D.   able to live forever
Question #12
A visual art is a work intended primarily for the sense of sight. Other artworks are created before an audience and have duration. These are called
A.   ritual
B.   performing arts
C.   theatre
D.   oral tradition
Question #13
Before the arrival of Enkidu into the city, Gilgamesh has two dreams. In one, a star falls at his feet and in the other he discovers a strangely shaped axe. These dreams are interpreted as omens of Enkidu by:
A.   Tiresias, the prophet
B.   Lugalbanda, his father
C.   Ninsun, his mother
D.   Enkidu himself
Question #14
In early cultures, the gods are born of primal elements like earth, water or sky. In Babylonian mythology they were Apsu the sweet water, Tiamat the salt water and:
A.   Mummu, the mist
B.   Shamash, the sun
C.   Ishtar, goddess of love
D.   Urshnabi, the underworld
Question #15
One of the visual arts is painting, in which the artist creates form using pigment and surface. Frequently there must be a third substance, like the oil in oil paint. That third substance is called:
A.   turpentine
B.   bindery
C.   support
D.   gesso
Question #16
Taoism is the believe system of ancient China, which was different from many others in the world because it was:
A.   amoral
B.   atheistic
C.   polytheistic
D.   monotheistic
Question #17
At the beginning of his epic, Gilgamesh is not a wise ruler. He separates sons from their mothers and sleeps with other men's wives. He also does as he pleases with the:
A.   annual tax
B.   Sumerian king's list
C.   scared altar
D.   tocsin, an alarm bell
Question #18
Osiris is the oldest child of Nut, born as a man. He becomes the god of fertility and ruler of the underworld after his brother Set tricks him into:
A.   Creating agriculture
B.   Betraying his wife, Isis
C.   Lying in a box
D.   Traveling in the underworld
Question #19
The first cities were built near rivers which provided water for agriculture. The earliest was Mesopotamia, on the Tigris and Euphrates. The name “Mesopotamia” is Greek, meaning:
A.   Mother water
B.   First civilization
C.   Between rivers
D.   Mother goddess
Question #20
An epic poem consists of three elements: great length, a central hero and:
A.   an evil goddess
B.   the interpretation of dreams
C.   the death of a major character
D.   history and mythology of the culture
Question #21
Egypt is a civilization based on the Nile River, which flooded each year at the same time, with the same amount of water. This regularity led to the belief that death was not an end, but another phase of life. This idea was supported by the fact that the desert:
A.   seemed endless
B.   included deadly creatures
C.   naturally mummified bodies
D.   had heavenly oases
Question #22
The first laws were written in cuneiform on black stone markers, and allowed the king to rule in absentia, that is, while he was not present in the city. This king was:
A.   Sargon the Great
B.   Ashursirbanipal
C.   Hammurabi
D.   Darius
Question #23
There was a historical King Gilgamesh, who ruled Uruk between 2,700 and 2,500 BCE. This is verified by two sources: his name stamped on bricks, and carved on the:
A.   Behistun Inscription
B.   Sumerian King's List
C.   Rosetta Stone
D.   Code of Hammurabi
Question #24
One of the first people Gilgamesh meets after passing under Mount Mashu advises him to seek Urshanbi the boatman. That person is:
A.   the goddess Ishtar
B.   Marduk, hero of Babylonia
C.   Siduri, the winemaker
D.   the god Adad
Question #25
Sin-Leqi-Unimmi, a Babylonian priest, compiled disconnected stories of Gilgamesh into a single epic sometime between 1,600 and 1,000 BCE. This corresponds with documents written by another culture, which eventually became:
A.   The Old Testament
B.   The library of Nineveh
C.   Greek mythology
D.   The Koran

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