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.   Siduri, the alewife
C.   Scorpion men
D.   The goddess Ishtar
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.   sun and moon
B.   night and day
C.   sweet water and salt water
D.   dry land and sky
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 Scorpion Man
B.   a falling star
C.   the Bull of Heaven
D.   the Cyclops
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.   all at once, over five days
B.   under a new moon
C.   during the yearly flood
D.   during a solar eclipse
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.   Hammurabi's Code
B.   Moral law
C.   Cuneiform
D.   Civil law
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.   faith or belief
C.   theology
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.   Sumerian
C.   Babylonian
D.   Persian
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.   Book of the Dead
B.   Hieroglyphics
C.   Rosetta Stone
D.   Cuneiform
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 Nile Valley
B.   Persia
C.   the Assyrian Empire
D.   the Fertile Crescent
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.   create temples and homes
B.   serve the gods at ease
C.   cultivate food for the gods
D.   sing the praises of heroes
Question #11
Because he is the son of a goddess and a mortal man, Gilgamesh is:
A.   able to cross the ocean
B.   able to live forever
C.   two thirds god and one third man
D.   half man, half god
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.   performing arts
B.   ritual
C.   oral tradition
D.   theatre
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.   Lugalbanda, his father
B.   Ninsun, his mother
C.   Tiresias, the prophet
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.   Urshnabi, the underworld
B.   Mummu, the mist
C.   Ishtar, goddess of love
D.   Shamash, the sun
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.   support
B.   turpentine
C.   gesso
D.   bindery
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.   tocsin, an alarm bell
C.   scared altar
D.   Sumerian king's list
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.   Traveling in the underworld
C.   Lying in a box
D.   Betraying his wife, Isis
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.   First civilization
B.   Between rivers
C.   Mother goddess
D.   Mother water
Question #20
An epic poem consists of three elements: great length, a central hero and:
A.   the death of a major character
B.   an evil goddess
C.   history and mythology of the culture
D.   the interpretation of dreams
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.   naturally mummified bodies
B.   seemed endless
C.   had heavenly oases
D.   included deadly creatures
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.   Darius
B.   Ashursirbanipal
C.   Sargon the Great
D.   Hammurabi
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.   Sumerian King's List
B.   Behistun Inscription
C.   Code of Hammurabi
D.   Rosetta Stone
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.   Siduri, the winemaker
B.   Marduk, hero of Babylonia
C.   the goddess Ishtar
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 library of Nineveh
B.   The Old Testament
C.   The Koran
D.   Greek mythology

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