Humanities 115 - World Mythology » Winter 2023 » Test 1

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Question #1
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.   oral tradition
C.   theatre
D.   performing arts
Question #2
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.   Sumerian king's list
B.   scared altar
C.   tocsin, an alarm bell
D.   annual tax
Question #3
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.   Persia
C.   the Assyrian Empire
D.   the Nile Valley
Question #4
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.   bindery
D.   gesso
Question #5
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.   Greek mythology
C.   The library of Nineveh
D.   The Koran
Question #6
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.   naturally mummified bodies
C.   had heavenly oases
D.   included deadly creatures
Question #7
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.   Traveling in the underworld
B.   Creating agriculture
C.   Lying in a box
D.   Betraying his wife, Isis
Question #8
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.   night and day
B.   sweet water and salt water
C.   dry land and sky
D.   sun and moon
Question #9
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.   Ishtar, goddess of love
B.   Mummu, the mist
C.   Shamash, the sun
D.   Urshnabi, the underworld
Question #10
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.   Code of Hammurabi
C.   Behistun Inscription
D.   Rosetta Stone
Question #11
In Sumerian mythology, the Mother Goddess makes a man out of clay, Enkidu. He lives in the wilderness, runs with the gazelles and is covered with:
A.   mud
B.   hair
C.   bruises
D.   lion skins
Question #12
While the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia worshipped many gods, the Abrahamic faiths worshipped only one god. The belief in a single god is called:
A.   Monotheism
B.   Monolithic
C.   Humanistic
D.   Deism
Question #13
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.   a falling star
B.   the Cyclops
C.   the Bull of Heaven
D.   the Scorpion Man
Question #14
Civilization is a state of human existence in which people live together for mutual benefit. One civilization began in ancient Greece, was copied and improved by ancient Rome, and is the foundation of our own civilization. It is called:
A.   Human civilization
B.   Greek civilization
C.   Western civilization
D.   Middle Eastern civilization
Question #15
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 a solar eclipse
D.   during the yearly flood
Question #16
Gilgamesh undertakes a quest to find immortality. He travels to Mount Mashu, where he finds the entrance to another world guarded by:
A.   Scorpion men
B.   The goddess Ishtar
C.   Siduri, the alewife
D.   A dragon
Question #17
The ability to read Egyptian hieroglyphics was lost for centuries. The Rosetta Stone allowed scholars to translate hieroglyphics because it included the same information in:
A.   ancient Greek
B.   Hebrew
C.   Old Persian
D.   French
Question #18
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.   Hieroglyphics
B.   Book of the Dead
C.   Rosetta Stone
D.   Cuneiform
Question #19
An epic poem consists of three elements: great length, a central hero and:
A.   the interpretation of dreams
B.   an evil goddess
C.   history and mythology of the culture
D.   the death of a major character
Question #20
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 goddess
B.   Mother water
C.   First civilization
D.   Between rivers
Question #21
After becoming friends with the king, Enkidu feels useless. Gilgamesh proposes they undertake a journey to kill Humbaba, a monster who lives in the:
A.   Tigris river
B.   Cedar forest
C.   Underworld
D.   Ziggurat
Question #22
In The Epic of Gilgamesh, after Enkidu meets the harlot, she introduces him to others. The first people he meets give him bread and wine. These people are:
A.   shepherds
B.   soldiers
C.   temple prostitutes
D.   the trapper and his father
Question #23
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.   history
C.   theology
D.   faith or belief
Question #24
The goddess Ishtar proposes that Gilgamesh marry her, but he refuses because:
A.   is homosexual
B.   she is already married
C.   she has abused her past lovers
D.   she is a temple prostitute
Question #25
Taoism is the believe system of ancient China, which was different from many others in the world because it was:
A.   amoral
B.   monotheistic
C.   atheistic
D.   polytheistic

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