introduction to mythology assignment quizlet

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Introduction to Mythology

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What is a myth?

A myth is a story written in the last hundred years.

A myth is a traditional story that serves to explain some phenomenon of nature.

A myth is a type of non-fiction writing.

A myth is example of the science fiction genre.

What do myths represent?

Myths represent facts.

Myths represent the most popular stories in a country.

Myths represent the beliefs and experiences of a culture.

Myths represent only the beliefs of the Ancient Greeks.

True or False - Almost every culture has a mythology

What do myths often attempt to explain?

Myths often attempt to explain why birds can fly.

Myths often attempt to explain science.

Myths often attempt to explain the weather.

Myths often attempt to explain the mysteries of life.

What are gods?

God are a beings conceived of as supernatural.

Gods are beings conceived as having special powers over the lives and affairs of people and the course of nature.

Gods are beings conceived of as immortal.

All of the above

What is a demi-god?

A demi-god is the same thing as a god or goddess.

A demi-god is a monster from the Netflix show Stranger Things .

A demi-god is a lesser god, a minor deity; the offspring of a human being and a god or goddess.

A demi-god is another name for a god or goddess.

What does is mean if someone is mortal?

Someone who is mortal will eventually die.

Someone who is mortal can't get sick.

Someone who is mortal will live forever.

Someone who is mortal can't die in video games.

What makes gods immortal?

Gods are immortal because they don't sunburn.

Gods are immortal because they are deathless and live forever.

Gods are immortal because they don't have to eat food.

Gods are immortal because they are deathless.

Which of the following are examples of natural phenomena?

Volcanic Eruptions

Basketball shoes

True of False - Many gods are used in each myth.

Which of the following would be an example of a god or goddess with human emotion as part of their character?

Out of jealousy, Athena turned a young Greek woman named Arachne into a spider after she bragged about being a better weaver.

Hades, the Ancient Greek god of the underworld, kidnaps Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, the Ancient Greek goddess of the harvest and agriculture.

Zeus, the Ancient Greek god of the sky, hurled lightening bolts from the sky.

Helios, the Ancient Greek god of the sun, drove a golden chariot across the sky each day.

Which of the following are examples of magic as a characteristic of mythology?

Ariadne, a young Greek woman, helps Theseus, a young Greek man, find his way out of a maze.

Thor, the Norse god of thunder, has an invincible flying hammer.

Aphrodite, the Ancient Greek goddess of love, makes a young Greek man not recognize his own reflection.

Daedalus, an Ancient Greek inventor, designed a maze for King Minos of Crete.

Which of the following are examples of evil being punished in mythology?

Athena, the Ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, transformed Medusa, a young Greek woman, into a monster with snakes for hair.

Hermes, the Ancient Greek God of travelers, helped Odysseus by giving him a magical herb to protect him from the magic of the Ancient Greek witch, Circe.

Zeus forces Sisyphus, the King of Corinth, to push a bolder up a hill for all eternity.

Aeolus, the Ancient Greek god of the wind, helped Odysseus, by giving him a bag of favorable wind to help him sail home.

What is a hero?

A hero is another name for a god or goddess.

A hero is a man of great strength and courage, favored by the gods.

A hero is a man of great strength and courage, favored by the gods and part descended from them; often worshiped after death.

A hero is a man or great strength and courage.

What is a prophecy?

A prophecy is the act or practice of a prophet.

A prophecy is a prediction of the future under influence of a divine guidance; act or practice of a prophet.

A prophecy is a prediction of the future and always involves a crystal ball.

A prophecy is a prediction.

True or False - A deity is another word for a god or goddess.

Which of the following events would someone four thousand years ago most likely consider to be supernatural?

A solar eclipse

An earthquake

A rainbow after a storm

Which of the following are NOT examples of natural phenomena?

Caterpillars transforming into butterflies

A wooden fishing boat

Hail during a thunderstorm

What is an allusion?

An allusion is something that magician's use to make you think they've actually pulled rabbit out of a hat.

An allusion is a casual reference to something.

An allusion is a joke that not every reader will understand.

An allusion is a casual reference to something that is only used when the speaker or writer assumes that their reader is cultural literate.

What does it mean for someone to be culturally literate?

To be culturally literate is to be good at reading.

To be culturally literate means to have knowledge.

To be culturally literate is to have knowledge and understanding of the world in which you live.

To be culturally literate, you have to have traveled around the world.

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Introduction to Mythology 4e

• Classical Studies

Introduction to Mythology 4e Instructor Resources

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Chapter One – What is Mythology?

Andy Gurevich

This week, we will begin to explore what myth is , no easy question to answer, and also look at some of the ways humans have developed and used their myths. We might discover as we go that the stories and mythological images of our ancestors speak to us today in more relevant and meaningful ways than we thought possible.

First we need to try to define myth. One textbook offers a simple definition at the beginning of the introduction,

“ Myths symbolize human experience and embody the spiritual values of a culture .” (Rosenberg xiii)

The problem with this definition is the phrase “symbolize human experience.” Just what does that mean?  It  is  what myths do, but it doesn’t really give us much in the way of definition.

Joseph Campbell, another somewhat famous scholar and mythologist who we’ll be using often this term, defined myth as follows,

“A whole mythology is an organization of symbolic images and narratives, metaphorical of the possibilities of human experience and the fulfillment of a given culture at a given time.”

“Metaphorical of…” Hmm. What does that mean, exactly? Onward.

Psychoanalyst Rollo May, in his book “The Cry for Myth” suggests,

“ A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are the narrative patterns that give significance to our existence. Myths are like the beams in a house: not exposed to outside view, they are the structure which holds the house together so people can live in it .”

You will soon see that although most scholars of mythology agree that it is a foundational component of how any society, culture, and individual define themselves , none can agree absolutely on how to define it . But this isn’t really a problem. They may all be right, given the aspects of myth they are emphasizing in their different definitions.

That is why I encourage you to define myth for yourselves during your readings and ponderings.

From the many definitions of myth in books and on the web, we can see that myths have four basic attributes in common:

• They are cultural —they reflect the beliefs and values of a group of people.
• They are sacred —they concern the spiritual or divine aspects of existence that human beings cannot understand.
• They are didactic —they seek to explain the unexplainable, and they teach humans how to behave, live, and relate to each other and the gods.
• They are foundational —they provide basic rules, beliefs, and rituals for a culture to establish shared beliefs and practices.

Joseph Campbell adds that all living myth must serve four primary functions:

• Cosmological — Its cosmological function is to describe the “shape” of the cosmos, the universe, our total world, so that the cosmos and all contained within it become vivid and alive for us, infused with meaning and significance; every corner, every rock, hill, stone, and flower has its place and its meaning in the cosmological scheme which the myth provides.
• Mystical — Its metaphysical function is to awaken us to the mystery and wonder of creation, to open our minds and our senses to an awareness of the mystical “ground of being.” Many would say that this is the primary function of myth-to find a way to communicate whatever mystical insight has been gained on the journey: an understanding of the mysteries that underlie the universe; an appreciation of its wonders; the sense of awe or rapture experienced.   Since this experience often can’t be communicated directly, myth speaks in metaphors, symbols, and symbolic narratives that aren’t always bound by objective reality .
• Sociological — Its sociological function is to pass down “the law,” the moral and ethical codes for people of that culture to follow, and which help define that culture and its social structure.
• Psychological — Its psychological (or pedagogical) function is to lead us through particular rites of passage that define the various significant stages of our lives-from dependency to maturity to old age, and finally, to our deaths, the final passage.  These rites of passage bring us into harmony with the “ground of being” (a term used by Campbell to refer to an unnamed, unspecified universal mystical power) and allow us to make the journey from one stage to another with a sense of comfort and purpose.

Today, in our culture, we often dismiss myth as a falsehood, or fanciful, untrue stories, like urban myths or “false news.”. This is not the definition of myth we will concern ourselves with. For each of the myths we read, the culture from which they arose believed them to be true and foundational to their individual and collective identities. It was how they understood the great mysteries of the universe and our place in it—How did the earth come to be? How was mankind created? What is my purpose? Can I know god? Is there a life after death?

Today, we are still asking the same questions, and for many people, the answers are in their religious beliefs, many of which have their roots in the myths. Campbell once said, “a mythology is another person’s religion, and a religion is your own personal mythology.”

This first group of myths (Lessons 1 through 4) are Creation myths. They seek to explain “how it all started.”  There are 8 basic motifs (a recurring pattern or object) for creation myths:

• Conjunction : mingling of waters or primal elements creates a first entity or a livable surface
• Divine emission : blood or other body fluids create man or beings or other gods
• Sacrifice : a god sacrifices himself or is sacrificed to achieve creation of the earth or humans
• Division/Consumption : marriage of earth and sky or separation of earth and sky creates livable space for humans
• Cosmic egg : all humans, and the earth sometimes, are contained in a great egg to be opened when the god wills it
• Emergence : first “people” emerge from an original cramped or hostile world into a new world or a series of worlds
• Deus Faber : the god consciously crafts the world and humans out of a substance necessary for the survival of mankind (like clay, mud, stone, corn)
• Ex Nihilo-out of nothing : creation by thought, breath, dream or word

These eight methods are creation are easy to see in the myths we read. What might each method say to the people about their importance to the gods? Think about this question as your read the myths.

As you read, you will see that myths are narratives ; they tell a story. It is the culture’s way of trying to explain the creation of the universe and mankind in a way everyone could understand. These stories (myths) were passed down through generations orally because they existed long before humans created writing.

We don’t know for sure, but it is likely that the myths evolved over time as they were retold, perhaps to include new myths from other cultural groups, or to reflect man’s more sophisticated understanding of the world and the gods.

Often these myths were retold in celebrations of a religious nature, such as a New Year celebration or the beginning of spring, or at the harvest.

The myths, although simple as narratives, are complex in trying to explain existence and the gods. In some cases, you will find contradictions, missing pieces, and some just plain confusing ideas. Remember, these are myths, not fact-based explanations. We need to read them differently than we would a history or science book. But when we know how to read them as intended, as metaphors for the journey of the soul back to the ground of its own being, then they can reveal timeless truth to us, whether we “believe” in them or not.

So… A closer look:   It’s about time!

• Legend  is defined as a traditional story that may be based on historical facts, but is not easily proven to be historical (like the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table).
• Folklore  is more like myth in that it is stories about traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community passed down through word of mouth. This definition is very much like myth, but as we will see, there is one attribute of myth that may be missing from folklore.

In the Indian (Hindu) creation myth, time is presented as cyclical—a constant repetition of creation, destruction and rebirth.  The Mayan culture also saw time as cyclical as presented in their calendars.  Most Western religions have from their beginning seen time as linear, having a clear, set beginning (On the first day, God created…) and a clear, set ending.  When our world ends, there is no indication that there will be a regeneration or re-creation as there is the Hindu myth.

Yet, everything about our world indicates that time is cyclical—the track of the sun and moon through the sky, the passing of the seasons, the celebration of recurring events like Thanksgiving and our birthdays, even our clocks are round.

Time is one of those puzzling questions that underlies many of the great questions of mankind.  We are obsessed with time, and much of our language is devoted to time—we try to save time (a bizarre notion); we spend time; we think time is money; we take time; we waste time.  We even upset our lives twice a year by setting clocks ahead and back.

Scientists and philosophers tell us time is an illusion, it isn’t real, and we can’t measure it.  Why then does it seem so real to us?  We can’t function without schedules, or knowing what time it is.

So, think about this:  how might believing in time as linear or cyclical influence a culture’s attitude toward death or how we live our lives in the present time?  What if we do come back for another try? What if X marks the spot and when we get there, there is no hope to return to life as we know it?

Now you are ready to read the myths (Please do not panic. Many of these are quite short and you can use open book and open notes to do your assignments.):

• The History & Functions of Myth
• The Babylonian Creation Epic: The Enuma Elish
• Click  here for another version of the myth.
• THE CREATION (Mayan)
• Click here for a video version.
• Nu Kua (or Nu Wa)
• Yin and Yang
• Click here for an alternate version of all three.
• The Hindu Creation Myths
• Hindu Creation Stories
• The Hindu Creation Myth
• Hindu Mythology Creation Story

Chapter One - What is Mythology? Copyright © 2021 by Andy Gurevich is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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by Edith Hamilton

Mythology study guide.

Mythology is perhaps the most highly acclaimed modern collection of Greek and Roman (and even some Norse) myths. Written by Edith Hamilton in 1942, the collection draws on classical and other ancient sources to retell a wide variety of tales. In her introduction, Hamilton admits the difficulty of compiling stories that have been passed down by thousands of writers for thousands of years.

Greek mythology, like other mythologies, illustrates the origins of the world and the adventures of the gods, heroes, and mythological creatures who recur throughout the tales. Originally, the stories were passed down through oral tradition, though eventually they were written in various texts. The oldest literary sources for many myths are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey , which probably originated in oral traditions themselves, as well as the Theogony and the [Works and Days] of Hesiod. Ancient Roman culture adapted the Greek myths to their own mythological traditions. Scholars have drawn more stories from the writings of Plutarch and Pausanias.

Archaeologists also have contributed to the body of contemporary knowledge about Greek myths, for many Greek artifacts portray scenes from the adventures. Heinrich Schliemann's discovery of the Mycenaean civilization as well as Sir Arthur Evans's discovery of the Minoan civilization unearthed sculptures, vases, and paintings that provided new details concerning the mythological characters and stories. Long after the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations crumbled, artists continued to find inspiration in Greek mythology. This influence waxed and waned, but most notably it resurfaced in the Italian Renaissance, when artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael paired Greek mythology with Christian themes.

Academic interest in Greek mythology arose in Western culture at the end of the eighteenth century. Previously, Christian leaders tended to characterize the pagan stories as lies or fables, but by 1795, German scholar Johann Matthias Gesner argued for their historical value. Thereafter, in Germany and beyond, various interpretations arose concerning the myths. Some believed that the gods and heroes mentioned in the stories were once actual human beings, and that the myths had become exaggerated stories of their lives. Others immediately argued that the characters were allegorical, being symbols that represented characteristics or whole value systems, but not actual people. Still others argued that the myths arose from cultures in Asia and Asia minor, for some of the archaeological evidence suggested this trend. Though they could not agree on the details, early academics all believed the myths were valuable relics of an important period of history.

It was not until Edith Hamilton's Mythology that the stories became compiled in an understandable fashion for non-academics. Hamilton's anthology succeeds not only by telling these stories clearly to the modern reader but also by staying true, it seems, to the original cultures' narratives and voices. For decades, colleges and secondary schools around the world have assigned Hamilton's Mythology as a secure foundation for understanding the most important Greek myths. Thus, the book has captured the imaginations of academics and students alike.

Mythology Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Mythology is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How does Perseus respond to people and events in the story? How does this response move the story forward?

Which specific myth are you referring to? Title, please?

What drink is given to Polyphemus ? What is the Effect?

The give Polyphemus wine. He falls asleep.

3 gods of goddness

Whatbparticular myth are you referring to?

Study Guide for Mythology

The Mythology study guide contains a biography of Edith Hamilton, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of the major Greek myths and Western mythology.

• About Mythology
• Mythology Summary
• Character List

Lesson Plan for Mythology

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Mythology
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Mythology Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Mythology

• Introduction

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Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths 4th Edition

• ISBN-10 0190262982
• ISBN-13 978-0190262983
• Edition 4th
• Publisher Oxford University Press
• Publication date February 10, 2016
• Language English
• Dimensions 9.9 x 1.2 x 8 inches
• Print length 944 pages
• See all details

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 4th edition (February 10, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 944 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0190262982
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0190262983
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.64 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.9 x 1.2 x 8 inches
• #68 in Folklore & Mythology Studies
• #140 in Social Sciences (Books)

About the author

Eva m. thury.

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