Deck 25: Theories of Myth Interpretation

Question 1

Who complained in the sixth century BC about the ethical weakness of the Olympian gods, and insisted that popular notions about them must be wrong?

A) Xenophanes
B) Anaximander
C) Diodorus of Sicily
D) Arrian

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which ancient author banned poets and their lying stories in his vision of the ideal state?

A) Menander
B) Aristotle
C) Sophocles
D) Plato

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Roman writers who followed Stoic philosophy argued that Juno was really _______ because the Greek and Latin word for _______ sounded like "Hera"?

A) a mare
B) a cave
C) air
D) fire

Answer 3

C

Question 4

_______ is a Greek word that means "something put together with something else."

A) Simile
B) Allegory
C) Symbolism
D) Metaphor

Question 5

What writer of the later sixth century BC was said to have been the first to use the allegorical method?

A) Euhemerus
B) Solon
C) Thales
D) Theagenes

Question 6

The interpretation of Cronus as "time" illustrates how the Stoics used _______ to reinforce allegory?

A) archaeology
B) metaphor
C) euhemerism
D) etymology

Question 7

Which of the following is the thesis that gods were once humans?

A) euhemerism
B) alchemy
C) Neoplatonism
D) etymology

Question 8

The special contribution of which ancient author was to explain myths as originating from a misunderstanding of language?

A) Palaephatus
B) Plato
C) Aristotle
D) Plutarch

Question 9

Which of the following became the major philosophical movement of the final centuries of the pagan era (AD 200-500)?

A) Rationalism
B) Stoicism
C) Neoplatonism
D) Cynicism

Question 10

Plotinus saw a correspondence between Intellect and _______.

A) Uranus
B) Cronus
C) Zeus
D) Poseidon

Question 11

Porphyry produced an extremely complex interpretation of Homer's description of the _______, arguing that it represents the universe because it is generated from matter and is natural.

A) the cave of the Cyclops
B) the cave of the nymphs on Ithaca
C) the island of the Phaeacians
D) the grove of Calypso

Question 12

As direct acquaintance with classical culture and literature declined, myths became known principally through such influential handbooks as the Mythologies of _______, a sixth-century AD North African Christian.

A) Porphyry
B) Botticelli
C) Plotinus
D) Fulgentius

Question 13

Botticelli's painting of the birth of Venus reflects which the ideas of which philosophical school?

A) Epicureanism
B) Stoicism
C) Neoplatonism
D) Pyrrhonism

Question 14

Which of the following are, according to Giambattista Vico, the three phases in the great cycle of history?

A) Age of Man
B) Age of Nature
C) Age of Gods
D) Age of Heroes

Question 15

Sir James Frazer's book _______ is often ranked as one of the most influential works of modern times.

A) The Golden Bough
B) The Interpretation of Dreams
C) The Typology of the Folktale
D) The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Question 16

Bronislaw Malinowski is the founder of which theory of myth?

A) Solar mythology
B) The ritual theory
C) The charter theory
D) Structuralism

Question 17

Max Müller is the founder of which theory of myth?

A) Solar mythology
B) The ritual theory
C) The charter theory
D) Structuralism

Question 18

The Oedipus Complex is a famous theory put forth by _______.

A) Claude Lévi-Strauss
B) Vladimir Propp
C) Carl Jung
D) Sigmund Freud

Question 19

The highly influential theory of structuralism is particularly associated with _______, who wrote that "mythical thought always works from the awareness of oppositions toward their progressive mediation."

A) Claude Lévi-Strauss
B) Vladimir Propp
C) Carl Jung
D) Sigmund Freud

Question 20

Walter Burkert argues that the structures that inform myth reflect biological or cultural _______.

A) oppositions
B) mediations
C) programs of action
D) repressions

Question 21

This representation of Oedipus is taken from Atalanta Fugiens (1617), a work by _______ in which he argues for reading myths as alchemical allegories.

A) Sandro Botticelli
B) Bernard Fontenelle
C) Michael Maier
D) Andrew Lang