Gods, Goddesses, And Glorious Legends

  1. Flag5The Roman (or Greek) Pantheon contained twelve gods on Mount Olympus and two on earth. One of these gods was Jupiter, who was:
    A. God of the underworld
    B. Patron of travel
    C. Master of the skies
  2. The Aztecs also had a pantheon of gods. True or false: Tonacatecutli was the eternal and supreme Aztec god.
  3. Polynesians refer to the mythical concepts of Ao and Po, the universal forces of:
    A. Life and Death
    B. Masculinity and Femininity
    C. Past and Future
  4. In Norse mythology, the ruler of the gods was Odin. True or false: Odin had only one eye because he bartered the other for a drink at the Well of Wisdom.
  5. Goddesses of love play important roles in the legends of many cultures. Connect each goddess to her respective culture.
    A. Tlazolteotl 1. Egyptian
    B. Venus 2. Aztec
    C. Hathor 3. Roman
  6. The Gaelic god of love was Angus Og, who himself fell in love with a magical maiden named Caer. She lived six months each year as a woman and the other six as a:
    A. Tigress
    B. Wolf
    C. Swan
  7. The Navajo tell of a great flood that occurred after someone stole the children of the water serpent, Tieholtsodi. True or false: The thief was Coyote.
  8. The heroic archetype is found worldwide. Match the following heroes with the appropriate locale.
    A. Siegfried 1. England
    B. Beowolf 2. Africa
    C. Don Quixote 3. Spain
    D. Mwindo 4. Germany
  9. Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess, was born when Izanagi washed the defilements from the land of the dead out of his left eye. True or false: Tsukiyomi, the moon, was born when Izanagi washed his right eye.
  10. The "hitching post of the sun," intihuatana, at Machu Picchu is dedicated to the sun god Inti, who was the ancestor of his people, the:
    A. Maya
    B. Gauls
    C. Inca

Answers

  1. C. Jupiter is known in Greek as Zeus.
  2. True. Although many are more familiar with the Aztecs' hero god, Quetzalcoatl.
  3. B. Ao is the masculine force, as well as the day and the sky; Po is the feminine force, along with the night and the earth.
  4. True. In return for wisdom, Odin plucked out his own eye, and threw it down Mimir's well.
  5. A, 2; B, 3; C, 1
  6. C. And when Angus Og begged Caer to be his bride on Samhain (Halloween), the god of love was transformed into a swan as well.
  7. True. The flood was so great it destroyed two worlds. We now live in the fifth world, safe from flooding, because Coyote gave Tieholtsodi's children back.
  8. A, 4; B, 1; C, 3; D, 2
  9. True. And when Izanagi washed his nose, Susanowo, the storm god, was born.
  10. C. Inti was a kind Incan deity, as was his wife, the moon.

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