4th Edition Exam Questions Ch.3 Religions Of Late Antiquity

Chapter 3

Religions of Late Antiquity

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When we consider religions of “antiquity” which of the following are we referring to?

a) specific philosophy

b) specific religion

c) specific culture

d) specific ethnic group

e) specific geographical area

2. What are the two terms that identify the broad region associated with religions of antiquity?

a) Fertile Crescent and ancient Near East

b) Roman Empire and Middle East

c) North Africa and Middle East

d) Fertile Crescent and Europe

e) Europe and ancient Near East

3. What tradition is perceived to be equated with “antiquity”?

a) Early Christian tradition

b) Greco-Roman pre-Christian tradition

c) Greek, Latin and Christian traditions

d) Rabbinic and Christian traditions

e) Hellenistic and Christian traditions

4. Between what years is the famous Gobekli Tepe shrine dated?

a) 3000 to 2000 BCE

b) 1500 to 1000 BCE

c) 750 to 250 BCE

d) 9500 to 8000 BCE

e) 1200 to 1000 BCE

5. What was the signature item found at Catalhoyuk?

a) seated large breasted female about to give birth flanked by two leopards

b) temple dedicated to goddesses of fertility

c) pyramids that served as a site for ritual practices

d) the first library with books on religious devotion

e) the first large scale altar devoted to animal sacrifices

6. Who was Egypt’s most widely adored deity?

a) Isis

b) Hathor

c) Nut

d) Horus

e) Atum

7. Which of the following strongly characterized the religious character of antiquity?

a) Monotheism

b) Hedonism

c) Divine absence

d) Divine omnipresence

e) Scripturalism

8. The Roman counterpart to the supreme Greek God Zeus is which of the following?

a) Juno

b) Jupiter

c) Venus

d) Mars

e) Neptune

9. What type of writing is the Enuma Elish?

a) Greek epic hero narratives

b) Roman sacred poetry

c) Babylonian creation epic

d) Near eastern apocalyptic literature

e) Mystery cult literature

10. One of the early Sumerian texts refers to how many gods?

a) 12

b) 777

c) 2,400

d) 3,600

e) 12,000

11. Which one of the following was the supreme god of the Egyptians?

a) Amun-Ra

b) Horus

c) Geb

d) Nut

e) Set

12. Which one of the following was a defining characteristic of gods in antiquity?

a) Love

b) Judgement

c) Accessibility

d) Detachment

e) Power

13. Which one of the following was a defining characteristic of gods in antiquity?

a) Vengeful

b) Righteous

c) Mysterious

d) Immortality

e) Darkness

14. Who were the two most important female deities in Egypt?

a) Anout and Anat

b) Anuket and Astarte

c) Bat and Eye of Ra

d) Hathor and Isis

e) Meret and Mut

15. Which goddess gave birth to a brood of sea monsters?

a) Tiamat

b) Hathor

c) Isis

d) Bat

e) Anat

16. Where are accounts of the creation of humans discovered in Egyptian antiquity?

a) Scriptures

b) Prayer Books

c) Letters

d) Coffin Texts

e) Pyramid Doors

17. Which state best describes humanity within the classical myths, such as, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses?

a) Enlightened

b) Angelic

c) Incomprehensible

d) Sinful

e) Flawed

18. In what epic does Zeus remark that greed and folly doubled the suffering of humans?

a) Epic of Gilgamesh

b) Aeneid

c) Divine Comedy

d) Song of Roland

e) Odyssey

19. Although the gods could be worshipped anywhere, where was the preferred place to give homage to the gods?

a) Sanctuaries

b) Caves

c) Homes

d) Mountaintops

e) Public Squares

20. When did Mesopotamian and Egyptian temples first appear?

a) Tenth and ninth millennia BCE

b) First millennia BCE

c) Fifth and fourth millennia BCE

d) Second millennia BCE

e) Twelfth to eleventh millennia BCE

21. Greek temples were based on which of the following models?

a) Babylonian

b) Assyrian

c) Roman

d) Mesopotamian

e) Egyptian

22. Approximately, how many statues, images and votive offerings where held in the temples across the Roman Empire of antiquity?

a) 500,000

b) Several million

c) Between 200,000 to 300,000

d) Between 500,000 to one million

e) Million

23. In the most important of Egyptian daily rituals, what were the statues offered?

a) incense

b) prayers

c) candles

d) food

e) money

24. Which of the following was NOT typically part of a festival in antiquity?

a) a speech by the emperor

b) hymns to the deity

c) games or competitions

d) a procession

e) a sacrificial ritual

25. Who were the Roman priestesses that were chosen as young girls to serve for 30 years.

a) Six Vestals

b) Six Dominas

c) Six Sisters

d) Six Abbesses

e) Six Prima Donnas

26. Which Egyptian deity was ruler of the underworld?

a) Hathor

b) Isis

c) Osiris

d) Anuket

e) Bat

27. What was another name for Enuma Elish?

a) Epic of Origins

b) Epic of Beginnings

c) Epic of Construction

d) Epic of Creation

e) Epic of the Cycles of Birth

28. What theme does the Epic of Erra explore?

a) Consequences of god’s omnipresence

b) Consequences of god’s creation

c) Consequences of god’s love

d) Consequences of god’s abandonment

e) Consequences of god’s vengeance

29. The Ludlul Bel Nemeqi (“I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom”) portrays Marduk simultaneously as which of the following two options?

a) wrathful and merciful

b) absent and present

c) one and many

d) revealed and hidden

e) spirt and matter

30. What was an ancient Egyptian’s greatest wish?

a) to be feared

b) to be loved

c) to be remembered

d) to be martyred

e) to be rich

31. The Egyptian ruler Akhenaten is most widely known for which of the following?

a) reviving traditional religions

b) spreading traditional religions

c) preserving traditional religions

d) overturning traditional religions

e) amplifying traditional religions

32. Who is the author of the Greek epic the Iliad?

a) Virgil

b) Hesiod

c) Plato

d) Herodotus

e) Homer

33. Where was the most famous site for the rites of the mystery cults in Greece?

a) Athens

b) Eleusis

c) Sparta

d) Syracuse

e) Rhodes

34. Which of the following Greek teachings did Heraclitus and Xenophanes reject?

a) anthropomorphic view of the divine

b) incorruptibility of souls

c) creation of world from pre-existent matter

d) transcendence of the divine

e) moral absolutism

35. Who was the most influential Greek philosopher to reflect upon the divine nature?

a) Plato

b) Heraclitus

c) Xenophanes

d) Aristotle

e) Dionysus

36. Which one of the following was Rome’s defining characteristic?

a) Justice

b) Patronage

c) Democracy

d) Power

e) Adaptability

37. Who is Aeneas as depicted within Vergil’s Aeneid?

a) a just ruler who was considered divine

b) a heroic warrior whose mother was a priestess

c) a refugee who was the son of human father and divine mother

d) a peasant who led a revolt against the civil magistrates

e) an influential poet who fell in love with a goddess

38. In Human and Divine Antiquities, what did Varro effectively make a subject of study?

a) Roman philosophy

b) Roman poetry

c) Greek religion

d) Roman religion

e) Greek philosophy

39. What was the approximate population of the Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus?

a) 50 million

b) 5 million

c) 15 million

d) 3 million

e) 25 million

40. The most significant source for our knowledge of Zoroastrianism comes from which of the following?

a) Bible

b) Vedas

c) Tripitaka

d) Agam Sutras

e) Avesta

41. Which of the following best describes hagiographies?

a) reliable historical accounts of saints

b) idealized biographies of spiritual figures

c) synonymous with the sacred scriptures

d) epic poetry on fictitious figures

e) romanticized narratives of political leaders

42. What is the name of the “Evil Spirit” created by Ahura Mazda?

a) Asha

b) Angra Mainyu

c) Spenta Mainyu

d) Drui Mazda

e) Yasna Gathas

43. What title was given to the priests sponsored by the Arsacid royal family?

a) Magus

b) Asha

c) Lama

d) Rector

e) Curate

44. The termination of the Achaemendi Empire by Alexander initiated which Age?

a) Hellenistic Age

b) Golden Age

c) Trojan Age

d) Roman Age

e) Imperial Age

45. The term “apocalypse” normally refers to which of the following?

a) New beginning of the world

b) Cataclysmic ending of the world

c) Revelation associated with new religions

d) Vindication associated with new political orders

e) Restoration of the world

46. What is the Denkard?

a) Evil demons in the Zoroastrian tradition

b) Zoroastrian concept that means holiness

c) Influential Zoroastrian priest

d) A later Zoroastrian literary work

e) The oldest biography of Zoroaster

47. When did Zoroastrianism suffer a major blow?

a) In the first century CE when Christianity made inroads into Persia

b) In the fourth century BCE during the reign of Alexander the Great

c) In the seventh century when the Sasanian ruler surrendered to Arab Muslims

d) In the first century BCE when the Sasanian ruler was defeated by Augustus

e) In the third century CE when Mani’s teachings supplanted Zoroastrianism

48. Which of the following secrets was revealed to Mani?

a) Secrets of the Mystery Cults

b) Mystery of the Apostles

c) Mystery of the Religious Traditions

d) Secrets of Truth

e) Mystery of the Gods

49. Mani was obsessed with which of the following concepts?

a) Origin of evil

b) Origin of love

c) Origin of free will

d) Question of eternity

e) Question of determinism

50. Which Roman emperor ordered Manichean leaders to be burned alive?

a) Augustus

b) Constantine

c) Julian

d) Diocletian

e) Decius

True or False Questions

1. Most religious traditions of antiquity recognized hundreds of gods.

2. When considering religions of “antiquity” we could be referring to any part of the world.

3. Manichaeism emerged in Western Europe in the third century CE.

4. Fourth century Christian used the term “antiquity” to disparage the Greco-Roman traditions.

5. The supreme Mesopotamian god Enil was later supplanted by Marduk.

6. We have only one complete version of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

7. The doctrine of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing) was a common teaching antiquity.

8. Egyptians, Greeks, and Mesopotamians envisioned a tripartite cosmos: heaven, earth, and netherworld.

9. Isis’s life-saving intercession figured prominently on a type of small stela called a cippus.

10. Most Egyptian rituals were performed before the public in open squares.

11. Except during public festivals, ritual was the exclusive prerogative of priests.

12. The Egyptians saw death as a transition, that is, a passage into another world.

13. The Epic of Gilgamesh discusses many topics but ignores any discussion of death.

14. The Egyptian word Ma’at had several overlapping meanings—order, truth, justice—and in essence meant an omnipresent goodness or rightness.

15. The limbs of Osiris were taken on a procession during the pan-Egyptian festival of Khoiak.

16. Herodotus asserted that Plato and Aristotle were the first to describe the typical behaviors of the Greek gods.

17. Plutarch was an Alexandrian priest who taught the gods were beyond our human imitation.

18. One of the three maxims placed above the entrance to Apollo’s temple is “know thyself.”

19. The Thesmophoria was most important female-centered festival throughout Greece.

20. The Greeks held to one singular understanding of fate as that which was spun and assigned.

21. Xenophanes was a major proponent of an anthropomorphic view of the divine.

22. The Roman rejection of foreign gods reached its apex during the Second Carthaginian War (218–202 BCE).

23. Worship of the Magna Mater (“Great Mother”) had a short and troubled history in Rome.

24. Ovid’s Metamorphoses challenged Augustus’s legitimation myth and Rome’s imperial cult.

25. Human and Divine Antiquities is a 41-book compilation of Roman religious practices.

26. Cicero rejected the idea of assigning any value to traditional civic religion.

27. During the reign of Augustus, the city of Rome regulated and restricted religious expression.

28. The majority of traditional religions in Rome were thriving throughout the fourth century until Constantine came into power.

29. The majority of the Avesta is the Yasna (“worship”).

30. Hagiographies provide the most accurate historical accounts of political leaders in antiquity.

31. The Avesta provides us with an accurate and near complete account of the life of Zoroaster.

32. In antiquity, religion throughout the Parthian Empire was heterogeneous.

33. Priests became a marginalized caste during the Sasanian era (224–651 CE).

34. Only one of Mani’s literary works has survived intact.

35. Both males and females were included amongst the Manichaean Elect.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does religions of “antiquity” encompass in terms of its geography and traditions?

2. What was the foremost ritual act? What are some examples of this act?

3. What duties did the six Vestals (Roman priestesses) perform for the survival of the city?

4. Who is the author of the Iliad and what is the general content and purpose of this epic?

5. What was the subject and purpose of Vergil’s Aeneid?

6. Who is Zarathustra (Zoroaster) and why is he significant for studying religions of antiquity?

7. What is the central tenant of Zoroastrianism? Explain this teaching by referencing key terms.

8. Why is the “mystery of the apostles” significant for Mani’s teachings? Which “apostles” are referred to in this context?

9. What were the responsibilities of the “Hearers” in the Manichean religious tradition?

10. What recent scholarly developments have contributed to our understanding of the religions of antiquity? How have these contributions shaped our viewpoint of religions in antiquity?

Essay Questions

1. Identify and describe the significance of the four major characteristics of the god of antiquity.

2. Identify and explain the significance of the components of a typical festival in antiquity.

3. Identify the Enuma Elish and then explain the relevance of its significant themes, teachings, and how it was used during the New Year festival, which was called?

4. Identify Akhenaten and explain why he is a significant person according to the standard view of his actions?

5. Why is Plato considered one of the most influential philosophers in the Greek tradition? When providing a response, identify some of his key writings and teachings, therein, recounting their importance and significance for the Greek tradition.

6. Who could be counted amongst the Manichean Elect? What were commandments, the “seals,” and other requirements of the Manichean Elect?