Mythology

Name: __________________________________________________________ Date: ________________

Part One The Gods, The Creation, and The Earliest Heroes

Chapter 3 How the World and Mankind Were Created, Chapter 4 The Earliest Heroes

1. What did the Greeks think was at the very beginning of things?

2. What were the next six creations, in order?

3. Who was Cronus, and why was he significant?

4. How did Zeus become the ruler of heaven and earth?

5. Describe the Greek concept of the geography of the Earth.

6. Briefly retell the story of Prometheus’s creation of mankind.

7. Who was Pandora, and why was she created?

8. Briefly retell the story of Pandora’s box.

9. Why did Zeus punish Prometheus, and how did he do this?

10. Who was Io?

11. Briefly retell the story of Europa.

12. Briefly retell the story of Polyphemus.

13. What is the story of Narcissus?

14. Who was Echo?

15. What is the story of Adonis?

Pre-reading Vocabulary Worksheets – Mythology

Part One The Gods, The Creation, and the Earliest Heroes

Introduction Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Context Clues

Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence.

Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think the underlined words mean on the lines provided.

1. Erebus is the unfathomable depth where death dwells.

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2. Groans shall your speech be, lamentation your only words.

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3. It looked like a heifer, but talked like a girl who seemed mad with misery.

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4. You-he who succored the whole race of men?

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5. Swells on a ship, and ever gently thus they wafted her.

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6. He bade each man choose out three rams and bind them with strong, pliant strips of bark.

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7. Her voice would ring in his ears calling him a laggard in love.

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8. The contrast of this laughing, luxuriant beauty with the clear-cut, austere grandeur all around arrests the attention sharply.

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Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.

____ 1. unfathomable                           A. assisted, helped

____ 2. lamentation                              B. floated gently and smoothly

____ 3. heifer                                       C. severe, having no decoration

____ 4. succored                                 D. not able to be understood

____ 5. wafted                                     E. a song or poem that expresses grief or mourning

____ 6. pliant                                       F. easily bent

____ 7. laggard                                    G. straggler

____ 8. austere                                    H. a young cow, especially one that has not given birth