Introduction
Pausanias explains why every fourteen years, the people of Platea in Boeotia (central Greece) celebrated the festival of the Greater Daedala, in which a female figure carved from oak and dressed in a bridal gown was taken by cart to the River Asopos, and sacrifices were offered on Mt Cithaeron.
IN Platea there is a temple to Hera, worth seeing for the size and quality of its statues. They call her ‘the Bride’, for the following reason.
Apparently, Hera was angry with Zeus over something or other, and removed to Euboea. When he failed to persuade her to change her mind, Zeus went to consult Cithaeron.
At that time he was the ruler in Platea, and no man was wiser.
Cithaeron told Zeus to make a wooden figure, wrap it up well and set it rolling on an ox-cart, with a proclamation that he was celebrating his marriage to Platea, daughter of Asopos.*
Zeus followed Cithaerus’s instructions to the letter.
No sooner had Hera learnt about the ‘wedding’ than she was on the spot. She boarded the cart and ripped away the figure’s clothing — only to find a wooden carving, instead of a maiden bride.
So charmed was she by the hoax, that she kissed and made up with Zeus.
Freely translated
According to wider mythology, Platea was a Naiad, one of the twenty daughters of the river-god Asopos.
Précis
After Zeus and Hera had a serious falling-out, Zeus asked Cithaeron, King of Platea, for advice. He suggested staging a pretend wedding with a nuptial procession starring a dummy. In a jealous frenzy Hera came back to confront the ‘bride’, but after discovering the truth she was flattered by the lengths Zeus was willing to go to, and forgave him. (60 / 60 words)
After Zeus and Hera had a serious falling-out, Zeus asked Cithaeron, King of Platea, for advice. He suggested staging a pretend wedding with a nuptial procession starring a dummy. In a jealous frenzy Hera came back to confront the ‘bride’, but after discovering the truth she was flattered by the lengths Zeus was willing to go to, and forgave him.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: must, or, since, unless, until, whereas, whether, who.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Instruction. Its. Spot.
2 Celebrate. Daughter. Follow.
3 Clothing. Persuade. Remove.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
shr (6+2)
ashore. share. shear. sheer. shore. usher.
sharia. shire.
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