Читать книгу Diana Wynne Jones’s Magic and Myths Collection - Diana Wynne Jones - Страница 21
ОглавлениеMore than a story © HarperCollins Children’s Books 2008
Author’s Note
ABOUT THE CHARACTERS
The aunts are THE PLEIADES, often known as The Seven Sisters, a star cluster in the general region of The Great Bear. It is possible to count seven of them only out of the corner of your eye. In Ancient Greece, The Pleiades seemed to mingle freely with both mortals and gods, and at least three of them had a love affair with Zeus (Jupiter), chief of the gods of both Greece and Ancient Rome. Uncle Jolyon is JUPITER.
The Pleiades are:
MAIA, whose son by Jupiter is MERCURY (Mercer), the messenger of the gods
ELECTRA, whose children by Jupiter are Harmonia (Harmony) and the man who built and founded the great city of Troy and became its first king
ALCYONE, known to astronomers as Beta Tauri, who seems to have been too lofty to have a love affair with anyone
TAYGETA, whose children by Jupiter became the Spartans
CELAENO, one of the fainter stars, whose children by Jupiter became many of the other peoples of Ancient Greece
ASTEROPE, very much fainter than her sister stars
MEROPE, who married SISYPHUS, a mortal king in Ancient Greece. Sisyphus was later punished by having to roll a stone eternally up a hill. As soon as he got near the top, the stone would roll back down to the bottom of the hill again.
The parents of the Pleiades are PLEONE (known to astronomers as “a shell star”) and ATLAS. Atlas was the last of the race of Titans, gigantic beings whom Jupiter defeated when he first came to power as chief of the gods. Some of the Titans were once gods themselves until Jupiter destroyed them. Atlas was spared on condition that he held the world up on his shoulders (although some versions say it was the sky he carries).
In spite of his mighty task, Atlas seems to have had time to fall in love with the nymph Hespera, by whom he had five daughters, known together as the HESPERIDES. These ladies guarded the golden apples in the Western Isles.
AUTOLYCUS (Tollie) is the son of Mercury by a mortal woman. He grew up to be a thief, trickster, cattle rustler and general bad man. Some of the cattle he stole belonged to Sisyphus.
ORION was a mighty hunter in Ancient Greece, who chased women as often as he chased animals. He seems to have gone after both the Pleiades and the Hesperides, and ended up by being placed in the heavens as a constellation which, to this day, is one of the most notable in the winter skies.
As for HAYLEY (Halley’s Comet), it seems to me that the child of a star and a mortal king would almost certainly be a comet.
Golden Apples
Some of the many stories and myths containing golden apples.
Mythosphere Match
Can you match each person on the left with the correct object on the right?
Answers on page 20.
The Solar System
The planets rotate around the sun on a fixed path or orbit. This diagram is like the picture Grandpa showed Hayley on his computer screen.
| Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. It is bigger than all the other planets together. | |
| People used to make up silly sentences (known as mnemonics) using the initial letters of each planet to remember their order from the sun. The most well-known is: Mother Very Easily Made Jam Sandwiches Under No Protest. | |
| In 2006 Pluto was reclassified as a minor planet. Unlike the planets, it has an elliptical orbit. | |
| Halley’s Comet is visible from Earth every 76 years. It was last seen in 1986 and will return in 2062. |
Starry Night
| Orion is the brightest constellation in the winter sky. | |
| The three stars across his “belt” are the easiest way to spot this group. | |
| The stars are not really linked in any way, but ancient civilisations imagined the shape. | |
| There are many myths about Orion the Hunter. One story says that he perpetually chases the Pleiades across the sky, while Taurus the Bull prevents him from ever reaching them. | |
| You can find the “horns” of Taurus above and to the right of Orion. The cloudy cluster behind Taurus is the Pleiades. |
The Western Zodiac
These are the sun signs. Which one were you born under?
Know Yourself Game
The sun sign you are born under is supposed to give you certain personality traits. From the descriptions listed here, can you recognise yourself?
Answers on page 20.
If you like, you’ll love…
If you liked reading The Game, you’ll enjoy these other books by Diana Wynne Jones.
| If you like myths, you’ll love Eight Days of Luke. When Luke turns up claiming that David has released him from prison, David doesn’t know what to believe. But whenever he lights a flame, his new friend appears… | |
| If you like games, you’ll love The Homeward Bounders. When Jamie discovers the sinister, dark-cloaked Them playing with human lives, he becomes part of their game. If he can get Home, he is free… | |
| If you like stars, you’ll love Dogsbody. Sirius the Dog Star is sent to Earth as punishment. Here he is to live as a dog, unless he can discover a valuable device that has been lost. |
| If you like crazy families, you’ll love Archer’s Goon. The trouble begins when the Goon moves into the kitchen and refuses to leave. It is then that the Sykes family discover that the town is being run by seven megalomaniac wizards! | |
| If you like time travel, you’ll love A Tale of Time City. Vivian is kidnapped and taken to Time City, a place that exists outside time and space. But the city is crumbling, and unless Vivian can help discover the cause, all of history will end… | |
| If you like fairy tales, you’ll love Howl’s Moving Castle. When Sophie falls under a curse, she seeks help from the fearsome Wizard Howl, whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the hearts of young girls… |
Answers
Mythosphere Match
| Aladdin + Magic lamp | Frodo Baggins + Ring |
| Sinbad + Roc’s egg | Alice + Bottle labelled “drink me” |
| Baba Yaga + Hut with chicken legs | Medusa + Snake hair |
| Cinderella + Glass slipper | King Arthur + Sword in the stone |
| Thor + Hammer | Persephone + pomegranate |
Know yourself Game
Is your personality written in the stars? Or is it all just a load of moonshine?
| 1. Capricorn | 2. Gemini |
| 3. Cancer | 4. Sagittarius |
| 5. Pisces | 6. Taurus |
| 7. Libra | 8. Aquarius |
| 9. Leo | 10. Aries |
| 11. Scorpio | 12. Virgo |
If you were wrong, go back and check which one is supposed to match you. Do you agree with it? Try the quiz on your friends and see how they match up.
