ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE GRADE 9 Reading a myth: Persephone
MEMORANDUM
1. This myth explains the changing of the seasons. Which season is your favourite and why? Learners own response. Winter/Autumn/Spring/Summer✓ + reason.✓ 2. Myths are stories that explain natural occurrences and express beliefs about what is right and wrong. What natural occurrence does the bracketed paragraph explain? The paragraph relates to earthquakes and volcanos✓ that shake the earth’s core. It suggests that “fearful’ fire-breathing giants” presumably volcanos✓, heave and struggle to get free, which causes the earthquakes. ✓ 3. How do the Greeks explain how people fall in love? Eros (Cupid) the god of love✓, shoots people in the heart with a love-arrow✓ that makes them fall in love. 4. Who is Pluto? He is the “dark monarch” king of the underworld✓ otherwise known as hell. 5. A cause is an effect or action that produces a result. A result is called an effect. What effect does Eros’s arrow have on Pluto? Eros’s arrow fills Pluto’s heart with warm emotions. ✓He sees Persephone and immediately falls in love with her. ✓ 6. What is the result of Demeter’s anger at the land? The ground was no longer fertile. ✓ Nothing could grow anymore. Men and oxen worked to grow crops, but they could not. ✓ There was too much rain ✓ and too much sun✓, so the crops did not grow. The cattle died✓ due to starvation. All of mankind would die✓ of starvation. 7. How do the details that describe what happened to the earth explain natural occurrences? The paragraph suggests that drought✓ is caused by Demeter who is angry✓ with the land. The punishment is to make the ground unfertile so that nothing can grow. ✓ 8. Do you think Zeus should have told Demeter where her daughter was? Learners own response. Refer to the cause and result. Yes, would have saved the people from starvation. ✓ /He should have been honest. ✓ Or No, because Pluto was happy✓, taking Persephone would sadden him. ✓ 9. A simple sentence has a subject and a predicate and expresses a complete thought. A compound sentence is two simple sentences joined by a conjunction – for example and, but, for, or – and a comma. Underline an example of a compound sentence in the bracketed passage. “Down sped Hermes on his winged feet, and ✓there in the dim palace of the king, he found Persephone by Pluto’s side.” 10. When Persephone eats four pomegranate seeds, what is the result? The myth goes that if you ate anything in hades you would not be able to return to the world. As Persephone ate some seeds from the pomegranate given to her by Pluto she could not return to her mother forever. She had to spend one month for each of the seeds ✓that she ate in Hades. So for eight months of the year she could go to her mother Demeter, but had to return to Hades for four months✓ every year. 11. Who is Persephone’s mother? Demeter, goddess of Harvest. ✓ 12. Why does Persephone have to stay in the underworld for four months each year? She had to spend one month for each of the seeds ✓that she ate in Hades, four months with Pluto. The rest of the year, eight months, she could go to her mother Demeter. 13. What human trait does Pluto show? He shows compassion. ✓ He allows Persephone to go to her mother and leave him for 8 months, because het truly loves her. ✓ 14. How does the myth explain winter? Persephone had to return to Hades for four months. Autumn/Winter she would go to Hades and take the Summer flowers with her. ✓ After winter she would return to earth to bring spring. ✓ 15. List the main characters within the story and say whether they are protagonists or antagonists. • Zeus (god of mankind and ray) Antagonist • Demeter ( goddess of the Harvest)Protagonist • King Pluto (god of the underworld) Antagonist • Persephone (Demeter’s only child) Protagonist • Hermes (messenger of the gods – Zeus’s son) • Eros (god of love) • Aphrodite (goddess of love and beauty)
16. What type of conflict exists within the myth? Who is involved? Character vs self
Persephone vs herself Zeus vs Himself
Character vs Character
Demeter vs Pluto Pluto vs Persephone Zeus vs Demeter Aphrodite / Eros vs Pluto
Character vs Nature Zeus vs Harvest 17. What type of narration is used in the myth? Explain. Third person point of view: author acts as the narrator / omniscient