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THE TWELVE LABOURS OF HERACLES

Geraldine McCaughrean

Greek Myths, Heinemann New Windmills (1992)

Before Reading

  1. What is the Roman name for Heracles? (It was used in a Disney film a few years ago.)
  2. a) What does the word "labour" mean? (Find two meanings.) Is it countable or uncountable? Give an example of a sentence using it.

    3. b) Look at the title of this story. What do you think "labours" are?

 

While Reading

Work with a partner to complete the following table:

TASK

HOW HERACLES SOLVED IT

1. To kill a giant lion

He broke its neck with his bare hands.

2.

He cut off the Hydra’s heads with a sword and singed the wounds with a red-hot club

3.

 

4.

 

5.

 

 

6.

 

7.

 

8.

 

9.

 

 

10.

 

11.

 

12.

 

 

Vocabulary: working out roughly what a word means

Perhaps you don’t know the exact meaning of the following words/phrases. However, you should be able to work out roughly what each one means. (DO NOT use a dictionary!)

1. remarkable (p.48)
  1. unusual
  2. talkative
  3. covered with strange marks
  4. tiny

2. an outcast (p.49)
  1. a hero
  2. somebody who drinks a lot
  3. somebody who is rejected by the community
  4. a survivor

3. a tunic (p.49)
  1. a long time
  2. a dead animal
  3. a kind of coat
  4. a meal

4. nimble (p.50)
  1. quick
  2. slow
  3. standing up
  4. sitting down

5. singed (p.50)
  1. banged
  2. repaired
  3. sliced
  4. burned

6. wretched (p.50)
  1. happy
  2. unhappy
  3. clean
  4. spotted

7. to tame (p.51)
  1. make a wild thing calm down
  2. cure an illness
  3. ride
  4. capture

8. scorched (p.52)
  1. tickled
  2. squeezed
  3. burned
  4. cooled

Similes

There are a number of similes in the story – images that compare one thing to another using "like" or "as … as …". Find them and copy them out.

 

Frankie Meehan