Comments on: Independent 7585 by Tees

By: ele

ele — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:16:13 +0000

Hi jimbo@13. Might Hecate in the sense of witchy refer to Macbeth, where she turns up in the three witches spells? And speaking as an ex-Brownie, we were supposed to be good little fairies helping others every day, so I didn’t find that a problem. Thanks to Tees for an enjoyable puzzle, although at first I thought I wouldn’t get very far. Getting the long anagrams was the breakthrough.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:44:24 +0000

Thanks NealH.
Excellent puzzle from Tees,which would have been very hard to solve if the long anagrams hadn’t been easily gettable from the enumeration.Agree with scchua@1,12/18 in particular was brilliant.
Not having seen Star Wars I didn’t fully understand 19 down but got the gist of it even with my limited knowledge.
I liked 6 and 8 down for their ‘Pauline’ wit,but my favourite was UMBRA,which had nothing to do with Hebe!

By: Tees

Tees — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:19:29 +0000

Well, it was a Monday puzzle – we didn’t want you all pulling your hair out, at least not this early in the week’s proceedings. And the trouble with long entries is – of course – that they’re often deduced visually rather than by some other, more familiar process. (On the other hand, I’m told by one or two of the Times Competition super-solvers that they ‘see’ answers long before they’ve had a chance to parse the clues, so … well, what can you do?) I hope you enjoyed working them out after the event, if that’s how it was for you.

Lenny, you had me worried there, so thanks for your corrective #8.

Many thanks to Neal and to all concerned for the comments. Enjoy the rest of the Indy week.

By: flashling

flashling — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:18:37 +0000

I too struggled to get going until the out of sight clue suddenly appeared in my mind and its partner clue. The whole thing rapidly unravelled which is a pity as Tees seems to have put a lot of work into this. Thanks Neal and Tees.

By: jimbo

jimbo — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:09:29 +0000

It would appear that nobody else found 15a and 16a iffy at best then????

By: scchua

scchua — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:56:37 +0000

Hi Wil@9 “what on earth does it mean?”. You almost got it …. the correct preposition is “under” – it means “of the underworld” and Hecate was one of the Greek goddesses dwelling under the earth.

Re Crouch, you’d be surprised how widespread interest is in the English national team and the EPL.

By: Robi

Robi — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:44:55 +0000

Wil @9: ‘King Lear’ by William Shakespeare
This is Hekate (or Hecate) in Her chthonic role (Hekate Chthonia). Chthonic is a word whose meaning is heavily loaded by culture. Today the word ‘chthonic’ often has evil or ‘dark’ connotations, but it originates from the Greek khthonios, meaning ‘in or under the earth’

chthon·ic (thnk) also chtho·ni·an (thn-n)
adj. Greek Mythology
Of or relating to the underworld.

[From Greek khthonios, of the earth, from khthn,

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:40:33 +0000

Hi Wil
From Chambers:

chthonic – relating to the earth or the underworld and the deities inhabiting it

Hecate – a mysterious goddess, in Hesiod having power over earth, heaven and sea, and afterwards identified with Artemis, Persephone and other goddesses (Gr myth)

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:08:32 +0000

Some really good stuff here. But everyone has passed over ‘chthonic’, which I could perfectly well look up but I don’t have a dictionary to hand. What on earth does it mean, and how does it affect Hecate?

Thought 8dn was very clever, but I at once knew what it was going to be about. 6dn may be something of a problem for non-UK solvers — Peter Crouch is hardly a worldwide household name.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:50:24 +0000

Apologies to Tees. As Uncle Yap points out, it is in fact this mornings Times crossword that has the other Burt Lancaster Clue and not the Neo that I did last night.