Hortus Prīmā Lūce
🔊 Turn your sound on for the full effect.
© The Classical Couple.
The sky is pale over the garden wall. Somewhere inside the house a dog is barking, and one by one the household stirs — father, mother, son, the cook, the slave-girl. A small dove has found its way in through the open door.
Seven puzzles stand between you and the morning ahead. Solve one, and the household comes a little more awake — until, at the end, one final word names the day itself.
Crossword — the vocabulary of a Roman household at first light.
Anagrams — unscramble seven words for the things around the house and grounds.
Cipher — decode a message, then answer the riddle it asks.
Matching — two verbs, surgō and intrō ("to rise," "to enter"), in every tense you know.
Picture Count — reassemble a scattered scene, then count what you see.
Odd One Out — find the mismatched word in each row to learn what happens, then answer questions about it.
Final Rebus — one clue from every lock. Their first letters, rearranged, spell the final word.
Every answer box checks itself instantly. Spelling and capitalization are forgiving — macrons are never required.
Fifteen words from a Roman household at dawn. Every clue gives the English meaning; you supply the Latin. Fill the grid — every crossing letter must agree both ways. Six cells are marked in red: once the grid is solved, their letters unscramble into one more word.
The grid is correct. Unscramble the six red letters:
Seven words for the things around the house and grounds. Unscramble each one.
A message has been shifted 3 letters forward through the alphabet. Shift each letter back 3 to decode it — the message speaks for itself. Answer the question it asks, in Latin.
Decode the message — it already asks its own question at the end.
Two verbs, surgō, surgere ("to rise, get up") and intrō, intrāre ("to enter") — the whole household waking and coming inside — in every tense you know. Drag each English meaning onto its matching Latin form.
The picture below has been scattered into 24 pieces — click two to swap them. Each piece locks in place once it's correct. When the whole picture is assembled, five counting questions will appear — in Latin, they ask quot ("how many") of each thing you can find.
Click two pieces to swap them. Correct pieces lock in place — keep going until the whole picture is assembled.
In each row, three tiles belong together and one doesn't. Drag out the odd tile. Find all 15 to learn what happens.
Now that the story is whole, answer these in Latin:
One clue from every lock you solved. Answer each in Latin — the first letter of each answer will reveal itself, in the order the locks appeared.
You're almost there! Arrange these letters to make a word.
The password was:
pascha — the feast of new life. The dog has stopped barking, the dove has settled, and the whole household is finally, fully awake.