Okay, so today I sat down to tackle the New York Times crossword, my usual morning ritual. Cup of tea next to me, pencil ready.
Finding the Clue
I was working my way through the grid, getting some of the easier fill, when I landed on a specific clue: goddess of the dawn. It was for a three-letter answer. Short ones can be tricky sometimes, either super obvious or totally obscure.
Working Through It
My first thought immediately went to mythology. Dawn goddesses… okay, brain, let’s dig. Roman? Greek? I’m pretty sure it’s Greek mythology they usually lean towards for these kinds of clues.
I started thinking about names. Aurora? Nope, that’s Roman and too long anyway. Hmm. Three letters. That really narrows it down. I scanned the letters I already had crossing it. I had an ‘O’ in the middle position from an across clue I’d already solved. So, _ O _.
What Greek goddesses fit that pattern? Let’s see… Hera? No. Does she have anything to do with dawn? Don’t think so. What about names ending in S? Lots of Greek names end in S.
The “Aha!” Moment
Then it clicked. Eos! E-O-S. She’s the Titan goddess of the dawn in Greek mythology. Fits the clue perfectly. Fits the letter count. And importantly, it fit the ‘O’ I already had in place.
I quickly penciled in EOS. Checked the crossing letters again just to be sure. The ‘E’ worked with the down clue starting there, and the ‘S’ seemed plausible for the other down clue ending there. Felt pretty solid.
It’s always satisfying when you dredge up those little bits of knowledge and they fit right into the grid. Another small victory in the daily puzzle battle!
