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I'm writing a poem and there is a line 'he dreams of the stone steles on which he will record his victories'
Is it steles or should it be stelae?
Comments
Stelae sounds better in your poem, to me.
An upright stone slab basically-thanks Jay. Well that is my new fact for the day.
Have to say I have never heard that word before.
There are a lot of 's' sounds already and that felt like one too many to me.
But that's just my personal opinion, of course, and you are a much more successful poet than I am!
The hero and his group come across a group of them and it represents the signal that they're crossing over from western to eastern mores. I had always taken it as steles, plural of a stele. That part of my book has been through the hands of two different editors for Cornerstones, and neither of them saw fit to mention it. And believe me, they pick up on everything like literary vacuum cleaners.
So I recommend steles :) .
Thing is in books on Ancient Egypt sometimes I see it written as steles and other times stelae I was wondering if there is a rule and which would apply in my poem.
Thanks Heather will have a think about that.
Thanks Dwight!
You can use either I guess
If you are referring upright pillars it should be stela (singular) stelae (plural)
Stele is something to do with plants
That's from the Oxford Complete Word Finder
The central cylindars of plants are stel or stele. Plural the same.
Of course I could be wrong ;) .
Good idea; I've just finished one!
I concur! :D