Two unsolved riddles

 The Anthology's fourteenth book is composed of riddles and puzzles. Many of the puzzles are mathematical and I would be at sea without the helpful notes supplied by W. R. Paton in his old Loeb edition. Paton also presents solutions for many of the riddles, but some remain unsolved. Here are two such. Good luck, and please let me know if you get anywhere with them.

14.28

From sea I draw a fishy parentage;
A single contest guarantees I come
To celebrate the Dionysia;
And when I ventured to the stadium,
And made my body slick with olive oil,
With my own hands I slew Demeter’s son.
A second point of note: that I emit
A multitude of Giants from each side,
And they are hauled away by many hands.

14.39

The one who calls me island will not lie:
Aptly he fixed my name into the midst
Of many rushing waters speaking clear.

 UPDATE: the excellent Armand d'Angour has worked these out! See guest post

Martial's Narnia

Martial has a cherished country neighbour who is hardly ever around -- he is in Narnia instead.

Narnia exists; it is an old Roman settlement, today called Narni. It sits on high ground above the river Nera (the ancient Nar) in southern Umbria, and was a strategic waypoint on the ancient Via Flaminia the linked Rome to the Adriatic. C. S. Lewis chose the name from a map because he liked the sound of it, allegedly, though if you go to Narni (please do, it's lovely) you will see lots of old carvings of lions.

 

Here is Martial 7.93. politely asking Narnia if he can have his friend back. For the first time this is me doing Martial in verse:

Hemmed by your silvered stream of sulphur-spring,
And perched upon so steep a mountain cleft
That one may scarcely climb it: NARNIA,
Why must your fancy all too often be
To steal my Quintus, leaving me bereft
As you extend his slow captivity?
My little country place, Nomentum way —
Why must you ruin it, whose worth to me
Was having him next door? O Narnia,
Please do not take advantage; let him be,
Restore my Quintus, and in turn I say
Enjoy your bridge for all posterity.

Two arches of that bridge, built by Augustus and restored by later emperors, are still there along with massive chunks of the rest. The Nera runs through one of the surviving arches; a high-speed train line through the other. We recently visited Narnia and its bridge in the company of our excellent chum Agnes Crawford, of Understanding Rome. The bridge is easy enough to find and is imposingly atmospheric.