Guest post: Armand d'Angour answers riddles

The crazily talented Professor Armand d'Angour has kindly supplied the following solutions to some of the Greek Anthology's thornier riddles. Over to the expert. -GN

If one looks at the answers to the riddles, one regularly finds names of animals (including fish), objects, and places, and also commonly the use puns or of parts of words with alternative meanings. For instance, from Paton's Loeb:

νῆσος ὅλη, μύκημα βοός, φωνή τε δανειστοῦ.

My whole is an island; my first the lowing of a cow, and my second what a creditor says.

Answer: Rhodes (dos = give)

One riddle that Paton did not answer, no. 30, clearly refers to the lyre, the body of which is made from at (dead) tortoise and the strings from the gut of a (dead) sheep or ram:

κριὸν ἔχω γενετῆρα, τέκεν δέ με τῷδε χελώνη:
τικτομένη δ᾽ ἄμφω πέφνον ἐμοὺς γονέας.

I have a ram as my father, and a tortoise bore me with him.
When I came into being I killed both my parents.

[My own complementary explanation: Hermes made the first lyre from a tortoiseshell and two ram's horns. -GN]

On a similar basis I suggest the answers to the following are:

4.28

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. (tr. Nisbet)

 Answer: τράγος

1. τράγος is a type of fish

2-3. τράγος means ‘goat’, the nominal prize for tragedy at the Dionysia

4-6. A goat, sacrificed at the Games (stadion - running race), was anointed in oil and sprinkled with barley (=Plutus, son of Demeter)

7-9. τράγος also means ‘merchant-ship’, which was rowed with 100 ‘giant’ oars extending from its sides and “hauled away by many hands”.

14.39
The one who calls me island will not lie:
How aptly he placed my name with reference to many cries.

Answer: Euboia 

This is a pun on εὖ βόω “shout well”. So the peninsula would be aptly named an island for, or with reference to, “many cries”.

[My own translation of 14.39, which I didn't solve:

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

Three inscribed epitaphs for women

These are versions of real epitaphs, the originals of which collected in Richard Hunter's brand-new Greek Epitaphic Poetry: A Selection. For anyone who knows Greek this is a great treat of a book with lots of helpful notes. These three range from the sixth to the early fifth century and are from Thera, rural Attica, and Thasos respectively. The numbering is that of Hunter's edition.

XLVIII

This tomb commemorates Parthenice,
Child of Thrasysthenes, and too soon gone.
Damocleia commissioned it to mourn
Her sister from the self-same mother born.

XLIX

This tomb is Phrasicleia’s. For all time
I shall be called a maiden, since instead
I drew this name in place of marriage-bed.

L

A handsome tomb: my father set it here,
Since I am dead, Learetē by name;
And nevermore shall I be seen again.