The muse at play : riddles and wordplay in Greek and Latin poetry / edited by Jan Kwapisz, David Petrain, Mikołaj Szymański.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Kwapisz, Jan.

Petrain, David.

Szymański, Mikołaj.

Series:

Beiträge zur Altertumskunde

Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, 1616-0452 ; Bd. 305

Beiträge zur Altertumskunde ; 305

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greek poetry--History and criticism.

Greek poetry.

Latin poetry--History and criticism.

Latin poetry.

Riddles in literature.

Plays on words--Early works to 1800.

Plays on words.

Rhetoric, Ancient.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (432 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In May 2011, a conference on riddles and word games in Greek and Latin poetry took place at the Institute of Classical Studies of the University of Warsaw. The conference was intended as an open forum where specialists working in different fields of classical studies could meet to discuss the varied manifestations of riddles and other technopaegnia - both terms being understood broadly to encompass the full range of play with language in classical antiquity, in keeping with the use made of the two terms in ancient and early modern theoretical discussions. This volume offers revised versions of the papers presented during the conference. Contributions by scholars from Europe and the USA treat a number of interconnected topics, including: ancient and modern attempts to formulate a definition of the riddle; poetic games at Greek symposia; experimentation with language in late classical poetry; riddles in the book cultures of the Hellenistic age and late antiquity; the functions of word games carved in stone, written on papyrus, or inscribed on the wall as graffiti; authors famed for their obscurity, such as Heraclitus and Lycophron; wordplay in Neo-Latin poetry; oracles, magic squares, pattern poetry, palindromes and acrostichs.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Preface

Table of Contents

The Muse at Play: An Introduction

The Sympotic Tease

“You Make Less Sense than a (New) Dithyramb”: Sociology of a Riddling Style

Magic Squares, Alphabet Jumbles, Riddles and More: The Culture of Word-Games among the Graffiti of Pompeii

What Has It Got in Its Pocketses? Or, What Makes a Riddle a Riddle?

Technopaegnia in Heraclitus and the Delphic Oracles: Shared Compositional Techniques

“Gods Cannot Tell Lies”: Riddling and Ancient Greek Divination

Were There Hellenistic Riddle Books?

The Rhetoric of the Riddle in the Alexandra of Lycophron

In scirpo nodum: Symphosius’ Reworking of the Riddle Form

The Treachery of Verbal Images: Viewing the Greek technopaegnia

Nicander’s Aesopic Acrostic and Its Antidote

Greek Acrostic Verse Inscriptions

Sopha grammata: Acrostichs in Greek and Latin Inscriptions from Arachosia, Nubia and Libya

Versus anacyclici: The Case of P. Sorb. 72v (= adesp. com. fr. 52 PCG)

A Palindrome, an Acrostich and a Riddle: Three Solutions

Triple Tipple: Ausonius’ Griphus ternarii numeri

The Aulularia inversa of Joannes Burmeister

Waste of Time or Artistic Expression? Notes on poesis artificiosa of the Modern Era

Note on Contributors and Editors

Index of Passages Discussed

General Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9783110270617

3110270617

OCLC:

826479592