Greek riddles
The main Ancient Greek terms for riddle are αἴνιγμα (ainigma, plural αἰνίγματα ainigmata, deriving from αἰνίσσεσθαι 'to speak allusively or obscurely', itself from αἶνος 'apologue, fable')[1] and γρῖφος (grîphos, pl.
[2] Riddles appear to have been a popular component of ancient symposia, and have at various points in the history of the Greek-speaking world also been a significant literary form.
[3] The date when this compilation was originally made is uncertain, and the dates of individual riddles even less clear: the oldest may go back to Archaic Greek, the youngest to Byzantine;[7] but the emergence of the compilation in its present form is generally associated with Constantine Cephalas, working in the tenth century.
c. 200 AD) compiled a copious anthology of ancient Greek riddles citing some 1,250 authors under the title Epitome.
[13] This is just one example, however, of a considerable body of riddlic oracles in Ancient Greek literature: the gods' enigmatic answers to people asking questions of oracles appears to have been a significant literary trope, amongst other things a way to warn listeners of the perils and difficulties of seeking divine guidance.
[16] Aristotle is not known to have composed riddles, but 'among his pseudepigrapha there apparently was a collection of metaphorical, riddle-like phrases and expressions', now lost.
(xiv.14)I am a black child sprung from a bright sire, A wingless bird, fleeting to heaven from earth.
(xiv.61)The answer are: night and day; a reflection in a mirror; double flute played by one person with ten fingers; smoke; pitch, used for caulking ships.
n. 11 There was a particular peak around the long twelfth century: Christopher of Mytilene's στίχοι διάφοροι ('Various Verses') contain riddles, while John Mauropous, Michael Psellos, Basilios Megalomites, Theodore Prodromos, Eustathios Makrembolites, and Manuel Moschopoulos were all part of this movement.
At the end of its speech the subject will occasionally address the reader and dare him to use his brains and find the correct answer.
Milovanović divides the corpus into the following genres, and identifies riddles on the following subjects (alongside 29 without a known solution [nos.
[22] An example of one of the true riddles is this, on a writing tablet: 'Wood gave birth to me and iron reformed me, and I am the mystic receptacle of the Muses.
)11; echo 22; Eve 15 16; female 17; fire 9, 18; fishermen and fish 59; funeral 68; gold 19; hawk 21; ink 34; Jacob's struggle with the angel (?
)74; the miracle of Moses on the Red Sea 79; month 35; musical instrument 38; Noah's Ark 39; olive 33; parchment 44; Penelope 43; pitcher 28; rainbow 13; rooster 45 46 47; salt 65 (?
[5]: 57 Accent, stress 111; the prophet Amos 118; animals 93; apple 97; arrow 81; the Beginning 117; bread 143; breath 87; candle 128 129; dance 132; Delos 88; envy 95; Eros 91 92; eunuch (?
)142; gate 102; goat 104; golden beekeeper 119; grass 137; hand 123; hard 136; hours 76; John the Baptist 100 101; joy 120 121; light 125 126 (?
)127; lips/vagina 140; madness 107; mind 138 139; mockery 122; mouse 108 109; nail 113; neck 85; oak 144; only child 98; ox 83; pig 130; pillar 134; rope 105; rooster 115; sail 99; sand 113'; St Sava 124; seed 131; snow 133; soul 89; sparrowhawk 103; spring, well 96; sun 135; tent 80; thief 106; torrent 82; water 84; wool 86; weevil 94.
A key collection of modern Greek riddles is N. G. Polites, 'Demode Ainigmata', in Neohellenika Analekta, I (Athens, 1870), 193–256.
