The Muse at Play : : Riddles and Wordplay in Greek and Latin Poetry / / ed. by Jan Kwapisz, Mikolaj Szymanski, David Petrain.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Backlist Classics and Near East Studies 2000-2014 (EN)
• MitwirkendeR: Bartol, Krystyna,; Beerden, Kim,; Benefiel, Rebecca R.,; Bowie, Ewen,; Cusset, Christophe,; Danielewicz, Jerzy,; Fontaine, Michael,; Garulli, Valentina,; Katz, Joshua T.,; Kolde, Antje,; Kwapisz, Jan,; LeVen, Pauline A.,; Lowe, Dunstan,; Luz, Christine,; Mairs, Rachel,; Maurizio, Lisa,; Milewska-Waźbińska, Barbara,; Naerebout, Frederick G.,; Pappas, Alexandra,; Sebo, Erin,; Sullivan, Michael B.,
• HerausgeberIn: Kwapisz, Jan,; Petrain, David,; Szymanski, Mikolaj,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2012]; ©2013
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Beiträge zur Altertumskunde , 305
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (420 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Table of Contents -- The Muse at Play: An Introduction -- I. Discourses of Play -- 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 -- II. The Ancient Riddle: Theory and Practice -- 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 -- III. Visual Poetry in the Text and on the Stone -- 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 -- IV. Case Studies -- 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 -- V. Playful Receptions -- 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