The Riddles of the Fourteenth Book of the Palatine Anthology

Abstract

Chapter 8 deals with the riddling epigrams of Book 14 of the Greek Anthology and discusses the common methods employed by the poets to disguise the solution of the aenigmata. It traces the origins of some riddles, together with their specific techniques, back to comedy and contextualizes the epigrams within the Greek and Latin ‘riddling tradition’. The comparative study of the most relevant sources (the Greek Anthology, Athenaeus’ Deipnosophists, and some manuscripts whose content still needs to be explored) leads to the conclusion that the Byzantine poets who composed riddling epigrams (Cristopher of Mytilene, John Mauropous, John Geometres, Michael Psellus, Basil Megalomytes, and Eustathius Macrembolites) could have been inspired by lost anthologies of riddles composed at different periods.