Abstract
This paper is a response to Mariana Gardella Hueso “Cleobulina of Rhodes and the philosophical power of riddles.” I offer a close reading of the riddles associated directly or indirectly with Cleobulina with a view to highlight their generic characteristics, placing them in the wider context of international riddling traditions. Taking up and expanding on Gardella Hueso’s observations on the metaphorical nature of these riddles and the impossibilities expressed by them, I argue that, as opposed to riddles in general, Cleobulina was especially associated with one particular type of riddle: the type that folklorists call “the true riddle” and that Greek sources distinguish as ainigma. Rather than taking a biographical approach to Cleobulina, my discussion suggests the possibility of a female riddling tradition that enabled women to engage with various facets of reality and discover knowledge otherwise unavailable to them. A potentially powerful and unsettling mode of discourse, the ainigma was eventually marginalized as “nonsense” by predominating male modes of acquisition of knowledge and philosophical inquiry.
καὶ ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ τὸ ὅμοιον καὶ ἐν πολὺ διέχουσι θεωρεῖν εὐστόχου
Arist., Rhet. 1412a12–13
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Notes
- 1.
Matelli (1997, pp. 23–32) offers a detailed discussion of all the fragments. To my knowledge, the possibility that the chorus consisted of women representing riddles has not been considered; cf. the chorus in Callias’ Grammatike Theoria that consisted of women representing pairs of letters (Ath., 10.453d5, with Olson’s note (2009, p. 171, n. 249)).
- 2.
For the scansion of ἄκμ- see Heph., 6.16–7.3, who cites the line.
- 3.
Cf. Arist., GA 789b9–11.
- 4.
- 5.
Cf. the apparatus criticus to the fragment.
- 6.
- 7.
Cf. another instance of female riddling with an obscene solution in Diphilus fr. 49 K-A (= Ath., 10. 451b4–c6).
- 8.
Cf. Philemon fr. 114 Kock. Trypho (Rhet. Gr. iii p. 195 Spengel) lists this type of riddle in his discussion of ainigma as a trope.
- 9.
Cf. Symphosius 18, porto domum mecum; Taylor (1951, pp. 263–265 and 761–762).
- 10.
Cf. the introduction “I saw” to numerous riddles in Crossley-Holland (2008, pp. 13, 29, 31, 32, 34, 37, et al.).
- 11.
See also Aristotle, EN 1109b35–1110a4 with Taylor (2006, pp. 128–130).
- 12.
Contrast Rhet. 1412a23–24, where he mentions Stesichorus by name as the author of the cicadas riddle.
- 13.
See Kouskoukis and Leider (1983, p. 238) for the mechanism.
- 14.
On the retrospective classification of riddles as metaphorical see Harries (1976, p. 41).
- 15.
Taylor (1951, p. 249, no. 678) describes a cask in terms of torture as undeserved punishment: “I […] am bound with iron bonds; […] a peg is beaten into my head.”
- 16.
Cf. the riddles of leather and its various uses as boots, wine-skin, thongs: Symphosius, 56, 73; Crossley-Holland (2008, pp. 12 and 38).
- 17.
- 18.
Εἷς ὁ πατὴρ, παῖδες δυοκαίδεκα. Τῶν δὲ ἑκάστῳ / παῖδες δὶς τριάκοντα διάνδιχα εἶδος ἔχουσαι / αἱ μὲν λευκαὶ ἔασιν ἰδεῖν, αἱ δ’ αὖτε μέλαιναι / ἀθάνατοι δέ τ’ ἐοῦσαι, ἀποφθινύθουσιν ἅπασαι. / Ἔστι δὲ ὁ ἐνιαυτός.
- 19.
- 20.
Aristotle, Po. 22.1458a26–27: αἰνίγματός τε γὰρ ἰδέα αὕτη ἐστί, τὸ λέγοντα ὑπάρχοντα ἀδύνατα συνάψαι (for this is the nature of the riddle, to attach impossibilities to a description of real things). Trypho, Rhet. Gr. iii p. 193 Spengel: αἴνιγμά ἐστι φράσις ἐπιτετηδευμένη κακοσχόλως εἰς ἀσάφειαν ἀποκρύπτουσα τὸ νοούμενον, ἢ ἀδύνατόν τι καὶ ἀμήχανον παριστάνουσα (an ainigma is an utterance of a frivolous cast, which conceals its meaning for the sake of obscurity, or presents something impossible and inconceivable). On the distinction of the ainigma from other types of riddles see Konstantakos (2004, p. 120).
- 21.
Cf. Konstantakos (2005, p. 16).
- 22.
“τί δὲ ταῦθ’,” ὁ Κλέοδωρος εἶπε, “διαφέρει τῶν Εὐμήτιδος αἰνιγμάτων; ἃ ταύτην μὲν ἴσως οὐκ ἀπρεπές ἐστι παίζουσαν καὶ διαπλέκουσαν ὥσπερ ἕτεραι ζώνια καὶ κεκρυφάλους προβάλλειν ταῖς γυναιξίν, ἄνδρας δὲ νοῦν ἔχοντας ἔν τινι σπουδῇ τίθεσθαι γελοῖον.”
- 23.
On the notion of nonsense in classical sources see Kidd (2014, pp. 16–51). He discusses riddles as nonsense but restricts this notion as pertaining only to riddles without an answer. I think that all true riddles are temporarily nonsense until they make sense.
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Potamiti, A. (2021). The Riddles of Cleobulina: A Response to Mariana Gardella Hueso’s “Cleobulina of Rhodes and the Philosophical Power of Riddles”. In: Chouinard, I., McConaughey, Z., Medeiros Ramos, A., Noël, R. (eds) Women's Perspectives on Ancient and Medieval Philosophy. Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73190-8_4
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