Riddling Discourse and Construction of Knowledge in Ancient Greek Literature and Early Irish Saga: The Case of Ogam

Dr Federica Scicolone (King’s College London) Moore Visiting Fellow 2019

This talk will consider a widespread motif in archaic Greek poetry, the so-called ‘contest of wisdom’ between wise men, usually bards or poets (e.g. Calchas and Mopsus in fr. 278 M-W; the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi), in relation to the Hellenistic and later practice of ‘riddle’ funerary epigrams, from both literary and inscriptional contexts (AP 7.422 and 429; SGO 09/05/17): here the passer-by is challenged by the deceased to decode the symbols carved on the tombstone, and the resolution of the riddle depends entirely on the passer’s-by insight and sophia. The selected case studies will be compared with few references to Ogam enigmatic inscriptions in early Irish saga (e.g. the Táin, 220ff.; Tochmarc Étaíne §18; Sanas Cormaic §1018) in order to observe that, similarly as in the examined Greek texts, the use of Ogam in literary contexts may serve the purpose of testing the interlocutors (and, through them, the readers) and of initiating them into wisdom by means of riddling discourse.