38 REV. PROFESSOR D. S. MARGOLIOUTH, D.LITT., ON 



unable to read it without some rule ; and what is equally 

 desirable is some instruction from the author himself to look 

 for such puzzles in his works. For we have no wish to find in 

 them anything which he has not himself put there. 



The instruction and the rule which we seek are to be found 

 in the place where they should be sought, viz., in the line 

 which precedes the epilogue of four lines which closes the 

 Odyssey. The anagrammatic value of that line is an iambic 

 verse with part of another giving the sense* : Thou, who at 

 some time seekest the prayers of Homer and of the Iliad, find them 

 somehow. The language of this instruction is that plain Greek 

 which would have been understood at any time from Homer's 

 day to our own. 



The instruction gives us most of the guidance which we 

 require. What should surprise us is not the absence of the 

 Poet's name at the beginning and end of his works, but the 

 absence of prayers ; and indeed such a work ought to commence 

 with a prayer to Apollo, as we know on the authority of one 

 of the Homeric Hymns, which declares that it should end with 

 mention of this deity also. We cannot doubt that so pious a 

 poet would have regarded this as a matter of the utmost 

 importance. We are then told to look for the prayers and find 

 them. Probably they are in the form of anagrams, like the 

 instruction itself ; and probably they will be in iambic metre, 

 like that instruction. 



What the reader now has is the content of the puzzles — 

 prayers ; the nature of the puzzle, anagrams ; and the rule for 

 arranging the letters, viz., iambic metre. The seat of the 

 puzzles is doubtless the prologues and epilogues, which are 

 clearly marked off. It is left to him to discover the anagram- 

 unit, i.e., the number of vertical columns to be taken together, 

 and then to arrange the letters within those groups so as to 

 furnish iambic verses correct in grammar, metre and sense. If 

 this can be done, then the cryptic instruction and the cryptic 

 prayers will confirm each other ; corresponding as key and lock. 



The first of these puzzles is formed by the four lines which 

 immediately follow the instruction and constitute the epilogue 

 of the Odyssey. The anagram unit is four vertical columns, or 

 sixteen letters ; the result is as follows : — 



* MHIIQ2TOIKPONIAH2KEXOAG2ETAIEYPYOnAZEY2 

 OMHPOY KIAIAA02 ZHTQ IIOTE EYPI2KE 



EYXA2 



