Abstract

‘…as the name of the second letter of the alphabet beta is curtailed to be. This could be expressed by substituting quod for sed: “What I am in Latin when incomplete, I am called in Greek complete.”’ So most recently Shackleton Bailey. Read rather the verse aloud to solve the riddle, tota heard as Greek would be τωτα, i.e. τ τα : My name is whole in Greek, but I am not whole in Latin. The strained use of the instrumental dative τ τα would be objectionable, were the poet writing continuous Greek as such. But as a pun concealed within the Latin word tota, this secondary meaning and construction should be tolerated. The conceit is in fact rather clever. What are the chances of tota admitting so apt a sense, when heard as Greek, as a result of coincidence alone and not design?