paul fry says that a riddle is a kind of metaphor that are structured in this way: a=b, why? that's very neat, although i don't know i think that's exactly right. but: epithets are a sort of a=b formula too, aren't they? at least, that was what i was thinking about suddenly. because they are other-names, and in that way epithets are a kind of special identity riddle made up of someone's personal experiences. if this sounds farfetched, wait a little. see, one kind of riddle tale i keep coming across goes like this: the hero is required to come up with a riddle that can't be answered - either to save his neck, or to outdo a very clever person who knows it all. he does so by describing events that befall him on a journey as a riddle, which is of course unsolvable. these are what we might call unfair riddles, unfair in the way samson's riddle was, unfair in that you need access to special knowledge to get the answer. and so they make you feel dissatisfied. partly because you know they aren't real riddles, (like bilbo asking: what have i got in my pocket!) they're just personal experience condensed in cryptic language. but epithets are exactly that. they are names with a story. we say that dionysus the twice born, the indian, the offspring of two mothers, the loud one, the night-hallooed...and that's the a=b part. in the hobbit, when bilbo was hanging around the dragon smaug, he keeps evading the dragon by not giving his real name and coming up with riddling phrases based on his adventures to describe himself. i'm the barrel rider, the guest of the eagles, the one who makes up the lucky number, etc...to avoid revealing his a name, he gives the b names. and these b names are exactly like those "unfair" riddle tales...you have to have access to the knowledge of someone's story and history before you can make sense of his epithets, before you can solve those riddles. so if riddles are metaphors of the a=b, [why] sort, then epithets must be the kind that say: a=b, [because]. and the why and the because are two sides of the same idea. the epithet is the unasked question, and story is the undemanded answer. i better go ask nohrnberg.