the novel, to the embroidered message in Ethiopian hieroglyphs which Persinna exposed with her daughter and which remained unread until Kalasiris tracked her down in Delphi and deciph­ ered it: Above all, be sure to find among the treasures that I laid beside you a certain ring. Keep it by you always. It was a gift that your father gave me during our courtship, engraved all around with the royal crest and set with a pantar be jewel that endows it with holy, mystic powers. (4.8.7) These holy, mystic powers are unspecified.9 Nevertheless, the mere mention of them would lead a competent reader to surmise that the plot would exploit them sooner or later, and an exceptionally alert reader might beat the author to the connection in Book 8. It is not difficult to find other sections within the narrative of the Aithiopika which are constructed as riddles, a vital piece of information being kept back and then released as an answer. Two more examples can be mentioned briefly, both from the ninth book, whose military subject matter could easily lead to the false assumption that its narrative technique is simple. Oroondates is besieged by the Ethiopians in Syene. He parleys with them, and secures their permission to send two envoys to his troops at Elephantine, ostensibly to negotiate their surrender at the same time as his. His real motives are not divulged, nor are they when he makes an apparently impossible break-out and stealthily enters Elephantine by night (9.7ff.). The riddle set is: what is his plan?, and, as is by now familiar, the reader’s ignorance is produced by the exploitation of partial in-text viewpoints. In this case all Oroondates’ actions are described as seen by the Ethiopians with­ out authorial explanation. Some additional clues are given later in the narrative, but the full answer is withheld until the moment when the Persian army from Elephantine suddenly turns up with Oroondates at its head (9.13), at which point the omniscient nar­ rator intervenes to fill in the gaps he had left in his own narrative. There ensues a battle, in which the Persians have a seemingly decisive weapon, their armoured cavalry. A lengthy description stresses the totality of the protection of both rider and horse and the awesome power of their arms (9.15). Against them Hydaspes stations troops of the Blemmyes and Seres, two subject nations, with special instructions which are not communicated to the

DOI link for the novel, to the embroidered message in Ethiopian hieroglyphs which Persinna exposed with her daughter and which remained unread until Kalasiris tracked her down in Delphi and deciph­ ered it: Above all, be sure to find among the treasures that I laid beside you a certain ring. Keep it by you always. It was a gift that your father gave me during our courtship, engraved all around with the royal crest and set with a pantar be jewel that endows it with holy, mystic powers. (4.8.7) These holy, mystic powers are unspecified.9 Nevertheless, the mere mention of them would lead a competent reader to surmise that the plot would exploit them sooner or later, and an exceptionally alert reader might beat the author to the connection in Book 8. It is not difficult to find other sections within the narrative of the Aithiopika which are constructed as riddles, a vital piece of information being kept back and then released as an answer. Two more examples can be mentioned briefly, both from the ninth book, whose military subject matter could easily lead to the false assumption that its narrative technique is simple. Oroondates is besieged by the Ethiopians in Syene. He parleys with them, and secures their permission to send two envoys to his troops at Elephantine, ostensibly to negotiate their surrender at the same time as his. His real motives are not divulged, nor are they when he makes an apparently impossible break-out and stealthily enters Elephantine by night (9.7ff.). The riddle set is: what is his plan?, and, as is by now familiar, the reader’s ignorance is produced by the exploitation of partial in-text viewpoints. In this case all Oroondates’ actions are described as seen by the Ethiopians with­ out authorial explanation. Some additional clues are given later in the narrative, but the full answer is withheld until the moment when the Persian army from Elephantine suddenly turns up with Oroondates at its head (9.13), at which point the omniscient nar­ rator intervenes to fill in the gaps he had left in his own narrative. There ensues a battle, in which the Persians have a seemingly decisive weapon, their armoured cavalry. A lengthy description stresses the totality of the protection of both rider and horse and the awesome power of their arms (9.15). Against them Hydaspes stations troops of the Blemmyes and Seres, two subject nations, with special instructions which are not communicated to the

the novel, to the embroidered message in Ethiopian hieroglyphs which Persinna exposed with her daughter and which remained unread until Kalasiris tracked her down in Delphi and deciph­ ered it: Above all, be sure to find among the treasures that I laid beside you a certain ring. Keep it by you always. It was a gift that your father gave me during our courtship, engraved all around with the royal crest and set with a pantar be jewel that endows it with holy, mystic powers. (4.8.7) These holy, mystic powers are unspecified.9 Nevertheless, the mere mention of them would lead a competent reader to surmise that the plot would exploit them sooner or later, and an exceptionally alert reader might beat the author to the connection in Book 8. It is not difficult to find other sections within the narrative of the Aithiopika which are constructed as riddles, a vital piece of information being kept back and then released as an answer. Two more examples can be mentioned briefly, both from the ninth book, whose military subject matter could easily lead to the false assumption that its narrative technique is simple. Oroondates is besieged by the Ethiopians in Syene. He parleys with them, and secures their permission to send two envoys to his troops at Elephantine, ostensibly to negotiate their surrender at the same time as his. His real motives are not divulged, nor are they when he makes an apparently impossible break-out and stealthily enters Elephantine by night (9.7ff.). The riddle set is: what is his plan?, and, as is by now familiar, the reader’s ignorance is produced by the exploitation of partial in-text viewpoints. In this case all Oroondates’ actions are described as seen by the Ethiopians with­ out authorial explanation. Some additional clues are given later in the narrative, but the full answer is withheld until the moment when the Persian army from Elephantine suddenly turns up with Oroondates at its head (9.13), at which point the omniscient nar­ rator intervenes to fill in the gaps he had left in his own narrative. There ensues a battle, in which the Persians have a seemingly decisive weapon, their armoured cavalry. A lengthy description stresses the totality of the protection of both rider and horse and the awesome power of their arms (9.15). Against them Hydaspes stations troops of the Blemmyes and Seres, two subject nations, with special instructions which are not communicated to the