Guardian Cryptic 27,060 by Crucible

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27060.

A delightful puzzle with two genuine &lit clues, and a pervasive theme of The Classics, Greek and Roman (with that little side trip to the British Isles, although Julius Caesar did not explicitly mention the Iceni). Many thanks to Crucible. I would hazard a guess that Eileen regrets missing this by a day.

Across
1 BRITON Citizen‘s cross leaving prison (6)
A subtraction: BRI[x]TON (‘prison’) minus the X (‘cross leaving’). Like it or not (and probably not if you live there), the London district of Brixton is best known for its prison.
4 CICERO Orator condemned coercion on being rejected (6)
An anagram (‘condemned’) of ‘coerci[on]’ minus ON (‘on being rejected’).
9 OGEE Regular sections of toughened moulding (4)
Alternate letters (‘regular sections’) of ‘tOuGhEnEd’.
10 FLEUR-DE-LYS Forsyte heroine puts off cutting out article for Iris (5-2-3)
A charade of FLEUR (‘Forsyte heroine’) plus DEL[a]YS (‘puts off’) minus the A (‘cutting out article’).
11 SATIRE Scot’s cross, forgetting large work by Martial (6)
A subtraction: SA[l]TIRE (‘Scot’s cross’) minus L (‘forgetting large’).
12 ANEURYSM Army’s misled about new German vessel’s flaw (8)
An envelope (‘about’) of NEU (‘new German’) in ARYSM, an anagram (‘misled’) of ‘army’s’; the ‘vessel’ carrying blood.
13 AGAMEMNON A brave chap gutted about old Greek commander (9)
A charade of ‘a’ plus GAME (‘brave’) plus M[a]N (‘chap’) minus its middle letter (‘gutted’) plus ON (‘about’).
15 STAY Guy, for one, saves time (4)
An envelope (‘saves’) of T (‘time’) in SAY (‘for one’).
16 MENU Violinist’s first quartet offers list of options (4)
The leading four letters (‘first quartet’) of MENU[hin] (Yehudi, ‘violinist’).
17 APHRODITE Kinky top, say, and liquid diet for goddess (9)
A charade of APHRO, sounding like (‘say’) AFRO (‘kinky top’), plus DITE, an anagram (‘liquid’) of ‘diet’.
21 GRAFFITO Try collecting flyers suitable for Banksy work? (8)
An envelope (‘collecting’) of RAF (Royal Air Force, ‘flyers’) plus FIT (‘suitable’) in GO (‘try’).
22 HORACE Poet reverses vehicle into garden (6)
An envelope (‘into’) of RAC, a reversal (‘reverses’) of CAR (‘vehicle’) in HOE (‘garden’, verb).
24 CASSIOPEIA CIA spies trained to guard old American stars (10)
An envelope (‘to guard’) of O (‘old’) in CASSIPEI, an anagram (‘trained’) of ‘CIA spies’; plus A (‘American’).
25 CATO Censor and tenacious orator originally (4)
Initial letters (‘originally’) of ‘Censor And Tenacious Orator’, &lit.
26 SWOONS Passes out note in special courts (6)
An envelope (‘in) of N (‘note’) in S (‘special’) plus WOOS (‘courts’).
27 ADONIS Lover of 17 lives next door to a lecturer (6)
A charade of A DON (‘a lecturer’) plus IS (‘lives’), with ‘next door’ indicating the order of the particles.
Down
1 BIG BANG Successful fringe the start of our expansion? (3,4)
Definition and literal interpretation.
2 ICENI Twice nightly? That’s more than enough for old people (5)
A hidden answer (‘that’s more than enough’) in ‘twICE NIghtly’. The Iceni were a tribe in East Anglia; Boudica (Boadicea) was their best known leader.
3 OFF BEAM Heading the wrong way? Kill headlight (3,4)
Definition and literal interpretation (OFF, verb, to kill).
5 ISRAEL One king’s revolting state (6)
A charade of I (‘one’) plus SRAEL, a reversal (‘revolting’) of LEAR’S (‘king’s’).
6 EXECRATED Former journalist covering case couldn’t stand (9)
An envelope (‘covering’) of CRATE (‘case’) on EX ED (‘former journalist’).
7 ODYSSEY Poem about Ulysses essentially at end of Troy (7)
An envelope (‘about’) of YSS (‘UlYSSes essentially’) in ODE (‘poem’) plus Y (‘end of TroY‘). A true &lit.
8 METAMORPHOSES Prophet grasping complex metaphor is transformed (13)
An envelope (‘grasping’) of ETAMORPH, an anagram (‘complex’) of ‘metaphor’ in MOSES (‘prophet’). Note that the definition includes ‘is’ to give the right tense.
14 MANIFESTO Obvious hole in mission statement (9)
A charade of MANIFEST (‘obvious’) plus O (‘hole’).
16 MYRIADS Bunch of careless dairymaids knocked over lots (7)
An anagram (‘knocked over’) of ‘dairym[aid]s’ minus AID (‘careless’).
18 REHEARD Man coming in behind Democrat tried again (7)
An envelope (‘coming in’) of HE (‘man’) in REAR (‘behind’) plus D (‘Democrat’).
19 TACITUS Historian of The Quiet American? (7)
A charade of TACIT (‘quiet’) plus US (‘American’).
20 MINOAN Citizen of Crete and other island bans Catholic (6)
A subtraction: MINO[rc]AN (‘citizen of … another island’, except the ‘and’ excuses ‘citizen’ from double duty) minus RC (Roman ‘Catholic’).
23 RICIN Banks avoid costing toxic compound (5)
A subtraction: [p]RICIN[g] (‘costing’) minus its outer letters (‘banks avoid’).
completed grid

58 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,060 by Crucible”

  1. I liked this a lot! A great theme that took me back to university days studying Classics … as part of a Commerce degree!

    In MYRIADS I thought that “bunch of” was the first definition, with “lots” as the second definition and the bit in the middle the wordplay?

    I wasn’t convinced by hoe = garden in HORACE but the answer fell easily enough so I guess that makes it fair.

  2. This was fun and not too tough, even though my knowledge of Classics is pretty rudimentary. I liked the &lits as well as the surface of 2, BIG BANG and the ‘vessel’s flaw’ in 12. My parsing of 16 d was [CARELES]S DAIRYM[AIDS] reversed or ‘knocked over’.

    Thanks to PeterO and Crucible.

  3. Thanks for the blog, PeterO! Your guess is quite correct, of course, but you made such a great job of it – and obviously enjoyed it – that I couldn’t possibly begrudge it. [And I did land Crucible’s last Latin-based puzzle a couple of weeks ago.]

    When I couldn’t get back to sleep in the early hours, I thought I’d have a quick look to see what the puzzle was and immediately got totally absorbed. Sheer delight from start to finish – practically every clue a real gem [two great &lits], with many a smile along the way [kinky top, clumsy dairymaids, vessel’s flaw, The Quiet American…] and evocative references to The Forsyte Saga and Yehudi Menuhin. A real classic. đŸ˜‰

    Huge thanks to Crucible for a lovely start to the day.

  6. Thanks, PeterO.

    That was fun. I had trouble with AGAMAMNON. Got A GAME M[a]N all right, but thought “about old” meant “enclosing O,” which left me an N short.

    Don’t think I’ve encountered bang (singular) for fringe, but Chambers says “often in pl.”

    I agree with WordPlodder @2 re the carelesS DAIRYMaids.

  7. Thanks Crucible and PeterO

    I have often seen comments that crosswords are biased towards classical knowledge, and this one had it in spades (though there was the token BIG BANG for the scientists). However I seem to have picked up enough on the way for this not to be too much of a challenge. I didn’t parse AGAMEMNON, though. I thought the clue for ODYSSEUS was one of the best I’ve seen for some time.

    I raised an eyebrow at FLEUR-DE-LYS (FOI) being defined as “iris”, as I thought they were lilies. Wikipedia agrees with me, but insists on the spelling “lis”; Chambers supports Crucible, though.

    Using “metaphor” in 8d is a bit unfortunate as the solution also starts “meta”.

  9. A great puzzle with much to enjoy. 8d gave me the most pause for thought as I missed the significance of the “is” and had forgotten that Moses was a prophet as well as a leader.

    Many thanks to Crucible and PeterO.

  10. MYRIAD can also mean (I learn): (chiefly in classical history) a unit of ten thousand (eg soldiers), which continues the classical theme.

    But I was disappointed in this puzzle. For me, nearly every clue was a write-in from the definition. I completed it in a near record time and more quickly than I took to finish off the much-maligned Rufus yesterday.

  11. cholecyst @ 10 I’m guessing must have had a classics education. For me, it was some (dim) echo of ages past. Sympathetic to the (mild) bile.
    Agree with muffin @ 7 re the meta thingies in 8d. My faves same as Eileen’s.

  12. Well I certainly didn’t find this as easy as cholecyst @10 whose comment is directly above me as I type. Very humbling!

    I’m no classicist but, fortunately, none of the answers here were unknown to me. Some superb clues in here – CICERO, ANEURYSM, APHRODITE, GRAFFITO (I’ve never encountered the singular before), ODYSSEY, TACITUS, RICIN all get ticks from me. COTD shared between two brilliant lurkers – ICENI which I considered sublime and MYRIADS which defeated me and was a real ‘doh’ moment when I gave in and pressed ‘reveal’.

    Thanks to Crucible for a splendid puzzle and to PeterO for the review.

  13. Thank you, PeterO.

    Tackled this through insomnia in the wee smalls and found it nearer the easy end of Crucible’s spectrum but no less delightful for that.

    For once, saw the theme early and that probably helped.

    Felt the METAMORPHOSES clue a little telegraphed with the rather glaring and similar-sounding anagram but the rest were very classy {sic}.

    Other than the splendid &lits, my favourites were UNHEARD & ICENI.

    Bravo, Crucible, many thanks.

    Nice week, all.

  15. Thanks Crucible and PeterO.

    Well, it was a classic but thankfully most of the references were not too obscure. ODYSSEY was a bit of a write-in but nice clue, nevertheless.

    I also liked Bansky’s work.

  16. Yes, a good puzzle. Despite being one of those who occasionally grumbles about arts bias in crosswords, I liked this. It seems that, when pushed, I can dredge up some knowledge of the classics. Lots of neat clues but not too clever clever. Favourite was ODYSSEY.

    Thanks to Crucible and PeterO.

  17. Thanks Crucible and PeterO

    Interesting that there seem to be two possible parsings of 16D, though I do think the reversed embed is the more likely. In the other version, it seems to me that ‘Bunch of’ serves no purpose: just ‘Careless dairymaids knocked over lots’ would give the anagram version adequately.

  19. Going back to MYRIAD, I’m never quite sure of the correct way to use it. Which is better; “He gazed at the myriad twinkling lights of the city at night” or “He gazed at the myriads of twinkling lights of the city at night”. The first sounds better but I don’t know why.

  20. William @19
    Interesting question. I feel that, as “myriad” already indicates “lots”, making it a plural would imply something more. I’ve tried to find a parallel – “he chose from the multiple candidates” is slightly different from “he chose from the multiples of candidates”.

  21. what a nice puzzle! As a former Classics student (long time ago!) it held special appeal and as a Scot I enjoyed SALTIRE. MYRIADS was a real gem and brought a smile to my generally serious “crossword” face. Two solutions were new to me – CASSIOPEIA and GRAFFITO – so a bit of extra knowledge too.

  22. Thanks to Crucible and PeterO.

    Enjoyed this, but needed help parsing RICIN and REHEARD (inexplicably now that I look at it properly – definitely getting lazy).

    On MYRIADS (my favourite among many) I always understood that, as cholecyst@10 points out, the word represents a particular number and should be treated accordingly – as one might treat the word “thousand”; so you can have a myriad stars or myriads of stars (a thousands stars, thousands of stars) but not a myriad of stars (a thousand of stars). So both of William@19’s examples are acceptable. This information carries a health warning however, since it can lead to a bad case of pedant’s knee-jerk when listening to e.g. politicians expounding on the myriad of reasons why they are right/ someone else is wrong. Thankfully not yet as all-pervading as “excetera”, but getting up there.

  23. An excellent and very enjoyable puzzle. ODYSSEY was great (if very gettable!). Thanks PeterO for explaining that the definition of METAMORPHOSES includes the “is” – that had been puzzling me.

    On the question of “a myriad” and “myriads”, I don’t think that in modern usage the latter normally implies more. Rather like “a lot of people” and “lots of people”.

  24. Thank you Crucible and PeterO.

    What a lovely crossword, I see it was so tempting that Eileen could not leave it unsolved until breakfast time.

    I have never studied “classics” as such, but all the names came to my mind, I also remembered OGEE from a recent puzzle, but ICENI was new or forgotten.

    MYRIADS was fun, I agree with Simon S @17 as regards “Bunch”. Too many other super clues to list.

  25. Like almost everyone else I thought this was a fantastic puzzle. At first glance it looked pretty impenetrable, but I gradually worked my way through. Favourites among others were APHRODITE, GRAFFITO, REHEARD and ODYSSEY. Couldn’t parse MENU – thanks to PeterO, and to Crucible who has received much kudos* (an appropriate word in the circumstances) above!

    * I’m not so taken by its modern American usage, e.g. “kudos to everyone who put the event together”. Yuk.

  26. A chance for the accountants among us to thump their desks in frustration … re 23d – costing and pricing are two different activities; working out how much something was to acquire/make and deciding how much you are going to sell it for.

  27. Muffin @20 Many thanks, good answer.

    Your comment galvanised me to look the thing up and, surprisingly I thought, Chambers also offers myriadth for ten-thousandth, as in “Epsilon Indi was the myriadth star to be identified and named”.

  29. Van Winkle @26 Courageous of you to admit to being an accountant. I agree with your point completely. On first reading the clue, I did actually check there wasn’t a toxin called ‘ostin’ – which immediately led my mind to ‘ricin’ and then back to ‘pricing’. Even then, I wasn’t sure – because costing doesn’t mean pricing, as you say – so was delighted when ‘Horace” gave me the cross checker I needed.

  30. Thanks both,

    A very nice puzzle, but I can’t help but agree with Van Winkle @26. Accounting academics like me are at great pains to teach our students that calculating a cost for something is a different process from deciding how much to ask for it.

  31. Van Winkle @26 Quite right – it’s about time you financial chaps had the opportunity for a little rant. Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers have the chance almost daily if we choose to exercise the right.

  32. Quite enjoyed this, my threadbare knowledge of the classics was not seriously exposed. There did seem to be a lot of subtraction involved. REHEARD was last in

    Thanks to Crucible and PeterO

  33. Thanks to Crucible and PeterO. Very enjoyable. I was slowed down by having difficulty spelling CASSIOPEIA and took a while before seeing EXECRATED and BIG BANG. After getting ADONIS I went looking for Venus (as in Shakespeare’s poem) but found APHRODITE instead. Lots of clever cluing.

  34. I wondered if Aphrodite, Adonis, Agamemnon, Cassiopeia and Metamorphoses constituted a mini-theme. I don’t know my Ovid as well as I should…

  35. I hadn’t the Forsyte to see FLEUR as the first part of 10a, so tried to wedge in IRENE. Needless to say, I got nowhere.

    I’m less bothered by GRAFITTO — it’s what I would say if I were talking about just one of them — than I am by “bang.” Can you get your hair cut in a bang? Biscotto, anyone? (Don’t get me started on pasta.

    I’ve come across many fulminations on the use of “myriad” as a noun, especially in the plural, but being unable to find my Fowler I looked online to get the real story. He gives “myriads of stars”, “a myriad of stars”, “myriad stars” and “a myriad stars”(!) as all acceptable and centuries old, with the first two dating form 1555 and 1609 respectively and the last two from 1735. And now “myriadth” is really a new one on me!

  36. Valentine @ 35 Lifted straight from Wikipedia I’m afraid: “Bangs, also known, outside North America, as a fringe, is a shaped cutting of the front part of the hair so that it lies over the forehead. Bangs are usually cut fairly straight at or above the eyebrows, but can also be ragged or ruffled, spiked up with hair gel, mousse or wax, swept to one side or the other, or cut longer to fall over the eyes.”

    It’s been over 30 years since I had hair that got anywhere near my forehead, let alone my eyes, so it’s not something with which I am personally familiar!

  37. Can’t add anything to what’s already been said. Tough to start with,then a great lunchtime solve. Thanks to Crucible,one of our favourites, and everyone else.

  38. I found this pretty straightforward but, as most of you have said, delightful too – an enjoyable solving experience.

    Other commenters have already pointed out the ‘telegraphing’ of the answer to 8d (METAMORPHOSES) by ‘metaphor’ (very much like ‘metamorph’) in the clue. I also thought 7d ODYSSEY was telegraphed by ‘Ulysses’ in the clue (Ulysses being equivalent to Odysseus).

    I didn’t see how 23d RICIN worked at the time I filled it in, but I see it now and understand the point well made about pricing vs. costing.

    Thanks to Crucible and PeterO.

  39. I really enjoyed this. Just the right level for me today. I suppose a specialist might have found it too easy but for someone with general knowledge-like me- this was fine. I couldn’t parse RICIN but it had to be right and was LOI.
    Thanks Crucible.

    P.S. A word of appreciation for the recent Philistine prize puzzle which I finally got to yesterday afternoon. Great stuff!

  42. Late to the party, with little to add. Didn’t know the violinist, but MENU could hardly have been anything else. Similarly, I have not read the Forsyte Saga (I do own a copy; it’s on a shelf patiently waiting its turn), but given the enumeration and the rest of the clue, FLEUR-DE-LYS went in easily.

    This is the right sort of theme puzzle, in a way. Your knowledge of the subject need not be either terribly broad or terribly deep, and it’s something that almost all of us have been exposed to. (With the reasonably assumptions that almost all of us were raised in the West, finished at least an undergraduate degree, and have a certain level of nerdiness.)

  44. Mark @36 I have been calling a fringe bangs all my life, long before I found out that some people say fringe. It’s not the word it’s the singular I object to. I have never heard it called a bang.

  45. RICIN is not a compound, it’s a protein. I have solved it’s 3D structure.

    I finished this puzzle, but the over-reliance on general knowledge turns me off. I can’t see a theme as suggested, but that is fine.

    Pity I thought that essential in Ulysses wasn’t centred – I like essential to mean the exact centre. Another indicator would have been better

    Many thanks crucible and PeterO

  51. Valentine @44. If you’ll accept Chambers as a source, the second definition given for bang is “n. a fringe, hair cut straight across the brow (often in pl.)”

  53. Another very fine (and not too difficult) crossword from Crucible.
    Right from the start we were sure that this was one 100% up Eileen’s street.

    Really good was that the Roman/Greek names included were rather familiar ones, thus giving a fair opportunity to finish the puzzle to those solvers not so well up with their classics.

    The only clue we found (and still find) a bit problematic was 8d.
    The use of ‘metaphor’ almost gave away the solution but that’s not the point.
    For us, ‘metamorphoses’ (as a verb) does not equate ‘is transformed’.
    The former indicates the process of becoming transformed, the latter does not (it states the end result).
    Unless we’re missing something.

    Nevertheless, nice crossword.
    For which thanks to Crucible.
    Also thanks to PeterO, of course.

  54. Sil @53
    You make a good point concerning ‘metamorphoses’. Collins dictionary indicates that both ‘metamorphose’ and ‘transform’ can be either transitive or intransitive, so that the verb forms ‘metamorphoses’, is metamorphosed’, ‘transforms’ and ‘is transformed’ can be interchangeable (assuming you are happy that the meanings of the two root words are the same).
    This made me pause when I first solved the clue, but I decided for myself it was ok.

  55. Many thanks to all of the contributors to this page. It has been a godsend to this exile in his garret in Sardegna.
    You have all explained everything that I needed clarifying.
    But something was not mentioned today. I think I managed to fail ‘O’ level divinity but, concerning the clue 5 down,1 Kings, Chapter 12, Verse 19 reads “So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.”
    I am sure this can’t have escaped Crucible’s attention.

  56. il Principe… @55
    What an amazing observation! I think it likely that this did escape the setter’s attention, but if it was intended that makes this already elegant clue a gem.

  57. I don’t suppose anyone will read this, which I thought I’d posted before, but I wanted to say I enjoyed the surface of 24a, “CIA spies trained to guard old American stars.” I loved the picture of Hollywood has-beens being needing secret guards because of their imagined attractiveness as targets.

Comments are closed.