Saturday, March 12, 2022 — All Greek To Me (NP 220312)

Introduction

Today's National Post Cryptic Crossword from Cox & Rathvon (NP 220312) is a bit of a crash course in Classics.

The puzzle will be posted on the blog next Saturday.

I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how you fared with the puzzle.

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Falcon's experience ┌────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┐ ███████████████████████████████████ └────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┘ Legend: █ - solved without assistance █ - incorrect prior to use of puzzle solving tools █ - solved with assistance from puzzle solving tools █ - solved with aid of checking letters provided by puzzle solving tools █ - solved but without fully parsing the clue █ - yet to be solved

Symbols and Markup Conventions
"*" - anagram "~" - sounds like "<" - indicates the preceding letters are reversed "( )" - encloses contained letters "_" - replaces letters that have been deleted  "†" - indicates that the word is present in the clue	"//" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when no link word or link phrase is present "/[link word or phrase]/" - marks the boundary between wordplay and definition when a link word or link phrase is present "solid underline" - precise definition "dotted underline" - cryptic definition "dashed underline" - wordplay "wavy underline" - whimsical and inferred definitions
Click here for further explanation and usage examples of the symbols and markup conventions used on this blog.

Across

1a	African giant boxes // old Greek (11)

HIPPO|CRATES — HIPPO (African giant) + CRATES (boxes)

Hippocrates^[5] (c.460–377 BC) was a Greek physician, traditionally regarded as the father of medicine. His name is associated with the medical profession's Hippocratic oath from his attachment to a body of ancient Greek medical writings, probably none of which was written by him.

9a	Norm even // celebrated (7)

PAR|TIED — PAR (norm) + TIED (even)

10a	Museum guides // make small change (7)

DO|CENTS — DO (make) + CENTS (small change)

11a	Old Greek // customer I’d set straight (10)

DEMOCRITUS* — anagram of (set straight) CUSTOMER ID

Democritus^[5] (c.460–c.370 BC) was a Greek philosopher. He developed the atomic theory originated by his teacher, Leucippus, which explained natural phenomena in terms of the arrangement and rearrangement of atoms moving in a void.

12a	Goodbye to any Italian // food for listeners (4)

CIAO~ — sounds like (for listeners) CHOW (food)

14a	Pierce’s new // cookbook directions (7)

RECIPES* — anagram of (new) PIERCES

16a	Be carried in explosive // sublaunched missile (7)

T(RIDE)NT — RIDE (be carried) contained in (in) TNT (explosive)

The Trident missile^[5,7] is a US design of long-range submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV). Trident missiles are carried by fourteen US Navy Ohio-class submarines, with US warheads, and four Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines, with British warheads. The missile is named after the mythological trident [three-pronged spear] of Neptune.

17a	What we have here before our group: // Greek hero (7)

THESE|US — THESE (what we have here) preceding (before) US (our group)

In Greek mythology, Theseus^[5] is the legendary hero of Athens, son of Poseidon (or, in another account, of Aegeus, king of Athens) and husband of Phaedra. He slew the Cretan Minotaur with the help of Ariadne.

19a	Confined // little bug in cap (7)

LI(MITE)D — MITE (little bug) contained in (in) LID (cap)

21a	One legislator’s // little demons (4)

I|MP|S — I ([Roman numeral] one) + MP (legislator; Member of Parliament) + S ('s)

22a	Wild men praised // old Greek (10)

PARMENIDES* — anagram of (wild) MEN PRAISED

Parmenides^[5] (fl. 5th century BC) was a Greek philosopher. Born in Elea in south-western Italy, he founded the Eleatic school of philosophers. In his work On Nature, written in hexameter verse, he maintained that the apparent motion and changing forms of the universe are in fact manifestations of an unchanging and indivisible reality.

25a	Tomato sauce // vessel facing the pitcher (7)

KETCH|UP — KETCH (vessel) + UP (facing the pitcher; in baseball, batting)

26a	Top-to-bottom // Pacino fanatic (7)

AL|LOVER — AL (Pacino; American actor Al Pacino^[7]) + LOVER (fanatic)

Spelling in Question?

In a comment on today's puzzle, Peter asks "is 26a a word?". The short answer seems to be 'yes'—provided you look in the "right" dictionary. Most dictionaries show the word as being spelled either all-over[1.2,3,4,5,10] as an adjective or all over[3,10,12,14,15] as an adverb meaning covering the  whole of something ⇒ she returned with an all-over tan. I found only one US dictionary spelling it as allover[12] in the sense of an adjective denoting over the whole surface (specifically as a separate entry from the textile-related usage described below). However, three US dictionaries list allover[11,12,15] as a textile-related term denoting, as an adjective, repeated over the entire surface, as a decorative pattern and, as a noun, a fabric with such a pattern.

27a	Xena in drama confounded // old Greek (11)

ANAXIMANDER* — anagram of (confounded) XENA IN DRAMA

Anaximander (c.610–c.545 BC) was a Greek scientist, who lived at Miletus. He believed the earth to be cylindrical and poised in space, and is reputed to have taught that life began in water and that humans originated from fish.

Scratching the Surface
Xena[7] is a fictional character who first appeared in the 1995–1999 television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before going on to appear in the Xena: Warrior Princess TV show and subsequent comic book of the same name.

Down

1d	Women // kept in church are miffed (5)

_H|ARE|M_ — hidden in (kept in) churcH ARE Miffed

2d	Rules // heads of schools pronounced (10)

PRINCIPLES~ — sounds like (pronounced) PRINCIPALS (heads of schools)

3d	Dorians breaking // rules (7)

ORDAINS* — anagram of (breaking) DORIANS

Scratching the Surface
The Dorians[5] were a Hellenic people speaking the Doric dialect of Greek, thought to have entered Greece from the north c.1100 BC. They settled in the Peloponnese and later colonized Sicily and southern Italy.

4d	Fortress // question again? (7)

REDOUBT — a double definition in which the second is a whimsical combining of a prefix denoting again and a synonym of "question" in the sense 'have misgivings'

5d	Sound of a beat // arachnid (4)

TICK — double definition; the first should be easy if one remembers that the heart is informally known as a 'ticker'

Post Mortem
How I failed to get this one straight away is an utter mystery to me.

6d	Emotion: // conveyed it about males (9)

SENT|I(MEN)T — SENT (conveyed) + IT (†) containing (about) MEN (males)

7d	Web crawler // goes down again, coming back (6)

SPIDER< — reversal of (coming back) REDIPS (goes down again)

Scratching the Surface
In reality, a web crawler[5] is a program that systematically accesses and collects information from web pages, navigating by following links from one web page to another.

8d	Accompany // Cortes travelling (6)

ESCORT* — anagram of (travelling) CORTES

Scratching the Surface
Hernando Cortés[5] (also Cortez) (1485–1547) was the first of the Spanish conquistadores. Cortés overthrew the Aztec empire, conquering its capital, Tenochtitlán, in 1519 and deposing the emperor, Montezuma. In 1521 he destroyed Tenochtitlán completely and established Mexico City as the new capital of Mexico (then called New Spain).

13d	In pieces, // like the Yankees without the Mick? (10)

DISMANTLED — double definition; the second (similar to 4d) being whimsical

Mickey Mantle^[7] (1931–1995), nicknamed The Mick, was an American professional baseball player who played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees as a center fielder, right fielder and first baseman, from 1951 through 1968. Mantle was one of the best players and sluggers, and is regarded by many as the greatest switch hitter in baseball history.

15d	Repackaged a parcel to // Egyptian queen (9)

CLEOPATRA* — anagram of (repackaged) A PARCEL TO

Cleopatra^[5] (also Cleopatra VII) (69-30 BC) was queen of Egypt 47-30 BC, the last Ptolemaic ruler. After a brief liaison with Julius Caesar she formed a political and romantic alliance with Mark Antony. Their ambitions ultimately brought them into conflict with Rome, and she and Antony were defeated at the battle of Actium in 31 BC. She is reputed to have committed suicide by allowing herself to be bitten by an asp.

17d	Robin known for singing // that’s awful included in article (6)

TH(ICK)E — ICK (that's awful) contained in (included in) THE ([definite] article)

Robin Thicke^[7] is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is the son of Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host Alan Thicke (1947–2016).

18d	Wrinkly-skinned dog // he pairs off (4-3)

{SHAR PEI}* — anagram of (off) HE PAIRS

The Shar Pei^[5] is a compact squarely built dog of a breed of Chinese origin, with a characteristic wrinkly skin and short bristly coat of a fawn, cream, black, or red colour.

19d	Greek character holding a // “forbidden dance” (7)

LAMB(A)DA — LAMBDA (Greek character; eleventh letter of the Greek alphabet) containing (holding) A (†)

The lambada^[5] is a fast erotic Brazilian dance which couples perform in close physical contact.

Delving Deeper

According to "Here Is the Wild as Hell Story Behind ‘Lambada,’ a Cultural Shift Forgotten in Time": "The dance [involves] squeezing bodies tightly, swinging hips in unison, and only separating for the women to perform spins to have their short skirts fly around; because of its sexual connotations, it was nicknamed (or marketed as) 'the forbidden dance'*.” * The Lambada was not the first Brazilian dance to be known as 'the forbidden dance'; this label had earlier been applied to both the Carimbó and the Maxixe, dances in which the Lambada has its roots.[7]  The term 'the forbidden dance' became ingrained in the public consciousness with the release of the 1990 movie (see below). The Lambada became a worldwide sensation following the 1989 release of the song "Lambada" by French-Brazilian pop group Kaoma. "To illustrate the massiveness of 'Lambada', two major Hollywood studios rushed to release movies based on the song. In March 1990, Lambada and The Forbidden Dance opened in theaters. Both are Dirty Dancing* knock-offs made on a low budget (and both lost money in the box office) made in order to seize the popularity of the song.". * Dirty Dancing[7] is a 1987 American romantic drama dance film starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze.

20d	Want // to get rid of Dad? (6)

DESIRE — a third double definition in which the second definition is whimsical

23d	First of developments above // British port (5)

D|OVER — D (first [letter] of Developments) + OVER (above)

Dover^[5] is a ferry port in Kent, England, on the coast of the English Channel. It is mainland Britain’s nearest point to the Continent, being only 35 km (22 miles) from Calais, France.

24d	Stop // question of identity before answer (4)

WHO|A — WHO (question of identity) preceding (before) A(nswer)

Epilogue

Today's puzzle features a cast of ancient Greeks—several of whom appear to be unfamiliar to many of us.

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References

Sources referenced in the blog are identified by the following symbols. The reference numbers themselves are hyperlinks to the entry in the source being referenced. Click on the number to view the source.

Key to Reference Sources: 

  ^[1]   - The Chambers Dictionary, 11th Edition

  ^[2]   - Search Chambers - (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary)

  ^[3]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (American Heritage Dictionary)

  ^[4]   - TheFreeDictionarycom (Collins English Dictionary)

  ^[5]   - Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online) (Oxford Dictionary of English)

  ^[6]   - Lexico (formerly Oxford Dictionaries Online) (Oxford Advanced American Dictionary)

  ^[7]   - Wikipedia

  ^[8]   - Reverso Online Dictionary (Collins French-English Dictionary)

  ^[9]   - Infoplease (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)

^[10]   - CollinsDictionary.com (Collins English Dictionary)

^[11]   - TheFreeDictionary.com (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)

^[12]   - CollinsDictionary.com (Webster’s New World College Dictionary)

^[13]   - MacmillanDictionary.com (Macmillan Dictionary)

^[14]   - CollinsDictionary.com (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary)

^[15]   - CollinsDictionary.com (Penguin Random House LLC/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd )

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Signing off for today — Falcon