... signals.1.1
Albeit with limited efficacy when faced with some kinds of hard encryption. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... music.1.2
I am told that J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations is the canonical example of such music. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... six.1.3
The first story is produced by applying the first key to the raw text, the second by applying the second key to the indecipherable part of the results of the first decoding, and so on. In this way the chapters of the Lost Books have a natural ordering. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... expected,1.4
By most estimates, the Trojan War took place around 1200 B.C. and Homer wrote his epics around 800 B.C. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Odysseus,1.5
See my 1997 article in Hellenica for a thorough discussion of this and associated problems. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... activity.1.6
For a comprehensive review, see the special issue of The International Journal of Combinatorics (May 1999) dedicated to the topic. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... man,3.1
Tales of lycanthropy are common among the Pelasgians, the pre-Aryan inhabitants of Greece. Their version of the disease was a sort of royal malady, far from benign but a certain sign of divine descent and the right to rule. The reference to the self-cutting with the knife is obscure--possibly it has to do with the mystery cults whose celebrants were said to be able to pierce their skins but shed no blood. Another interpretation is that the grandfather is cutting away his humanity to reveal the animal within. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Briseis8.1
A slave girl, the captive of his spear, of whom Achilles was fond. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... sea.10.1
These two sentences gloss over most of the events of the middle books of the traditional Odyssey. The author evidently expects the audience to be familiar with the story. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... you?10.2
Odysseus did not want to leave Ithaca to fight at Troy, so he feigned madness in hopes that Agamemnon would go away. Palamedes defeated his ruse by threatening the infant Telemachos with a sword --Odysseus moved to defend his son and thereby revealed his rationality. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Autolykos.11.1
The name Autolykos is usually translated The Wolf Himself. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Hera11.2
Hera, the wife of Zeus, was the goddess of marriage and always invoked at weddings. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... floor.12.1
It was a little more than ten years after leaving Ithaca that Odysseus encountered the cyclops Polyphemus and as a ruse de guerre said his name was Noman. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... cyclops,14.1
There was a race of cyclopes but one of them, Polyphemus, was the son of the sea god Poseidon. In the traditional version of the Odysseus, Odysseus blinds Polyphemus and thereby incurs Poseidon's hatred. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Laertides14.2
Laertides is Odysseus's patronymic. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Syros.16.1
An island in the Aegean sea. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Paris16.2
Helen's husband and kidnaper, the instigator of the Trojan War. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... city.18.1
Presumably the author means that Priam could have saved his city by violating guest friendship and giving up Paris to the Achaeans. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... dreaming.18.2
This is identical with the text of the sirens' song from Book Twelve of the standard Odyssey. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Coprophagoi,19.1
Excrement eaters. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Aiaia20.1
Circe's island. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... island20.2
On Apollo's island were his sacred cattle who were immortal, or at any rate ageless, and which he prized highly. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Quickness21.1
In the eighteenth century B.C. there was a thriving cult of the goddess Quickness, known for virginity, quick thinking, harsh laughter and an association with owls. Her particular enemy was Death, with whom she had fought a number of inconclusive wars, her object in which seems to have been eradicating his kingdom and ushering in an era of immortality. Her cult was immensely popular but such was the ruggedness of montane Greece that it soon speciated into a dozen sub-generae. By the twelfth century B.C. her incarnation as Pallas Athena had displaced all others and is now remembered to the exclusion of her sisters. Quickness was a more lively goddess than Athena, open to human sacrifice and, in contrast with her sister, as much a user and a predator as a lover of heroes. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... twenty21.2
At the time, Achaean men would marry around fifteen and Achaean women around twelve, so this would be well into his married life. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... wife.21.3
Upon returning from the Trojan war Agamemnon was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... on.22.1
Made clear in only a few fragments of the surviving Homeric material is that Helen, though mortal, was more god than not. The ichor of her father Zeus bred truer in her than in any of his many other mortal scions and in consequence of her fractional god-head no mortal man could bear to look at her as she was without being burned away. Zeus took pity on her (and perhaps on the Achaeans) and hid her behind a veil that occluded most of her nature--anyone looking at her would see the epigone of feminine beauty as they conceived it, and almost nothing of who she really was (in so far as she was anyone at all). This characterization of Helen as a potent numen rather than a mortal woman of extreme beauty survives only in the apocrypha of the Odyssey, one of Hesiod's hymns and one problematic allusion in Aristolochus. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... wings.22.2
It is interesting to note that Odysseus's description of Helen consists mostly of attributes characteristic of Pallas Athena. Mentor was one of Athena's preferred manifestations--one wonders whether she were aware of what Odysseus saw and whether even her fortress-like heart was moved a little. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
...Pale23.1
There is a tradition, albeit present in only a few fragmentary sources, that Odysseus's son Telemachus was pale to the point of albinism. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... itself.29.1
The narrator of this story is apparently Eumaios, the swineherd who sheltered Odysseus when he first returned to Ithaca and later helped him kill the suitors. It seems likely that Eumaios is telling his story to Odysseus on the night before the battle. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... murex,29.2
The Tyrians were famous for the dye they extracted from the red murex, a kind of marine snail. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Thetis31.1
Thetis's only child was Achilles. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... time.32.1
In the standard Odyssey, Athena did not speak to Odysseus between his departure from Troy and his arrival back on Ithaca. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... youth.32.2
This idiosyncratic and oddly personal interjection is the only one of its kind in the Lost Books. Otherwise, the narrator does not offer direct commentary in those stories told in the third person. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Hermes33.1
Lord of snakes and god of ghosts, Hermes was the psychopompos, the god who conducted newly dead souls to the underworld. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... corral.36.1
This is where the maids who lay with the suitors were hung to death by Odysseus, Eumaios and Telemachus after the slaughter of the suitors in the standard version of the Odyssey. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... wetness.37.1
The Odysseus cycle came to China along the Silk Road during the warring states period. This chapter incorporates many elements of the oriental offshoot of the Odyssey--although it uses the terms `Greek' and `Trojan' the setting is evidently far to the east of Asia Minor.

In the Chinese Odyssey the protagonist's name is Tsien Su, which is written with characters that can be interpreted both as ``Many Sufferings" and ``Hated by the Sea". He is the prince of the rugged island Han Chi, a place bordering faerie-land of no particular latitude and longitude. Like Odysseus, Tsien Su was recruited for a distant war in which he had no personal interest. His faction's enemy was the Kingdom Yu, whose King had absconded with the wife of his one time friend, the King of San. In the majority of the surviving variations, Tsien Su is a warrior famous for intelligence--he used war kites to send spies (expendable commoners) up to scout out enemy formations, and finally broke the capital city of Yu by giving them an exquisite twenty foot high blue porcelain horse which was, as the Yus learned, filled with gunpowder. In some versions, Tsien Su has metamorphosed into a sort of holy fool, whose innocence and compassion get him into trouble and then out again. 

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... soldier.37.2
The term Odysseus uses to describe himself is in some respects closer to knight than soldier. Essentially, he is a gentleman-fighter trained in the martial arts and able to provide his own armament, including body armor, sword and bow. This class of fighter was unlike knights in so far as there was no notion of chivalry and, in general, not the slightest romanticism about military service--Chinese society did not honor warriors. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Swords37.3
Inari, god of rice and sword-smithing, was the master of fox-spirits, who were, originally, his messengers. An oath made by a fox-spirit on Inari's name was generally regarded as binding. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... horse-cutters,37.4
The horse-cutter is a weapon with no near western equivalent. It was essentially a pole-arm with a wide, curved blade. It was named for its usefulness in cutting through the legs of cavalry horses but could also do great harm to foot soldiers. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... household,39.1
Recall that Odysseus returned to his house posing as a beggar in order to spy out the situation, which in the event was dire--fifty suitors sought his wife and his possessions. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... strung39.2
With the connivance of his son Telemachos, Odysseus had the suitors try to string his, Odysseus's, massive bronze bow. As a joke the suitors gave the beggar a try, and were soon undone. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Pasiphae40.1
Pasiphae was Minos's wife. She had offended the goddess Hera, who punished her with a great passion for a sacred white bull. Daedalus built a sort of hollow cow simulacrum for her, with which she was able to consummate her desire. The issue of that union was the Minotaur, a cannibalistic monster half man and half bull. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... watch.40.2
A reference to Argos, a thousand eyed giant employed by Hera as the guardian of a grove of golden apples. His eyes slept independently--no matter the time of day or night, hundreds would be awake and looking in any given direction. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... patricide.40.3
Aegeus, his father, had told the ship's crew to hoist white sails if Theseus lived and black if he had perished. When he saw his son's black-sailed ship sailing toward Athens he flung himself from the Acropolis in despair. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Concealer40.4
Recall that the Greek word for concealer is `Calypso.' 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... O42.1
The decoded text for this chapter omits Odysseus's name, providing instead what is, most probably, the uninflected masculine honorific followed by the letter Omega. ``Mr. O'' is a reasonably close rendering thereof. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... dinner.42.2
Around the first millennium B.C. the greatest centers of medical learning in the Greek world were the temples of Aesculapius in the Cycladic archipelago. These temples were, in effect, hospitals. At the top of the temple hierarchy were the doctors, of whom each temple had only a few. They were believed to have the ear of the god and supernatural powers of healing. Access to them was carefully restricted--the sick might have to wait in the temple a year and slaughter a hecatomb of livestock before being granted an appointment. Whether this was due to the number of patients, demanding religious practices or a stage-craft of self importance is not entirely evident from the textual and archaeological records.

The nursing at the temple was carried out by women serving two year terms in the service of the god. Many women joined after their husbands died. Though they were not exactly nuns, they were celibate for the term of their service and lived an essentially monastic life. 

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... abbes43.1
Abbes were a sort of domestic cleric present in many ancien regime aristocratic households. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... zweihanders,43.2
A zweihander is a massive sword that required two hands to wield. According to the extant manuals, it was a difficult weapon to master and its professional exponents earned as much as fifty percent more than ordinary pike or sword-and-buckler soldiers. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... enemy.43.3
This chapter is clearly a late addition to the Lost Books. The language is credible Homeric Greek but the contents are, at the earliest, late Renaissance and the tone is more scholarly than narrative.

The text of this chapter is the most corrupt of any of the Lost Books. There are long sequences of uninterpretible triplets that are, most probably, due to errors in encoding. I have therefore been obliged to use greater license in this chapter's translation. 

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... ships43.4
The catalog of ships is a book in the Iliad which consists almost entirely of a list of which cities sent how many ships to Troy. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... temple,44.1
The fourth Nile Dynasty of Egypt had an expansionary phase in pre-Classical times and planted colonies on many islands in the Mediterranean. These flourished briefly but ultimately withered due to a lack of support from Egypt, which was wracked by a sequence of civil wars. By the time of the Trojan War only ruins and the occasional place-name survived. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... ruins.45.1
Alexander is reciting a verse of the Iliad, a copy of which he kept under his pillow. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... long.45.2
Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, invaded and conquered the vast, tottering Persian Empire in 349 B.C. The Greek world, which had long considered Persia a threat, saw Alexander's invasion as a reprise of the Trojan War, which was, at that point, nearly a millenium past. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Hephaiston45.3
Alexander's best friend and right hand man. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Ptolemy,45.4
A boyhood friend of Alexander's and one of his generals. Later in his career he became Pharaoh of Egypt. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Pella,45.5
The capital of the Macedonian Kingdom. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... imprisonment?46.1
The cyclops's cave was closed with an enormous stone which only the gigantic cyclops was strong enough to move. Thus, killing him would have meant a slow death by starvation. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... body.46.2
It may or may not be relevant to note that in pre-historic times the Greek islands were home to a number of species of small mastodons. Although they did not long survive the arrival of man they did leave a fossil record, and, interestingly, their skulls (like the skulls of all pachyderms) have a mono-orbital, cyclopean appearance. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... stratagem,47.1
Agamemnon's recollection is incorrect --the scheme that brought Odysseus to Troy was due to Palamedes. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... merchant's,"47.2
Among the Achaean aristocracy this remark, nearly a compliment in our own time, was a mortal insult. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... one."47.3
This cryptic remark calls to mind the Palladion, a statue of Athena's childhood friend, Pallas, that was the magical guarantor of Troy's safety--while it remained within the walls of Troy the city could not be taken. As a precaution against theft, the dungeons and byways of the city were full of simulacra of the statue. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... pylos47.4
A kind of peaked cap which Odysseus is often depicted wearing, though the association is traditional rather than textual. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... story."47.5
Note that this section continues with the opening section of the chapter--``Ignoring his lies, the captain of the guard marched Odysseus through the night and brought him before Agamemnon's throne. Wearily Agamemnon lifted his head...'' 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... happened...47.6
This unusually structured chapter seems to have the topology of a Möbius strip. The first section is told from within the last section--hence, I have omitted the final quotation mark. Note that all punctuation marks are my own interpolations, as the raw decoded text of the Lost Books has none.

Mathematically, the structure of this chapter is this: the nth section encapsulates the telling of the n + 1th section, is encapsualted by the n - 1th, is a continuation of the n - 2th, and is continued in the n + 2th, where all section numbers are computed modulo the total number of sections. Since the number of sections is odd, each section ends up containing, contained by, continuing, and continued by every other section. 

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Chios48.1
An island in the northern Aegean Sea. Chios is Homer's traditional birthplace. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Eleusinians.48.2
The Eleusinian cult was a mystery religion dedicated to the worship of the goddess Demeter. Its secret rites were celebrated in caves. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Homerids,48.3
Recall that the Poetics can be dated to about 347 A.D. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... boards,48.4
Actually, rectilinear game-boards with black and white squares and some sort of game pieces--the identification as chess is conjectural. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... work.48.5
Madame Blavatsky, whom he met in 1873, was an ardent supporter--there is a photograph of the septuagenarian Maurer in a cozy London parlor wearing a chiton and declaiming to the apparently enthralled medium. It must be said that despite all the trappings of farce Maurer's pose is rather grand. 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... prime,48.6
A prime number is a number that is only evenly divisible by one and by itself. The first primes are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, ... 
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.