Acroteleuton

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An acroteleuton (from the ancient Greek ἄκρος akros , German 'top' and τέλος telos , German 'end' , plural akroteleuta or acroteleuts) is a multiple acrostic or a combination of acrostic and telestich . The first letters, syllables or words as well as the last letters, syllables or words or the first letters of the last word of the lines of a text result in a word, name or sentence from top to bottom.

The acroteleuton is a rhetorical figure , the definition of which appears narrowed in modernity compared to its examples since antiquity by rules that either determine the reading direction, for example front from top to bottom and back from bottom to top, or consistently following the example of the magic square Prescribe the same word length or the same text in front as in the back. This means that these special cases are also Akroteleuta, but the Greek and Roman examples that have been preserved show a variety of forms. Roman authors sometimes break the language barrier, the "hidden" text can be Greek. The reader should also be able to find the second message, sometimes the real one, and at the same time recognize and admire the skill of the author.

Examples of Akroteleuta can be found in Roman literature of the imperial era and in baroque poetry. In the modern age, concrete poetry , visual poetry and the representatives of Oulipo fall back on this, similar and other rhetorical figures, less with steganographic intent to hide something than for fun playing with rules.

The Denck-Täffelchen by David Klesel (1631–1687), depicted in the book Poetic Language Games - From the Middle Ages to the Present, is an example of the fact that texts with Akroteleuta belong more to visual poetry.

Game adaptation

In the word game Stuffed Veal Breast , a word is determined (e.g. "prick" from a book), which each player writes vertically on the left side of his sheet of paper. Then the same word is written backwards to the right. Now it is a matter of filling the spaces with words within a predetermined period of time, whereby the initial and final letters are determined by the respective position. After all, ratings are similar to those for city, country, river .

literature

  • JA Simon: A newly discovered cipher system of the ancients. With samples from Nikander, Catullus, Tibullus, Properz, Ovid, Virgil, Horace, Phaedrus, Val. Flaccus, Martial and others and with an afterword about acrostic poems by the classical poets of the Greeks and Romans. Fock, Leipzig 1901.
  • Klaus Peter Dencker (Ed.): Poetic Language Games - From the Middle Ages to the Present. Reclam, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-15-018238-7 .

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