Beware Greeks bearing clues

One of my favourite tales from Ancient Greece is that of the wooden horse. Devised by Odysseus after years of unsuccessful attempts to enter Troy, Greek soldiers hid inside a large wooden horse while the rest of their army pretended to give up and sail away. The Trojans were persuaded to drag the gift into the city and after dark the Greek soldiers emerged, opened the gates to their comrades and the city was taken.
This tale has become part of our language. A Trojan horse is a devious ploy against one’s enemies. In business it is an offer that seems, and indeed is, too good to be true and in computer speak, it is a program that appears legitimate but is in fact destructive. We also get the expression ‘beware Greeks bearing gifts’ meaning ‘don’t trust your enemies’ from this myth.
After the destruction of Troy, Odysseus had a long and arduous journey home, as described in Homer’s The Odyssey. He faced the one-eyed Cyclops and sea monsters, encountered storms and was shipwrecked before returning after ten years to his wife, Penelope, who awaited at home in Ithaca, where Odysseus was king.
In the Mega Stinker 72 the most common error was at 128ac. ‘Odysseus’ home in Greece’ was ITHACA not ITHICA. This ancient epic was written in the 8th century BC and is still very much part of our culture. I wonder which modern tales will stand such a test of time. Odyssey is a word that also appears in our crosswords, clued as ‘Epic journey’ or ‘Lengthy adventure’.
A PYRRHIC victory is one at too great a cost. King Pyrrhus of Epirus sustained such devastating losses while defeating the Romans in 279BC that the victory was seen as fairly hollow.
A couple of entries had CYRRHIC for ‘Hollow (victory)’ at 85dn and COLEMIC at 85ac. POLEMIC, the answer to ‘Doctrinal dispute’ at 85ac, also comes from Greek, from the word for ‘war’. If you put PALEMIC for 85ac, 69dn was also incorrect. ‘Ballroom dance, … doble’ was PASO not PASA. The name of this Spanish dance translates as ‘double step’.
The ‘German diacritic’ at 56ac was an UMLAUT not UMALUT. This is the two dots placed above a vowel to alter its sound (e.g. like the difference between mice/mouse or man/men). Führer is an example, which without the umlaut is sometimes seen as Fuehrer.
Finally for the Stinker 69ac ‘Hunts, … upon’ was PREYS not PRAYS.
ATTILA the Hun appeared in the Mighty Mega at 56ac, unfortunately for some of you ATILLA is incorrect. Known as the Scourge of God, Attila and his army overran much of Roman Europe in the 5th century and have gone down in history remembered for their barbarity. Attila died on his wedding night in 453, perhaps at the hand of his new bride.
The NAPA (not NAFA, BAJA or TAPA) Valley is the ‘California wine valley’ (Mega Mix 38ac) famous for Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot and other varieties of wine.
‘A person between the ages of 50 and 59’ (23dn) is a QUINQUAGENARIAN, not QUINQUAGINARIAN. For 54dn ‘Title of the wife of the Aga Khan’ both BEGUM and BEGAM were acceptable. Begum Inaara Aga Khan was the second wife of Prince Karim, His Highness The Aga Khan IV, until they divorced in October 2011.
So many interesting bits of information hiding in our clues! Enjoy the next batch of contests and see what you can learn.