My solution to the Riddle Of Bologna -

This is my solution to the enigmatic inscription discovered in the 16th century upon a Roman tombstone near Bologna:

The Riddle Of Bologna

Aelia Laelia Crispis,

Not man, nor woman, nor hermaphrodite;

Not girl, nor youth, nor old woman;

Not chaste, nor unchaste, nor modest;

But all [of these]:

Carried off, Not by hunger, not by sword, nor by poison

But by all [of them]:

Lies,

Not in air, not in earth, not in the waters,

But everywhere.

Lucius Agatho Priscus,

Not her husband, nor her lover, nor her friend;

Not sorrowing, nor rejoicing, nor weeping;

Erecting

This, not a stone-pile, nor a pyramid, Nor a sepulchre;

But all:

Knows, and knows not, To whom he erects it.

This is a tomb that has no body in it. This is a body that has no tomb round it.

But body and tomb are the same.

My Solution:

I don't think this is a deliberate riddle. I think the inscription is using the form of a holy trinity like "Father, Son and Holy Ghost" either for a mystical, religious or simply poetical reason.

In some Pagan Cultures the holy trinity was the three parts of the Mother Goddess, "Maiden, Mother and Crone" because the Maiden was Spring; the Mother Summer and the Crone Autumn and Winter and it symbolised rebirth.

One poetical reason why the author of the inscription might have chosen this "three in one" symbolism might be to express the idea that they are also, metaphorically, buried in the tomb aswell, perhaps a mans pregnant wife was buried in the tomb and by using the idea of three in one, they are both symbolising their 'oneness' with the buried wife and unborn child and also saying their death has 'killed me aswell'.

The last part seems mystical aswell, to do with the body and soul and them being seperate but indivisible but why is the author saying that the body is the soul of the tomb? Perhaps this is another way of saying that the persons spirit is going back to and becoming one with the Earth which would link up with the idea of rebirth but the author by saying "body and tomb are the same" is also saying that, as long as the tomb stands the body will be remembered as if the body were 'immortalised' by the monument the author has built for it.