Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

I’ve completed all the clues, and I’ve joined the dots to create a 3D shape. I’m guessing the unclued entries will end up being a message in a classical language. So it seems the location is key to the endgame. I have a total of 41 letters in my extra words, which I think are right, given some of the hints earlier. Are we really supposed to anagrammatise 41 letters to arrive at this location? I hope it’s a famous one…

The permutation is done word by word.

I think Iratus’s hint is oversimplified. The Greek alphabet has already been mentioned, so we can help by saying that the location is spelled out letter by letter, where each of these letters is in the Greek alphabet but represented by the English version of its name.

But I didn’t come on to answer that potential difficulty. I just wanted to say that I had the satisfaction of completing this puzzle last night. For that I have to thank my educational background in both classics and maths, but also the very helpful hints on this forum.

I welcome the unusually helpful hints, and hope that they will continue whenever a puzzle seems to be on the tough side for solvers who may simply not have come across some important element in the theme.

But I have sympathy with those who say this puzzle was unfair. We don’t want to turn away potential solvers. And the younger generations are far less likely to know Greek than we oldies were!

Many thanks, I have got it now. Yes, was expecting a straight name of somewhere. “Spell out” - always read the rubric carefully! My sole remaining query is, what does the setter mean by “adjusted to greater quantity”. I see what happens in each case, but not sure why that phrase applies

Also, the significance of the title eludes me…

You could look up "vowel quantity".

Right, thanks. Starting to stray into the esoteric there, I would say

Thanks Mack (at 68): I think I have it now.

I got what seems like a complete grid without TOO much agony (by my modest standards anyway) but I’m not quite sure about whether there is one particular letter that should be substituted with a similar but different letter to produce the message most accurately; it feels like it should be but I’m not sure how to justify it on the basis of the preamble. (There are two instances of this letter.) Anyone else contend with this conclusively?

It's the quantitative difference between micron and mega.

Strictly speaking, there's a qualitative difference too in the relevant dialect.

Post Mortem: Didn't identify 'pal' as an extra word so didn't identify the Greek letters; but even if I had I wouldn't have got any further.

File under 'One For The Connoisseur'.