Griphus — A Riddle of the Number Three

Thrice drink or else as many times three cups: thus stands the mystic law — whether three draughts thou drinkest or three thrice multipliest, with nine times three uneven form the cube!

The same virtue is in three as in thrice three: all things are in terms of these; the first forming of the human shape, the due completion of the act of birth, and the limit which marks man's extreme span, years nine times nine. Three were the brethren born of Ops (Rhea), three the sisters whom she bare in turn, Vesta, Ceres, and Juno, a female company. So triple-barbed are Jove's thunderbolts, so is it with Cerberus, so with the trident, and the triple egg whence Helen and her brethren came. Thrice was the distaff of Nestor's destiny replenished with purple yarn, and as many times doth the crow outlive that triple span. And could she roll into one nine times the periods of three ages, yet by thrice Nestor's triple span do brazen-footed stags surpass her, whereof three lifetimes doth the sacred bird of Phoebus overpass, to be nine times outstripped by that fowl of Ganges, radiate of head within his nest of cinnamon. Triple in form is Hecate, three faces has virgin Diana; three the Graces, three the Fates, three tones hath the voice, three are the elements. Three Sirens were in three-cornered Sicily, triple in all respects: three birds, three demi-goddesses, three semi-maids, with thrice three Muses bidden to strive for the palm, employing lips, hands, and breath, making melody with pipes, strings, and voice. Three the branches of Philosophy, three the Punic Wars, three months go to each change in the year and clime, threefold the watches which share Night's gloom. Thrice doth that tardy sentinel, who let Mars be caught, sound the clear call of approaching Dawn. And he who was conceived in the darkness of a tripled night hung up the spoils enjoined on thrice four trophies.

Also the lyric poets are of one number with the Mnemosynae, three of whom only Phoebus once held in his right hand: but Cithaeron dedicated three times three in bronze — such was our fathers' piety, who feared to slight the six. Thrice a year were games held at Tarentum lasting three nights, like the three-yearly festival at Thebes for twice-born Bacchus. The three first combats of gladiators matched in three pairs — these were the offering made by the sons of Junius at their father's sepulchre. She too, who asked her triple riddle of the suitors of the queen — what one being was two-legged, four-legged, and three-legged, and yet the same — the Sphinx who affrighted Aonia, was of triple shape, part bird, part lioness, part maid — in wings a bird, in paws a beast, in face a girl.

Three are the allied gods who shine in the temple on the Tarpeian rock. Threefold the crafts which shape man's dwelling-place: one man lays stones in the walls, a second beams in the roof, a third adds the last covering of tiles. Three is a factor of the quadrantal of Bromius, as also of the Sicilian medimnus: this into three, that into twice three parts ' three prime causes, God, matter, and the shape given: three-formed is all formation, the former, the formatrix, and the formed.

Over three kinds ranges the figure of the triangle, equilateral, isosceles, and scalene. Three parts combined make up the perfect number, in such wise that if a group thrice three be formed, by three times three the same may be resolved. Three is the first number which has an odd, an even, and a medial unit: but, as the unit itself divides "three, so does it five and seven; and when 'tis placed under the central point of the full number, it parts in two a series of thirds forming a continuous cube, by separating even and equal groups from the uneven threes: and even numbers thrice find a centre, when the same midmost point of four, six, and twice four, is bracketed.

Triple the code which Tables "four times three ordained: the canon, the private, and the common law which is current everywhere. The legal interdict has three formulae the whence by force I have been put out, the wherever he has been, and the which goods In three ways freedom is acquired, in three ways civil rights may be attainted. Three are the modes of eloquence, the exalted, the restrained, and the close-wove. Medicine also has three branches, called theory, practice, and empiric. And Medicine in aim is triple, to maintain health, prevent disease, and heal. Three are the styles of oratory: the first from Rhodes, dominated by its Colossus, the second beloved by thee, Attic Athens, and thirdly that which the prose of Asia dragged from the stage to the crabbed benches of the law, imitating in our courts the lilt of choric songs.

This number explains Orpheus' Tripod, because there are three elements, earth, water, fire. Triple the classification of the stars, according to their station, distance, and their magnitude. The modes also are threefold, and so is Music, mother of measures — that woven into books, that possessed in secret by the stars, and that purveyed in our theatres. Mars' city, Rome, hath three orders, Knights, Commons, Senators. From this number the tribe takes its name, as do the tribunes of the Sacred Mount.

Three are the squadrons of the Knights three the names borne by the nobility. The chords have three names, and three names each month owns. Geryones was three in one, triple the compound of Chimaera: Scylla was triple, a mixture of three forms, part dog, part woman, and part fish. The Gorgons, Harpies, and Erinyes lived in bands of three, and three the soothsaying Sibyls, bearers of a common name, whose fateful verses, couched in volumes three, are preserved in the keeping of the thrice five men.

Thrice drink! The number three is above all. Three Persons and one God! And that this conceit may not run its course without significance of number, let it have verses thrice ten times three, or nine times ten!