My internal Haskell compiler makes sense of head "crushed", it would fit as a synonym for both "defeated" and a certain sense of (scrambling) "mad", and the second part might refer to the same Slavic root as in Bulgarian razhdane, "birth" -- but not as "we" English speakers know it
edit: and it would be the de-feet-ed version, i.e. just the root
I have one, too:
From the cavernous chorus of subtle coercion, of those fearing the "stark" (4)
Intepretation: "Stark" is German for strong, antonym of it (fearing) is weak, "cavernous chorus of subtle coercion" -- as pronounced, but with a slight change, so "meek".
Those fearing the stork, which is what frogs habitually do in Andersen's fairy tales -- along with repeating that same old line (sometimes this is claimed by the storks themselves), instead of croaking proper Danish. That's too esoteric, probably, even when I like the throwback to "subtle". It's mostly there to confirm the solution, but then if you make the Aristophanian connection, you can be completely sure of the solution already. The rounding of the A would, I had hoped, be "naturally" suggested by the copious use of Os throughout the clue.
It's true, nothing sufficiently hints at the source, "chorus" could be anything (perhaps "comedic" as the qualifier would have served better, since if there's merit to the clue, it's that the definition is masquerading as the indicator of the technique -- but once the solver follows the correct path, it should not throw further obstacles). I remember a clue in some Guardian crossword that ended in "attic [!] feminism (10)", where I immediately filled in "Lysistrata" without even paying attention to the rest of the line (nor can I remember anything much from the play), which I think is the only time I've ever managed to solve such a clue in less than embarrassing time. As for "subtle coercion", the frogs are none too subtle, but do mention to get Dionysos to repeat their line eventually through their sheer complacent obstinacy and his temper.
There might be a way to work Charon into this, though, which I think would be the best way to pinpoint the place and circumstance.
Yeah, in the Guardian they will always clue anything Greek with very direct pointers. Attic is nice.
In yours, another difficulty was that normally definition is not placed in the middle, makes parsing very difficult even without the double function. Wouldn't have got there without the final hint.
(January 7th, 2018, 09:46)Bacchus Wrote: Defeated, headless, mad — life not as we know it (6)
My guess:
Failed
Reasoning:
I initially parsed it in a straightforward way:
Defeated headless --> "feated" (6 letters)
mad --> anagram pointer
The rest being the definition.
But can't really find a matching solution.
So, take 2:
"Defeated" --> definition
headless mad --> "ad"
Life not as we know it --> "life" is part of an anagram
"Failed" matches the definition (a bit loosely maybe ?) and is an anagram of ad + life
I could have done better with the definition, you are right, it's at once too obvious (matches the -ed form), and somewhat loose. Maybe "futile" would work better
Incorrect.