Just was made aware of this post, which is quite similar to mine: ORA-01436: CONNECT BY loop in user data when importing table
For synonyms by the same name as the view or table they direct you to, I’ve used a workaround in my post. Other than with the workaround as described above, you do not have to change anything to the database, which in many occasions is not allowed.
lamanp 
(BOB member since 2008-09-02)