Tragic Riddles in the Margins: A Syriac Invocation of the Story of Oedipus
Abstract
This article analyses a paratextual writing on the final page of a fifth- or sixth-century Syriac manuscript currently housed at the Russian National Library in St Petersburg. The note is somewhat difficult to decipher, in rough handwriting that is hard to date. The present paper provides the text and translation of this Syriac paratext and argues that it is two columns of riddles about Oedipus, the mythical king of Thebes. The argument suggests that the riddler knew the story of Oedipus according to the Sophoclean cycle of tragedies. These riddles are some of the only known invocations of or allusions to the tragedy of Oedipus in the Syriac language.
Published
2026-07-04
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