The Vedic «feet» of the Greek Sphinx

Object of the article: the riddle of the Sphinx and the Vedic riddles. Subject of the article: structural and semantic comparison between the riddle of the Sphinx and the riddles in “Rigveda” and “Yajurveda”. Purpose of research: to show that the scheme of the riddle of the Sphinx about “man”, based on the description of an allegorical creature which is “two-footed, three-footed and fourfooted”, has a structural correspondence in the Vedic ritual-offering formulas, which describe Vedic poetic metres, divided by number of padas (“feet”) in a verse. Research methods: methods of the structural and semantic analysis applied. Results: the author argues that the poetic scheme of the Vedic ritual-offering formulas reflects an Indo-European proto-text, on which the riddle of the Sphinx is based. Field of application: literary studies. Conclusion:The author argues that the description of the Vedic metres in ritual-offering formulas through the allegorical ”two-footed (dvipada), four-footed (catushpada) and three-footed (tripada)”creatures has a structural and semantic correspondence in the riddle of the Sphinx, based on the description of an allegorical creature which is “two-footed, three-footed and four-footed”. The essay suggests that this correspondence between the Vedic formulas and the riddle of the Sphinx allows an alternative interpretation of the Greek riddle on meta-literal level as an allegorical description of poetic forms. The author is indebted to Svetlana Gracheva and Dan Whitman for stimulating discussions and helpful advice.