RIDDLES IN ROMANCES

Riddles of various types are used in Persian romances to test the intelligence of the future partner. Even in modern times riddles are used in marriage ceremonies. In Peru, “riddles are initiated by adolescent girls; the best riddlers are also considered the most attractive.” The association of riddle and marriage is an ancient theme occurring in many cultures. As we will see, riddles occur in Persian romances which have a pre-Islamic theme. This could be evidence that riddles were a much-favored genre in pre-Islamic Persia. It is also important to mention that Pre-Islamic Persian poetry was an oral tradition and, assuming that riddles derive from an oral folk tradition, their popularity would have related to the flourishing of the oral culture in general.

Although riddles are mainly used in romances to test a future partner's intelligence, they are sometimes used as a narrative device. In Uná¹£urī's Vāmiq and Adhrā, which is a verse translation of the Greek romance Mētiokhos kai Parthenopē (written in the first century B.C), a riddle forms the basis of a love affair between the main protagonists. As in several other Persian amatory epics, in this romance a wise man asks the young lover Vāmiq a question about the nature of love:

As the editors have indicated, about eight verses of Vāmiq's answer are missing but in the remaining verses, Vāmiq gives a definition of love and a lover: