qarTvelologi THE KARTVELOLOGIST JOURNAL OF GEORGIAN STUDIES, #21, 2014 The compositional function of a parodic allusion to the Classical Tradition in Rustaveli’s The Man in the Panther Skin Zaza Khintibidze TSU Associate Professor Although research into reception of the Classical Tradition in Georgian literature and in particular, Rustaveli’s The Man in the Panther Skin (MPS) is already many decades old[1; 5, 46-49, 182-195, 306-337, 376-473, 550-581; 6; 4], new instances of the reflection of the Classical Tradition have recently been identified in MPS[2; 8]. The main goal of the present paper is to identify and analyse, as I see it, one more case of the allusion to the Classical Tradition, which has not yet been a subject of special research in Rustaveli studies. This instance of reception can be seen in the episode of the poem’s three main characters’ meeting before seizing the Kadjeti fortress, more specifically, in Pridon's so called summing-up speech in which he endorsed the plan put forward by Tariel. Unlike all the other cases of reception identified in the MPS, this particular one is distinctly parodic as Pridon tells Tariel in jest that he regrets giving him as a gift his fastest and miraculous horse which will assist Tariel and not its former owner - Pridon himself - to conquer the fortress (here and subsequently with reference to the text of the poem I use the edition of the Commission for the Establishment of the text of the MPS [see 9]. In the English translation of the paper I quote separate stanzas according to M. Wardrop’s edition [see 9a]. (Square brackets are used to render the words omitted in the translation by M. Wardrop or the words revised by me - Z. Kh.): „ფრიდონ უთხრა: <<შემიგნია, გაგიგია, ვიცი მე, რა: “Pridon said: <<I understand, I know what [you have perceived:] მაგა ცხენსა ჩემეულსა მოასწრებენ კართა ვერა; none could forestall at the gates [of the fortress] that horse [of yours] that once was mine; ოდეს გიძღვენ, არ ვიცოდი, ქაჯეთს გვინდა ქაჯთა მზერა, when I gave it [to you as a gift] I knew not that we should want to [face up to] Kadjis in Kadjeti [fortress]; თვარა ყოლა არ გიძღვნიდი, ჩემი გითხრა სიძუნწე რა>>. [otherwise] I would by no means have given it to [you as a gift], such is [I should tell you or not -] mine avarice!>>