Witty, verbally dexterous, and urbane, Symphosius is regarded as the father of the Literary Riddle. His sole surviving work, the

[Riddles of the Scholar Symphosius], became the model for medieval riddle collections, especially in England where it provoked a literary vogue and was used as a school text. The

, included in the

, comprises one hundred tristich hexameter riddles each solved by its own title. The collection is accompanied by a brief preface in which Symphosius claims, rather implausibly in view of the polished and schematized nature of the

, to have improvised the riddles at the feast of the Saturnalia. These riddles, which take the form of enigmatic prosopoetic descriptions, treat a range of topics from the…

580 words

Citation: Sebo, Erin. "Symphosius". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 May 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12550, accessed 31 October 2024.]

• View recommended reading for this article