The Slovo o polku Igoreve is not only the most famous work of medieval Russian literature, but after nearly two hundred years of study it remains among the most mysterious. Much of its symbolism has never been satisfactorily interpreted. Many of its "dark" places continue to remain obscure and hopelessly out of reach, and as a result, the author's original idea remains open to considerable speculation. Although the Slovo is still generally identified as an epic, some scholars, such as D. S. Lichacev (Lichacev 1978) have in recent decades began to modify the traditional views, recognizing the sig-nificance of the work's lyrical undertone. Unfortunately, however, even this change of viewpoint has failed to bring about any satisfactory re-interpretation.

The aim of this paper is...