СИМБОЛИЧКЕ ТРАДИЦИЈЕ ФИЗИОЛОГА: АМБИВАЛЕНТНО САГЛАСЈЕ
SYMBOLICAL TRADITIONS IN THE PHYSIOLOGUS: AMBIVALENCE AND CONSENT

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to examine and show the various possible ways of interpreting the symbols and symbolical structure of the southern Slavic Physiologus. The first part of the paper is dedicated to some questions about the composition of this book, where we discuss the possible relations between its nature and the way it is written. We also discuss the questions about genre, where we show how the Physiologus, although its thematic spectrum is akin to the parabole, the story of animals and the fable, slips away through the traditional literary genre systems and theoires. In the second part of this research, we identify the layers of different cultures, myths and religions that have marked the symbols in the Physiologus and its meanings. We show how they both cancel and match at the same time and we decribe the possible ways in which these relations can be interpreted. The final part of our paper considers the symbolism of the Physiologus in the wider context of the medieval aesthetics, cultural history and history of ideas.

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