Forums » Epic Week 2025 » Illuminated Symbol (SOLVED)

This topic is for discussing clues and potential answers to the Illuminated Symbol in Epic Week 2025. Please stay on topic. Remember, these riddles are designed to be challenging and require a group of people brainstorming together; don't feel intimidated if you don't know the answer right away. Every little idea can help. Research is not cheating; it is expected!

Click here to visit the location of the Illuminated Symbol

Probably a Christian bible, considering the image and the fact that many Christian holy texts were well known for being 'illuminated' by monks, but I don't remember what 2 'sister' virtues or characters would be relevant here. There are the four cardinal virtues (Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance) who were frequently depicted in ancient fine art, I guess, but there are four of them; and there are Faith and Hope and Charity; but I'm pretty sure those aren't usually separated.
The book of Proverbs is largely considered parable-able, I believe, but I'm not sure if there's another religious text that would work better in this instance.

Also, I thought maybe this could refer to Lady Liberty (there are two sister statues!) but then it would probably have a tablet for a symbol, not a book.

Edit I somehow forgot entirely to factor in the last clue. I'm assuming that's referring to a particular mother, though.
Ah, I thought it might have something to do with Rebekah, but I don't remember all of that story at all.

Google summary:
In the Bible, the stories of Abraham and Sarah, and Isaac and Rebekah, involve the wives being misrepresented as their husbands' sisters. These narratives, known as the "wife-sister tales," are found in the Book of Genesis. The primary reason for this deception is fear, as the patriarchs worry their wives' beauty will make them targets of violence or abduction."

I leaned into the "sisters" angle and tried both Ruth and Naomi, as well as Mara [Naomi's name before she changed it] but no dice.

I asked a close friend, they instantly thought of the parable "Judgement of Solomon", where two women are arguing over who gets to keep the one child. Women supposed by some to be sisters, it's likely a parable, and both are mothers.

Not saying it's not the Bible, but illumination may be found in many other sacred books, or wisdom may be found in other illuminated books, depending on your perspective.

Not all illuminated texts were holy either.

My first thaught was maybe a Grim Farytail?

I don't think it's going to be a name of a person, since the last clue says it's the location of a devoted mother. ^^ I was also thinking maybe Ruth and Naomi related but I didn't read anything about them being sisterly in the summary of the parable, although that sounds accurate.


I did find that there's something called the Book of Parables, which might be relevant? Although there are dozens of non biblical books of parables lol.

"The Book of Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37–71) (also called the Similitudes of Enoch) ..."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Enoch#Book_of_Parables

It does have to do with "the Son of Man" although I'm not sure if he has a mother, according to these texts? I am quite a bit less familiar with the Jewish traditions and story conventions.


And you're right Prescience, I mostly read about the Isle of Iona and whatnot when reading about illumination, but there are other books and pages that got the artistic makeover. I'll look at those a little more, too. 🌈

I wonder what the (devilishly clever) riddle writer meant by including this?

Haha, I assume it means either that it's something that's not commonly known as a book of parables, or that clue's a quote from something, the latter of which now seems less likely.

I suppose it could also be, in the same vein as the first option, that it's a tongue in cheek response to what half the people might think when they first see and read the symbol, "that's the BIBLE!"

Oh I suppose it could be "very literally it is a collection of parables, and not just sort of or maybe parables".

👀

I just feel like mentioning, apropos of nothing, I have always gone out of my way to avoid including stuff from active religions in any official site events. Dunno, just came to my mind.

Duly noted! 🫡 I thought that it seemed strange at first, honestly - I guess I have a religious-background bias in terms of "bible symbol", but my partner also expressed doubt when I suggested that someone might just be a big religious texts nerd and it got a pass for factoids and myth. ^^"' 🌻 🌻 🌻 I'm ceasing and desisting from the organized-religious text suggestions!

There are some religious elements in the source text (difficult to avoid, given the time period ) but the answer is secular.

During the latter part of the thirteenth century the Book of Hours became popular as a personal prayer book for men and women who led secular lives. It consisted of a selection of prayers, psalms, hymns and lessons based on the liturgy of the clergy. Each book was unique in its content though all included the Hours of the Virgin Mary, devotions to be made during the eight canonical hours of the day, the reasoning behind the name 'Book of Hours'.[10]
It could be one of these?

There were various luxury manuscripts and illuminations commissioned by the rich and noble, but I have yet to find a secular one that is not also very skint on the parables. I initially thought Book of Kells or the Codex Gigas, but those are mostly biblical; the Iranian Book of Kings seems promising, except that it's mostly considered an epic poem, and I don't know enough details about whether it contains "sisters" (which, by the way, is that a metaphorical sister or someone living a double life or what? I thought maybe Sun and Moon, but then who would the devoted Mother be, that's mentioned in the third clue???) or any particular clues about mothers, besides that there are some. It does purportedly have many central female characters, though.

There's also a medieval bestiary that supposedly had parables, but I need to read more about that one to see if they were also religiously rooted, as I think they may have been.

I thought maybe Ovid's Metamorphoses, but I don't believe anyone classifies those as fully parable, either.

It's probably not Chaucer either, right?

Aesop's fables a possible source of this mother and these sisters? I think they fit into the parable category. I'm not sure how many obviously religious elements are in there, though.

My only guess is the Other World from Coraline.

The Other Mother quite literally collects children's lives, collecting their stories, or parables. The Other World is entirely made up, fake, a collection of stories the child wants to be true. Telling a collection of parables often means telling a collection of lies.

And the Other Mother pretends to be a devoted mother compared to the Real Mother. She's also more energetic than the Real Mother who is exhausted. They look alike, since Other Mother is making herself look like her so they could be called "sisters".

Coraline isn't exactly historical though.

Either way the "" around "sisters" should tell you that whoever this is about, aren't actually sisters. (I believe anyway.)

Also, that the answer seems to a place.

(Note: My guess of Coraline is NOT in any way meant to support Neil Gaiman. I do not support him.)

"...parables, actually" - suggests that the text in question is called by some other name, or was thought to be some other kind of text for a long time and eventually had the record corrected.

Aesop's Fables is a good lead - there are definitely illuminated versions of it - but while fables and parables are both types of moral stories, parables typically feature human characters and approach their lessons from a metaphorical angle, while fables feature animals and other non-human characters and are more straightforward about the fact that you're learning a lesson, dangit. So I'm not sure Aesop and friends would count here.

On the other hand, The Canterbury Tales might qualify.

Perhaps it was even considered to be one parable, but it was actually a collection of them....


In seriousness, though, the devoted mother could be from the Clerk's Tale, with Griselda int he spotlight as a devoted wife and mother - a character who, apparently, was originally from the Decameron. I'm about to go to bed, I think, so I'll read more in the morning if this isn't solved.

I would argue that Griselda is pretty much the opposite of the devoted mother - she willingly gives her kids up to be killed, or so she’s led to believe. But it’s a possibility!

Many of the Tales, IIRC, are paired, often with one that’s more somber and one that’s funnier, more “energetic”. I forget which one the Clerk’s Tale is in that pair - it’s been a while!

Bonus: The first clue refers to a genre rather than one specific text.