“The Knight in the Panther Skin" is a philosophical poem focused on the quest for the meaning of life; the theories it proposes could be taken as opposing the conventional truths sanctified by centuries of the existing tradition. But philosophy always deals with the unknown. It always runs the risk of colliding with tradition, and invests a philosopher with the imperative to change or reshape the tradition it inherits…The models of relationships between lovers, friends, masters and vassals which Rustaveli provided have been emulative for Georgians throughout centuries and even at the present Rustaveli's values form an important, albeit diminishing, aspect of Georgians' self-consciousness. Levan Gigineishvili