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Tetrarca de Galilea

Index: La muerte y la brújula, Ficciones, OC,Obras completas. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1974. 499, 500, 506.
Type
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character in Borges story

Fishburn and Hughes: "From the Greek for 'ruler of one of four divisions': a term meaning 'vassal-ruler' given to minor despots in the provinces of Judaea and Syria in the Roman period. There was obviously no Tetrarch of Galileo at the time in which 'Death and the Compass' was set, but the name recalls Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, who was Tetrarch of Galilee during the lifetime of Jesus and who beheaded John the Baptist." (194)