Abstract
The article considers the interpretation of the culture and philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Babylon in the texts of writers of the late nineteenth–early twentieth centuries. This topic was highly important and widely discussed in connection with the outstanding discoveries of archaeological expeditions in the 1900–1920s in the Valley of the Kings on the Nile. In his treatise “Tajna trekh: Egipet i Vavilon” (“The Mystery of the Three: Egypt and Babylon”), Dmitry Merezhkovsky, referring to religious views of the previous eras, attempted to find an ideological synthesis that could unite and reconcile people in the hard times of wars and revolutions. Alexander Chayanov in his story “Puteshestvie moego brata Alekseia v stranu krest’ianskoj utopii” (“The Journey of My Brother Alexei into the Land of Peasant Utopia”) turned to the biblical symbolism of the Tower of Babel which sought to overcome, as it were, the chaos that engulfed society—to give a warning against rash prometheistic ideas. He examined the ability of man to fight against the power of fate, to remain true to himself and to his ideas. In his mystical stories there can be traced allusions to the mysteries of the goddess Isis. Their heroines bear chthonic features. Chayanov examined how the feeling of love can destroy or revive the hero depending on his integrity and readiness to undergo evolution in order to find harmony.
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Notes
According to Mirja Lecke, “Die politische und ökonomische Krise während und nach der Oktoberrevolution in Rußland führte zu gesteigertem Interesse an utopischer Literatur. Damals versuchten nicht nur professionelle Literaten, die neue Situation durch künstlerische Tätigkeit zu bewältigen. Auch Politiker, Ökonomen und andere Intellektuelle wollten einen künstlerischen Beitrag zur ‘neuen’ Gesellschaft leisten” (Lecke 2000, p. 379). (“The political and economic crisis during and after the October Revolution in Russia led to an increased interest in the utopian literature. At that time, it was not just professional writers who tried to cope with the new situation through artistic activity. Politicians, economists and other intellectuals also wanted to make an artistic contribution to the ‘new’ society”).
“Above the sofa, where Kremnev woke up… there was a big picture that caught his attention. One could tell at a glance that this was a classic Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s thing. The same composition with a high horizon, the same bright and precious colors, the same shortish figures, but… on the board there were people painted in colored tail coats, ladies with umbrellas, automobiles and the subject was, unmistakably, something like a hop off of airplanes” (Chayanov 2006a, p. 225).
The terminology of Plato (1970, vol. 2, p. 106), who spoke of Aphrodite Urania and Aphrodite Pandemos, may be helpful in the characterization of the images of Chayanov’s women. If the first Aphrodite is a symbol of spirituality, the second is associated with a feeling of fatality, with the power of the forces of Nature. In “Istoriia parikmaherskoj kukly…” the architect M. idolizes Aphrodite Pandemos, whose image is associated with mythologizing the chthonic forces of Nature. He is in love with Bertha Henrikson, one of the Siamese twins. Bertha bears the features of Gorgon and also of Aphrodite, to whom the author compares her, she is a symbol of the vigour of natural forces and their fatal power over humans.
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The article was prepared at the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences during work on a grant from the Russian Scientific Foundation (RSF Project # 17-18-01432-П).
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Mikhalenko, N.V. Images and symbols of ancient civilizations in the works of Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Alexander Chayanov in the context of the literary and philosophical process of the late nineteenth–early twentieth centuries. Stud East Eur Thought 72, 351–362 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-020-09372-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-020-09372-4