"Семеро против Фив" в мифопоэтике Вяч. Иванова

Studia Litterarum. 2024. Т. 9. № 2. С. 138–153.

Ermakova L.

The article offers an interpretation of Vyach. Ivanov’s dithyramb “Tsari” from his book “Kormchie zvezdy”, namely of its final part, written in verset. The seven kings are celebrating a feast when the priest Melamp comes; he transforms the liquids in the kings’ cups into wine, turns himself into Dionysus and brings seven other kings, who kill their predecessors and put on their masks. The names of the kings are borrowed from Aeschylus’ tragedy “Seven against Thebes”, which has been partially translated by Ivanov. Ivanov’s special attention to this myth is defined by his statement that Ares is a hypostasis of Dionysus, and his reasoning is very similar to the conclusions of the German philologist W.-A. Voigt, but his supposition about the chthonic and Dionysiac nature of some of the heroes participating in the campaign against Thebes is based on the opinion of other researchers. The plot of the mystery is inspired by J. G. Frazer’s “The Golden Bough” and by the rite of Lake Nemi, but in Ivanov’s text the kings and their opponents are masks of the multifaceted Dionysus, who is both priest and victim. Thus Ivanov integrates the myth from the Theban cycle into his own mythopoetics.

Keywords: Vyacheslav Ivanov, Вячеслав Иванов, мифопоэтика, Эсхил, Aeschylus, Dionysism, mythopoetics, дионисизм, “Kormchie Zvezdy”, ”Seven against Thebes”, "Кормчие звезды", "Семеро против Фив"