Translated literature of Kievan Rus. "The Tale of Bygone Years" as a literary monument

Chapter 1. LITERATURE OF THE 11th - EARLY 13TH CENTURIES

2. Translated literature of the 11th - early 13th centuries.

We begin our examination of ancient Russian literature of the older period with a review of translated literature. This is no coincidence: translations in the XI-XII centuries. in some cases preceded the creation of original works of the same genre. In general, Rus' began to read other people’s things before writing their own. But one should not see this as some evidence of the “inferiority” of the culture of the Eastern Slavs. All European medieval states “learned” from countries that were heirs of centuries-old ancient culture - the culture of Ancient Greece and Rome. For Rus', Bulgaria and Byzantium played the most important role in this regard. We also emphasize that the perception of a foreign culture, with its centuries-old traditions, was active and creative among the Eastern Slavs, met the internal needs of the developing Ancient Rus', and stimulated the emergence of original literature. Before considering the question of what works and genres of translated literature became known in Ancient Rus' in the first centuries after the creation of writing, let us take a closer look at the nature of the activities of Old Russian translators. A significant part of the books, and in particular liturgical books, were brought in the 10th-11th centuries. from Bulgaria. The Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) and Old Russian languages are so close that Rus' was able to use the ready-made Old Slavonic Cyrillic alphabet created by the great Bulgarian enlighteners Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century, and Bulgarian books, being formally “foreign language”, essentially did not require translation; certain features of the Bulgarian morphological system, as well as part of the vocabulary of the Bulgarian language (the so-called Old Church Slavonicisms) entered the system of the Old Russian literary language. Therefore, the division of ancient Russian literature into original and translated can only be significant in the sense that we indicate the origin of the monument, and not its place in the literature of ancient Rus'. The phenomenon of transplantation turned out to be extremely progressive: thanks to it, Rus' in Byzantine and Bulgarian books in Rus'. The phenomenon of "transplantation". short term received literature with an extensive system of genres, literature represented by many dozens, or even hundreds of monuments. Already a few decades after the start of this process in Rus', their own original works began to be created based on the model of translated monuments - lives, solemn and teaching words, stories, etc. Intermediary literature. Another characteristic feature of medieval literature is specific feature - the existence of intermediary literatures, that is, literatures whose “book fund” (in other words, the sum of the literary monuments included in them) turns out to be largely common to different national literatures. For the southern and eastern Slavs, the function of such intermediary literature was performed by ancient Bulgarian literature. It included both monuments of ancient Christian literature (translations from Greek) and monuments created by Bulgarian authors in Moravia and the Czech Republic, and in subsequent centuries, monuments created in Rus' and Serbia. Intermediary literature united bookishness Slavic peoples Let us now turn to the consideration of the main genres of translated literature of the 11th-13th centuries. Such a broad time frame is a forced condition, since works of this period, as a rule, were preserved only in later copies, and we can only use indirect data to determine the time of their translation or penetration into the literature of Ancient Rus'. The basis for Christian doctrine and worldview were biblical books (or Holy Scripture), as well as the writings of the most authoritative theologians. The Bible includes the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament. good news) were attributed to the disciples of Christ - the apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; they narrated the earthly life of Jesus and outlined his teaching. The preaching of Christianity by the apostles is described in the book of Acts; in the “Apocalypse” of John the Theologian, the near end of the world is depicted in symbolic images. The entire Bible was translated into Rus' only in the 15th century, but individual biblical books became known in Slavic translations (through Bulgarian media) already in Kievan Rus. The books of the New Testament and the Psalter were most widely used at this time. Probably, certain books of the Old Testament were also known (the Pentateuch, the book of Joshua, the books of Judges and Kings, some of the books of the prophets, the book of Ruth). It is difficult to judge the time of their appearance in Rus', since the oldest lists that have reached us date back to the 14th century, but at the same time, from indirect data we can establish that, for example, in the chronographic code of the mid-13th century. all the books of the Pentateuch, the books of Joshua, Judges, the books of Kings and excerpts from some other Old Testament books were included. Russian readers could also get acquainted with the contents of the Old Testament books through the Greek chronicles (especially through the “Chronicle of George Amartol”), through Palea, who expounded and interpreted the text of the Old Testament, and, finally, through the Paremiynik - a collection of passages from various books of the Bible.). In the church, the Book of Paremias, service menaions (books containing praise to the saints), various kinds of service books, books of hours, missals, troparia and other books were read. The books of sacred scripture and liturgical books, in addition to purely teaching and service functions, also had considerable aesthetic significance: the Bible contained vivid plot stories, the books of the prophets were distinguished by increased emotionality, vivid imagery, passion in exposing vices and social injustice; the psalter and service menaions were brilliant examples of church poetry, although their Slavic translations were prosaic. Patristics. In Old Russian, as in any other medieval Christian literature, patristics enjoyed great authority - the works of Roman and Byzantine theologians of the 3rd-11th centuries, revered as “fathers of the church” (in Greek. pater - father, hence the name of their works - patristics). In the writings of the “Church Fathers,” the dogmas of the Christian religion were substantiated and commented on, polemics were conducted with heretics, and the foundations of Christian morality or the rules of monastic life were presented in the form of teachings and instructions. In Rus', the works of John Chrysostom (344-407), an outstanding Byzantine preacher, became widespread. In his “words” and sermons, Chrysostom instructed believers in Christian virtues, vividly and temperamentally exposed vices, sometimes discussing the most important social problems. Collections were compiled from the works of John Chrysostom - “Zlatoust” (the oldest of his surviving copies dates back to the 12th century), “Zlatoust”; his “words” were part of the “Celebrants”, and in more - exhortation, a set of instructions for people who converted to Christianity), John of Sinai (died in 649), author of the “Ladder” (teachings on the self-improvement of monks), Athanasius of Alexandria (293-373) - fighter for the dogmas of Orthodoxy against various early heresies Christianity. Patristic literature played an important role in the formation of the ethical ideals of the new religion and in strengthening the foundations of Christian dogma. At the same time, the works of Byzantine theologians - most of them brilliant rhetoricians who had mastered the best traditions of classical ancient eloquence - contributed to the improvement of the oratory art of Russian church writers. N. Speransky. late time Collections of sayings and aphorisms had an openly edifying, didactic purpose. Addressing readers and listeners directly, preachers and theologians extolled virtues and condemned vices, promised the righteous eternal bliss after death, and threatened the careless and sinners with divine punishment. Monuments of another genre were also brought up and taught in Christian virtues - the lives of saints, stories about the life, suffering or pious deeds of people canonized by the church, that is, recognized as saints and officially honored. Hagiography is also called hagiography (from the Greek. agios - writing). In hagiographies we often encounter action-packed narrations, since their authors willingly used the plots and plot devices of ancient Greek adventure novels. Hagiographers, as a rule, also talked about miracles performed by saints (which was supposed to confirm their holiness); Moreover, these miracles, or the intervention of miraculous forces - angels or demons - were described in lives with vivid and detailed details; the authors of hagiographies sought and were able to achieve the illusion of believability of the most fantastic episodes. Alexey, a pious and virtuous young man, voluntarily renounces wealth, honor, and women's love. He leaves the house of his father - a rich Roman nobleman, his beautiful wife, having just married her, distributes the money taken from the house to the poor and for seventeen years lives on alms in the vestibule of the Church of the Virgin Mary in Edessa. When the fame of his holiness spread everywhere, Alexei leaves Edessa and, after wanderings, finds himself again in Rome! Unrecognized by anyone, he settles in his father’s house, feeds at the same table with the beggars, whom the pious nobleman gives alms every day, and patiently endures the bullying and beatings of his father’s servants. Another seventeen years pass. Alexei dies, and only then do the parents and widow learn that the missing son and husband lived near them. saint and graph - Patericon., mostly about monks who became famous for their piety or asceticism. The Sinai Patericon, translated into Rus' in the 11th century, tells, for example, about a stylite who is so devoid of pride that he even lays out alms for the poor on the steps of his shelter, and does not give it from hand to hand, claiming that it is not he, but the Mother of God bestows blessings on those who suffer. The patericon tells of a young nun who gouges out her eyes after learning that their beauty has aroused the lust of a young man. The righteous elder is accused of adultery, but through his prayer the twelve-day-old baby, when asked “who is his father,” points his finger at his real father; through the prayer of a pious shipbuilder, rain pours over the deck on a hot day, quenching the thirst of travelers suffering from the heat. A lion, having met a monk on a narrow mountain path, stands on its hind legs to give him way, etc. If the righteous are accompanied by divine help, then the sinners in the patericon legends expect a terrible - and what is especially characteristic - not posthumous, but immediate punishment : a thief, a desecrator of graves, has his eyes gouged out by a living dead man; the ship does not move until a female child killer steps into the boat from its side, and this boat with the sinner is immediately swallowed up by the abyss; the servant, who plans to kill and rob his mistress, cannot leave his place and stabs himself to death. The patericons depict a certain fantastic world in which the forces of good and evil are constantly fighting for the souls of people, where the righteous are not just pious, but pious to the point of frenzy and exaltation, where miracles are sometimes performed in the most everyday situations. - hidden). Abbot Daniel also mentions some apocryphal legends. Perhaps it was precisely this idea that placed “The Walk” among the apocryphal works, although the tendency to frighten people with divine retribution for their sins seemed to be fully consistent with the spirit of church teachings and instructions. The subjects of translated patericons influenced the work of ancient Russian scribes: in Russian patericons and lives we sometimes encounter similar episodes and characteristics borrowed from Byzantine patericon legends. Certain patericon legends were used in the works of Russian writers of the 19th century. - L. N. Tolstoy, N. S. Leskova, V. M. Garshin. Apocrypha Among the first translations and the first books brought to Rus' from Bulgaria were Byzantine chronicles. Chronicles or chronographs are works of historiography that present world history. The Chronicle of George Amartol played a particularly important role in the development of original Russian chronicles and Russian chronography. Its compiler is a Byzantine monk. Amartol in Greek - sinner; it is a traditional self-deprecating epithet for a monk. “The Chronicle of George Amartol” begins the story from the “creation of the world”; are presented by him very briefly, and only in the final part of the work (which belonged to the pen of Amartol’s successor, Simeon Logothet), the reader becomes acquainted with the complex political life of Byzantium in the 9th-10th centuries. The Old Russian scribe, on the contrary, was largely interested in history as such: the fate of the great powers of antiquity, information about their most outstanding rulers, as well as various entertaining stories from the lives of outstanding kings, emperors or sages. Particularly popular, for example, among medieval scribes was the story of the boys Romulus and Remus, who were raised by a she-wolf and later became the founders of a great city, and the description of the actions of Alexander the Great, who subjugated almost the entire world to his power. Back in the 11th century. Russian scribes, based on extracts from the “Chronicle of George Amartol,” compiled an abbreviated chronographic code, which is believed to be called the “Chronograph of the Great Exposition.” No later than the 11th century. In Rus', the “Chronicle” of John Malala, who lived in Antioch (in the Byzantine province of Syria) in the 6th century, also became known. n. e. Unlike George Amartol, John Malala wrote simply and artlessly, destining his work not for learned monks, but for the broad masses of readers, and strove for an entertaining presentation. The Chronicle of John Malala consists of 18 books. Four of them (the first, second, fourth and fifth) outlined ancient myths and the history of the Trojan War. Further, the Chronicle tells about the eastern kings, outlines the history of Rome and, finally, the history of Byzantium up to the reign of Emperor Justinian (VI century). The “Chronicle of John Malala” was valuable for ancient Russian historiographers and scribes primarily because it significantly complemented the “Chronicle of George Amartol”: it was Malala that contained detailed and entertaining stories about the Persian kings, the history of Romulus, Remus and the first Roman kings, history the reigns of some Byzantine emperors. No later than the beginning of the 12th century. The History of the Jewish War, a monument extremely popular in European medieval literature, was translated into Rus'. "History" was written between 75-79. Joseph, son of Mattathias, a participant in the uprising in Judea against Rome, who then went over to the side of the Romans and received the right to bear the family nickname of the emperors Flavius. The "history" consists of seven books (or "words"). The first two books recount the history of Judea, beginning in 175 BC. e. and ending 66 AD. e. - the time of the uprising against Roman rule, the third - sixth books tell about the suppression of the uprising by Vespasian, and then his son Titus, about the siege, capture and destruction of Jerusalem; finally, the last, 7th book tells about the triumph of Vespasian and Titus in Rome. The works of Josephus Flavius are by no means a dry historical chronicle - it is rather a literary and journalistic work. The author is tendentious, he does not hide his admiration for the power of the Roman emperors and dissatisfaction with his political opponents - the common people of Judea, whom he considers guilty of the failure of the uprising, but he cannot hide his admiration for the courage of the rebels and sympathy for the suffering that befell them. Journalistic spirit the work is manifested, in particular, in the speeches of the characters - Vespasian, Titus and Joseph himself (the author speaks about himself in the third person); the main goal of these speeches, constructed according to all the rules of ancient declamations, is to convince of the destructive intentions of the rebels and glorify the nobility and valor of the Romans. The stylistic art of Josephus is manifested not only in the monologues and dialogues of the heroes, but also in the descriptions - be they descriptions of the nature of Judea or its cities, battles or scary scenes famine in besieged Jerusalem; figurative expressions. Thus, the translation of the “History” indicates high skill Old Russian scribes of the 11th-12th centuries. The popularity of “History” was very great. And not only because it told about one of the important events world history : full of combat episodes, it was in tune with the Russian reader, who himself had repeatedly experienced the hardships of wars and enemy invasions. It is no coincidence that chroniclers of the XII-XIII centuries. used in their story their favorite images or figures of speech from the battle scenes of “History.” No later than the 12th century. An extensive novel about the life and exploits of Alexander the Great, the so-called “Alexandria” of Pseudocallisthenes, was translated from Greek (its author was mistakenly considered to be Callisthenes, a historian who accompanied Alexander on his campaigns). The initial historical and biographical outline of the story about Alexander in “Alexandria” is barely traceable: this is already a typical adventure novel of the Hellenistic era, where the biography of the Macedonian king is colored with numerous legendary and fantastic details, and perhaps the main theme of the work is the description of the strange lands that he allegedly visited Alexander during his campaigns. Alexander's death is also surrounded by mystery. The hero becomes aware of his imminent death from a sign; when he dies, the sky darkens, a bright star lights up and descends into the sea, the “Babylonian idol” wavers. More than 30 lists of the Old Russian translation of “History” have been preserved, the oldest of them can be read as part of the Archive and Vilna chronographs (late 15th-16th centuries), dating back to the chronographic code of the mid-13th century. . Chronographic Alexandria. Devgenie's act. In the XI-XII centuries. A translation of the Byzantine epic tale about the hero Digenis Akrit was also carried out. The original Greek translation has not survived; only copies from the 14th-16th centuries have reached us. Greek poem about Digenis, reflecting, apparently, a late processing of this epic. The Old Russian translation of the story about Digenis, usually called the “Deed of Devgenius,” tells how the Arabian king Amir kidnaps a young Greek beauty. Her three brothers, who set out to search for the girl, defeat the king. He decides to be baptized and move to Greek land , and Devgeny persuades Stratigovna to run away with him. She agrees, but Devgeny believes that by kidnapping the girl in the absence of her father and brothers (they left to hunt at that time), he will cover himself with shame. Therefore, the young man waits for the return of the relatives of his chosen one, openly takes her away literally in front of his father: The strategist was warned by the servants, but refuses to believe in the possibility of such a daring abduction. Devgeniy waits at the city walls while Stratigus and his sons give chase, and defeats them in battle. The strategist agrees to his daughter’s marriage to Devgeniy. The families of the bride and groom exchange gifts and celebrate a lavish wedding. The final part of “Devgenie’s Deeds” tells about the hero’s victory over Tsar Vasily. following his beloved. The translation of “The Tale of Akira the Wise” was also known in Kievan Rus. This story originated in Assyro-Babylonia in the 7th century. BC e. . Medieval scribes had a passion for wise sayings and aphorisms. In various editions and lists of “The Tale of Akira” the composition of maxims changes, but nevertheless they remain an indispensable part of its text. From the marriage of Amir and a Greek woman, Devgeniy is born. Since childhood, he amazes everyone with his strength and courage: while hunting, Devgeny strangles a bear with his hands and cuts a lion in two. The following tells about the victory of Devgeniy over Filipapa and the heroic maiden Maximiana; From Maximiana, Devgeniy learns that if he marries her, he will live 16 years, and if he marries Stratigovna, he will live 36 years, this prompts him to seek Stratigovna’s hand. The “Act” tells in detail about Devgeniy’s marriage. In the Greek poem, his chosen one is named Evdokia, in the ancient Russian story she is called after her father - Stratigovna(strategist - military leader, here the name of the military rank turns into a proper name). was very closely connected with theology. The natural world, information about which Byzantine scientists could glean both from their own observations and from the writings of ancient philosophers and naturalists, was considered primarily as a visual evidence of the wisdom of God who created the world, or as a kind of living allegory: natural phenomena, the habits of living beings or the world of minerals - all this seemed to be a kind of embodiment in living and material images of some eternal truths, concepts or moral teachings. Six-day stories were very popular in medieval Christian literature. These are works that comment on the short biblical story about God’s creation of the sky, stars, luminaries, earth, living beings, plants and humans within six days (hence the name of the book - “Six Days”). This commentary turned into a collection of all the information about living and inanimate nature that Byzantine science had at its disposal at that time. Of the numerous six days that existed, for example, in Byzantine literature, the “Six Days” of John, Exarch of Bulgaria, the “Six Days” of Severian of Gevalsky, and later the “Six Days” of George Pisida were known in Russia. “The Six Days” of John, Exarch of the Bulgarian is a compilative work based on the “Six Days” of Basil the Great and Severian of Gevalsky, but the author also used many other sources and supplemented the work with his own reasoning. If the “Six Days” told about nature as a whole - from the luminaries to plants and animals, then in another monument of a natural science nature, the “Physiologist”, it was mainly about living beings as really existing (lion, eagle, ant, whale, elephant and etc.), and fantastic (phoenix, sirens, centaur), and only about some plants or precious stones (diamond, flint, magnet, etc.). It consists of a prologue and six "words". They tell about the heavenly bodies and the Earth, about atmospheric phenomena, about animals, plants, about the nature of man himself. All this information, sometimes reflecting the natural scientific ideas of the time, sometimes downright fantastic, is permeated with the same idea: admiration for the wisdom of God, who created such a beautiful, diverse, intelligently arranged world. This idea from “Six Days” attracted the attention of Vladimir Monomakh, who in his “Teaching” quotes the monument and expresses his admiration for “how the sky is structured, what the sun is like, what the moon is like... and the earth is laid on the waters,” how various animals and birds. Cosmas Indikoplov’s “Christian Topography” was also famous in Ancient Rus'. Cosmas was a merchant who traveled to Egypt, Ethiopia and Arabia around 530. It is believed that Cosmas was not in India itself, despite his nickname - Indicoplov (that is, who sailed to India), and gives information about this country from other people's stories. The monument consists of 12 “words” (chapters), which contain a discussion about the structure of the Universe. In particular, Cosmas claims that the Earth is flat; it and the sky covering it are likened to a room with a vaulted ceiling. The sky we see consists of water, and above it stretches another sky, invisible to us. The movement of the luminaries and atmospheric phenomena are controlled by angels specially assigned for this purpose. Equally legendary is the information about the animal and flora

those countries that Cosma is talking about.

Later, during the time of Yaroslav the Wise, in Rus' they began to translate directly from Greek. The chronicle reports that Yaroslav collected “many scribes and translations from Greek to Slovenian writing. And I copied many books” (PVL, p. 102). The intensity of translation activity is confirmed both by direct data (lists of translated monuments that have come down to us or references to them in original works) and indirect data: the influx of translated literature at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th century. was not only a consequence of the established cultural ties between Rus' and Bulgaria or Byzantium, but was primarily caused by an urgent need, a kind of state necessity: Rus', which had adopted Christianity, needed literature for worship, to become familiar with the philosophical and ethical doctrines of the new religion, the ritual and legal customs of the church and monastic life.

For the activities of the Christian church in Rus', liturgical books were needed first of all. The obligatory set of books that were necessary for worship in each individual church included the Gospel aprakos, the Apostle aprakos, the Missal, the Breviary, the Psalter, the Lenten Triodion, the Colored Triodion and the General Menaion. Considering that in the chronicles in the narration of the events of the 9th–11th centuries. 88 cities are mentioned (data from B.V. Sapunov), each of which had from several units to several dozen churches, then the number of books necessary for their functioning will be in the many hundreds. Only a few copies of manuscripts from the 11th–12th centuries have reached us, but they confirm our ideas about the above-mentioned repertoire of liturgical books.

If the transfer of liturgical books to Russian soil was dictated by the needs church service, and their repertoire was regulated by the canon of liturgical practice, then in relation to other genres of Byzantine literature one can assume some selectivity.

But it is here that we encounter an interesting phenomenon, which D. S. Likhachev characterized as the phenomenon of “transplantation”: Byzantine literature in its individual genres not only influenced Slavic literature, and through it on Old Russian literature, but was - of course, in some way its part was simply transferred to Rus'.

Patristics. First of all, this applies to Byzantine patristic literature. In Rus', the works of the “church fathers”, theologians and preachers were known and enjoyed high authority: John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius of Alexandria, etc.

Homiletic writers (authors of teachings and sermons) were highly valued throughout the Russian Middle Ages. Their creations not only helped shape moral ideals Christian world, but at the same time they forced us to think about the properties of human character, drew attention to various features of the human psyche, and influenced other literary genres with their experience of “human studies”.

Of the homiletic writers, John Chrysostom (d. 407) enjoyed the greatest authority. In his work, “the assimilation of the traditions of ancient culture by the Christian Church reached complete and classical completion. He developed a style of preaching prose that absorbed the countless richness of expressive techniques of rhetoric and brought the virtuosity of finishing to stunning expressiveness.” The teachings of John Chrysostom have been included in collections since the 11th century. From the 12th century The list “Zlatostruya” has been preserved, containing mainly the “words” of Chrysostom; several “words” were included in the famous Assumption collection at the turn of the 12th–13th centuries.

In the lists of the 11th–12th centuries. translations of other Byzantine homilets have also been preserved - Gregory the Theologian, Cyril of Jerusalem, “The Ladder” of John Climacus, Pandects of Antiochus and Pandects of Nikon the Montenegrin. The sayings and aphorisms of the “Church Fathers” (along with aphorisms extracted from the works of ancient authors) made up a collection popular in Ancient Rus' - “The Bee” (the oldest list of the turn of the 13th–14th centuries). In the "Izbornik 1076" A significant place is occupied by Gennady’s “Stoslovets” - a kind of “moral code” of a Christian.

Works of the homiletical genre did not hide their edifying, didactic function. Addressing readers and listeners directly, homiletic writers sought to convince them with the logic of their reasoning, extolled virtues and condemned vices, promised eternal bliss to the righteous, and threatened the careless and sinners with divine punishment.

Lives of the Saints. Monuments of the hagiographic genre - the lives of saints - also educated and instructed, but the main means of persuasion was not so much the word - sometimes indignant and denouncing, sometimes insinuatingly instructive - as a living image. An action-packed narrative about the life of a righteous man, willingly using the plots and plot devices of the Hellenistic adventure novel, could not fail to interest the medieval reader. The hagiographer addressed not so much his mind as his feelings and ability for a vivid imagination. Therefore, the most fantastic episodes - the intervention of angels or demons, miracles performed by saints - were sometimes described with detailed details that helped the reader to see and imagine what was happening. Sometimes the Lives reported precise geographical or topographical features, and named the names of real historical figures - all this also created the illusion of authenticity and was intended to convince the reader of the veracity of the story and thereby give the Lives the authority of a “historical” narrative.

The lives can be roughly divided into two plot types - martyrium lives, i.e. stories about the torment of fighters for the faith in pagan times, and lives that told about saints who voluntarily took on the feat of seclusion or foolishness, distinguished by extraordinary piety and love of poverty etc.

An example of the first type of life is the “Life of St. Irene.” It tells how Irina’s father, the pagan king Licinius, at the instigation of a demon, decides to destroy his Christian daughter; According to his sentence, she should be crushed by the chariot, but a miracle happens: the horse, breaking the traces, pounces on the king, bites off his hand and returns to its original place. Irina is subjected to various sophisticated tortures by King Zedeki, but each time, thanks to divine intercession, she remains alive and unharmed. The princess is thrown into a ditch infested with poisonous snakes, but the “reptiles” immediately “press” against the walls of the ditch and die. They try to saw the saint alive, but the saw breaks and the executioners die. She is tied to a mill wheel, but water “by the command of God flows around,” etc.

Another type of life includes, for example, the legend of Alexei the Man of God. Alexey, a pious and virtuous young man, voluntarily renounces wealth, honor, and women's love. He leaves the house of his father - a rich Roman nobleman, his beautiful wife, as soon as he has married her, distributes the money taken from the house to the poor and for seventeen years lives on alms in the vestibule of the Church of the Virgin Mary in Edessa. When the fame of his holiness spread everywhere, Alexei left Edessa and, after wanderings, found himself again in Rome. Unrecognized by anyone, he settles in his father’s house, feeds at the same table with the beggars, whom the pious nobleman gives alms every day, and patiently endures the bullying and beatings of his father’s servants. Another seventeen years pass. Alexei dies, and only then do the parents and widow recognize their missing son and husband.

Patericon. Patericons - collections of short stories about monks - were widely known in Kievan Rus. The themes of the patericon legends are quite traditional. Most often these are stories about monks who became famous for their asceticism or humility. Thus, one legend tells how elders come to a hermit to talk with him, thirsting for instruction from him. But the recluse is silent, and when asked about the reason for his silence, he replies that day and night he sees before him the image of the crucified Christ. “This is our best instruction!” - the elders exclaim.

The hero of another story is a stylite. He is so alien to pride that he even lays out alms for the poor on the steps of his shelter, and does not give them from hand to hand, claiming that it is not he, but the Mother of God who gives gifts to the suffering.

The patericon tells of a young nun who gouges out her eyes after learning that their beauty has aroused the lust of a young man.

The omnipotence of prayer and the ability of ascetics to perform miracles are the subjects of another group of patericon short stories. The righteous elder is accused of adultery, but through his prayer the twelve-day-old baby, when asked “who is his father,” points his finger at his real father. Through the prayer of a pious shipbuilder, rain pours over the deck on a hot day, delighting travelers suffering from the heat and thirst. A lion, having met a monk on a narrow mountain path, stands on its hind legs to give him way, etc.

If the righteous are accompanied by divine help, then sinners in the patericon legends face a terrible and, what is especially characteristic, not posthumous, but immediate punishment: the desecrator of graves has his eyes gouged out by a living dead man; the ship does not move from its place until a female child killer steps into the boat from its side, and the boat with the sinner is immediately swallowed up by the abyss; the servant, who plans to kill and rob his mistress, cannot leave his place and stabs himself to death.

Thus, in the patericon a certain fantastic world is depicted, where the forces of good and evil are constantly fighting for the souls of people, where the righteous are not just pious, but exaltedly fanatical, where miracles are performed in the most everyday situations, where even wild animals confirm the omnipotence of faith with their behavior. The subjects of translated patericons influenced the work of Russian scribes: in Russian patericons and lives we will find direct analogies to episodes from Byzantine patericons.

Apocrypha. Apocrypha was also a favorite genre of ancient Russian readers, the oldest translations of which also date back to the Kievan era. Apocrypha (from the Greek ?????????? - “secret, hidden”) were works that tell about biblical characters or saints, but were not included in the circle of monuments revered as sacred scripture or officially recognized by the church. There were apocryphal gospels (for example, “The Gospel of Thomas”, “The Gospel of Nicodemus”), lives (“The Life of Andrew the Fool", “The Life of Basil the New”), legends, prophecies, etc. The apocrypha often contained a more detailed account of events or characters mentioned in canon bible books. There were apocryphal stories about Adam and Eve (for example, about Adam’s second wife, Lilith, about the birds that taught Adam how to bury Abel), about the childhood of Moses (in particular, about the test of the wisdom of the boy Moses by Pharaoh), about the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

The apocryphal “Walking of the Mother of God through the Torment” describes the suffering of sinners in hell, the “Tale of Agapius” tells of paradise - a wonderful garden, where “a bed and a meal decorated with precious stones” are prepared for the righteous, birds sing around “with different voices”, and the plumage they have gold, and scarlet, and scarlet, and blue, and green...

Apocrypha often reflected heretical ideas about the present and future world and rose to complex philosophical problems. The apocrypha reflected the teaching according to which God is opposed by an equally powerful antipode - Satan, the source of evil and the culprit of human disasters; Thus, according to one apocryphal legend, the human body was created by Satan, and God only “put” the soul into it.

The attitude of the Orthodox Church towards apocryphal literature was complex. The most ancient indices (lists) of “true and false books,” in addition to “true” books, distinguished between “hidden” and “hidden” books, which were recommended to be read only by knowledgeable people, and “false” books, which were certainly forbidden to be read, since they contained heretical views . However, in practice, it was almost impossible to separate apocryphal stories from stories found in “true” books: apocryphal legends were reflected in monuments that enjoyed the highest authority: in chronicles, paleas, in collections used in worship (Solemnists, Menaions). Attitudes towards the apocrypha changed over time: some monuments that were popular in the past were subsequently banned and even destroyed, but, on the other hand, in the “Great Menaion of Cheti”, created in the 16th century. Orthodox churchmen included many texts previously considered apocryphal as a set of recommended reading literature.

Among the first translations carried out under Yaroslav the Wise or over the subsequent decades were also monuments of Byzantine chronography.

Chronicle of George Amartol. Among them, the Chronicle of George Amartol was of greatest importance for the history of Russian chronicles and chronography. The author, a Byzantine monk, outlined in his work the entire history of the world from Adam to the events of the mid-9th century. In addition to the events of biblical history, the Chronicle told about the kings of the East (Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius), Alexander the Great, Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar to Costanius Chlorus, and then about the Byzantine emperors, from Constantine the Great to Michael III. While still on Greek soil, the Chronicle was supplemented by an extract from the “Chronicle of Simeon Logothetes,” and the presentation in it was completed before the death of Emperor Roman Lecapinus (he was overthrown from the throne in 944 and died in 948). Despite its significant volume and breadth of historical range, Amartol's work presented world history from a unique perspective, primarily as church history. The author often introduces lengthy theological reasoning into his presentation, scrupulously sets out the debates at ecumenical councils, himself argues with heretics, denounces iconoclasm, and quite often replaces the description of events with reasoning about them. We find a relatively detailed account of the political history of Byzantium only in the last part of the Chronicle, which describes the events of the 9th - first half of the 10th centuries. The “Chronicle of Amartol” was used in the compilation of a brief chronographic code - the “Chronograph according to the Great Exposition”, which in turn was used in the compilation of the “Initial Code”, one of the oldest monuments of Russian chronicles (see below, p. 39). Then the Chronicle was again turned to when compiling the Tale of Bygone Years; it became part of the extensive ancient Russian chronographic codes - “Greek Chronicler”, “Russian Chronograph”, etc.

Chronicle of John Malala. The Byzantine Chronicle, compiled in the 6th century, had a different character. Greekized Syrian John Malala. Its author, according to the researcher of the monument, “set out to provide moralizing, in the spirit of Christian piety, edifying, and at the same time entertaining reading for a wide audience of readers and listeners.” The “Chronicle of Malala” retells in detail ancient myths (about the birth of Zeus, about the struggle of the gods with the Titans, myths about Dionysus, Orpheus, Daedalus and Icarus, Theseus and Ariadne, Oedipus); The fifth book of the Chronicle contains a story about the Trojan War. Malala sets out in detail the history of Rome (especially the ancient one - from Romulus and Remus to Julius Caesar), and a significant place is devoted to the political history of Byzantium. In a word, the “Chronicle of Malala” successfully complemented Amartol’s presentation, in particular, it was through this “Chronicle” that Kievan Rus could get acquainted with the myths ancient Greece. They didn't reach us separate lists Slavic translation of the “Chronicles of Malala”, we know it only as part of the extracts included in Russian chronographic compilations (“Archive” and “Vilna” chronographs, both editions of the “Hellenic Chronicler”, etc.).

History of the Jewish War by Josephus. Perhaps already in the middle of the 11th century. Josephus Flavius’s “History of the Jewish War” was translated in Rus' - an exceptionally authoritative monument in the Christian literature of the Middle Ages. The History was written between 75–79. n. e. Joseph ben Mattafie, a contemporary and direct participant in the anti-Roman uprising in Judea, who later went over to the side of the Romans. The book of Joseph is a valuable historical source, although extremely biased, for the author very unequivocally condemns his fellow tribesmen, but glorifies the military art and political wisdom of Vespasian and Titus Flavius. At the same time, "History" is brilliant literary monument. Josephus skillfully uses plot narration techniques; his presentation is replete with descriptions, dialogues, psychological characteristics; the “speeches” of the characters in “History” are constructed according to the laws of ancient declamations; even when talking about events, the author remains a sophisticated stylist: he strives for a symmetrical construction of phrases, willingly resorts to rhetorical oppositions, skillfully constructed enumerations, etc. Sometimes it seems that for Josephus the form of presentation is no less important than the subject itself about which he writes.

The Old Russian translator understood and appreciated the literary merits of the “History”: he was not only able to preserve the refined style of the monument in translation, but in a number of cases he entered into competition with the author, either disseminating descriptions using traditional stylistic formulas, or translating the indirect speech of the original into direct speech, or introducing comparisons or clarifications that make the narrative more lively and imaginative. The translation of “History” is convincing evidence of the high culture of words among the scribes of Kievan Rus.

Alexandria. No later than the 12th century. An extensive narrative about the life and exploits of Alexander the Great was also translated from Greek - the so-called pseudo-Callisthenes “Alexandria”. It is based on a Hellenistic novel, apparently created in Alexandria in the 2nd–1st centuries. BC e., but later subjected to additions and revisions. Initial biographical narrative Over time, it became more and more fictionalized, overgrown with legendary and fairy-tale motifs, gradually turning into an adventure novel typical of the Hellenistic era. One of these later versions of “Alexandria” was translated into Rus'.

The actual history of the actions of the famous commander is barely traceable here, buried under the layers of later traditions and legends. Alexander turns out to be no longer the son of the Macedonian king, but the illegitimate son of Olympias and the Egyptian sorcerer king Nektonav. The birth of a hero is accompanied by miraculous signs. Contrary to history, Alexander conquers Rome and Athens, boldly appears to Darius, posing as a Macedonian ambassador, negotiates with the queen of the Amazons, etc. The third book of Alexandria is especially replete with fairy-tale motifs, where Alexander’s (of course, fictitious) letters to mothers; the hero informs Olympias about the miracles he saw: people of gigantic stature, disappearing trees, fish that can be boiled in cold water, six-legged and three-eyed monsters, etc. Nevertheless, the ancient Russian scribes apparently perceived “Alexandria” as a historical narrative about as evidenced by the inclusion of its full text in the chronographic codes. Regardless of how the novel about Alexander was received in Rus', the very fact that ancient Russian readers became acquainted with this most popular plot of the Middle Ages was of great importance: ancient Russian literature was thereby introduced into the sphere of pan-European cultural interests, enriching their knowledge of the history of the ancient world.

The Tale of Akira the Wise. If "Alexandria" genetically went back to the historical narrative and told about a historical character, then "The Tale of Akira the Wise", also translated in Kievan Rus in the 11th - early 12th centuries, is in origin a purely fictional monument - an ancient Assyrian legend of the 7th century. BC e. Researchers have not come to a single conclusion about the ways of penetration of “The Tale of Akira” into Rus': there are assumptions that it was translated from the Syriac or Armenian original. The Tale Lived in Rus' long life. Its oldest edition (apparently a translation very close to the original) was preserved in four copies of the 15th–17th centuries. In the XVI or early XVII V. The story has been radically revised. Its new editions (Brief and Distributed, which goes back to it), have largely lost their original oriental flavor, but acquired the features of a Russian folk tale, were extremely popular in the 17th century, and in Old Believer environment the story continued to exist until our time.

The oldest edition of the Russian translation of the Tale told how Akir, the wise adviser to King Sinagrippa, was slandered by his adopted son Anadan and sentenced to death. death penalty. But Akira’s devoted friend Nabuginail saved and managed to reliably hide the convict. Some time later, the Egyptian pharaoh demanded that King Sinagrippa send him a sage who could solve the riddles proposed by the pharaoh and build a palace “between heaven and earth.” For this, the pharaoh will pay Synagrippa “three years’ tribute.” If the envoy Synagrippa fails to complete the task, tribute will be exacted in favor of Egypt. All those close to Sinagrippa, including Anadan, who has now become Akir’s successor as the first nobleman, admit that they are unable to fulfill the pharaoh’s demand. Then Nabuginail informs the despairing Synagrippus that Akir is alive. The happy king forgives the disgraced sage and sends him under the guise of a simple groom to the pharaoh. Akir solves the riddles and then cunningly avoids completing the final task - building a palace. To do this, Akir teaches the eagles to lift a basket into the air; the boy sitting in it shouts to be given “stone and lime”: he is ready to begin building the palace. But no one can deliver the necessary goods to the skies, and the pharaoh is forced to admit defeat. Akir returns home with a “three-year tribute”, again becomes close to Synagrippa, and the exposed Anadan dies a terrible death.

The wisdom (or cunning) of the hero freeing himself from the need to complete an impossible task is traditional fairy tale motif. And it is characteristic that with all the alterations of the Tale on Russian soil, it was the story about how Akir guesses the riddles of the pharaoh and, with wise counter-demands, forces him to abandon his claims, enjoyed constant popularity, it was constantly reworked and supplemented with new details.

The Tale of Barlaam and Joasaph. If “The Tale of Akira the Wise” resembles a fairy tale in many of its elements, then another translated story - about Varlaam and Joasaph - is closely related to the hagiographic genre, although in fact its plot is based legendary biography Buddha, who came to Rus' through Byzantine media.

The Tale tells how Prince Joasaph, the son of the Indian pagan king Abner, under the influence of the hermit Varlaam, becomes a Christian ascetic.

However, the plot, potentially replete with “conflict situations,” turns out to be extremely smoothed out in the Tale: the author seems to be in a hurry to eliminate the obstacles that arise or simply “forget” about them. So, for example, Abner imprisons young Joasaph in a secluded palace precisely so that the boy cannot hear about the ideas of Christianity and does not learn about the existence of old age, illness, and death in the world. And yet, Joasaph still leaves the palace and immediately meets a sick old man, and the Christian hermit Barlaam enters his chambers without any special obstacles. The pagan sage Nahor, according to Abner's plan, in a dispute with the imaginary Barlaam, should debunk the ideas of Christianity, but suddenly, completely unexpectedly, he himself begins to denounce paganism. A beautiful princess is brought to Joasaph; she must persuade the young ascetic to sensual pleasures, but Joasaph easily resists the beauty’s charms and easily convinces her to become a chaste Christian. There are a lot of dialogues in the Tale, but they are all devoid of individuality and naturalness: Barlaam, Joasaph, and the pagan sages speak in the same pompous and “scholarly” manner. Before us is like a lengthy philosophical debate, the participants of which are as conventional as the participants in a conversation in the genre of “philosophical dialogue”. Nevertheless, The Tale of Varlaam was widely distributed; The parables-apologists included in its composition, illustrating the ideals of Christian piety and asceticism, were especially popular: some of the parables were included in collections of both mixed and permanent composition (for example, in “Izmaragd”), and many dozens of their lists are known.

Devgenie's act. It is believed that back in Kievan Rus, a translation of the Byzantine epic poem about Digenis Akrites was carried out (akrits were the name given to warriors who guarded the borders Byzantine Empire). The time of translation is indicated, according to researchers, by language data - lexical parallels of the story (in the Russian version it was called “Devgeniy’s Deed”) and literary monuments of Kievan Rus, as well as the mention of Devgeniy Akrit in “The Life of Alexander Nevsky”. But the comparison with Akrit appears only in the third (according to the classification of Yu. K. Begunov) edition of the monument, probably created in the middle of the 15th century, and cannot serve as an argument in favor of the existence of the translation in Kievan Rus. Significant plot differences between the “Acts of Deugene” and the Greek versions of the epic about Digenis Akritus known to us leave open the question of whether these differences were the result of a radical reworking of the original during translation, whether they arose in the process of later alterations of the text on Russian soil, or whether the Russian text corresponds to a text that has not survived before us the Greek version.

Devgeny (as it was conveyed in the Russian translation Greek name Digenis) is a typical epic hero. He has extraordinary strength (even as a boy, Devgeny strangled a bear with his bare hands, and, having matured, exterminates thousands of enemy soldiers in battles), he is handsome, knightly generous. A significant place in the Russian version of the monument is occupied by the story of Devgeny’s marriage to the daughter of the proud and stern Stratigus. This episode has all the characteristic features of an “epic matchmaking”: Devgeny sings a love song under the girl’s windows; She, admiring the beauty and daring of the young man, agrees to run away with him. Devgeny takes his beloved away in broad daylight, defeats her father and brothers in battle, then makes peace with them; the parents of the newlyweds arrange a multi-day lavish wedding.

Devgeny is akin to the heroes of translated chivalric novels that spread in Rus' in the 17th century. (such as Bova Korolevich, Eruslan, Vasily Zlatovlasy), and, apparently, this closeness to the literary taste of the era contributed to the revival of the manuscript tradition of the “Acts”: all three lists that have come down to us date back to the 17th–18th centuries.

* * *

So, Kievan Rus in a short period of time acquired a rich and varied literature. A whole system of genres was transferred to new soil: chronicles, historical stories, lives, patericons, “words”, teachings. The significance of this phenomenon is being increasingly studied and comprehended in our science. It has been established that the system of genres of Byzantine or ancient Bulgarian literature was not completely transferred to Rus': ancient Russian scribes preferred some genres and rejected others. At the same time, genres arose in Rus' that had no analogues in “model literature”: the Russian chronicle is not similar to the Byzantine chronicle, and the chronicles themselves are used as material for independent and original chronographic compilations; the “Tale of Igor’s Host” and “Teaching” by Vladimir Monomakh, “The Prayer of Daniil the Imprisoner” and “The Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan” are completely original. Translated works not only enriched Russian scribes with historical or natural scientific information, introduced them to the plots of ancient myths and epic legends, they at the same time represented different types plots, styles, manners of narration, being a kind of literary school for ancient Russian scribes, who were able to get acquainted with the ponderous, verbose Amartol and the laconic, stingy on details and details of Malala, with the brilliant stylist Flavius and with the inspired rhetorician John Chrysostom, with the heroic world of the epic of Devgenia and the exotic fantasy of Alexandria. It was rich material for reading and writing experience, an excellent school of literary language; it helped Old Russian scribes to visualize possible variants of styles, to refine their hearing and speech on the colossal lexical wealth of Byzantine and Old Church Slavonic literature.

But it would be a mistake to believe that translated literature was the only and main school of ancient Russian scribes. In addition to translated literature, they used the rich traditions of oral folk art, and above all, the traditions of the Slavic epic. This is not a guess or a reconstruction of modern researchers: as we will see later, folk epic legends are recorded in early chronicles and represent a completely exceptional artistic phenomenon that has no analogues in the monuments of translated literature known to us. Slavic epic legends are distinguished by a special manner of constructing the plot, a unique interpretation of the character of the heroes, and a style that differs from the style of monumental historicism, which was formed mainly under the influence of monuments of translated literature.

Cultural and religious connections of Ancient Rus' with other Slavic countries on early stage(X-XI centuries) were in the nature of assimilation of the heritage of Great Moravia, the First Bulgarian Kingdom and the Czech Republic. The first and decisive thing was the acceptance of the Cyril and Methodius inheritance, and direct spiritual and cultural contact with Byzantium was secondary. Florovsky G.V., prot. Paths of Russian theology. Paris, 1983. P. 5.

Old Russian literature, being younger compared to the literature of Bulgaria and especially Byzantium, became the object of their influence. However, according to D.S. Likhachev, it is more correct to talk not about “influence,” but about a peculiar process of transferring Byzantine literature to Russian soil. The fact is that before the adoption of Christianity in Ancient Rus' there was no literature (the art of words was represented by folklore) and, therefore, Byzantine literature had nothing to influence. Therefore, at first after the adoption of Christianity, Byzantine literature - directly or through Bulgarian media - was simply transferred to Rus'. Such a transfer, however, was not mechanical: works were not simply translated or rewritten, they continued their literary history on new soil. Therefore, the division of ancient Russian literature into original and translated can only be significant in the sense that we indicate the origin of the monument, and not its place in the literature of ancient Rus'. Likhachev D. S. Development of Russian literature X - XVII centuries. St. Petersburg, 1998. pp. 21 - 23.

This phenomenon turned out to be extremely progressive. Thanks to him, Rus' in a short time received literature with an extensive system of genres. Thus, at the beginning of the 11th century, the entire written stock of Simeonov’s Bulgaria became available to the Russian scribe, which, in terms of the wealth of literary works, could be put on the same level with the richest literatures at that time, Greek and Latin. Florovsky G.V., prot. Paths of Russian theology. Paris, 1983. pp. 6 - 7.

Bulgarian writing, however, did not overshadow Greek. Under Yaroslav the Wise, a whole circle of translators from Greek worked, and the work of this circle is associated with the entry into Slavic circulation of a long series of monuments unknown in Simeon’s Bulgaria. Right there. P. 7.

It should be noted that currently no more than 0.5% of the pre-Mongol manuscript heritage has been preserved. Vereshchagin E.M. Christian bookishness of Ancient Rus'. M., 1996. P. 4. In total, the book collections of the former USSR contain 498 Church Slavonic manuscript monuments, of which 321 are of Russian origin, dating back to the 10th - 14th centuries. From the 14th century 685 handwritten books and fragments have reached us. From the 15th century we already have about 3.5 thousand Church Slavonic books, and from the 16th - 17th centuries. - at least 250 thousand. Levshun L. V. History of East Slavic book word XI-XVII centuries. Minsk, 2001. P. 24.

“A characteristic feature of the most ancient part of the surviving manuscript heritage of Ancient Rus' is its predominantly ecclesiastical or ecclesiastical-liturgical character.” Right there. P. 24. 75.5% of the monuments known to us from the 11th - 13th centuries. - biblical and liturgical texts. Right there. P. 25.

The main directions of ancient Russian literature until the middle of the 17th century. developed under the influence of the Church Charter. He was the main regulator of church liturgical practice, determining the set and composition of liturgical and religious books. History and the change of Charters determined the composition and characteristics of book complexes in various periods of the history of Ancient Rus'. Right there. P. 34. The Church Charter prescribed three main types of readings: words of praise to saints and feasts, interpretations and lives. It was the threefold nature of the readings prescribed by the Typikon that influenced the emergence of three main, that is, the most common genres in book literature: panegyric, teaching (interpretation-commentary), and edifying biography. Accordingly, chetya collections of three main types appeared: 1) solemnities (triode and menaion) and prologues, 2) chrysostomniks (weekly, Lenten and colored) and 3) Chetya-Minea. Right there. P. 35.

Three types of collections, including the corresponding genre works corresponded to the three ranks of those being saved. Hagiobiography, the historical word, and the patericon contributed to the education of beginners’ feelings; education of the mind of the successful - interpretations, announcements, question-and-answer works, teachings; education of the mind of the perfect - prayers, hymnography, preaching. Right there. P. 69.

Personality of the Rev. Maxima was known to Old Russian readers from the Prologue and the Chetyih Menaion (both St. Macarius and St. Demetrius of Rostov). Sidorov A.I. Some remarks on the biography of Maximus the Confessor // Byzantine temporary book. T. 47. M., 1986. Note. 2. P. 109. In the monthly calendar of the 13th century. the days of memory of St. Maxim: January 21 (Memory of the Venerable Father Maximus the Confessor) and August 13 (Assumption of Blessed Maximus the Confessor). Macarius (Bulgakov), Metropolitan. History of the Russian Church. T. 2. M., 1996. pp. 585-593. And the saint’s works were included in various collections. It was in the second oldest Russian book - the Izbornik of Svyatoslav of 1073 - that a fairly large number of fragments of the works of St. Maxim, which we will consider in the corresponding chapter. Excerpts from the works of the monk were included in other monuments of translated literature of the 11th - 13th centuries. Translations of ascetic works by Rev. Maximus is known to us from manuscripts of the 13th - 14th centuries. and subsequent time.

Thus, according to A.I. Sidorov, “Rev. Maximus the Confessor is one of bright examples organic connection between Byzantine and Russian cultures." Sidorov A.I. Some remarks on the biography of Maximus the Confessor // Byzantine temporary book. T. 47. M., 1986. Note. 2. P. 109.

The fact that the works of Rev. Maxims are represented to a lesser extent in ancient Russian literature than the works of some other holy fathers, due to the fact that East Slavic scribes, selecting material for translation, focused mainly on the authors of the 4th - 6th centuries. In the manuscripts that have reached us, translations of the works of Sts predominate. John Chrysostom, Athanasius the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Cyril of Jerusalem, John of Damascus. The orientation towards these holy fathers was laid down by the requirements of the Helmsman and the Typikon. Levshun L.V. History of the East Slavic book word of the 11th-17th centuries. Minsk, 2001. P. 81.

Of the ascetic works in Ancient Rus', the most popular were the Ladder, the Teachings of Abba Dorotheus and Isaac the Syrian. Zhukovskaya L.P. Ancient Slavic translations of Byzantine and Syrian monuments in the book depositories of the USSR // Palestine collection. Vol. 19 (82). L., 1969. P. 172. This is explained by the more systematic nature of these works and their practical orientation. Creativity of the Rev. Maximus and the depth of his thought were not easily perceived even by the Byzantines and sometimes aroused “a certain opposition from readers due to their complexity.” Works of St. Maximus the Confessor. Book 1. M., 1993. P. 71.

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Introduction

Translations constituted the most important part of ancient Slavic Russian literature, not only in terms of quantitative superiority, but also in terms of ideological significance. Monuments of translated writing connected the literature and culture of the feudal society of Ancient Rus' and the Slavic countries of the Middle Ages with their historical predecessor - the literature and culture of the ancient world: not only classical Greece and Rome and Christian Byzantium, but also countries Ancient East- Egypt, Syria, Palestine. These monuments gave the Slavs and Russians the opportunity for historical self-determination, finding their place in the world historical process. They overwhelmingly determined the ideological basis medieval culture and therefore connected the Slavic cultural world and Ancient Rus' with the cultural circles of the Christian peoples of the East and West. Translated writing enriched the mental horizons of the Slavic peoples, who joined the cultural circle of the peoples of the Mediterranean relatively late, with many abstract scientific and philosophical ideas and concepts that had not previously existed in the minds of our ancestors.

Through translated writing, Ancient Rus' inherited the main patterns from Byzantium and antiquity literary types and genres, which she then continued to develop based on her own creativity. Thus, chronicle writing is genetically connected with Byzantine chronicles; with translated lives - works of the hagiographic genre, created in Kievan and Muscovite Rus'; with translated chants - Russian original hymnological creativity; with translated words and teachings of the “Church Fathers” - works of solemn eloquence created by Russian preachers - Hilarion, Metropolitan of Kyiv, Theodosius of Pechersk, Kirill of Turov.

The originality of early translated monuments.

Translated literature, which poured into Russian literature in a wide stream in the 11th-12th centuries, contributed to the establishment of Christian ideology in literature, bringing with it a number of new genres: lives, sermons, various types of church chants, etc. These new genres also contributed to the establishment of Christianity . Finally, with translated literature, a number of ways of expressing this new ideology were transferred to Rus': in certain techniques of rhetorical art, in certain techniques of depicting the internal state of Christian ascetics

etc. Finally, translated literature contributed to the establishment of a number of images, symbols, and metaphors in Russian literature.

These books were supposed to serve as a guide in accomplishing something quite complex by the beginning of the 11th century. Christian cult. From the 11th century We have come down to us in the Bulgarian translation of the monthly service Menaion (a collection of services in calendar order for the whole year), the Triodi (“fast” - texts of festive services before Easter and “colored” - texts of services after Easter), then service books and missals. In addition to the exclusively “business” part, these liturgical books contained texts of a literary and poetic nature - chants and readings, which constituted, so to speak, the artistic part of the liturgical ritual. These liturgical books could also be used for reading outside church and were used in teaching literacy (Book of Hours). In church chants - canons, stichera, kontakia, ikos of John of Damascus, Gregory of Nazianzus, Patriarch Sophronius - the connection with ancient and Hellenistic poetry, with the moods of ancient philosophical lyrics, has not yet been lost. Simple in theme (prayers for healing and protection, prayers of repentance, praise to saints and deities), church chants were very complex in their style and transferred into Russian literary use certain flowery expressions, rhyme (of the usual verbal type in Byzantium), rhythmic construction of prose, complex and sophisticated comparisons.

The main “corpus” of Christian doctrine - the Bible - was not yet fully translated in the 11th-12th centuries. Only that which met the immediate needs of the Christian cult was translated, or its historical parts for inclusion in large historical works of a consolidated nature - Explanatory Paley, etc. Nevertheless, the biblical books were quite well represented in translations - in full or in abbreviations.

If the transfer of liturgical books to Russian soil was dictated by the needs of church services, and their repertoire was regulated by the canon of liturgical practice, then in relation to other genres of Byzantine literature one can assume a certain selectivity.
But it is here that we encounter an interesting phenomenon, which D. S. Likhachev characterized as the phenomenon of “transplantation”: Byzantine literature in some of its genres not only influenced Slavic literature, and through it on Old Russian literature, but was, of course, in some way parts - simply transferred to Rus'.

First of all, this applies to Byzantine patristic literature. In Rus', the works of the “church fathers”, theologians and preachers were known and enjoyed high authority: John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius of Alexandria, etc.

Homiletic writers (authors of teachings and sermons) were highly valued throughout the Russian Middle Ages. Their creations not only helped to shape the moral ideals of the Christian world, but at the same time made them think about the properties of human character, drew attention to various features of the human psyche, and influenced other literary genres with their experience of “human studies.”

Monuments of the hagiographic genre - the lives of saints - also educated and instructed, but the main means of persuasion was not so much the word - sometimes indignant and denouncing, sometimes insinuatingly instructive - as a living image. An action-packed narrative about the life of a righteous man, willingly using the plots and plot devices of the Hellenistic adventure novel, could not fail to interest the medieval reader. The hagiographer addressed not so much his mind as his feelings and ability for a vivid imagination. Therefore, the most fantastic episodes - the intervention of angels or demons, miracles performed by saints - were sometimes described with detailed details that helped the reader to see and imagine what was happening. Sometimes the Lives reported precise geographical or topographical features, and named the names of real historical figures - all this also created the illusion of authenticity and was intended to convince the reader of the veracity of the story and thereby give the Lives the authority of a “historical” narrative.

Patericons, collections of short stories about monks, were widely known in Kievan Rus. The themes of the patericon legends are quite traditional. Most often these are stories about monks who became famous for their asceticism or humility. The patericons depict a certain fantastic world where the forces of good and evil are constantly fighting for the souls of people, where the righteous are not just pious, but exaltedly fanatical, where miracles are performed in the most everyday situations, where even wild animals confirm the omnipotence of faith with their behavior. The subjects of translated patericons influenced the work of Russian scribes: in Russian patericons and lives we will find direct analogies to episodes from Byzantine patericons.

Apocrypha was also a favorite genre of ancient Russian readers, the oldest translations of which also date back to the Kievan era. Apocrypha (from the Greek ἀπόκρυφα - “secret, hidden”) were works that tell about biblical characters or saints, but were not included in the circle of monuments revered as sacred scripture or officially recognized by the church. There were apocryphal gospels (for example, “The Gospel of Thomas”, “The Gospel of Nicodemus”), lives (“The Life of Andrew the Fool", “The Life of Basil the New”), legends, prophecies, etc. The apocrypha often contained a more detailed account of events or characters mentioned in canonical biblical books. There were apocryphal stories about Adam and Eve (for example, about Adam’s second wife, Lilith, about the birds that taught Adam how to bury Abel), about the childhood of Moses (in particular, about the test of the wisdom of the boy Moses by Pharaoh), about the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

Among the first translations carried out under Yaroslav the Wise or over the subsequent decades were also monuments of Byzantine chronography. Such as: the Chronicle of George Amartol, the Chronicle of John Malala, the History of the Jewish War by Josephus, Alexandria, the Tale of Akira the Wise, the Tale of Varlaam and Joasaph, the Deed of Devgenius.

The ratio of translated and original.

The modern concept of translation is not always applicable to the so-called translated ancient Slavic literature. The ancient Slavic “translators,” and mainly scribes and sometimes even readers, constantly introduced additions and clarifications into these translations (in the margins of manuscripts), simplified or complicated the language, inserted entire pieces from other works, adapting the translations to the needs of contemporary reality. Sometimes ancient Slavic scribes rearranged the composition of translated works or created consolidated works on their basis. large compositions, devoted to major topics: world history, Old Testament history, etc. “Translators” preferred to take into account the needs of readers, sometimes to a greater extent than to maintain closeness to the original.

Secular literature, primarily historical, was subject to even greater revisions. A careful study of various editions of Russian translations of Byzantine chronicles shows that these translations were immediately used for large Russian works of a consolidated nature on world and Russian history. Russian scribes persistently and persistently expanded the material of these chronicles with more and more new historical works, which were included in their composition for the most complete coverage of world history. At the same time, Russian translators and scribes shortened their rhetorical parts, threw out moral and philosophical reasoning, and gave the story greater efficiency. Thus, on the basis of translated material and partly Russian, an extensive summary work on world history was compiled in Rus' - the Greek and Roman Chronicler. The basis of its initial edition was the translated Byzantine chronicles - John Malala and George Amartol, as well as the translation of “Alexandria” by pseudo-Callisthenes. The second edition significantly revised this original text, supplementing it with a number of new sources - the Book of the Prophet Daniel with interpretations, the Life of Constantine and Helen, the story of the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, the Russian story of the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204, and fragments from Russian chronicles.

Of exceptional interest is the Russian translation of Josephus's History of the Jewish War. The Russian translator of the story everywhere emphasized ideas about military honor, about military glory, generously introduced Russian military terminology into it, in some places supplementing the translation with inserts calling for heroism, praising those who die on the battlefield, and cursing those “body lovers” who prefer to die of illness at home. The translation is distinguished by the high merits of the excellent Russian language.

Of course, not every translated work was subjected to such free alterations by translators and copyists. The works of authoritative authors (for example, the fathers of the church) changed relatively little: they were protected by respect for the name of the author, but, on the other hand, this same respect for the name of the author sometimes forced works that did not belong to him to be attributed to him (many original Russian sermons were attributed, for example , John Chrysostom). The attitude towards the text of liturgical and canonical books was very careful. Here the text was protected by fear of being accused of heresy.

However, no matter how uniform the demands of the Christian cult were in Byzantium, Bulgaria and Rus', Russian works clearly perceived the influence of Russian reality, served it, becoming Russian not only in content, but also in modifications of their form. In relation to the most ancient Russian lives, this is clearly shown by their expert - S. A. Bugoslavsky. To summarize big number of his observations on the most ancient Russian lives, S. A. Bugoslavsky wrote: “From the Byzantine lives, Russian authors of the 11th-12th centuries. borrowed only general trends. They understood that it was necessary to draw a type of ideal, Christian hero-saint, to surround his name with a traditional panegyric. It was impossible to make the prince, whose military and political court activities were well known and described in other non-hagiographic articles of the same chronicle, into an ideal righteous man like Byzantine hagiographies, and this saved Russian hagiographers from blind imitation of Byzantine literary models. The Russian author inevitably faced the difficult task of reconciling the ideal images and stylistics of Byzantine hagiographies in his hagiographic experiments with a tendentious, lively journalistic presentation of contemporary events, and often with deep-rooted folk poetic motifs.

Short description

Through translated writing, Ancient Rus' inherited from Byzantium and antiquity the main examples of literary types and genres, which it then continued to develop on the basis of its own creativity. Thus, chronicle writing is genetically connected with Byzantine chronicles; with translated lives - works of the hagiographic genre, created in Kievan and Muscovite Rus'; with translated chants - Russian original hymnological creativity; with translated words and teachings of the “Church Fathers” - works of solemn eloquence created by Russian preachers - Hilarion, Metropolitan of Kyiv, Theodosius of Pechersk, Kirill of Turov.

So, the transfer of Christianity to Rus' was accompanied, first of all, by the transfer of books that were read and sung in the then Byzantine and Bulgarian churches and on which sermons were preached. These books were then copied among us for centuries. Along with those religious books that were still subject to centuries-old censorship in Byzantium and were recognized as “canonical” by the dominant church there, books of the same content came to us, not selected or approved for the canon, but in general talking about the same thing or very similar in genre and design for “canonical” books. So, for example, along with those gospels that were considered canonical, a number of others came. These latter gospels tell the same biographies - Mary, Christ, the apostles, etc. - but tell them differently. Works also came with Old Testament stories - about Adam, about Enoch, about Abraham, etc., but with content different from the canonical Bible. Thus, in a very early time, Russia received not only “canonical” books, but also “apocrypha,” not only “true” ones, but also “false” and “renounced” books.

WITH early times in the Byzantine church and then among the Slavs there were lists, “indexes” of religious books, where they were distributed into these two categories. But these lists contradicted each other, and in church practice itself there was no consistent attitude towards the truth and falsity of some books. Of course, the question of the correctness of such a classification of books does not matter to us, since all of them - both “true”, “canonical”, and “apocryphal” - belong to the field of mythology. Only those books that did not deserve the obvious recognition of the official church or were even subjected to its hostile attitude turned out to be more accessible to mass understanding and even entered into folklore, as evidenced by the history of all European literatures. Proximity to the interests of the masses is for us the principle of selecting the apocrypha as the monuments most worthy of study among all religious books.

The New Testament and Old Testament apocrypha, which arose mainly in the east and in different countries of multi-tribal Byzantium and came to Rus' in mostly Yugoslavian translations, contain legends different cultures(ancient, Jewish and eastern) and nationalities, bear traces of different philosophical and religious systems and are distinguished by a varied interpretation of the plot: in these apocrypha one rarely feels the authorship of an educated mystical philosopher, most often the hand of the creator of fantastic fairy tales, a lover of folk legends is felt. The fable side of the apocrypha especially attracts the attention of literary scholars with its primitive poetry. The legendary plots of the apocrypha, in their distant origins, were not necessarily associated with any religion, with any cult. Only over time were they involved in religious circulation and religiously moralized: they moved from one religion to another and, finally, became Christianized to varying degrees among communities that valued freedom from the coercive teachings of the official church. Because of their religious independence, these communities were considered heretics. Thus, when listing the apocrypha in the Slavic indices of the Russian edition, we read the following notes about one or another apocrypha: “the heretics copied”, “the heretics folded”, “the heretic wrote”, “the heretics distorted the traditions of the holy apostles, writing false words to the temptation of coarse words” , etc. Judging by some of the index notes on the content of apocryphal works, it is clear that the Slavic Orthodox churchmen were repulsed by the discrepancy between them and the canonical books in plot details. There are no notes here on dogmas and other depths of theology, which indicates the low level of these censors. For example: “About Enos, who was in the fifth heaven and wrote 300 books”: “The Exodus of Moses is crooked: that Moses reigned over Sracina and that he snatched a club from his father-in-law Raguel in the fence”; " Paralipomena Jeremiah about the captivity: that the eagle was sent to Babylon with a letter to Jeremiah”; “The apostolic circumambulation (or “bypass”) that came (the apostles) to the city and found a man, yelling oxen, and asking for bread; He went to the city for the sake of grain, but the apostles, without him, dug up the field and sowed it; and you came from the grain and found ripe wheat”; " Petrovo walking after the Ascension of the Lord: that as a child he sold the Lord and the Archangel Michael to the Cross, that even fish walked on dry land, the heretic wrote,” etc. In what environment among the Slavs there were mainly apocrypha, one can conclude from this index note: “The essence and among the divine scriptures, false writings have been sown by heretics to harm the ignoramuses, priests and deacons, who also have thick rural collections (books of collected contents), and thin nomokanuntsy (i.e., church rules) according to the prayer books of rural priests.” Of course, those few works that can be considered apocryphal only for the free poeticization of biblical subjects, but essentially do not contradict the church canon, found recognition among the orthodox circle of educated scribes. Thus, the apocryphal “First Gospel of James” was used in the 11th century. “The Legend” about princes Boris and Gleb, and in the 12th century. - sermon of Cyril Bishop of Turov, i.e. literature of the highest class of Kievan Rus. Episodes from the First Gospel are even depicted on the mosaic of the Kyiv Sophia, which began construction in the 30s and was consecrated in the 50s of the 11th century.

In the Kiev period, i.e. in the era of the 11th - early 13th centuries, when the principalities of Kiev were at the head, translations of apocrypha with biographies of the Old Testament “forefathers” and “patriarchs”, with visions and predictions of “prophets” circulated in Russia, all - Hebrew works; then the gospels - James, Thomas, Nicodemus; legends about Christ and the Virgin Mary; tales about the preaching of some apostles (“Obihodi”) and about the deeds of some saints, especially martyrs; journeys of saints to paradise and cosmogonic and eschatological works, i.e. about the beginning and end of the world; finally, prayers-spells.

According to the conclusion of authoritative researchers, some of the apocrypha received in Rus' back in the Kievan period (for example, the tales of Adam, the book of Enoch, the gospel of Thomas, some legends about Christ and the apostles) were associated with the eastern, then Byzantine-Bulgarian heresy, whose followers usually called Bulgarian name"Bogumilov". There is an indication of the connection with bohumilism in the Slavic index, namely in the notes on spells against fevers (“tryasavits”) and on the legends about Christ, the priest and the plowman: “a natural illness, they call it tryasavits, just like Jeremiah the priest of Bulgaria did. .. Jeremiah the priest, Bogumilov’s son and disciple, lied and is not dear to God”; “about our Lord Jesus Christ, as he was placed in the priesthood, also Jeremiah is the same”; “As Christ plowed with a plow, then Jeremiah the Bulgarian priest lied”... According to Byzantine and Bulgarian polemicists of the 10th-12th centuries, the heresy that the priest Bohumil really began in Bulgaria was as follows. Heretics recognized the supreme good god, who created the invisible, spiritual world, and the fallen evil demon, Satanael, who created the visible material world. Since the kingdom of the good god began only with the coming of Christ, the Bogumils denied the Old Testament books; they rejected the existing church with all its cult as a continuation of the Old Testament tradition. Considering the visible world and the human body to be the creation of a demon, they taught to flee from the world and live in celibacy, and denied work, property and family. This harsh, ascetic doctrine, associated with Christianity externally and not among all peoples, flourished during periods of social conflicts, when the oppression of the exploited sections of society exceeded the limit of patience. Among the southern Slavs it was not translated, fulfilling political role national opposition to Byzantinism. There is an opinion that in feudal Russia, bohumilism periodically found grounds for forming a protest against oppression on the part of church and secular authorities, and this is not only in Kyiv period, but especially in the XIV and XV centuries. Among the Bogumils, as among the earlier representatives of the same teaching, apparently there were many apocrypha circulating. Some of these apocrypha (for example, cosmogonic ones) belonged entirely to their work, while others were borrowed and only applied to Bohumilism.

To give an idea of the ancient legends as presented in apocryphal books, we offer a retelling of the “acts” of the Apostle Andrew and tales of Solomon and Kitovras. Both works, translated from Greek, were known to Russians already in the Kievan period.

The initial Russian chronicle (edition of the 12th century) tells that the Apostle Andrew, who enlightened the Black Sea coast, having visited Sinopia, came to Korsun (Tauric Chersonese), then, heading to Rome, climbed the Dnieper to the mountains where Kyiv was later founded, blessed them and proceeded to Novgorod, where he marveled at the hot baths. Then he went to the Varangians (to Sweden), from there to Rome and from Rome to Sinopia. There is no doubt that this tendentious Grecophile story came from the legends about Andrew’s preaching to the Black Sea barbarians. One of these legends tells the following.

“At that time” (after the ascension of Christ), the apostles gathered in Jerusalem to divide the countries among themselves, where should anyone go to preach. It fell to Matthew’s lot to go to the city of cannibals (“man-eating city”), who “do not eat bread or drink water, but eat the body and drink the blood of strangers,” having previously gouged out their eyes and brought them with a magical drink to such a state that they began to “eat the grass.” They did the same with Matthew, blinded him, drugged him and imprisoned him. But Matthew did not lose his mind and turned to Christ with a prayer for salvation. And then a light shone in the prison, and from the light the voice of Christ was heard, promising to send Andrew in 27 days, who would lead Matthew out of prison along with other prisoners. Then Matthew saw the light, but hid it from the guards who came to the prison to mark the prisoners three days before their murder. And Christ appeared to Andrew “in the land of the same cup” and ordered him to go with his disciples “to the land of the man-eating people” to free Matthew. Andrei asked to send an angel in his place, citing the fact that he would not make it in three days, and that he did not know the way. But Christ told him to go the next morning to the sea, where he would find a “small ship” for the journey. Christ prepared the ship with a “word” and himself and two angels were transformed into shipbuilders, so that Andrei did not recognize them. Andrei marveled at how they were sailing to the city of man-eaters, from where no one could escape, to which Christ replied: “It’s not enough for us to do that little thing, we’ll kill you for the sake of it.” Then Andrei declared that he and his disciples had neither money to pay for the trip nor food, since the apostles were commanded on the road to preaching not to carry with them either silver, bread, a staff, or two clothes. Christ the helmsman agreed with this commandment and invited them into the ship, expressing joy that “the apostle of the Lord will enter my ship and bless us.” The voyage itself is depicted in the form of Andrei’s conversations with Christ, whom he did not recognize, and the apostle’s story is given about the miracles through which Christ proved his divinity. The miracles were as follows. Christ ordered one of the two stone sphinxes that were in the pagan temple to come down from its place and expose the unbelievers. But this was not enough for the priestly elders: they did not believe that Christ was the same god who spoke to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then the two sphinxes, by order of Christ, went to Canaan and brought the Old Testament patriarchs, resurrected for this occasion, as witnesses. After the conversation, when the ship was already approaching the land, the travelers fell asleep, and Christ ordered the angels to carry them to the gates of the city of man-eating people. Waking up in the morning, Andrei guessed who the “ruler of the ship” was, and began to complain that he did not recognize him; the disciples informed the apostle that during sleep the eagles carried their souls to paradise, where they saw Christ surrounded by angels, forefathers and saints, “and they saw the 12 apostle standing before the Lord, and outside of us - 12 angels around, seeing their likeness to us " Delighted Andrei began to ask in prayer that Christ would appear and forgive him for treating him like a a simple person . He appeared in the form of “a child, handsome and red,” explained that the miracles of swimming were performed for the edification of Andrew, who was hesitant at first, and again ordered him to go to the city and free Matthew and those imprisoned with him from prison. At the same time, Christ warned Andrew that troubles, reproaches and torment awaited him in the city, which, however, would not overcome his soul. When Andrei and the disciples entered the city, “no one saw them.” According to Andrei’s prayer, the seven guards at the prison “by God’s providence” “perished.” The doors of the prison, on which Andrew drew a cross, opened on their own, and the apostle saw Matthew in prison, “sitting and singing within herself,” and “a naked man(s), eating grass like cattle.” Both apostles prayed for the healing of these people who were blinded and | "like cattle." By laying his hand on their faces, Andrew restored their sight and human minds and told them to leave without fear. The cloud enveloped Matthew and Andrew's disciples and carried them to the mountain where the Apostle Peter was. Coming out of the dungeon, Andrei began to look from a certain “pillar” to see what would happen next. When the servants went to the dungeon to take the prisoners out to be devoured, they found the doors open, the dungeon empty, and the guards dead, which they reported to the princes of the city. They ordered the dead guards to be brought in to eat them now, and from the next morning they decided to invite the citizens to cast lots among themselves as to who should go to the slaughter, and then, for the same purpose, to bring prisoners from the surrounding area on ships... In the middle of the city there was a furnace, and in front it was a large flat stone on which they cut people and where they drank their blood. The servants brought the dead guards here and began to cut them with a sword. But through Andrei’s prayer the swords fell from their hands. Having grieved that the Magi had apparently appeared in the city, the princes drew lots between the citizens. One old man, who had drawn lots, asked to slaughter his son and daughters in his place. The servants led the crying children to the slaughter, but at Andrei’s prayer the swords again fell out of their hands. Then the devil appeared in the form of an old man and, frightening the people with the impending death of starvation, forced them to look for the stranger who released the prisoners. Andrew, invisible to the devil, showered him with reproaches, and then, by order of Christ, revealed himself to everyone, “let them take away the real God.” Having seized the apostle, the citizens, taught by the devil, tied a rope around his neck and dragged him through all the streets for three days, so that “his flesh clung to the ground.” At night, Andrei was thrown into prison, where demons tried to kill him, but could not, fearing the cross depicted by Christ on his face. Dragged along the ground, Andrei begged Christ for help, recalling his own words: “If you follow me, I will not let a hair fall from your head.” Christ’s voice then confirmed to Andrei that “heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of God will not pass away”: “look around the streets and see what has become of your body and hair.” Turning around, Andrei saw that tall trees had grown there, covered with leaves and fruits, and realized that Christ had not abandoned him. In Andrew's prison there was a pillar on which was a stone man; He stretched out his hands to this statue and, swearing it with a cross, ordered the stone man to pour out water with his lips and punish the citizens with a flood. In vain they wanted to flee from the flood; At Andrew's prayer, the angel surrounded the city with a fiery cloud. When the water reached the citizens’ necks, sobbing bitterly, they began to repent of the torment inflicted on the stranger (Andrei), gathered to free him from prison and prayed for their salvation in the name of Christ. Forbidding the stone man to pour out the water, Andrei left the prison, and the water ran from his feet. Going into the abyss, the water, through Andrei’s prayer, carried away and drowned the city nobles; but, convinced that these miracles had prepared the people for conversion to Christianity, Andrei resurrected the drowned. Everyone finally believed, etc.

About another apocrypha, which we will offer in an incomplete retelling, the Slavic index expressed itself in the following words: “The kings’ fables and blasphemies about Solomon and Kitovras are lies: Kitovras did not come to earth, but Hellenistic (i.e., pagan) philosophers introduced.” “Kitovras” is the Greekized name of the Indian spirit - “gandarva”. The legend traveled a long way to Byzantium - through Iran, through the Jewish environment, etc. Judging by the language, it was translated directly from Greek into Russian no later than the 12th century.

Solomon is looking for Kitovras because to build the temple he needs to get a mysterious remedy so that the stones can be prepared without using tools. Having learned that Kitovras lives “in the distant desert,” the wise Solomon came up with the idea of forging an iron chain and an iron necklace, on which he wrote “a curse (spell) in the name of God.” With these shackles, Solomon sent “his best boyar,” at the head of the youths, who carried with them wine, honey and sheep skins (“sheep’s fleece”). The messengers came to the place where Kitovras was, where there were three wells, “but there was none.” According to Solomon's instructions, they filled two wells with wine, and the third with honey and plugged them with sheep skins, while they themselves hid to the side. They knew that Kitovras would come to drink water from these wells. Kitovras came, thirsty (“pre-hot”) for water, leaned down to the wells and, seeing wine, said: “Everyone who drinks wine does not grow wise,” and then: “Thou art the wine that gladdens the hearts of man.” He drank all three wells and wanted to take a little nap, but “the wine was enough and I fell asleep hard.” Then the boyar Solomon put shackles around his neck. Having come to his senses, Kitovras wanted to free himself, but the boyar pointed out to him “the name of the Lord with prohibition” written on the necklace, and Kitovras “go meekly.” His character was this: he did not walk “the crooked path,” but “the right one.” Arriving in Jerusalem, Solomon’s servants prepared a special road for Kitovras and destroyed houses: “not walking crookedly”; It was necessary to destroy the poor widow’s hut, but she prayed to Kitovras: “I am a wretched widow.” Then Kitovras wanted to go around this hut, without leaving the straight path, he broke his rib and said: “gently a word breaks a bone, but a cruel word raises up anger.” Walking through the market, he heard a certain husband asking if there were leather shoes on sale that would be enough for 7 years. And Kitovras laughed at this. Then he saw the healer who was casting a spell, and he laughed again, and when he saw the cheerful wedding, he cried. Seeing the lost man, he led him to the road. They brought Kitovras to the palace, but on the first day they did not present him to Solomon. When Kitovras asked why King Solomon did not invite him, he was told that the night before he had drunk too much wine. Then Kitovras placed one stone on top of another, which Solomon guessed as follows: “he commands me to drink drink upon drink.” And the next day they did not call Kitovras, explaining to him that the king was ill because he had had a lot the day before. Then Kitovras removed one stone from another. On the third day he was called to the king, and he explained to Kitovras his capture by the need to learn from him what could be used to hew stones for the “Holy of Holies,” except for iron, which was forbidden. Kitovras reported that the means for this would be a “shamir” (worm or diamond), which is used by the bird “kokot” (i.e., a vulture or ostrich), which has a nest on a stone mountain in the distant desert. Solomon sent his boyar there, to whom Kitovras gave “white glass” with the instruction: “As soon as the cocotte flies out, cover the nest with this glass.” When the boyar came to the nest, only the chicks were sitting there (“the chicken is small”), but the cocotte flew away for food. The nest was covered with glass. The returning cocotte tried in vain to penetrate the nest: “the chicken squeaked through the glass, and he came to them, and didn’t know what to do.” Then the cocotte flew for the shamir, which he kept “in no place”; brought it to the nest and put it on the glass, wanting to “seed” the glass with it. Then the boyar and his youths shouted, the kokot dropped the shamir, which was brought to Solomon. Solomon began to ask Kitovras why he laughed when the man was looking for shoes on the market that would last him for 7 years. Because I saw that he had 7 days left to live,” Kitovras answered. Why did he laugh when the healer cast a spell? Because he, while telling people secrets, did not know that there was a crypt with gold under him. Kitovras explained his crying at the sight of the wedding with pity for his young husband, who was destined to live only 30 days. Solomon ordered to check, and everything turned out to be true. As for the drunkard who had gone astray, Kitovras directed him onto the road because he heard a voice from heaven, “as if that husband is faithful, and is worthy to serve him.” With this we will complete the retelling of one of the legends that surrounded Solomon and was popular in books, folklore, literature and art in many countries of the East and West until recent days.

For the retelling, we will limit ourselves to these two apocrypha. Other teachers usually convey from the apocrypha “ The Virgin's journey through torment", which tells how the Mother of God, having surveyed hell and seen the continuous torment of sinners, begged her son to give the tormented periodic rest from torment. Despite the sentimental poetry of the work and its worldwide fame, it does not seem to us typical of the apocryphal style. It is not heretical enough. The Slavic translation of “Walking” from Greek dates back to the 12th century. and is remarkable in that among those tormented in hell, those who believe in “Troyan, Khors, Veles, Perun” (pagan deities of Rus') are mentioned in the first place.

Apocrypha was sometimes combined into large compilations. Russia had such a collection of Old Testament apocrypha in Slavic translation already in the 12th-13th centuries. under the name “Explanatory palea” (“paley” is a Greek word, meaning “decrepit”). The apocrypha here is interspersed with interpretations of Old Testament data as harbingers of Christ and is accompanied by attacks against Judaism. This, so to speak, “apocryphal Bible,” due to its contamination with obscure reasoning, was hardly widespread.

Later, in a Bulgarian translation from Greek, it appeared in Rus' " Historical palea”, in which the biblical apocryphal story was given in a vulgar presentation. Russian scribes simplified it even more, bringing it closer to the tastes of folklore. Let us quote from here an episode about the flood, which is not devoid of humor. If the author of the “Explanatory Paleia” was interested in the secrets of the universe in all the diversity of its phenomena, then the Russian editor of the “Historical Paleia” was especially interested in the question of how cats originated. When God decided to cleanse the earth with a flood, he warned Noah about this and told him a diagram of the ark on which Noah could be saved. Noah began to build an ark on the Arabian mountains, going home from these mountains to eat once every three months. The devil, who has hated the human race from time immemorial, flattered Noah’s wife so that she would find out where her husband was going. She refused: “My husband is strong and I cannot test him.” Then the devil persuaded her to get Noah drunk and told her the recipe for the drink. Noah came to dinner and asked his wife for a drink. His wife brought him a cup of the devil's drink. Having tasted it, Noah said: “Behold, there is hops for the wise, for fun, for weddings, for nepotism and brotherhood and for all good things, but for the foolish for battle, warfare and all evil deeds.” When Noah drank three cups and was merry, the wife “began to caress herself around her husband with the devil’s teaching” and asked where he was going and what he was working on. Then she handed everything over to the devil, and he broke the ark, so Noah had to make it again. Finally, on April 27, a flood came to the earth. God opened 12 windows of the sea, the “heavenly abyss” opened, and rain poured down for 40 days and nights. Noah struck the beater, and at this sign Noah's children and their wives and clean and unclean animals entered the ark in pairs. The devil began to persuade Noah’s wife: “Don’t go into the ark without my word.” She obeyed. The angry Noah finally shouted to her: “Go, you damned woman, to the ark, go, you charming one!” But she still hesitated. Then Noah shouted: “Get the devil into the ark!” At these words, the devil entered the ark, turned into a mouse and began to gnaw at its bottom. “Noah prayed to God. And a fierce beast came into the ark and snorted, and out of its nostrils a cat and a cat jumped out and strangled that mouse. The deceit of the devil will not come true by the command of God. And from there cats began to be.”

By the way, in ancient times some of the lives of saints translated from Greek were also considered apocrypha, for example, “Nikita’s Torment,” which tells how Nikita beat the devil with a rope, who turned into a dog, which was depicted in icon painting and on amulets. Some features of hagiographic characters formed an apocrypha already on Russian soil. I will cite one such apocrypha based on Afanasyev’s book “Russian Folk Legends”. It tells how two saints, Nikola and Kasyan, were walking along the road and saw: a peasant fell into the mud with a cart. Despite the fact that Nikola was smartly dressed, he began to help turn the cart out of the mud, but Kasyan refused. Conclusion - Nikola is therefore celebrated twice a year, and Kasyan once every four years. Nikola can receive eve and incense twice, and Kasyan at four years old can receive one.