From Yahweh to Jupiter: Orthodox Muscovy Deals with the Classical World

Considering a few instances taking place between 1680–1705, the talk shows how interculturalism, multilingualism, and multiconfessionalism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and in Ruthenia helped to spread Classical culture into Eastern Europe. In his collection, Multiflowered Garden (1680), the Belarusian Simiaon Polacki breaks with Orthodox skepticism towards ancient culture—deemed as sophistic—and includes references to Classical literature and mythology as signs of erudition and stylistic refinement to place the Slavic world in a line of continuity with the ancient one. The Polish-by-birth and Muscovite-by-adoption Jan Białobocki dedicates the fifth book of Pentateugum (1690s) to Classical history and mythology, but depicts them negatively as symbols of vanity and cause of disruption. In the early eighteenth century, the Ukrainian Teofan Prokopovych states in his De arte poetica that poets should not reference Classical culture in their lyrics as it is foreign to the East Slavic world, which is rooted in Orthodoxy. Yet, Teofan’s poems abound in references to Classical mythology and play a key role in introducing Neoclassicism into the Russian Empire. These instances show a process at play, namely the reception of ancient culture in Muscovy, and the importance of Belarusian, Polish, and Ukrainian authors in this process. After completing their education in Central and Western Europe, these authors travelled Eastward and fueled the cultural syncretism of Eastern Europe in a journey made of openness and mistrust towards a new culture, referencing the ancient world in their works and adapting their knowledge to East Orthodox culture.

This event is hosted by The Other Europe, a Research Workshop sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center

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