Vyacheslav Ivanov and C.M. Bowra: a ... - UCL Discovery

of his remarkable determination to revive ancient Dionsysian forms in Russian
literature.
To clarify the principles behind his verse and tragedies and to set the agenda for
contemporary culture, Ivanov published many critical essays in the leading periodicals
of his day. These studies were widely read and extremely influential; many of them were
later collected in his three volumes of essays, published in 1909, 1916 and 1917. He also
wrote up his scholarly investigations, sometimes for a specialist audience, but more
often in a relatively popular, accessible form. His Paris lectures on Dionysus, for
example, formed the basis of the series of essays on the religion of the suffering god that
he published with the help of Bryusov and Merezhkovskii in Novyi put’ (1904) and
Voprosy zhizni (1905). At the outset of this series, he explained that he had undertaken
the study of the cult of Dionysus in order to clarify contemporary religious and
philosophical searchings; the final goal of his investigations is reached in the
penultimate section of his last article, ‘Dionysus and Hellenism – Dionysus and
Christianity’. The introduction to Homer’s epic verse that he wrote for a new edition of
the poet’s verse in Russian translation published in 1912 is one more example among
many of his skill at presenting his vision of classical antiquity to a contemporary
audience.
In all these various ways, through his life-style, lectures, teaching, translations,
poetry, tragedies, critical articles and scholarly investigations, Ivanov pursued his agenda
of reviving classical antiquity with remarkable dedication. Although he was very
successful in his efforts to assimilate the legacy of this tradition into contemporary
Russian culture, he did not yet achieve its full integration into a Christian form of
16 Ibid., III, 7.
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