The figure of the gladiator (from gladiator in Latin) became important in Russian poetry after the success of Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Byron, in Rome, was struck by The Dying Gaul − also called The Dying Galatian, a statue that was thought to represent a gladiator. Byron imagined him to be a Dacian and in that period it was believed that the Dacians were the ancestors of the Slavs. This double mistake − identifying the The Dying Gaul with a gladiator and the Dacians with Slavs − led to the popularity of gladiators in Russian literature. The figure of the gladiator appears in Lermontov’s poem The Dying Gladiator (1836) and reaches its peak of popularity in the decade of the 1850s when many poets (Berg, Pavlova, Fet, Ščerbina) viewed the gladiator as the champion of the oppressed Slavs. Afterwards the gladiator’s popularity was replaced by that of another victim of Imperial Rome: the Christian martyr. However by then the gladiator had become, also in Russia, a cultural icon.
La figura del gladiatore (dal latino gladiator) si afferma nella poesia russa sull’onda del successo del Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage di Byron, il quale, a Roma, era rimasto colpito dal Galata morente, statua che si credeva raffigurasse un gladiatore. Byron lo immaginò originario della Dacia, in un’epoca in cui si riteneva che i Daci fossero progenitori degli Slavi. Da questo duplice errore – aver identificato il Galata morente con un gladiatore, e i Daci con gli Slavi - nasce la fortuna russa del personaggio. Nella poesia russa il gladiatore prende vita nella lirica di Lermontov Il gladiatore morente (1836) e tocca il picco di popolarità negli anni 1850-1860, quando molti poeti (Berg, Pavlova, Fet, Ščerbina) vedono in lui il campione delle stirpi slave oppresse. Poi la sua fortuna declina a vantaggio di un’altra vittima della Roma imperiale: il martire cristiano. Ma ormai l’immagine del gladiatore è diventata, anche in Russia, un’icona culturale.
L’immagine del gladiatore nella lirica russa dell’Ottocento, ovvero l’energia dell’errore / Giuliani, Rita. - STAMPA. - II(2016), pp. 937-953.
L’immagine del gladiatore nella lirica russa dell’Ottocento, ovvero l’energia dell’errore
GIULIANI, Rita
2016
Abstract
The figure of the gladiator (from gladiator in Latin) became important in Russian poetry after the success of Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Byron, in Rome, was struck by The Dying Gaul − also called The Dying Galatian, a statue that was thought to represent a gladiator. Byron imagined him to be a Dacian and in that period it was believed that the Dacians were the ancestors of the Slavs. This double mistake − identifying the The Dying Gaul with a gladiator and the Dacians with Slavs − led to the popularity of gladiators in Russian literature. The figure of the gladiator appears in Lermontov’s poem The Dying Gladiator (1836) and reaches its peak of popularity in the decade of the 1850s when many poets (Berg, Pavlova, Fet, Ščerbina) viewed the gladiator as the champion of the oppressed Slavs. Afterwards the gladiator’s popularity was replaced by that of another victim of Imperial Rome: the Christian martyr. However by then the gladiator had become, also in Russia, a cultural icon.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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