Two "Prometheus": Reception of Dionysian Symbolism in the Poems of V. I. Ivanov and S. Lipiner

Identificator

EDN: MEZHUW ; УДК: 821.112.2+821.161.1

Authors

Kachorovskaya Anna Evgenyevna, PhD in Philology, associate professor of the Department of German and Romance Languages for Professional Communication, Russian State Pedagogical University n. a. A. I. Herzen. Russia, Saint Petersburg. ORCID: 0000‑0001‑7841‑8181. ResearcherID: 670104‑2019. E‑mail: kachorovskaya@mail.ru

Journal

HERALD OF HUMANITARIAN EDUCATION №1 (41), 2026

Section

PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Pages

148-155

Abstract

This article examines the Dionysian symbolism as a receptive component of two significant literary works within the Promethean discourse of the turn of the 20th century: the poem "Der entfesselte Prometheus" (1876) by the Austrian writer Siegfried Lipiner (1856–1911) and the verse‑tragedy "Prometheus" (1919) by the Russian symbolist Vyacheslav Ivanov (1866–1949). The subject of the article is the correlation of Dionysian symbolism, in the spirit of Nietzsche's treatise "Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik" (The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, 1872), with the Promethean discourse in the context of Austrian (Lipiner) and Russian (Ivanov) literature.The aim of the research is to interpret the two poems within the specified problem range, demonstrating the extent to which the influence of the European modernist paradigm of the late 19th century is reflected in Russian poetry of the Silver Age. The relevance of the study is determined by the ongoing interest in Promethean and Dionysian discourse within both Russian and German‑language literary criticism. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that this article presents the first comparative analysis of Lipiner's and Ivanov's poems in Russian literary studies, works united by their reference to a common ancient Greek mythological archetype. The results of the study allow for a concrete demonstration of the influence of European literary thought from the era of Austrian Modernism on Russian symbolism poetry. The area of application for these results could include specialized courses on Lipiner's work, as well as related additions to lecture courses on Austrian literature of the turn of the 20th century.

Keywords

Lipiner Vyach. Ivanov Dionysian symbolism Promethean discourse Nietzscheanism

Recieved

19.09.2025

Published

03.06.2026

References

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