A Handbook to Classical Reception in Eastern and Central Europe

Zara Martirosova Torlone is Professor in the Department of Classics at Miami University, USA. She is the author of Russia and the Classics (2009) and Vergil in Russia (2015), editor of Classical Reception in Eastern Europe (a special issue of Classical Receptions Journal), and co‑editor of Insiders and Outsiders in Russian Cinema (with Stephen Norris, 2008). She has written numerous articles concerning classical literature and its reception, especially in Russian culture. Dana LaCourse Munteanu is Associate Professor in the Department of Greek and Latin at Ohio State University, Newark, USA. She is the author of Tragic Pathos: Pity and Fear in Greek Philosophy and Tragedy (2012) and the editor of Emotion, Genre and Gender in Classical Antiquity (2011). She has written several articles on Greek philosophy, tragedy and the reception. Dorota Dutsch is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. She is the author of Feminine Discourse in Roman Comedy: On Echoes and Voices (2008), and co‐editor of Women in the Drama of the Roman Republic (with David Konstan and Sharon James, 2015), Ancient Obscenities (with Ann Suter, 2015),and The Fall of the City in the Mediterranean (with Ann Suter and Mary Bachvarova, 2016).

List of Illustrations x


Notes on Contributors xii


Acknowledgments xix


Introduction 1
Zara Martirosova Torlone, Dana LaCourse Munteanu, and Dorota Dutsch


Part I Croatia 13
Neven Jovanovic ́


1 Classical Reception in Croatia: An Introduction 15
Neven Jovanovic ́


2 Pula and Split: The Early Modern Tale(s) of Two Ancient Cities 21
Jasenka Gudelj


3 Croatian Neo‐Latin Literature and Its Uses 35
Neven Jovanović


4 The First Dalmatian Humanists and the Classics: A Manuscript Perspective 46
Luka Špoljarić


5 The Swan Song of the Latin Homer 57
Petra Šoštarić


Part II Slovenia 67
Marko Marinčič


6 Classical Reception in Slovenia: An Introduction 69
Marko Marinčič


7 Collecting Roman Inscriptions Beyond the Alps: Augustinus Tyfernus 74
Marjeta Šašel Kos


8 Sta. Maria sopra Siwa: Inventing a Slavic Venus 88
Marko Marincǐ č


9 Images from Slovenian Dramatic and Theatrical Interpretations of Ancient Drama 99
Andreja N. Inkret


Part III Czech Republic 113
Jan Ba?ant


10 Classical Reception in the Czech Republic: An Introduction 115
Jan Ba?ant


11 Classical Antiquity in Czech Literature between the National Revival and the Avant‐Garde 121
Daniela Čadkova


12 The Classical Tradition and Nationalism: The Art and Architecture of Prague, 1860–1900 133
Jan Ba?ant


13 The Case of the Oresteia: Classical Drama on the Czech Stage, 1889–2012 146
Alena Sarkissian


Part IV Poland 159
Dorota Dutsch


14 Classical Reception in Poland: An Introduction 161
Dorota Dutsch


15 From Fictitious Letters to Celestial Revolutions: Copernicus and the Classics 166
Dorota Dutsch and Francois Zdanowicz


16 Respublica and the Language of Freedom: The Polish Experiment 179
Anna Grzesḱ owiak‐Krwawicz


17 Two Essays on Classical Reception in Poland 190
Jerzy Axer


18 Parallels between Greece and Poland in Juliusz Słowacki’s Oeuvre 207
Maria Kalinowska


Part V Hungary 223
Farkas Gabor Kiss


19 Classical Reception in Hungary: An Introduction 225
Farkas Gabor Kiss


20 Classical Reception in Sixteenth‐Century Hungarian Drama 233
Agnes Juhasz‐Ormsby


21 Truditur dies die: Reading Horace as a Political Attitude in Nineteenth‐ and Twentieth‐Century Hungary 245
Abel Tamas


22 The Shepherdess and the Myrmillo: The Sculptor Istvan Ferenczy and the Reception of Classical Antiquity in Hungary 260
Nora Veszpremi


Part VI Romania 277
Dana LaCourse Munteanu


23 Classical Reception in Romania: An Introduction 279
Radu Ardevan, Florin Berindeanu, and Ioan Piso


24 Loving Vergil, Hating Rome: Coşbuc as Translator and Poet 287
Carmen Fenechiu and Dana LaCourse Munteanu


25 Noica’s Becoming within Being and Meno’s Paradox 300
Octavian Gabor


26 Reception of the Tropaeum Traiani: Former Paths and Future Directions 312
Allison L.C. Emmerson


Part VII Bosnia‐Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro 327


Nada Zečević


27 Classical Reception in Bosnia‐Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro: An Introduction 329
Nada Zecě vić and Nenad Ristović


28 Classical Antiquity in the Franciscan Historiography of Bosnia (Eighteenth Century) 336
Nada Zečević


29 Innovative Impact of the Classical Tradition on Early Modern Serbian Literature 347
Nenad Ristovic ́


30 Classical Heritage in Serbian Lyric Poetry of the Twentieth Century: Jovan Dučić, Miloš Crnjanski, and Ivan V. Lalić 360
Ana Petković


31 The Ancient Sources of Njegoš’s Poetics 373
Darko Todorovic ́


Part VIII Bulgaria 387
Yoana Sirakova


32 Classical Reception in Bulgaria: An Introduction 389
Yoana Sirakova


33 Bulgarian Lands in Antiquity: A Melting Pot of Thracian, Greek, and Roman Culture 396
Mirena Slavova


34 In the Labyrinth of Allusions: Ancient Figures in Bulgarian Prose Fiction 411
Violeta Gerjikova


35 “Bulgarian” Orpheus between the National and the Foreign, between Antiquity and Postmodernism 423
Yoana Sirakova


36 Staging of Ancient Tragedies in Bulgaria and Their Influence on the Process of Translation and Creative Reception 437
Dorothea Tabakova


Part IX Russia 449
Judith E. Kalb


37 Classical Reception in Russia: An Introduction 451
Judith E. Kalb


38 “Men in Cases”: The Perception of Classical Schools in Prerevolutionary Russia 457
Grigory Starikovsky


39 Homer in Russia 469
Judith E. Kalb


40 Vergil in Russia: Milestones of Identity 480
Zara Martirosova Torlone


41 Russian Encounters with Classical Antiquities: Archaeology, Museums, and National Identity in the Tsarist Empire 493
Caspar Meyer


Part X Armenia and Georgia 507
Zara Martirosova Torlone


42 Armenian Culture and Classical Antiquity 509
Armen Kazaryan and Gohar Muradyan


43 Medieval Greek–Armenian Literary Relations 516
Gohar Muradyan


44 The “Classical” Trend of the Armenian Architectural School of Ani: The Greco‐Roman Model and the Conversion of Medieval Art 528
Armen Kazaryan


45 Classical Reception in Georgia: An Introduction 541
Ketevan Gurchiani


46 Greek Tragedy on the Georgian Stage in the Twentieth Century 548
Ketevan Gurchiani


Index 560