So, the transfer of Christianity to Rus' was accompanied, first of all, by the transfer of books that were read and sung in the then Byzantine and Bulgarian churches and on which sermons were delivered. These books have been rewritten for centuries. Together with those religious books that were still subjected to centuries of censorship in Byzantium and were recognized as “canonical” by the dominant church there, books of the same content, not selected or not approved for the canon, but generally talking about the same or very similar in genre and design for "canonical" books. So, for example, along with those gospels that were considered canonical, a number of others also came. These last gospels tell the same biographies of Mary, Christ, the apostles, etc., but they are told in a different way. Works also came with Old Testament stories - about Adam, about Enoch, about Abraham, etc., but with content different from the canonical Bible. Thus, in a very early time Russia received not only “canonical” books, but also “apocrypha”, not only “true”, but also “false”, “renounced”.

From an early age in Byzantine church and then the Slavs had lists, "indexes" of religious books, where they were divided into these two categories. But these lists contradicted each other, and in the church practice itself there was no concordant attitude towards the truth and falsity of some books. Of course, the question of the correctness of such a classification of books does not matter to us, since all of them - both "true", "canonical", and "apocryphal" - belong to the field of mythology. Only those books that did not deserve the explicit recognition of the official church or even were subjected to its hostile attitude turned out to be more accessible to mass understanding and even entered into folklore use, as the history of all European literature testifies to. Proximity to the interests of the masses is for us the principle of selecting the Apocrypha as the monuments most deserving of study among all religious books.

New Testament and Old Testament apocrypha, which arose mainly in the east and in different countries multi-tribal Byzantium and came to Rus' in mainly Yugoslavian translations, contain legends of different cultures (antique, Jewish and Eastern) and nationalities, bear traces of different philosophical and religious systems and are distinguished by a motley interpretation of the plot: in these apocrypha the authorship of an educated philosopher is rarely felt - mysticism, most often the hand of the creator of fantastic tales, a lover of folk legends, affects. The plot side of the apocrypha in particular attracts the attention of a literary critic with its primitive poetry. The legendary plots of the apocrypha, in their distant basis, were not necessarily associated with any religion, with any cult. Only with the passage of time they were involved in religious circulation and religiously moralized: they passed from one religion to another and, finally, became Christianized to varying degrees among communities that valued freedom from the coercive teachings of the official church. For their religious independence, these communities were considered heretics. So, when listing the apocrypha in the Slavic indexes of the Russian edition, we read the following notes about one or another apocrypha: “the heretics wrote off”, “the heretics folded”, “the heretic wrote”, “the heretics distorted the traditions of the saints, the apostles, writing rude false words to the temptation” , etc. Judging by some index notes on the content of apocryphal works, it is clear that the Slavic orthodox churchmen were repelled in them by the discrepancy with the canonical books in plot details. There are no notes here about dogmas and other depths of theology, which indicates the low level of these censors. For example: “About Enos, who was in the fifth heaven and wrote 300 books”: “The Exodus of Moses, crookedly folded: that Moses reigned over the sratsins and that he pulled out a club from his father-in-law Raguel in the fence”; " Paralipomena of Jeremiah about the captivity: that the eagle was sent to Babylon with a letter to Jeremiah ”; “The circumambulations (or“ bypass”) the apostles that came (the apostles) to the city and found a man, yelling oxen, and asking for bread; he went to the city for the sake of bread, but without him the apostles blew up the cornfield and sowed; and come from the bread and find ripe wheat”; " Peter's walking after the ascension of the Lord: that the Lord sold the Lord and the archangel Michael to the baptism, that the heretic wrote that the fish walked on dry land, ”etc. and between the divine writings, false writings are sown from heretics for dirty tricks to ignoramuses, priests and deacons; Of course, those few works that can be considered apocryphal only for the free poeticization of biblical subjects, and in essence do not contradict the church canon, found recognition in the orthodox circle of educated scribes. Thus, the apocryphal "First Gospel of James" was used in the 11th century. "Legend" about the princes Boris and Gleb, and in the XII century. - the sermon of Cyril Bishop of Turov, i.e. literature of the highest class Kievan Rus. Episodes from the First Gospel are depicted even on the mosaic of the Kyiv Sophia, which began construction in the 30s and was consecrated in the 50s of the 11th century.

In the Kiev period, i.e. in the era of XI - early XIII centuries, when Kiev was at the head of the principalities, translations of apocrypha with biographies of the Old Testament "forefathers" and "patriarchs", with visions and predictions of "prophets" circulated in Rus', all of which are works of Hebrew; then gospels - James, Thomas, Nicodemus; legends about Christ and the Mother of God; legends about the preaching of some apostles (“Obihodi”) and about the deeds of some saints, especially martyrs; journeys of saints to paradise and cosmogonic and eschatological works, that is, about the beginning and end of the world; finally, prayer-spells.

According to the conclusion of authoritative researchers, some of the apocrypha received in Rus' back in the Kievan period (for example, the legends about Adam, the book of Enoch, the Gospel of Thomas, some legends about Christ and the apostles) was associated with the Eastern, then the Byzantine-Bulgarian heresy, the followers of which usually referred to by the Bulgarian name "bogumilov". There is an indication of the connection with Bogumilism in the Slavic index, namely in the notes about the spells against fevers (“tryasavits”) and about the legends about Christ, the priest and the plowman: “a natural ailment, they call it the shakers, like Jeremiah is a Bulgarian priest. .. This was lied by Jeremiah the priest, Bogumilov's son and disciple, more than God is not sweet ”; “about our Lord Jesus Christ, how put in the priesthood, Jeremiah is also a lie”; “as Christ was yelling with a plow, then Jeremiah the Bulgarian priest lied”... According to the Byzantine and Bulgarian polemists of the 10th-12th centuries, the heresy, which the priest Bogumil really started in Bulgaria, consisted of the following. The heretics recognized the supreme good god, who created the invisible, spiritual world, and the fallen evil demon, Satanail, who created the visible material world. Since the kingdom of the good god began only with the coming of Christ, the Bogumils denied the Old Testament books; they denied the existing church with all its cult as a continuation of the Old Testament tradition. Counting visible world and the human body by the creation of a demon, they taught to run away from the world and live in celibacy, denied work, property and family. This severe, ascetic dogma, outwardly connected with Christianity and not among all peoples, flourished during periods public conflicts when the oppression of the exploited sections of society exceeded the measure of patience. It was not translated among the southern Slavs, fulfilling the political role of the national opposition to Byzantinism. There is an opinion that in feudal Russia Bogumilism periodically found grounds for itself to form a protest against oppression from the church and secular authorities, and this was not only in the Kievan period, but especially in the XIV and XV centuries. Among the Bogumils, as well as among the earlier representatives of the same doctrine, apparently, many apocrypha revolved. Some of these apocrypha (for example, cosmogonic ones) belonged entirely to their work, while others were borrowed and only applied to bogumilism.

To give an idea of ​​the ancient legends in the presentation of apocryphal books, we offer a retelling of the "acts" of the Apostle Andrew and Tales of Solomon and Kitovras. Both works, translated from Greek, were already known to Russians in the Kievan period.

In the initial Russian chronicle (edited in the 12th century), it is said that the Apostle Andrew, who enlightened the Black Sea coast, having visited Sinopia, came to Korsun (Tauric Chersonesos), then, heading to Rome, climbed the Dnieper to the mountains, where Kiev was subsequently founded, blessed them and proceeded to Novgorod, where he marveled at the hot baths. Then he went to the Varangians (to Sweden), from there to Rome and from Rome to Sinopia. There is no doubt that this tendentious Grecophile story came from the legends about Andrei preaching to the Black Sea barbarians. One of these legends tells the following.

“At the time of it” (after the ascension of Christ), the apostles gathered in Jerusalem to divide the countries among themselves, where to go to preach. It fell to Matthew’s lot to go to the city of cannibals (“man-eater city”), who “do not eat bread or drink water, but poison the body and drink the blood of aliens”, having previously gouged out their eyes and brought them to such a state with magical drinking that they started "grass yasti". They did the same to Matthew, blinded him, drugged him, and put him in prison. But Matthew did not lose his mind and turned to Christ with a prayer for salvation. And then a light shone in the dungeon, and the voice of Christ was heard from the light, promising to send Andrew in 27 days, who would lead Matthew out of the dungeon along with other prisoners. Here Matthew saw the light, but hid it from the watchmen who came to the dungeon to mark the prisoners three days before their murder. And Christ appeared to Andrew "in the country, in the same place" and ordered him to go with the disciples "to the country of the man-eater" to free Matthew. Andrei asked to send an angel instead of himself, referring to the fact that he would not be in time in three days, and he did not know the way. But Christ told him to go to the sea in the morning, where he would find a "small ship" to travel. Christ “by the word” prepared the ship and himself with two angels was transformed into shipmen, so that Andrew did not recognize them. Andrey marveled at how they were sailing to the city of man-eaters, from where no one could escape, to which Christ replied: “It’s not enough for us to do that business, for the sake of you to die.” Then Andrew declared that he and his disciples had neither money to pay for the journey, nor food, since the apostles were commanded to carry neither silver, nor bread, nor a rod, nor two clothes on the way to preach. Christ the helmsman agreed with this commandment and invited them to the ship, expressing his joy that "the apostle of the Lord will enter my ship and bless us." The voyage itself is depicted in the form of Andrew's conversations with Christ, whom he did not recognize, and the apostle's story is given about the miracles through which Christ proved his divinity. The miracles were as follows. Christ ordered one of the two stone sphinxes that were in the pagan temple to leave his place and denounce the unbelievers. But this was not enough for the elders of the priests: they did not believe that Christ was the same god who spoke with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then two sphinxes, by order of Christ, reached Canaan and brought to witness the Old Testament patriarchs who had risen for this occasion. After the conversation, when the ship was already approaching the earth, the travelers fell asleep, and Christ ordered the angels to transfer them to the gates of the city of man-eaters. Waking up in the morning, Andrei guessed who the "ruler of the ship" was, and began to complain that he did not recognize him; the disciples told the apostle that during sleep the eagles carried their souls to paradise, where they saw Christ surrounded by angels, forefathers and saints, “and they saw the 12 apostles standing before the Lord, and outside of us - 12 angels around, beating like us in appearance ". Delighted, Andrei began to pray in prayer that Christ would appear and forgive him for treating him like a simple person. He appeared in the form of “a child, handsome and red”, explained that the miracles of swimming were performed for the edification of Andrei, who hesitated at first, and again ordered him to go to the city and release Matthew and those imprisoned with him from prison. At the same time, Christ warned Andrew that troubles, reproaches and torments await him in the city, which, however, his souls will not overcome. When Andrei and the disciples entered the city, "no one saw them." Through the prayer of Andrew, the seven guards at the dungeon "by the Lord's providence" "died". The doors of the dungeon, on which Andrew drew the cross, opened themselves, and the apostle saw Matthew in the dungeon, "sitting and singing in himself," and "a naked husband (men), eating grass, like cattle." Both apostles prayed for the healing of these blind and blind people. "like cattle". By laying his hand on their faces, Andrew restored their sight and human mind, and ordered them to leave without fear. A cloud enveloped Matthew and Andrew's disciples and carried them to the mountain where the apostle Peter was. Coming out of the dungeon, Andrei from a certain "pillar" began to watch what would happen next. When the servants went to the dungeon to bring the prisoners to be eaten, they found the doors open, the dungeon empty, and the guards dead, which they reported to the princes of the city. They ordered the dead watchmen to be brought in to eat them now, from the next morning they decided to offer the citizens to cast lots among themselves, who should go to the slaughter, and then, for the same purpose, to bring captives from the neighborhood on ships .. In the middle of the city there was a furnace, and in front there is a large flat stone on which people were slaughtered and where their blood was drunk. The servants brought the dead watchmen here and began to cut them with a sword. But at the prayer of Andrew, the swords fell out of their hands. Grieving that the Magi apparently appeared in the city, the princes made a lottery among the citizens. One old man, who drew lots, asked to kill his son and daughters instead of himself. The servants took the crying children to the slaughter, but thanks to Andrey's prayer, the swords fell out of their hands again. Then the devil appeared in the form of an old man and, frightening the people with the impending starvation, forced them to look for the wanderer who released the prisoners. Andrew, invisible to the devil, showered him with reproaches, and then, at the command of Christ, revealed himself in front of everyone, "let the existing God be taken away." Having seized the apostle, the citizens, taught by the devil, tied a rope around his neck and dragged him through all the streets for three days, so that “his flesh clung to the ground.” At night, Andrei was thrown into prison, where the demons tried to kill him, but could not, fearing the cross depicted by Christ on his face. Dragged on the ground, Andrew prayed to Christ for help, recalling his own words: "if you follow me, I will not let a hair fall from your head." Christ's voice then confirmed to Andrew that "heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of God will not pass away": "Look at the streets and see what happened to your body and hair." Turning around, Andrew saw that tall trees had grown there, covered with leaves and fruits, and realized that Christ had not abandoned him. In Andrew's dungeon there was a pillar on which was a stone man; he stretched out his hands to this statue and, having cursed it with a cross, ordered the stone man to pour out water with his mouth and punish the citizens with a flood. In vain did they want to flee from the flood; at the prayer of Andrew, the angel surrounded the city with a fiery cloud. When the water reached the necks of the citizens, sobbing bitterly, they began to repent of the torment inflicted on the stranger (Andrew), gathered to release him from prison and prayed for their salvation in the name of Christ. Forbidding the stone man to pour out water, Andrei left the dungeon, and water ran from his feet. Leaving into the abyss, the water, at the prayer of Andrei, carried away and drowned the city nobles; but convinced that these miracles prepared the people for conversion to Christianity, Andrew resurrected the drowned. All finally believed, etc.

About another apocrypha, which we will offer in an incomplete retelling, the Slavic index was expressed in the following words: “Fables and blasphemers about Solomon and Kitovras are false: Kitovras did not visit the earth, but Hellenistic (i.e. pagan) philosophers introduced. "Kitovras" is the Greek name for the Indian spirit - "gandarva". The legend went a long way to Byzantium - through Iran, through the Jewish environment, etc. Judging by the language, it was translated from Greek directly into Russian no later than the 12th century.

Solomon is looking for Kitovras, because in order to build a temple, he needs to get a mysterious tool so that stones can be prepared without the use of tools. Having learned that Kitovras lives "in a distant desert", the wise Solomon came up with the idea of ​​forging an iron chain and an iron necklace, on which he wrote "in the name of God's commandment (spell)". With these shackles, Solomon sent "the boyar of his best", at the head of the youths, who carried with them wine, honey and sheep skins ("sheep's fleece"). The messengers came to the place of residence of Kitovras, where there were three wells, "but he is not to be carried." At the direction of Solomon, they filled two wells with wine, and the third with honey and stuffed them with sheepskins, while they themselves hid aside. They knew that Kitovras would come to drink water from these wells. Kitovras came, thirsty (“desiring”) for water, clung to the wells and, seeing the wine, said: “everyone drinks wine, does not manage (sya)”, and then: “thou art wine, rejoicing the hearts of man.” He drank all three wells and wanted to take a nap a little, but "if only his wine and sleep is firm." Then the boyar of Solomon put shackles around his neck. Having come to his senses, Kitovras wanted to free himself, but the boyar pointed out to him the "name of the Lord with the prohibition" written on the necklace, and Kitovras "go meekly." His temperament was this: he did not walk “by the crooked path”, but by the “right one”. Arriving in Jerusalem, Solomon's servants prepared a special road for Kitovras and destroyed the houses: "it is not going crooked"; it was necessary to break down the poor widow's hut, but she prayed to Kitovras: "I am a poor widow." Then Kitovras wanted to go around this hut, without leaving the straight path, broke his rib and said: “A soft word breaks a bone, but a cruel word raises anger.” Passing through the market, he heard a certain husband asking if there were any leather shoes on sale that would be enough for 7 legs. And Kitovras laughed at this. Then he saw a medicine man who was telling fortunes, and again laughed, and at the sight of a merry wedding he wept. Seeing the lost one, he led him to the road. They brought Kitovras to the palace, but on the first day they did not show him to Solomon. When asked by Kitovras why King Solomon did not call him to himself, he was told that he had drunk too much wine the night before. Then Kitovras laid one stone upon another, which Solomon deciphered as follows: “He orders me to drink drink upon drink.” And the next day they did not call Kitovras, explaining to him that the king was ill, because the day before she had a lot. Then Kitovras removed one stone from another. On the third day, he was called to the king, and he explained to Kitovras his capture by the need to learn from him how to carve stones for the "Holy of Holies", except for iron, which is prohibited. Kitovras said that the means for this would be a "shamir" (worm or diamond), which is used by the bird "kokot" (that is, a vulture or ostrich), which has a nest on a stone mountain, in a distant desert. Solomon sent his boyar there, to whom Kitovras gave "white glass" with the instruction: "as soon as the cocotte flies out, cover the nest with this glass." When the boyar came to the nest, only chicks were sitting there (“small chickens”), while the cocotte flew away for food. The nest was covered with glass. The returning cocotte tried in vain to get into the nest: “Kurentsi peep through the glass, and he is to them, and he doesn’t know what to do.” Then the kokot flew for the shamir, which he kept "in no place"; brought it to the nest and put it on the glass, wanting to “seat” the glass with it. Then the boyar and his youths shouted, the cocotte dropped the shamir, which was brought to Solomon. Solomon began to ask Kitovras why he laughed when the man was looking for shoes in the market that would last him 7 years. Because I saw that he had 7 days left to live, Kitovras answered. And why did he laugh when the medicine man told fortune? Because he, telling people secrets, did not know that under him there was a crypt with gold. Kitovras explained his crying at the sight of the wedding with pity for the young husband, who was destined to live only 30 days. Solomon ordered to check, and everything turned out to be true. As for the drunkard who had gone astray, Kitovras sent him on the road because he heard a voice from heaven, “as if that husband is faithful, and it is worthy to serve him.” This concludes the retelling of one of the legends surrounding Solomon and popular in literature, folklore, literature and art of many countries of the East and West until recent days.

For retelling, we confine ourselves to these two apocrypha. Other educators transmit from the Apocrypha usually " The journey of the virgin through torments”, which tells how the Mother of God, who surveyed hell and saw the continuous torment of sinners, begged her son to give the tormented periodic rest from torment. Despite the sentimental poetry of the work and its worldwide fame, it does not seem to us characteristic of the apocryphal style. It's not heretical enough. The Slavic translation of the Journey from Greek dates back to the 12th century. and is remarkable in that among those tormented in hell in the first place are those who believed in "Troyan, Khors, Veles, Perun" (pagan deities of Rus').

The Apocrypha were sometimes combined into large compilations. Russia already had such a collection of Old Testament apocrypha in Slavonic translation in the 12th-13th centuries. under the name "Explanatory Palea" ("palea" - Greekism, means "dilapidated"). Apocrypha here are interspersed with interpretations of Old Testament data as foreshadowings of Christ and are accompanied by attacks against Judaism. This, so to speak, “apocryphal bible”, due to its clutter with incomprehensible reasoning, was hardly widely distributed.

Later, in Bulgarian translation from Greek, appeared in Rus' " historical palea”, in which the biblical apocryphal story was given in a vulgar design. Russian scribes simplified it even more, bringing it closer to the tastes of folklore. Here is an episode about the flood, not without humor. If the author of "Explanatory Palea" was occupied with the secrets of the universe in all the variety of its phenomena, then the Russian editor of "Historical Palea" was especially interested in the question of how cats originated. When God decided to cleanse the earth with a flood, he warned Noah about this and gave him a diagram of the ark on which Noah could be saved. On the Arabian mountains, Noah began to build an ark, descending from these mountains home to eat once every three months. The devil, from time immemorial hating the human race, flattered himself to Noah's wife so that she would know where her husband was going. She refused: "My husband is strong and I cannot test him." Then the devil persuaded her to make Noah drunk and gave her the recipe for the drink. Noah came to dine and asked his wife for a drink. His wife brought him a cup of the devil's drink. After tasting, Noah said: “Behold, there is a hop torn, for a smart one for fun, for a wedding, for nepotism and brotherhood and for everything good, but for a fool for battle, for scolding and for all evil deeds.” When Noah drank three cups and cheered up, the wife "began to caress her husband with the devil's teaching" and asked where he was going and what he was working on. Then she turned everything over to the devil, and he broke the ark, so Noah had to make it again. Finally, on April 27, the flood came to the earth. God opened 12 windows of the sea, the "heavenly abyss" opened up, and it rained for 40 days and nights. Noah struck the beater, and according to this sign, Noah's children with their wives and clean and unclean animals in pairs entered the ark. The devil began to persuade Noah's wife: "Do not go into the ark without my word." She obeyed. Angry, Noah finally shouted to her: “Go, accursed woman, into the ark, go, enchantress!” She kept slowing down. Then Noah shouted: “Go, the devil, into the ark!” At these words, the devil entered the ark, turned into a mouse and began to gnaw at its bottom. “Noah prayed to God. And a fierce beast came into the ark and spitting (snorting), a cat and a cat jumped out of its nostril and that mouse was strangled. By the command of God, the wickedness of the devil will not come true. And from there, cats began to be.

Incidentally, in ancient times, some lives of saints, translated from Greek, were also included in the apocrypha, for example, “Nikita's Torment”, which tells how Nikita beat the devil with a rope, which turned into a dog, which was depicted in icon painting and on amulets. Some features of hagiographic characters formed an apocrypha already on Russian soil. I will cite one such apocrypha based on the book by Afanasiev “Russian folk legends". It tells how two saints, Nikola and Kasyan, were walking along the road and see: a peasant with a cart fell into the mud. Despite the fact that Nikola was smartly dressed, he began to help turn the cart out of the mud, but Kasyan refused. Conclusion - Nikola is therefore celebrated twice a year, and Kasyan once every four years. Nikola can receive eve and incense twice, and Kasyan once at the age of four.

ZAUMNIK.RU, Egor A. Polikarpov, 2012 - scientific editing, scientific proofreading, design, selection of illustrations; all rights reserved.

According to the chronicle, immediately after the adoption of Christianity by Russia, Vladimir Svyatoslavich “began to catch deliberate children [from noble people] children, and give a start to book learning ”(PVL, p. 81). For training, books were brought from Bulgaria. Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) and Old Russian languages so close that Rus' was able to use the ready-made Old Slavonic alphabet, and the Bulgarian books, being formally foreign languages, essentially did not require translation. This greatly facilitated the acquaintance of Rus' with the monuments of Byzantine literature, which for the most part penetrated into Rus' in Bulgarian translation.

Later, during the time of Yaroslav the Wise, in Rus' they begin to translate directly from Greek. The chronicle reports that Yaroslav collected “many scribes and translations from Greek into Slovenian writing. And many books have been written off” (PVL, p. 102). The intensity of translation activity is confirmed as direct data (lists of translated monuments that have come down to us or references to them in original works), and indirectly: the influx of translated literature at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th centuries. was not only a consequence of the established cultural ties of Rus' with Bulgaria or Byzantium, but above all was caused by an acute need, a kind of state necessity: having adopted Christianity, Rus' needed literature for worship, for familiarization with philosophical and ethical doctrines new religion, ritual and legal practices church and monastic life.

For the activities of the Christian Church in Rus', liturgical books were needed first of all. The obligatory set of books that were necessary for worship in each individual church included the Aprakos Gospel, the Aprakos Apostle, the Missal, the Trebnik, the Psalter, the Lenten Triodion, the Colored Triodion, and the Common Menaion. Considering that in the annals in the narrative of the events of the 9th-11th centuries. 88 cities are mentioned (data of B. V. Sapunov), each of which had from several units to several dozen churches, then the number of books necessary for their functioning will amount to many hundreds. Only a few copies of the manuscripts of the 11th-12th centuries have come down to us, but they confirm our ideas about the above-mentioned repertoire liturgical books.

If the transfer of liturgical books to Russian soil was dictated by the needs of the church service, and their repertoire was regulated by the canon of liturgical practice, then in relation to other genres of Byzantine literature one can assume some selectivity.

But it is here that we encounter an interesting phenomenon, which D.S. Likhachev described as the phenomenon of “transplantation”: Byzantine literature in its individual genres not only influenced Slavic literature, but through it on Old Russian literature, but was - of course, in some its part - simply transferred to Rus'.

Patristics. First of all, this applies to Byzantine patristic literature. In Rus', the works of the "fathers of the church", theologians and preachers were known and enjoyed high authority: John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius of Alexandria and others.

Homilet writers (authors of teachings and sermons) were highly valued throughout the Russian Middle Ages. Their creations not only helped shape moral ideals the Christian world, but at the same time forced to think about the properties of the human character, drew attention to various features of the human psyche, influenced other literary genres with their experience of "human science".

Of the Homilet writers, John Chrysostom (d. 407) enjoyed the greatest authority. In his work, "the assimilation of the traditions of ancient culture christian church reached full and classical perfection. He developed a style of preaching prose, which absorbed an incalculable wealth of expressive devices of rhetoric and brought with virtuosity of finishing to amazing expressiveness. The Teachings of John Chrysostom were included in collections from the 11th century. From the XII century. the list "Zlatostruya" has been preserved, containing mainly the "words" of Chrysostom, several "words" were included in the famous Assumption collection at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries.

In the lists of the XI-XII centuries. translations of other Byzantine homiletes have also been preserved - Gregory the Theologian, Cyril of Jerusalem, the "Ladder" of John of the Ladder, Pandects of Antiochus and Pandects of Nikon Montenegrin. The sayings and aphorisms of the "fathers of the church" (along with aphorisms extracted from the writings of ancient authors) were popular in Ancient Rus' collection - "Bee" (the oldest copy of the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries). In "Izbornik 1076" a significant place is occupied by "Stoslovets" Gennady - a kind of " moral code» Christian.

The works of the homiletic genre did not hide their instructive, didactic function. Turning directly to readers and listeners, homilete writers sought to convince them with the logic of their reasoning, extolled virtues and condemned vices, promised eternal bliss to the righteous, and threatened the negligent and sinners with divine punishment.

Lives of the Saints. Monuments of the hagiographic genre - the lives of the saints - also educated and instructed, but the main means of persuasion was not so much the word - sometimes indignant and denouncing, sometimes insinuatingly instructive, but a living image. The action-packed narrative about the life of a righteous man, willingly using the plot and plot devices of the Hellenistic adventure novel, could not but interest the medieval reader. The hagiographer turned not so much to his mind, but to his feelings and ability to vivid imagination. Therefore, the most fantastic episodes - the intervention of angels or demons, miracles performed by saints - were sometimes described with detailed details that helped the reader to see and imagine what was happening. Sometimes the hagiographies reported accurate geographical or topographical signs, named the names of real historical figures - all this also created the illusion of authenticity, was intended to convince the reader of the veracity of the story and thereby give the hagiographies the authority of a "historical" narrative.

Lives can be divided into two plot types - lives-martyria, i.e., stories about the torment of fighters for the faith in pagan times, and lives that told about saints who voluntarily assumed the feat of seclusion or foolishness, distinguished by extraordinary piety, poverty-loving etc.

An example of the life of the first type is the Life of St. Irene. It tells how Irina's father, the pagan king Licinius, at the instigation of a demon, decides to destroy his Christian daughter; according to his sentence, she should be crushed by a chariot, but a miracle happens: the horse, tearing the traces, pounces on the king, bites off his hand and returns to its original place. Irina is subjected to various sophisticated tortures by King Zedekiy, but each time, thanks to divine intercession, she remains alive and unharmed. The princess is thrown into a ditch, teeming with poisonous snakes, but the "reptiles" immediately "press" against the walls of the ditch and die. They try to saw the saint alive, but the saw breaks and the executioners perish. She is tied to the mill wheel, but the water "by the command of God will flow around", etc.

Another type of life is, for example, the legend of Alexei the Man of God. Alexei, a pious and virtuous young man, voluntarily renounces wealth, honor, and female love. He leaves the house of his father - a rich Roman nobleman, his beautiful wife, having barely married her, distributes the money taken from the house to the poor, and for seventeen years lives on alms in the porch of the Church of the Virgin in Edessa. When the fame of his holiness spread everywhere, Alexei leaves Edessa and, after wandering, again finds himself in Rome. Recognized by no one, he settles in his father's house, feeds at the same table with the beggars, who are given daily alms by the pious nobleman, patiently endures the bullying and beatings of his father's servants. Another seventeen years pass. Alexei dies, and only then will the parents and the widow recognize their missing son and husband.

Pateriki. Patericons were widely known in Kievan Rus - collections of short stories about monks. The themes of patericon legends are quite traditional. Most often these are stories about monks who became famous for their asceticism or humility. So, in one legend it is told how the elders come to the hermit for a conversation with him, thirsting for guidance from him. But the recluse is silent, and when asked about the reason for his silence, he answers that he sees the image of the crucified Christ in front of him day and night. “This is the best instruction for us!” - exclaim the elders.

The hero of another story is a stylite. He is so alien to pride that he even lays out alms for the poor on the steps of his refuge, and does not give them from hand to hand, claiming that it is not he, but the Mother of God who bestows the suffering.

The patericon tells of a young nun who gouges out her own eyes after learning that their beauty aroused the lust of a young man.

The omnipotence of prayer, the ability of ascetics to work miracles are the plots of another group of patericon short stories. The righteous old man is accused of adultery, but through his prayer, the twelve-day-old baby, when asked “who is his father”, points his finger at the real father. At the prayer of a pious shipbuilder, on a hot day, rain pours over the deck, delighting travelers suffering from heat and thirst. The lion, having met the monk on a narrow mountain path, stands on hind legs to give him way, etc.

If the righteous are accompanied by divine help, then sinners in the paterinic legends expect a terrible and, which is especially characteristic, not posthumous, but immediate punishment: the defiler of the graves is gouged out by the revived dead; the ship does not move from its place until a child-killer woman descends from its side into the boat, and the abyss immediately swallows the boat with the sinner; the servant, who planned to kill and rob his mistress, cannot leave the place and stabs himself.

Thus, a certain fantastic world is depicted in patericons, where the forces of good and evil are constantly fighting for the souls of people, where the righteous are not just pious, but exaltedly fanatical, where miracles are performed in the most everyday situations, where even wild animals confirm the omnipotence of faith with their behavior. The plots of translated patericons influenced the work of Russian scribes: in Russian patericons and lives we will find direct analogies to episodes from Byzantine patericons.

Apocrypha. Apocrypha were also a favorite genre of Old Russian readers, the oldest translations of which also date back to the Kievan era. Apocrypha (from the Greek ???????? - “secret, hidden”) were works that tell about biblical characters or saints, but were not included in the circle of monuments revered as Holy Bible or officially recognized by the church. There were apocryphal gospels (for example, “The Gospel of Thomas”, “The Gospel of Nicodemus”), lives (“The Life of St. Andrew the Fool”, “The Life of Basil the New”), legends, prophecies, etc. The apocrypha often contained a more detailed account of events or characters mentioned in the canonical biblical books. There were apocryphal stories about Adam and Eve (for example, about the second wife of Adam - Lilith, about the birds that taught Adam how to bury Abel), about the childhood of Moses (in particular, about testing the wisdom of the boy Moses by the pharaoh), about the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

The apocryphal “Walking of the Theotokos through Torment” describes the suffering of sinners in hell, the “Tale of Agapius” tells of paradise - a wonderful garden, where “beds and a meal decorated with precious stones” are prepared for the righteous, birds sing around with “various voices”, and plumage they have gold, and scarlet, and scarlet, and blue, and green ...

Often the apocrypha reflected heretical ideas about the present and future world, rising to complex philosophical problems. The apocrypha reflects the doctrine according to which God is opposed by a no less powerful antipode - Satan, the source of evil and the culprit of human disasters; so, according to one apocryphal legend, the human body was created by Satan, and God only “put” his soul into it.

The attitude of the orthodox church towards apocryphal literature was complex. The oldest indexes (lists) of “true and false books”, in addition to “true” books, distinguished between “secret”, “hidden” books, which were recommended to be read only by knowledgeable people, and “false” books, which were certainly forbidden to read, since they contained heretical views . However, in practice, it was almost impossible to separate the apocryphal plots from the plots found in the “true” books: apocryphal legends were reflected in the monuments that enjoyed the highest authority: in the chronicles, palaea, in collections used in worship (Teremonniki, Menaion). Attitudes towards apocrypha changed over time: some monuments that were popular in the past were subsequently banned and even destroyed, but, on the other hand, in the Great Menaion of the Cheti, created in the 16th century. Orthodox churchmen, as a set of literature recommended for reading, included many texts that were previously considered apocryphal.

Among the first translations carried out under Yaroslav the Wise or during subsequent decades, there were also monuments of Byzantine chronography.

Chronicle of George Amartol. Among them highest value for the history of Russian chronicle writing and chronography had the "Chronicle of Georgy Amartol". The author, a Byzantine monk, outlined in his work the entire history of the world from Adam to the events of the middle of the 9th century. In addition to the events of biblical history, the Chronicle told about the kings of the East (Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius), Alexander the Great, about the Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar to Costantius Chlorus, and then about the Byzantine emperors, from Constantine the Great to Michael III. Even on Greek soil, the Chronicle was supplemented by an extract from the "Chronicle of Simeon Logothetes", and the presentation in it was brought to the death of Emperor Romanus Lekapinus (he was deposed from the throne in 944, and died in 948). Despite its significant volume and breadth of historical range, Amartol's work presented world history in a peculiar perspective, primarily as church history. The author often introduces lengthy theological arguments into his exposition, scrupulously sets out debates at ecumenical councils, himself argues with heretics, denounces iconoclasm, and quite often replaces the description of events with arguments about them. We find a relatively detailed account of the political history of Byzantium only in the last part of the "Chronicle", which describes the events of the 9th - first half of the 10th century. The "Chronicle of Amartol" was used in compiling a short chronographic code - "Chronograph according to the great presentation", which in turn was involved in compiling the "Initial Code", one of the oldest monuments of Russian chronicle writing (see below, p. 39). Then the "Chronicle" was again turned to when compiling the "Tale of Bygone Years"; it became part of the extensive ancient Russian chronographic codes - the Hellenic Chronicler, the Russian Chronograph, etc.

Chronicle of John Malala. The Byzantine Chronicle, compiled in the 6th century, had a different character. Greekized Syrian John Malalas. Its author, according to the researcher of the monument, "set out to give a moralizing, in the spirit of Christian piety, instructive, and at the same time entertaining reading for a wide audience of readers and listeners." In the Chronicle of Malala, ancient myths are retold in detail (about the birth of Zeus, about the struggle of the gods with the titans, myths about Dionysus, Orpheus, Daedalus and Icarus, Theseus and Ariadne, Oedipus); the fifth book of the Chronicle contains the story of the Trojan War. Malala describes in detail the history of Rome (especially the most ancient - from Romulus and Remus to Julius Caesar), a significant place is also given to the political history of Byzantium. In a word, the "Chronicle of Malala" successfully supplemented the presentation of Amartol, in particular, it was through this "Chronicle" that Kievan Rus could get acquainted with the myths of ancient Greece. Separate lists of the Slavic translation of the Chronicle of Malala have not reached us, we know it only as part of the extracts included in the Russian chronographic compilations (Archive and Vilensky chronographs, both editions of the Hellenic Chronicler, etc.).

History of the Jewish War by Josephus Flavius. Perhaps already in the middle of the XI century. in Rus' was translated the "History of the Jewish War" by Josephus Flavius ​​- a monument of exceptionally authoritative in the Christian literature of the Middle Ages. "History" was written between 75-79 AD. n. e. Joseph ben Mattafie, a contemporary and direct participant in the anti-Roman uprising in Judea, who then went over to the side of the Romans. Book of Joseph - valuable historical source, although extremely tendentious, for the author very unequivocally condemns his fellow tribesmen, but on the other hand he glorifies the military art and political wisdom of Vespasian and Titus Flavius. At the same time, "History" is a brilliant literary monument. Josephus skillfully uses the techniques of storytelling, his presentation is replete with descriptions, dialogues, psychological characteristics; The "speech" of the characters in the "History" is built according to the laws of ancient declamations; even talking about events, the author remains a refined stylist: he strives for a symmetrical construction of phrases, willingly resorts to rhetorical oppositions, skillfully constructed enumerations, etc. Sometimes it seems that for Flavius ​​the form of presentation is no less important than the subject itself, about which he writes.

The Old Russian translator understood and appreciated the literary merits of the "History": he not only managed to preserve the refined style of the monument in translation, but in a number of cases enters into competition with the author, either spreading the traditional stylistic description formulas, or translating indirect speech the original in a straight line, then introducing comparisons or clarifications that make the narrative more lively and figurative. The translation of the "History" is a convincing evidence of the high culture of the word among the scribes of Kievan Rus.

Alexandria. Not later than the 12th century. an extensive narrative about the life and exploits of Alexander the Great was also translated from Greek - the so-called pseudo-Kallisthenov "Alexandria". It is based on the Hellenistic novel, created, apparently, in Alexandria in the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e., but later subjected to additions and revisions. Over time, the initial biographical narrative became more and more fictionalized, overgrown with legendary and fairy tale motifs, gradually turning into an adventure novel typical of the Hellenistic era. One of these later versions of "Alexandria" was translated into Rus'.

The real history of the actions of the famous commander is barely traced here, buried under layers of later traditions and legends. Alexander turns out to be no longer the son of the Macedonian king, but the illegitimate son of Olympias and the Egyptian sorcerer king Nektonav. The birth of a hero is accompanied by miraculous signs. Contrary to history, Alexander conquers Rome and Athens, boldly comes to Darius, posing as the Macedonian ambassador, negotiates with the queen of the Amazons, etc. mothers; the hero informs Olympias about the miracles he has seen: giant people, disappearing trees, fish that can be boiled in cold water, six-legged and three-eyed monsters, etc. Nevertheless, the ancient Russian scribes apparently perceived "Alexandria" as a historical narrative, as evidenced by the inclusion of her full text into the chronographs. Regardless of how the novel about Alexander was perceived in Rus', the very fact of the acquaintance of ancient Russian readers with this most popular plot of the Middle Ages was of great importance: ancient Russian literature thereby introduced into the sphere of common European cultural interests, enriched her knowledge of the history of the ancient world.

The Tale of Akira the Wise. If "Alexandria" genetically ascended to historical narrative and talked about a historical character, then the Tale of Akira the Wise, also translated in Kievan Rus in the 11th - early 12th centuries, is by its origin a purely fictional monument - an ancient Assyrian legend of the 7th century. BC e. Researchers have not come to a unanimous conclusion about the ways in which the "Tale of Akir" penetrated into Rus': there are suggestions that it was translated from the Syrian or from the Armenian original. The story lived in Rus' long life. Its oldest edition (apparently a translation very close to the original) has been preserved in four lists of the 15th-17th centuries. In the 16th or early 17th century The story has been radically revised. Its new editions (Short and Extended, ascending to it), which largely lost their original oriental flavor, but acquired the features of a Russian folk tale, were extremely popular in the 17th century, and the story continued to exist among the Old Believers right up to our time.

In the oldest edition of the Russian translation of the Tale, it was told how Akir, the wise adviser to King Sinagripp, was slandered by his adopted son Anadan and sentenced to death. But devoted friend Akira - Nabuginael saved and managed to securely shelter the convict. Some time later, the Egyptian pharaoh demanded that King Sinagripp send him a wise man who could solve the riddles proposed by the pharaoh and build a palace "between heaven and earth." For this, the pharaoh will pay Sinagripp "a three-year tribute." If the envoy of Sinagripp does not cope with the task, tribute will be exacted in favor of Egypt. All close associates of Sinagrippa, including Anadan, who has now become Akir's successor as the first noble, admit that they are unable to fulfill the demand of the pharaoh. Then Nabuginael informs the desperate Sinagripp that Akir is alive. The happy king forgives the disgraced sage and sends him under the guise of a simple groom to the pharaoh. Aqir solves the riddles and then cunningly avoids the last task - the construction of the palace. To do this, Akir teaches the eagles to lift a basket into the air; the boy sitting in it shouts for “stone and lime” to be served to him: he is ready to start building the palace. But no one can deliver the necessary cargo to the skies, and the pharaoh is forced to admit defeat. Akir returns home with a "three-year tribute", once again becomes close to Sinagripp, and the unmasked Anadan dies a terrible death.

The wisdom (or cunning) of a hero who frees himself from the need to perform an impossible task is a traditional fairy motif. And it is characteristic that with all the alterations of the Tale on Russian soil, it was the story of how Akir guesses the riddles of the pharaoh and by wise counterclaims forces him to renounce his claims, enjoyed unchanging popularity, it was constantly revised and supplemented with new details.

The Tale of Barlaam and Joasaph. If the "Tale of Akira the Wise" in many of its elements resembles a fairy tale, then another translated story - about Barlaam and Joasaph - closely approaches the hagiographic genre, although in reality its plot is based on legendary biography Buddha, who came to Rus' through Byzantine intermediary.

The Tale tells how Prince Joasaph, the son of the Indian pagan king Abner, becomes a Christian ascetic under the influence of the hermit Varlaam.

However, the plot, potentially replete with "conflict situations", turns out to be extremely smoothed out in the Tale: the author seems to be in a hurry to eliminate the obstacles that arise or simply "forget" about them. So, for example, Avenir imprisons young Joasaph in a secluded palace precisely so that the boy could not hear about the ideas of Christianity and did not learn about the existence of old age, illness, and death in the world. Nevertheless, Joasaph nevertheless leaves the palace and immediately meets a sick old man, and the Christian hermit Barlaam enters his chambers without any special obstacles. The pagan sage Nahor, according to the plan of Abner, in a dispute with the imaginary Barlaam, should debunk the ideas of Christianity, but suddenly, quite unexpectedly, he himself begins to expose paganism. They bring to Joasaph beautiful princess, she must persuade the young ascetic to sensual pleasures, but Joasaph easily resists the charms of the beauty and easily convinces her to become a chaste Christian. There are a lot of dialogues in the Tale, but all of them are devoid of both individuality and naturalness: Varlaam, Joasaph, and pagan sages speak equally pompously and "learned". Before us is like a lengthy philosophical debate, the participants of which are as conditional as the participants in the conversation in the genre of "philosophical dialogue". Nevertheless, The Tale of Varlaam was widely circulated; especially popular were the parables-apologists included in it, illustrating the ideals of Christian piety and asceticism: some of the parables were included in collections of both mixed and permanent composition (for example, in Izmaragd), and many dozens of their lists are known.

Devgen's deed. It is believed that even in Kievan Rus, a Byzantine epic poem about Digenis Akritas was translated (warriors guarding the borders of the Byzantine Empire were called Akritas). The time of translation is indicated, according to the researchers, by the data of the language - lexical parallels of the story (in the Russian version it was called "Devgeny's deed") and literary monuments of Kievan Rus, as well as the mention of Devgeny Akrit in "The Life of Alexander Nevsky". But the comparison with Akritus appears only in the third (according to the classification of Yu. K. Begunov) edition of the monument, probably created in the middle of the 15th century, and cannot serve as an argument in favor of the existence of the translation in Kievan Rus. Significant plot differences between the “Deeds of Devgenius” and the Greek versions of the epic about Digenis Akrita known to us leave open the question of whether these differences were the result of a radical reworking of the original during translation, whether they arose in the process of later alterations of the text on Russian soil, or whether the Russian text corresponds to the one that did not come down to us. before us the Greek version.

Devgeny (as it was conveyed in the Russian translation Greek name Digenis) - typical epic hero. He has extraordinary strength (even as a youth, Devgeny strangled a bear with his bare hands, and, having matured, he exterminates thousands of enemy soldiers in battles), he is handsome, knightly magnanimous. A significant place in the Russian version of the monument is occupied by the story of Devgeny's marriage to the daughter of a proud and stern Stratig. This episode has all the characteristic features of an "epic matchmaking": Devgeny sings a love song under the girl's windows; she, admiring the beauty and prowess of the young man, agrees to run away with him, Devgeny takes away his beloved in broad daylight, defeats her father and brothers in battle, then reconciles with them; the parents of the young arrange a multi-day magnificent wedding.

Devgeny is akin to the heroes of translated chivalric novels that spread in Rus' in the 17th century. (such as Bova Korolevich, Eruslan, Vasily the Golden-haired), and, apparently, this proximity to the literary taste of the era contributed to the revival of the handwritten tradition of the "Acts": all three lists that have come down to us date from the 17th-18th centuries.

* * *

So, Kievan Rus in a short period of time acquired a rich and varied literature. A whole system of genres was transferred to the new soil: chronicles, historical stories, lives, patericons, "words", teachings. The significance of this phenomenon is increasingly being studied and comprehended in our science. It has been established that the system of genres of Byzantine or Old Bulgarian literature was not completely transferred to Rus': Old Russian scribes preferred some genres and rejected others. At the same time, genres arose in Rus' that had no analogy in “model literature”: the Russian chronicle is not similar to the Byzantine chronicle, and the chronicles themselves are used as material for independent and original chronographic compilations; completely original "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and "Instruction" by Vladimir Monomakh, "The Prayer of Daniil the Sharpener" and "The Tale of the Devastation of Ryazan". Translated works not only enriched Russian scribes with historical or natural science information, introduced them to the plots of ancient myths and epic traditions, they also represented different types plots, styles, manners of narration, being a kind of literary school for ancient Russian scribes, who were able to get acquainted with the ponderous verbose Amartol and laconic, stingy with details and details Malala, with the brilliant stylist Flavius ​​and with the inspired rhetorician John Chrysostom, with the heroic world of the epic about Devgeny and the exotic fantasy of "Alexandria". It was a rich material for reading and writing experience, an excellent school literary language; she helped the Old Russian scribes to visualize the possible styles, to refine their hearing and speech on the colossal lexical richness of Byzantine and Old Slavonic literature.

But it would be a mistake to believe that translated literature was the only and main school of ancient Russian scribes. In addition to translated literature, they used the rich traditions of oral folk art, and above all, the traditions of the Slavic epic. This is not a conjecture and not a reconstruction of modern researchers: as we will see below, folk epic legends are recorded in early chronicles and represent a completely exceptional artistic phenomenon that has no analogy in the monuments of translated literature known to us. Slavic epic legends are distinguished by a special manner of constructing the plot, a peculiar interpretation of the character of the characters, their style, which differs from the style of monumental historicism, which was formed mainly under the influence of monuments of translated literature.

2. Translated literature of the 11th-12th centuries

According to the chronicle, immediately after the adoption of Christianity by Russia, Vladimir Svyatoslavich “began to take deliberate children from [noble people] children, and start giving book learning” (PVL, p. 81). For training, books were brought from Bulgaria. The Old Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) and Old Russian languages ​​are so close that Rus' was able to use the ready-made Old Slavonic alphabet, and Bulgarian books, being formally foreign languages, essentially did not require translation. This greatly facilitated the acquaintance of Rus' with the monuments of Byzantine literature, which for the most part penetrated into Rus' in Bulgarian translation.

Later, during the time of Yaroslav the Wise, in Rus' they begin to translate directly from Greek. The chronicle reports that Yaroslav collected “many scribes and translations from Greek into Slovenian writing. And many books have been written off” (PVL, p. 102). The intensity of translation activity is confirmed both by direct data (lists of translated monuments that have come down to us or references to them in original works) and indirectly: the influx of translated literature at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th centuries. was not only a consequence of the established cultural ties of Rus' with Bulgaria or Byzantium, but above all was caused by an acute need, a kind of state necessity: having adopted Christianity, Rus' needed literature for worship, to get acquainted with the philosophical and ethical doctrines of the new religion, the ritual and legal customs of the church and monastic life.

For the activities of the Christian Church in Rus', liturgical books were needed first of all. The obligatory set of books that were necessary for worship in each individual church included the Aprakos Gospel, the Aprakos Apostle, the Missal, the Trebnik, the Psalter, the Lenten Triodion, the Colored Triodion, and the Common Menaion. Considering that in the annals in the narrative of the events of the 9th-11th centuries. 88 cities are mentioned (data of B. V. Sapunov), each of which had from several units to several dozen churches, then the number of books necessary for their functioning will amount to many hundreds. Only a few copies of manuscripts from the 11th-12th centuries have come down to us, but they confirm our ideas about the above-mentioned repertoire of liturgical books.

If the transfer of liturgical books to Russian soil was dictated by the needs of the church service, and their repertoire was regulated by the canon of liturgical practice, then in relation to other genres of Byzantine literature one can assume some selectivity.

But it is here that we encounter an interesting phenomenon, which D.S. Likhachev described as the phenomenon of “transplantation”: Byzantine literature in its individual genres not only influenced Slavic literature, but through it on Old Russian literature, but was - of course, in some its part - simply transferred to Rus'.

Patristics. First of all, this applies to Byzantine patristic literature. In Rus', the works of the "fathers of the church", theologians and preachers were known and enjoyed high authority: John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius of Alexandria and others.

Homilet writers (authors of teachings and sermons) were highly valued throughout the Russian Middle Ages. Their creations not only helped shape the moral ideals of the Christian world, but at the same time made us think about the properties of the human character, drew attention to various features of the human psyche, and influenced other literary genres with their experience of “human studies”.

Of the Homilet writers, John Chrysostom (d. 407) enjoyed the greatest authority. In his work, “the assimilation of the traditions of ancient culture by the Christian church has reached complete and classical completeness. He developed a style of preaching prose, which absorbed an incalculable wealth of expressive devices of rhetoric and brought with virtuosity of finishing to amazing expressiveness. The Teachings of John Chrysostom were included in collections from the 11th century. From the XII century. the list "Zlatostruya" has been preserved, containing mainly the "words" of Chrysostom, several "words" were included in the famous Assumption collection at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries.

In the lists of the XI-XII centuries. translations of other Byzantine homiletes have also been preserved - Gregory the Theologian, Cyril of Jerusalem, the "Ladder" of John of the Ladder, Pandects of Antiochus and Pandects of Nikon Montenegrin. The sayings and aphorisms of the "fathers of the church" (along with aphorisms extracted from the writings of ancient authors) made up a collection popular in Ancient Rus' - "Bee" (the oldest list of the turn of the 13th-14th centuries). In "Izbornik 1076" a significant place is occupied by "Stoslovets" Gennady - a kind of "moral code" of a Christian.

The works of the homiletic genre did not hide their instructive, didactic function. Turning directly to readers and listeners, homilete writers sought to convince them with the logic of their reasoning, extolled virtues and condemned vices, promised eternal bliss to the righteous, and threatened the negligent and sinners with divine punishment.

Lives of the Saints. Monuments of the hagiographic genre - the lives of the saints - also educated and instructed, but the main means of persuasion was not so much the word - sometimes indignant and denouncing, sometimes insinuatingly instructive, but a living image. The action-packed narrative about the life of a righteous man, willingly using the plot and plot devices of the Hellenistic adventure novel, could not but interest the medieval reader. The hagiographer turned not so much to his mind, but to his feelings and ability to vivid imagination. Therefore, the most fantastic episodes - the intervention of angels or demons, miracles performed by saints - were sometimes described with detailed details that helped the reader to see and imagine what was happening. Sometimes the hagiographies reported accurate geographical or topographical signs, named the names of real historical figures - all this also created the illusion of authenticity, was intended to convince the reader of the veracity of the story and thereby give the hagiographies the authority of a "historical" narrative.

Lives can be divided into two plot types - lives-martyria, i.e., stories about the torment of fighters for the faith in pagan times, and lives that told about saints who voluntarily assumed the feat of seclusion or foolishness, distinguished by extraordinary piety, poverty-loving etc.

An example of the life of the first type is the Life of St. Irene. It tells how Irina's father, the pagan king Licinius, at the instigation of a demon, decides to destroy his Christian daughter; according to his sentence, she should be crushed by a chariot, but a miracle happens: the horse, tearing the traces, pounces on the king, bites off his hand and returns to its original place. Irina is subjected to various sophisticated tortures by King Zedekiy, but each time, thanks to divine intercession, she remains alive and unharmed. The princess is thrown into a ditch, teeming with poisonous snakes, but the "reptiles" immediately "press" against the walls of the ditch and die. They try to saw the saint alive, but the saw breaks and the executioners perish. She is tied to the mill wheel, but the water "by the command of God will flow around", etc.

Another type of life is, for example, the legend of Alexei the Man of God. Alexei, a pious and virtuous young man, voluntarily renounces wealth, honor, and female love. He leaves the house of his father - a rich Roman nobleman, his beautiful wife, having barely married her, distributes the money taken from the house to the poor, and for seventeen years lives on alms in the porch of the Church of the Virgin in Edessa. When the fame of his holiness spread everywhere, Alexei leaves Edessa and, after wandering, again finds himself in Rome. Recognized by no one, he settles in his father's house, feeds at the same table with the beggars, who are given daily alms by the pious nobleman, patiently endures the bullying and beatings of his father's servants. Another seventeen years pass. Alexei dies, and only then will the parents and the widow recognize their missing son and husband.

Pateriki. Patericons were widely known in Kievan Rus - collections of short stories about monks. The themes of patericon legends are quite traditional. Most often these are stories about monks who became famous for their asceticism or humility. So, in one legend it is told how the elders come to the hermit for a conversation with him, thirsting for guidance from him. But the recluse is silent, and when asked about the reason for his silence, he answers that he sees the image of the crucified Christ in front of him day and night. “This is the best instruction for us!” - exclaim the elders.

The hero of another story is a stylite. He is so alien to pride that he even lays out alms for the poor on the steps of his refuge, and does not give them from hand to hand, claiming that it is not he, but the Mother of God who bestows the suffering.

The patericon tells of a young nun who gouges out her own eyes after learning that their beauty aroused the lust of a young man.

The omnipotence of prayer, the ability of ascetics to work miracles are the plots of another group of patericon short stories. The righteous old man is accused of adultery, but through his prayer, the twelve-day-old baby, when asked “who is his father”, points his finger at the real father. At the prayer of a pious shipbuilder, on a hot day, rain pours over the deck, delighting travelers suffering from heat and thirst. A lion, having met a monk on a narrow mountain path, stands up on its hind legs to give it way, etc.

If the righteous are accompanied by divine help, then sinners in the paterinic legends expect a terrible and, which is especially characteristic, not posthumous, but immediate punishment: the defiler of the graves is gouged out by the revived dead; the ship does not move from its place until a child-killer woman descends from its side into the boat, and the abyss immediately swallows the boat with the sinner; the servant, who planned to kill and rob his mistress, cannot leave the place and stabs himself.

Thus, a certain fantastic world is depicted in patericons, where the forces of good and evil are constantly fighting for the souls of people, where the righteous are not just pious, but exaltedly fanatical, where miracles are performed in the most everyday situations, where even wild animals confirm the omnipotence of faith with their behavior. The plots of translated patericons influenced the work of Russian scribes: in Russian patericons and lives we will find direct analogies to episodes from Byzantine patericons.

Apocrypha. Apocrypha were also a favorite genre of Old Russian readers, the oldest translations of which also date back to the Kievan era. Apocrypha (from the Greek ???????? - “secret, hidden”) were works that tell about biblical characters or saints, but were not included in the circle of monuments revered as sacred scripture or officially recognized by the church. There were apocryphal gospels (for example, “The Gospel of Thomas”, “The Gospel of Nicodemus”), lives (“The Life of St. Andrew the Fool”, “The Life of Basil the New”), legends, prophecies, etc. The apocrypha often contained a more detailed account of events or characters mentioned in the canonical biblical books. There were apocryphal stories about Adam and Eve (for example, about the second wife of Adam - Lilith, about the birds that taught Adam how to bury Abel), about the childhood of Moses (in particular, about testing the wisdom of the boy Moses by the pharaoh), about the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

The apocryphal “Walking of the Theotokos through Torment” describes the suffering of sinners in hell, the “Tale of Agapius” tells of paradise - a wonderful garden, where “beds and a meal decorated with precious stones” are prepared for the righteous, birds sing around with “various voices”, and plumage they have gold, and scarlet, and scarlet, and blue, and green ...

Often the apocrypha reflected heretical ideas about the present and future world, rising to complex philosophical problems. The apocrypha reflects the doctrine according to which God is opposed by a no less powerful antipode - Satan, the source of evil and the culprit of human disasters; so, according to one apocryphal legend, the human body was created by Satan, and God only “put” his soul into it.

The attitude of the orthodox church towards apocryphal literature was complex. The oldest indexes (lists) of “true and false books”, in addition to “true” books, distinguished between “secret”, “hidden” books, which were recommended to be read only by knowledgeable people, and “false” books, which were certainly forbidden to read, since they contained heretical views . However, in practice, it was almost impossible to separate the apocryphal plots from the plots found in the “true” books: apocryphal legends were reflected in the monuments that enjoyed the highest authority: in the chronicles, palaea, in collections used in worship (Teremonniki, Menaion). Attitudes towards apocrypha changed over time: some monuments that were popular in the past were subsequently banned and even destroyed, but, on the other hand, in the Great Menaion of the Cheti, created in the 16th century. Orthodox churchmen, as a set of literature recommended for reading, included many texts that were previously considered apocryphal.

Among the first translations carried out under Yaroslav the Wise or during subsequent decades, there were also monuments of Byzantine chronography.

Chronicle of George Amartol. Among them, the Chronicle of George Amartol was of the greatest importance for the history of Russian chronicle writing and chronography. The author, a Byzantine monk, outlined in his work the entire history of the world from Adam to the events of the middle of the 9th century. In addition to the events of biblical history, the Chronicle told about the kings of the East (Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius), Alexander the Great, about the Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar to Costantius Chlorus, and then about the Byzantine emperors, from Constantine the Great to Michael III. Even on Greek soil, the Chronicle was supplemented by an extract from the "Chronicle of Simeon Logothetes", and the presentation in it was brought to the death of Emperor Romanus Lekapinus (he was deposed from the throne in 944, and died in 948). Despite its significant volume and breadth of historical range, Amartol's work presented world history in a peculiar perspective, primarily as church history. The author often introduces lengthy theological arguments into his exposition, scrupulously sets out debates at ecumenical councils, himself argues with heretics, denounces iconoclasm, and quite often replaces the description of events with arguments about them. We find a relatively detailed account of the political history of Byzantium only in the last part of the "Chronicle", which describes the events of the 9th - first half of the 10th century. The "Chronicle of Amartol" was used in compiling a short chronographic code - "Chronograph according to the great presentation", which in turn was involved in compiling the "Initial Code", one of the oldest monuments of Russian chronicle writing (see below, p. 39). Then the "Chronicle" was again turned to when compiling the "Tale of Bygone Years"; it became part of the extensive ancient Russian chronographic codes - the Hellenic Chronicler, the Russian Chronograph, etc.

Chronicle of John Malala. The Byzantine Chronicle, compiled in the 6th century, had a different character. Greekized Syrian John Malalas. Its author, according to the researcher of the monument, "set out to give a moralizing, in the spirit of Christian piety, instructive, and at the same time entertaining reading for a wide audience of readers and listeners." In the Chronicle of Malala, ancient myths are retold in detail (about the birth of Zeus, about the struggle of the gods with the titans, myths about Dionysus, Orpheus, Daedalus and Icarus, Theseus and Ariadne, Oedipus); the fifth book of the Chronicle contains the story of the Trojan War. Malala describes in detail the history of Rome (especially the most ancient - from Romulus and Remus to Julius Caesar), a significant place is also given to the political history of Byzantium. In a word, the "Chronicle of Malala" successfully supplemented the presentation of Amartol, in particular, it was through this "Chronicle" that Kievan Rus could get acquainted with the myths of ancient Greece. Separate lists of the Slavic translation of the Chronicle of Malala have not reached us, we know it only as part of the extracts included in the Russian chronographic compilations (Archive and Vilensky chronographs, both editions of the Hellenic Chronicler, etc.).

History of the Jewish War by Josephus Flavius. Perhaps already in the middle of the XI century. in Rus' was translated the "History of the Jewish War" by Josephus Flavius ​​- a monument of exceptionally authoritative in the Christian literature of the Middle Ages. "History" was written between 75-79 AD. n. e. Joseph ben Mattafie, a contemporary and direct participant in the anti-Roman uprising in Judea, who then went over to the side of the Romans. The book of Joseph is a valuable historical source, although extremely tendentious, for the author very unequivocally condemns his fellow tribesmen, but glorifies the military art and political wisdom of Vespasian and Titus Flavius. At the same time, "History" is a brilliant literary monument. Josephus skillfully uses the techniques of storytelling, his presentation is replete with descriptions, dialogues, psychological characteristics; The "speech" of the characters in the "History" is built according to the laws of ancient declamations; even talking about events, the author remains a refined stylist: he strives for a symmetrical construction of phrases, willingly resorts to rhetorical oppositions, skillfully constructed enumerations, etc. Sometimes it seems that for Flavius ​​the form of presentation is no less important than the subject itself, about which he writes.

The Old Russian translator understood and appreciated the literary merits of the "History": he not only managed to preserve the refined style of the monument in translation, but in a number of cases enters into competition with the author, sometimes spreading the traditional stylistic formulas of description, sometimes translating the indirect speech of the original into direct speech, sometimes introducing comparisons or clarifications that make the narrative more lively and imaginative. The translation of the "History" is a convincing evidence of the high culture of the word among the scribes of Kievan Rus.

Alexandria. Not later than the 12th century. an extensive narrative about the life and exploits of Alexander the Great was also translated from Greek - the so-called pseudo-Kallisthenov "Alexandria". It is based on the Hellenistic novel, created, apparently, in Alexandria in the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e., but later subjected to additions and revisions. Over time, the initial biographical narrative became more and more fictionalized, overgrown with legendary and fairy tale motifs, gradually turning into an adventure novel typical of the Hellenistic era. One of these later versions of "Alexandria" was translated into Rus'.

The real history of the actions of the famous commander is barely traced here, buried under layers of later traditions and legends. Alexander turns out to be no longer the son of the Macedonian king, but the illegitimate son of Olympias and the Egyptian sorcerer king Nektonav. The birth of a hero is accompanied by miraculous signs. Contrary to history, Alexander conquers Rome and Athens, boldly comes to Darius, posing as the Macedonian ambassador, negotiates with the queen of the Amazons, etc. mothers; the hero tells Olympias about the miracles he has seen: giant people, disappearing trees, fish that can be boiled in cold water, six-legged and three-eyed monsters, etc. Nevertheless, the ancient Russian scribes apparently perceived "Alexandria" as a historical narrative, about as evidenced by the inclusion of its full text in the composition of the chronographic codes. Regardless of how the novel about Alexander was perceived in Rus', the very fact that ancient Russian readers were acquainted with this most popular plot of the Middle Ages was of great importance: ancient Russian literature was thus introduced into the sphere of common European cultural interests, enriching their knowledge of the history of the ancient world.

The Tale of Akira the Wise. If "Alexandria" genetically ascended to a historical narrative and talked about a historical character, then "The Tale of Akira the Wise", also translated in Kievan Rus in the 11th - early 12th centuries, is by its origin a purely fictional monument - an ancient Assyrian legend of the 7th century. BC e. Researchers have not come to a unanimous conclusion about the ways in which the "Tale of Akir" penetrated into Rus': there are suggestions that it was translated from the Syrian or from the Armenian original. In Rus', the Tale lived a long life. Its oldest edition (apparently a translation very close to the original) has been preserved in four lists of the 15th-17th centuries. In the 16th or early 17th century The story has been radically revised. Its new editions (Short and Extended, ascending to it), which largely lost their original oriental flavor, but acquired the features of a Russian folk tale, were extremely popular in the 17th century, and the story continued to exist among the Old Believers right up to our time.

In the oldest edition of the Russian translation of the Tale, it was told how Akir, the wise adviser to King Sinagripp, was slandered by his adopted son Anadan and sentenced to death. But Akira's devoted friend, Nabuginael, saved and managed to securely shelter the convict. Some time later, the Egyptian pharaoh demanded that King Sinagripp send him a wise man who could solve the riddles proposed by the pharaoh and build a palace "between heaven and earth." For this, the pharaoh will pay Sinagripp "a three-year tribute." If the envoy of Sinagripp does not cope with the task, tribute will be exacted in favor of Egypt. All close associates of Sinagrippa, including Anadan, who has now become Akir's successor as the first noble, admit that they are unable to fulfill the demand of the pharaoh. Then Nabuginael informs the desperate Sinagripp that Akir is alive. The happy king forgives the disgraced sage and sends him under the guise of a simple groom to the pharaoh. Aqir solves the riddles and then cunningly avoids the last task - the construction of the palace. To do this, Akir teaches the eagles to lift a basket into the air; the boy sitting in it shouts for “stone and lime” to be served to him: he is ready to start building the palace. But no one can deliver the necessary cargo to the skies, and the pharaoh is forced to admit defeat. Akir returns home with a "three-year tribute", once again becomes close to Sinagripp, and the unmasked Anadan dies a terrible death.

The wisdom (or cunning) of a hero who frees himself from the need to perform an impossible task is a traditional fairy tale motif. And it is characteristic that with all the alterations of the Tale on Russian soil, it was the story of how Akir guesses the riddles of the pharaoh and by wise counterclaims forces him to renounce his claims, enjoyed unchanging popularity, it was constantly revised and supplemented with new details.

The Tale of Barlaam and Joasaph. If the "Tale of Akira the Wise" in many of its elements resembles a fairy tale, then another translated story - about Barlaam and Joasaph - closely approaches the hagiographic genre, although in reality its plot is based on the legendary biography of the Buddha, which came to Rus' through Byzantine intermediary.

The Tale tells how Prince Joasaph, the son of the Indian pagan king Abner, becomes a Christian ascetic under the influence of the hermit Varlaam.

However, the plot, potentially replete with "conflict situations", turns out to be extremely smoothed out in the Tale: the author seems to be in a hurry to eliminate the obstacles that arise or simply "forget" about them. So, for example, Avenir imprisons young Joasaph in a secluded palace precisely so that the boy could not hear about the ideas of Christianity and did not learn about the existence of old age, illness, and death in the world. Nevertheless, Joasaph nevertheless leaves the palace and immediately meets a sick old man, and the Christian hermit Barlaam enters his chambers without any special obstacles. The pagan sage Nahor, according to the plan of Abner, in a dispute with the imaginary Barlaam, should debunk the ideas of Christianity, but suddenly, quite unexpectedly, he himself begins to expose paganism. A beautiful princess is brought to Joasaph, she must persuade the young ascetic to sensual pleasures, but Joasaph easily resists the charms of the beauty and easily convinces her to become a chaste Christian. There are a lot of dialogues in the Tale, but all of them are devoid of both individuality and naturalness: Varlaam, Joasaph, and pagan sages speak equally pompously and "learned". Before us is like a lengthy philosophical debate, the participants of which are as conditional as the participants in the conversation in the genre of "philosophical dialogue". Nevertheless, The Tale of Varlaam was widely circulated; especially popular were the parables-apologists included in it, illustrating the ideals of Christian piety and asceticism: some of the parables were included in collections of both mixed and permanent composition (for example, in Izmaragd), and many dozens of their lists are known.

Devgen's deed. It is believed that even in Kievan Rus, a Byzantine epic poem about Digenis Akritas was translated (warriors guarding the borders of the Byzantine Empire were called Akritas). The time of translation is indicated, according to the researchers, by the data of the language - lexical parallels of the story (in the Russian version it was called "Devgeny's deed") and literary monuments of Kievan Rus, as well as the mention of Devgeny Akrit in "The Life of Alexander Nevsky". But the comparison with Akritus appears only in the third (according to the classification of Yu. K. Begunov) edition of the monument, probably created in the middle of the 15th century, and cannot serve as an argument in favor of the existence of the translation in Kievan Rus. Significant plot differences between the “Deeds of Devgenius” and the Greek versions of the epic about Digenis Akrita known to us leave open the question of whether these differences were the result of a radical reworking of the original during translation, whether they arose in the process of later alterations of the text on Russian soil, or whether the Russian text corresponds to the one that did not come down to us. before us the Greek version.

Devgeny (this is how the Greek name Digenis was rendered in the Russian translation) is a typical epic hero. He has extraordinary strength (even as a youth, Devgeny strangled a bear with his bare hands, and, having matured, he exterminates thousands of enemy soldiers in battles), he is handsome, knightly magnanimous. A significant place in the Russian version of the monument is occupied by the story of Devgeny's marriage to the daughter of a proud and stern Stratig. This episode has all the characteristic features of an "epic matchmaking": Devgeny sings a love song under the girl's windows; she, admiring the beauty and prowess of the young man, agrees to run away with him, Devgeny takes away his beloved in broad daylight, defeats her father and brothers in battle, then reconciles with them; the parents of the young arrange a multi-day magnificent wedding.

Devgeny is akin to the heroes of translated chivalric novels that spread in Rus' in the 17th century. (such as Bova Korolevich, Eruslan, Vasily the Golden-haired), and, apparently, this proximity to the literary taste of the era contributed to the revival of the handwritten tradition of the "Acts": all three lists that have come down to us date from the 17th-18th centuries.

So, Kievan Rus in a short period of time acquired a rich and varied literature. A whole system of genres was transferred to the new soil: chronicles, historical stories, lives, patericons, "words", teachings. The significance of this phenomenon is increasingly being studied and comprehended in our science. It has been established that the system of genres of Byzantine or Old Bulgarian literature was not completely transferred to Rus': Old Russian scribes preferred some genres and rejected others. At the same time, genres arose in Rus' that had no analogy in “model literature”: the Russian chronicle is not similar to the Byzantine chronicle, and the chronicles themselves are used as material for independent and original chronographic compilations; completely original "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and "Instruction" by Vladimir Monomakh, "The Prayer of Daniil the Sharpener" and "The Tale of the Devastation of Ryazan". Translated works not only enriched Russian scribes with historical or natural science information, introduced them to the plots of ancient myths and epic legends, they represented at the same time different types of plots, styles, manners of narration, being a kind of literary school for ancient Russian scribes who were able to get acquainted with the ponderous verbose Amartol and the laconic Malala, stingy with details and details, with the brilliant stylist Flavius ​​and with the inspired rhetorician John Chrysostom, with the heroic world of the epic about Devgenia and the exotic fantasy of "Alexandria". It was rich material for reading and writing experience, an excellent school of literary language; she helped the Old Russian scribes to visualize the possible styles, to refine their hearing and speech on the colossal lexical richness of Byzantine and Old Slavonic literature.

But it would be a mistake to believe that translated literature was the only and main school of ancient Russian scribes. In addition to translated literature, they used the rich traditions of oral folk art, and above all, the traditions of the Slavic epic. This is not a conjecture and not a reconstruction of modern researchers: as we will see below, folk epic legends are recorded in early chronicles and represent a completely exceptional artistic phenomenon that has no analogy in the monuments of translated literature known to us. Slavic epic legends are distinguished by a special manner of constructing the plot, a peculiar interpretation of the character of the characters, their style, which differs from the style of monumental historicism, which was formed mainly under the influence of monuments of translated literature.

4. Slavic conquest of Europe VI-VII centuries AD. as one of the reflections of the Russian “Mongolian” conquest of the XIV-XV centuries. The result is as follows.