ON THE DIFFICULTIES OF COMMENTING ON CERTAIN GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION IN OLD RUSSIAN TRANSLATED DESCRIPTIONS OF THE EAST

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Category: Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature: Issue 23
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Abstract:

In the Old Russian translation of the Greek novel on Alexander the Great, in the chronicles containing it, there is an account of the four rivers of Paradise, — Phison, Geon, Tigris and Euphrates. This one is a development of the biblical narrative, but does not go back to it directly. And the first difficulty is the question of its origin. The opinions of V.M. Istrin, O.V. Tworogov, E.M. Koroleva, and V.V. Mil’kov do not provide an answer to this question. However, the Anchor Word by Epiphanius of Cyprus contains a textually similar to the chronographic version discourse on the rivers flowing out of paradise (section 58). However, this monument is not known to the Slavo-Russian scribes. Therefore it is not clear how the story about the rivers of Eden got into the 2nd edition of the Alexandria Chronographica. It does not appear in the known Greek, Latin, Armenian, Ethiopian and other Eastern versions of the novel of Alexander. It is also missing in the 1st Slavonic edition and the Serbian Alexandria. It is possible that «Anchor Word» was translated into Slavonic, but the translation has not survived. Only extracts from this work have been preserved in the form of an article From the Ankurota in the Izbornik of 1073 and an unrelated with them the chronographic story On Rivers. The second difficulty is the interpretation and localization of the geographical realities contained in the story. And the most difficult in this regard is the river Fison, mythical, in contrast to all the others, which in ancient times was correlated with different regions. According to the chronographic account, the Fison flows through a number of Asian regions, Ethiopia and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. This is a fantastic notion that does not correspond to real geography, as does the fact that the rivers of Eden have a common source. However, people of the distant past believed in such a picture of the world, believing that under the Earth’s crust there is a single ocean feeding all rivers in general. In particular John Chrysostom wrote about it. It is interesting that such opinion is confirmed by modern scientific discovery concerning presence of water ocean under the Earth crust, a mantle. Thus, recognising and interpreting geographical, historical and mythological designations in Old Russian chronicles requires a complex research work, taking into account various fields of knowledge.
Keywords: Alexandria chronographica, Bible, Epiphanius of Cyprus, Kozma Indykoplov, John the Exarch of Bulgaria, John Chrysostom, rivers of paradise, toponyms.
Author: Vladimir M. Kirillin
Information about the author:

Vladimir M. Kirillin, DSc in Philology, Director of Research, 1) А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia; Professor, 2) Moscow Theological Academy of the Russian Orthodox Church, 141300 Moscow region, Sergiev Posad, Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Academy; Professor, 3) Sretenskaya Theological Academy of the Russian Orthodox Church, Bolshaya Lubyanka St., 19, bld. 3, 107031 Moscow, Russia.

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
For citation:

Kirillin, V.M. “On the Difficulties of Commenting on Certain Geographical Information in Old Russian Translated Descriptions of the East.” Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 23. Ed.-in-chief O.A. Tufanova. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024, pp. 7–28. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2024-23-7-28 
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/FYTAVH
UDC: 821.161.1.0
Publication Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2024-23-7-28
Received: 18.11.2023
Approved after reviewing: 20.01.2024
Date of publication: 17.09.2024

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