Term ‘zlorastvoreniye’ in liturgical texts: loan translation and re-interpretation

Abstract

The article analyzes the use of an unclear term “zlorastvoreniye” (traced from the ancient Greek compound word δυσκρασία or its Latin analogue intemperies “bad mixing; immoderation”) and its derivatives in Church Slavonic texts. The paper gives examples of these classical language lexemes and explains how these terms reflect ideas dating back to antiquity about the correct, favorable combination of tangible qualities of the weather. Apart from a single example (the expression “zlorastvoreniye vetrov”), translated into Slavonic from Greek, the article provides examples with phraseological units “zlorastvoreniye vozdukhov / zlorastvorennii vozdusi” from the original texts, whose authors most likely copied Latin phraseology. The work explains the meaning of the petitions from the blessing of the bell worship (which has a Rome Catholic origin, although is not a direct translation) — bell ringing was believed to have a beneficial effect on the phenomena occurring in the air. Moreover, we present examples of how, in connection with the wide spread of the miasmatic theory of diseases in Russia, the studied expressions were reinterpreted by authors who were not experienced in the classical languages as bad smell and contagiousness of the air.