TRANSFORMATION OF ANTIQUE MYTH IN MODERN CULTURE (PETERSBURG – ODESSA)

Abstract

The article reveals the features of the transformation of the ancient tragedy in the Art Nouveau culture on the example of the tragedy of Euripides “Hippolytus”. The author focuses on the problem of love and gender, voluptuousness and chastity. The fundamental conflict of the tragedy, as it was seen by representatives of the new art, lies in the confrontation of two goddesses: the giving birth, but cruel Aphrodite and the merciful but barren Artemis. The confrontation between Aphrodite and Artemis was regarded as a struggle of voluptuousness and temperance. The crime of Hippolytus thus consisted in denying the birth force of Aphrodite, and therefore his death was inevitable. The ancient tragedy was interpreted as a mystery using elements of the Greek theatre, but its decoration combined both authentic archaic elements and modern decorative art nouveau plastic. The author comes to the conclusion that the transfer of ancient images and the storyline with its key events and heroes’ experiences into the sphere of modernist ideas contributed to the formation of a new cultural, historical, philosophical and aesthetic context, which was aimed to rethink the problem of love and gender both in artistic and philosophical theoretical version. Having overcome space and time, the ancient myth penetrated from pagan Greece to Christian Russia, thus firmly linking different cultures.