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INITIATION DRAMA IN RUSSIAN SYMBOLISM In Ihe Pythagoreans, great store is set by the problem of the verbal and the bookish, which also shows an authorial reflection on the avant-garde experimentations that had taken place in Russian literature shortly before the play was written. At its core, Bryusov’s great “theorem” of the evolution of culture, anticipating Eco’s The Name of the Rose, concentrates on the moment of the destruction, concealment, or loss ofa manuscript of cardinalimportance. As a rule, from that moment on there is a shift, a change in the cultural paradigm. A complete or incomplete loss of verbal heritage, inducing oblivion, is equal to death, as reflected by the protagonist’s fate in the dramatic etude. Uniquely, in his survey of Pythagoreanism, the Hungarian classical philologist Karoly Kerényi did not fail to take note of the fact that this particular type of culture presents itself as a special pattern, where the role of writing is repositioned. Kerényi arrives at the conclusion that the body of Orphic religion is made of paper. On the other hand, in contrast with the religion of the Pythagoreans, Orphism specifically gave preference to the cult of “sacred books.” In accordance with the Bryusovian model, though the hero’s tragic end is presented either as the death of a devoted researcher, the “elite” reader, or as punishment for the vanity and self-sufficiency of the naive or innocent hero, the concept of culture is primarily inseparable from verbality, since culture is maintained in a written form, as it is created by the Sacred Logos. The final scene of the etude concludes with Prognost’s words expressing discontent in general and simultaneously foretelling “backstage” events that are about to begin, only now in another dimension, in the consciousness of the reader or theatre goer. These events are understood as the journey of the dead in the otherworld. He is dead. (Thinks) I esteemed him to be more honourable. May the Judge of Hell have mercy on him.”8 The Bryusovian conclusion is puzzling, as ever. Is it the thought of responsibility or the naive vanity and self-sufficiency of the young exegete that kills Sinaret, who dares to refuse his fellow brethren? A Weltanschauung resembling traits of Gnostic teachings is manifested in the Pythagorean concept of death, taken as “the third stage” of initiation. It is envisioned in Shuré’s book as follows: What happens at death? At the beginning of the death agony, the soul generally senses its imminent separation from the body. [...] If it is a holy or pure soul, its spiritual senses are already awakened by the gradual separation from matter. 28 Ibid., 42. + 269 + Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 269 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:23
