Theonyms as Representatives of the Geocultural Image of Ancient Egypt in I.A. Bunin’s Poems of 1903–1907

Abstract

The paper deals with the mythological names representing the geocultural image of Ancient Egypt in I. A. Bunin’s poems of 1903 —1907. The relevance of the topic is explained by the interest of linguists in the onomastic code of I. A. Bunin’s prose and poetry, the little-studied oriental vocabulary and the appellative-onymic relationships in his artistic heritage. A group of theonyms, the referents of which are known to the reader to a varying degree, is considered as the means of verbalising the geocultural image of Ancient Egypt. Among the theonyms one can find both common units, namely Ra, Osiris, Seth and individual author’s bi-lexemes like Shakal-Anubis (Jackal-Anubis), Ra-Osiris, Jastreb-Gor (Hawk-Horus), formed in a compound way. In the I.A. Bunin’s poetry, the presence of onimicized appellatives Otec (Father), Syn (Son) and Shakal (Jackal) is marked, acting as contextual synonyms to the theonomies of Osiris, Hawk-Horus and Anubis. Acting as key units of the poetic text and referring to specific mythological plots, theonyms interact with other semantic types of onyms: toponyms Cairo, Gizekh, Thebes, hydronyms Nile and Merida, the acronym Sirius, ecclesionyms Ali, Memnon, as well as appellatives such as pustynya (desert), solnce (sun), sfinks (sphinx), more (sea), rassvet (dawn), nebosklon (skyline) etc. Together, these units form a single semantic context presenting the philosophical reflection of the author. The implementation of textual connections of theonyms ensures the formation of the geocultural image of Ancient Egypt in the individual author’s picture of the world at the intersection of mythological ideas about the Heliopolis Ennead and real knowledge of the ancient historical region.