Antiquity after antiquity a (post) modernreading of antiquity in Bulgarian poetry

Yoana Sirakova

Only after the democratic transition in Bulgaria in the late 1980s was the concept of

the classical tradition conceived as an ancient legacy mobilized in a more or less

conscious search for a cultural identity that could be traced back to common

European roots1 The present study traces the peculiar and inventive reception of

antiquity in the poetry of post-communist Bulgaria I focus on two poetry collectionsby the Bulgarian poet Kiril Merjanski (born in 1959) which by reinventing ancient

epitaphs articulate political concerns and cultural aspirations that were current in

Bulgaria at the end of the twentieth century Merjanskirsquos poetry reflects a specific

attitude towards the near and more remote Bulgarian historical past while at the

same time aiming at rediscovering mislaid traditions What is more problems

related to historical memory are interwoven with a sense of the worthlessness of life

in the new cultural and political milieu as well as with a sense of freedom and

shattered hopes for a new and better beginning Both poetry collections representthe shift and the contrast between an apparently fixed and stable society and the

instability of society in the present and deal with global phenomena such as exile

migration and wandering which are characteristic of the modern geopolitical

spectrum on the millennial borderline

Antiquity after antiquity the poetic reworking of ancient material sources

The example of Merjanski2 demonstrates the importance of the materiality of clas-

sical antiquity for classical receptions in contemporary Bulgarian poetry

Characteristically Kiril Merjanskirsquos book Selected Epitaphs from the Decline of theRoman Empire touches on one of the more problematic aspects of the relationship

between contemporary Bulgarian society and the legacy of classical antiquity

Correspondence Department of Classics Sofia University lsquoSt Kliment Ohridskirsquo Sofia

Bulgaria yosirabvbg

1 The Bulgarian search for communication with European and world culture can be traced

back to the Bulgarian Renaissance in the eighteenth century when attempts were made to

find points of contact between ethnic groups within the SlavicndashBulgarian nation and

Classical antiquity The connection of Bulgarian people with global culture through

antiquity has been emphasized as one of the main trends in the search for national

identity together with the attempt to bind the Bulgarian nation to Christian civilization

and with the quest for the Indo-European roots of the Bulgarian ethnos (Aretov

2006 35)

2 The name of the poet may also be transcribed as Kiril Merdzhanski

Classical Receptions Journal Vol 5 Iss 3 (2013) pp 299ndash319

The Author 2013 Published by Oxford University Press All rights reservedFor Permissions please email journalspermissionsoupcomdoi101093crjclt023

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namely the idea of rewriting and reinventing traditions The lack of traditions does

not mean that they could not be (re)invented However Merjanskirsquos poems do not

search for a reconstruction of the past but for a construction of the present by means

of the past as the collection presents a mingling of actual memories and creative

thought By rejecting grand narratives and favouring mini-narratives the stories

narrated in this collection refer to everyday practices life experiences and local

events and allude to a number of large-scale universals thus creating a deep tension

between the details of ordinary life and the dominant themes of human existence

Although at first sight the stories might seem contingent provisional situational

and confined to an individual lifespan ultimately they do make claims to universality

and eternity The Selected Epitaphs adopt both a diachronic viewpoint on the other-

ness and remoteness of antiquity and a synchronic viewpoint on the identity of the

featured characters and the narrated stories which are linked and enclosed within

the geographic territory of the Bulgarian lands

In contrast to other territories of Central and Eastern Europe where the heritage

of antiquity did not manifest itself in any material form3 the territory of Bulgaria has

proved to be quite a rich source of artefacts However the fact that the Bulgarian

lands used to be part of the Roman provinces and the Roman Empire has been

largely ignored and marginalized while at the same time the importance of the

Thracian cultural tradition in the 70s and the 80s of the last century has been

highlighted In contrast in Merjanskirsquos Selected Epitaphs which appeared on the

Bulgarian literary scene as a separate edition4 in 1992 and were incorporated in a

poetry collection entitled Antiquity after Antiquity in 2004 the emphasis is on the

significance of Bulgarian contact with Roman culture and history

One of the most frequently used ancient literary forms in Bulgarian poetry is that

of the funeral inscription and its first instances may be traced back to the Liberation

(1878) and post-Liberation poetic tradition The varying epitaphic usages find their

expression in two major aspects of the literary genre tracing its development from

the panegyric to the satirical register For Hristo Botev5 (Epitaphs 1873) Ivan

Vazov6 (EpitaphGusla 1881) Hristo Smirnenski7 (Epitaphs or Funeral Orations

for Leaders Most Ungracious 1920) the epitaph serves as a powerful tool for public

exposure while for Pencho Slaveykov8 (Epitaph9On the Island of the Blessed 1910)

3 Axer (2007 137)

4 Merjanski (1992)

5 Hristo Botev (1848ndash76)

6 Ivan Vazov (1850ndash1921)

7 Hristo Smirnenski (1898ndash1923)

8 Pencho Slaveykov (1866ndash1912)

9 This epitaph praises and muses over the role and glory of the poet and differs from the

remaining eighteen epitaphs included in the anthology On the island of the blessed (1910)

even though it demonstrates points of contact with primary ancient sources by the

inclusion of the characteristic motif of addressing the passing traveller

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and Peyo Yavorov10 (EpitaphAfter the cloudsrsquo shadows 1910) the satirical mode is

replaced with moral and humanistic trends true to the spirit of individualism

typical of the day From amongst these poets Slaveykov may be considered of

greater interest in view of the parallels and interaction between the ancient and

the modern particularly evident in the eighteen epitaphs that are included in the

same anthology presented under the authorship of the sexton Vitan Gabar11

(EpitaphsOn the Island of the Blessed 1910) Although engaged with the description

of characters from Bulgarian reality by their very sprit and the sheer number of

specific motifs Slaveykovrsquos epitaphs are reminiscent of ancient gravestone inscrip-

tions the idea of lifersquos transience the caducity of the body the address to the

traveller passing by the grave the mention of details from the life of the deceased

mdash name (even though most of Slaveykovrsquos epitaphs are anonymous) profession and

social status (Slaveykov talks of a mayor porter judge ragger craftsman a poet )

as well as relatives and wealth

Since the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century the

epitaphic form has been exploited more intensively in Bulgarian literature 1992 saw

the appearance of two volumes of poetry by Kiril Merjanski (Selected epitaphs from

the decline of the Roman empire) and Plamen Doynov (Post festum Funeral inscriptions

and poems) while during the first decade of the new millennium Roman Kisyov

(born in 1962) included two cycles of epitaphs in his volumes of selected poetry

namely Kriptus (2004) and Voices (2009) All three poets demonstrate widely varying

approaches to the classical form of the epitaph not only in relation to each other but

also in relation to the above-mentioned practice of appropriating the epitaph as an

inter-text Veiled under the mask of real personalities12 and experienced situations

10 Peyo Yavorov (1878ndash1914)

11 lsquoGabarrsquos epitaphs have never been printed Reverend Mirko the youngest priest at the

St Tarapontii church has long intended to collect and publish a book of these epitaphs

which are known all over the Island but up to now he hasnrsquot done anything and nobody

knows why It is still the graveyard of the St Tarapontii church that is the real book

which keeps the works of this original poet and each gravestone ndash and there are 5ndash6

hundred of them ndash is a page from that book bearing one epitaphrsquo (Vitan Gabar On the

island of the blessed 1910) It is worth noting the idea of the graveyard scenery as a specific

framework and source for the re-interpreted funeral orations as well as the fact that they

are lsquotranslationsrsquo (Kiril Merjanski describes his epitaphs in the same way) Similarly

another modern Bulgarian poet Plamen Doynov (born in 1969) captivates and invites

his reader to read his gravestone inscriptions and poems within the realm and the calm of

the graveyard (Post Festum 1992)

12 The titles of Plamen Doynovrsquos epitaphs bear the names of the dead the dates of their

birth and death and mdash sometimes mdash their professions With this feature they remind one

of the most well-known anthologies with epitaphs in world literature (Spoon River

Anthology 1915) written by the American writer Edgar Lee Masters (1868ndash1950)

which includes over 200 lyrical forms and gravestone poems most of which are dedicated

to people who the author knew personally and which paint a picture of the daily life in the

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Plamen Doynov broods over death and the material the bodily and the spiritual

thus constantly trespassing against the borders of reality and artistic conventions In

contrast to Plamen Doynov and Kiril Merjanski Roman Kisyov has receded farthest

from the conventions of the classical epitaph presenting types rather than individ-

uals in his funeral inscriptions The short lyrical forms are dedicated to the child the

sceptic the artist the blind the banished or the star-gazer Kisyovrsquos depiction of

characters repeatedly transcends the limits of personal intimate lyrics reaching

towards human universals

One specific feature of Kiril Merjanskirsquos poetry mdash and this is what distinguishes

him from all other poets using funeral inscriptions in their work mdash is his very notion

of the epitaph as being not only a literary form but also a physical material form and

a source of poetic re-actualization and reconstruction By the unexpected combin-

ation of ancient formulae and contemporary concepts Merjanski is the only writer

who draws on the subject matter of the appropriated form In Merjanskirsquos case the

dialogue between the ancient and the modern is particularly intense in the way in

which it aims to encompass both the ancient culture being appropriated and the

modern-day recipient traditions

Despite the fact that they do not represent a reception of ancient literary sources

Kiril Merjanskirsquos Selected Epitaphs can still be considered a specific kind of literary

reception of classical antiquity The full lsquooriginalrsquo Latin title of the Selected Epitaphs

Carmina sepulcralia ad ocassum imperii Romani pertinentia vidit in loco incerto CyrillusMerjanski idem in Bulgaro convertit refers both to the specific role of the author as a

historian an archaeologist and a translator and to the fictitious character of his finds

The claim for (simulated) authenticity has been repeatedly pointed out in the notes

to the poems

Selected Epitaphs constitutes an example of a literary reception of classical material

culture and ancient historical documents as a means of preserving classical trad-

itions These traditions have been recovered not only through archaeological and

historical enquiries but also through being reworked and rewritten in contemporary

Bulgarian poetry Merjanskirsquos attachment to ancient historical and archaeological

sources and literature acquires specific cultural connotations which stem from his

background in ancient history and his career In the beginning of the 1980s he

received a degree in Ancient and Medieval History from Sofia University and

started teaching at the recently established National Lyceum of Classical

Languages and Cultures As a result his stance on classical materials has been

characterized by an element of duality as he looks at ancient sources not only

from a historical perspective but also from the point of their poetic reframing

Along with some other Bulgarian poets of the 1990s Kiril Merjanski is identified

as a post-modern author in contemporary Bulgarian literary scholarship13 He is a

small fictional town of Spoon River By contrast with Plamen Doynov who uses

Bulgarian names Kiril Merjanski titles his poems with ancient names

13 Doynov (2007)

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collector a translator and a scholar and his epitaphs are accompanied by notes and

expert commentaries Merjanski pretends to have seen the inscriptions that is the

stones themselves and to have translated them The translations however are

translations without an original (so-called pseudo-translations) Last but not least

they have been published in accordance with the conventions of editing classical

texts with line numbers printed next to the text Their content and their lsquoarchaeo-

logical and historical valuersquo have been commented on by the authorscholar Thus

every epitaph stands for both the copy and the (non-existing) original as a real post-

modern simulacrum

The technique of aesthetic mystification is not concealed in the texture of the

poems but is made explicit even while the poetry simulates its own originality

Paradoxically mystification serves to demystify and tease out the illusive and allu-

sive ancient originals Obviously Merjanskirsquos epitaphs can be characterized by some

of the emblematic features required by mystification models they represent un-

known epigraphic documents that have been discovered and translated the only

element of uncertainty being the locus incertus in which they were found All lacunae

are strictly registered either by dots in the text or by additional notes Hence the

macro-textual frame of the poems has been sketched embedding not only the text

itself but also the notes the comments and the indications of the stonesrsquo sizes and

forms As a result it seems as if readers are invited to visualize exhibits in a poetic

museum The cultural hinterland that Merjanski draws on for his visually and

topographically charged poems is informed by the dominant presence of classical

antiquities in the Bulgarian landscape combined with Bulgarian toponyms and

echoes of Christianity

The poetry collection includes seventeen epitaphs that feature different characters

and fates The female characters are depicted within the traditional idealizing value

system of ancient Roman culture with the narration carried out either by the narrator

or in the case of Aeliarsquos portrayal by her husband who has dedicated the epitaph to her

Aelia ndash vixit annos XXIX (Aelia ndash aged 29)

She was a loyal Roman

my truest and most faithful friend

she always met me with joyous smile (12ndash14)

And even though she did not cook

(a typical Roman in her austerity)

my favourite dishes

she was an excellent housekeeper

thrifty modest agreeable and deft

but also arch affectionately funny

whenever for another gift she needed money (20ndash27)14

14 Kiril Merjanskirsquos epitaphs are translated from Bulgarian by Kalina Filipova (not

published)

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Aeliarsquos epitaph provides readers with clear thematic references to a famous epitaph

from the town of Nikopol (northern Bulgaria) which was also dedicated to a woman

named Aelia The passages from Merjanskirsquos poem recall plainly and with subtle

irony the following episodes from the Latin epitaph

Qualis enim fuerit vita quam deinde pudica

si possem effari cithara suadere(m) ego Manes 10

Haec primum casta quot [t]e audire libenter

et mundi spatia Ditis quoque regia norunt

Lar mihi haec quondam haec spes haec unica vita 15et vellet quod vellem nollet quoque ac si ego nollem

Intima nulla ei quae non mihi nota fuere

Nec labos huic defuit nec vellerem inscia fila

parca manu set larga meo in amore mariti

Nec sine me cibus huic gratus nec munera Bacchi 20

consilio mira cata mente nobili fama15

[She had such a life and she was so modest only if I could with my cithara I would have

touched the hearts of the underworldrsquos shades She was so chaste ndash you will willingly hear

that ndash and everyone knew it the underworldrsquos god and the upper world too

She was once my home my hope my only life and she wished what I wished and she did not

wish when I did not wish There were no secrets of her that were unknown to me She was

diligent and twisted threads so skilfully She was thrifty but generous in her love

Neither the food nor Bacchusrsquo gifts were sweet to her without me She was always giving

me wonderful advice she had a keen mind and she was renowned for her honour] [My

translation]

Characteristic of both female figures is their faithfulness and modesty (cf pudica

casta)16 their thriftiness (cf parca manu) and archness (cf cata mente) They are

both praised by their husbands for deftness and diligence (cf nec labos huic defuit nec

vellerem inscia fila) However with witty appropriateness Merjanski gives the ori-

ginal character a more specific and ironic modern turn in presenting Aelia as an

lsquoexcellent housekeeperrsquo and cook and juxtaposing her thriftiness and her greed for

gifts This particular contrast receives fuller expression in Aeliarsquos husbandrsquos lament

for giving her money for lsquoattar bangles sweet-smelling balm and ointments and costly

henna from Numidiarsquo

15 Gerov (1989) and also in Buecheler (1895)

16 Both adjectives are frequent epithets for women in Roman funeral inscriptions They are

frequently juxtaposed to femina coniunx uxor or the name of the deceased woman See in

Fr Buecheler Anthologia Latina sive Poesis Latinae Supplementum Fasciculus I for

example 92 96 237 368 B G Teubner Lipsiae 1895

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The poetrsquos choice of male characters also provides an excellent point of entry into

Roman daily life The depicted figures shape a gallery of different personages with

their personal mini-stories and actual experiences of life Numerius Carus a young

and literate man who lsquotook to drink and put on weightrsquo after having been forced to earn

his living at Onocratusrsquo tavern Julius Verecundus who had apparently offended the

Emperor is asking for mercy for his wife and for permission to bury her husband lsquoas

marital devotion and fidelity requirersquo Naso Horatius Maurus a lsquogreat poetrsquo with a

telling name17

One of the main characteristics of the poetic aesthetics of epitaphs is that it is not

centred on the idea of catching up either with eternity or with some intransient

values as poetry tends to do when referring to ancient themes Rather epitaphs

focus on the moment of the lsquohere and nowrsquo and on the idea of carpe diem as it is

traditionally presented in ancient funeral inscriptions No less crucially ancient

material and cultural ideas prove to be almost unrecognizable in recent Bulgarian

literary criticism18 In trying to decode and decipher them Bulgarian scholars are

much more interested in discovering universals and (post)modern ideas than in the

presence of the ancient medium without even noticing that what is new could

sometimes lsquoact as an introduction to the ancientrsquo19 A common interpretative

assumption is that such remaking concerns the receiving culture rather than the

culture received The models detected on the surface of Merjanskirsquos poetic inter-

pretations belong to the epitaphic genre as they present the reconstruction of quasi-

scientific practices of archaeology and textual criticism and the mixing of ancient

and modern linguistic and behavioural replicas20 These in turn emerge from the

intermingling of Latin formulas and words within the texture of the poems

Furthermore a set of ancient patterns could be identified throughout the poemsrsquo

narratives They all record in a detailed and over-explicit manner facts and details

from the lives of the deceased either through fictitious first-person narration

or through the voice of the narrator Behind (and before) those deaths there lie

17 Obviously he is of African origin (Maurus) but his name is also a combination of the

names of Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC to 17 AD) and Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 BCndash

8 BC) At the same time one of the notes to the epitaph informs readers that the name of

this poet is known to the audience only from his funeral inscription

18 Bulgarian literary scholarship has tended to focus on the turn to antiquity as a technique

for validating poetsrsquo and writersrsquo philosophical and existential concepts (Likova 2001

Manchev 2002 Doynov 2007 Antov 2010) Accordingly there has been an emphasis on

post-modern ideas and stylistic devices Little attention has been paid to the two-way

historical dialogue between ancient Greece and Rome and contemporary Bulgaria For

this reason Bulgarian classicists have much to contribute the study of classical receptions

in modern Bulgarian poetry

19 Hardwick and Stray (2008 3)

20 Doynov (2007 vol 2 125)

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meticulously recorded lives that allude to different philosophies and stories that

abound in ancient gods and historical personages So far Merjanski seems to be on

the right track to a traditional reading of Latin inscriptions However the fact that

he chooses the epitaph form for his poetic inventions provides the poet with a

powerful and poignant tool for combining ancient conceptions with more or less

existential modern perceptions which intersect in the image of Fatum (Fate) that is

tangibly present throughout the poetry collection Fatum is a crucial agent in human

life that marks the movement from illusion to disillusion (eg Oh life and people and

cruel fate (Julius Ianuarius 1) the envious malevolence of Fatum (Aelia 4) Although

they have been regarded as personal the poems also recall universal themes Rather

than impeding the personalizing mode invokes and invites a parallel between an-

cient and modern by appealing to poignant universal experiences For example

consider Merjanskirsquos use of the carpe diem motif familiar from ancient Greek and

Roman epitaphs in the following epitaph

20 So hear my advice my friend

take everything from this confused world ndash

without remainder (Julius Januarius 20ndash22)

The futility and vanity of living are recurrent themes in Merjanskirsquos collection

while other verses seem to offer belated commemoration for a previously neglected

death (Who was Numerius CariusAnd what is it all about (Numerius Carus 16ndash17)

if deathrsquos the endis life worth living (Nardus 15ndash16)) Through his characters the

poet muses on happiness and unhappiness baths wine offices and love that pro-

vide meaning to life and become causes of death However in the Selected Epitaphs

worthless death ultimately echoes worthless life

And yet the most distinctive aspects of Merjanskirsquos response to ancient epitaphic

scripts are irony and parody They become a prevailing feature in his elaboration

permutation and mystification of classical themes and at once over-dramatize (or

rather un-dramatize) the existential human concerns about death and life

Notwithstanding the variety of the individuals who they commemorate ancient

funeral inscriptions are highly traditional and formulaic By saturating these ancient

formulae with small insignificant details Merjanski subverts the original form

Appropriating the laconic and trivial form of epitaphs the poet tells his readers

something that stones could not tell And yet quasi linguistic analyses and philo-

logical scrutiny obscure the primary concern of the narratives real-life stories and

exciting human fortunes If everything in extant ancient Roman epitaphs seems

legitimate and full of dignitas conversely Merjanski foregrounds the banality of

everyday life

Parody takes different paths often directed toward both antiquity and modernity

In Selected Epitaphs it is the irony that provides the medium for linking different

discourses times and epochs Thus among the elements parodied are the notion of

the chastity of Roman women and the importance of ancient funeral rituals

Y O A N A S I R A K O V A

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The tomb of the vestal virgin Porcia Serena is defaced as if it reflects her broken

vow of chastity In addition to the initial inscription (lsquoin larger lettersrsquo as specified in

the lsquotext editionrsquo) forewarning travellers (and readers) of the fact that the plot and

the ground are cursed and that the punishment for performing funeral rites is death

three other inscriptions suggestive of popular graffiti culture have been scribbled by

unknown persons

I did perform triple

funeral rites ndash but no one saw me

So you canrsquot do anything about it stupid assholes

An indignant citizen of Rome

And I shitted

Fulvius Cerulatus

(In very large letters across the entire width of the tombstone)

MESSALINA IS A WHORE

Merjanskirsquos poetic voices also resonate with reminiscences of the near past and

references to the present Submerged references allude more or less explicitly to

problematic aspects of life in the socialist and totalitarian systems Thus Flavius

Victorinus confesses about his visiting the lupanarium too often lsquoand what is worse

using municipal cashrsquo but he is also proud of being promoted to the post of procurator

for he has always informed the delator (the note to the term indicates that this is an

informer) without fail of everything he overheard in the tavern He further explains

that his eldest daughter lsquowed none other than the frumentarius(his secret office was no

secret to us)rsquo as the accompanying note clarifies that a frumentarius is an officer in the

secret service

Parodying past history and historical patriotism is among the central tendencies

in Bulgarian literature in the 1990s A note to the epitaph of Martia Paulina parodies

the tendency in Bulgarian cultural politics of the last decades of the twentieth cen-

tury to search for the ancient origins and identity of the Bulgarian population and to

foreground its cultural and historical achievements The commentary points to the

lsquohigh degree of cultural development of the people inhabiting our (ie Bulgarian) lands

during that periodrsquo This conclusion has been drawn on the basis of the occurrence of

a caesura penthemimeres in the inscription The mention of a lsquoprecious slab of marble

from Carrararsquo on which the epitaph of the lsquogreat poetrsquo Naso Horatius Maurus has

been engraved reveals merely a lsquotypical example of hyperbolersquo and turns out to be a

lsquosimple sandstone from the Lom21 region of Bulgariarsquo as indicated by the notes of the

poetarchaeologist

21 Lom is a town situated in north-western Bulgaria on the right bank of the Danube The

town can be traced back to an ancient village founded by the Thracians with the name of

Artanes and subsequently settled as the Roman fortress Almus (29 AD)

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Insofar as the inscriptions lsquodiscoveredrsquo by the poet date from the period of the

decline of the Roman Empire Christian resonances are to be expected Accordingly

in the epitaph of the slave-masseur of the Vestal virgin the Elysian Fields blend with

Christian Heaven Eliahzar describes hearing Porciarsquos voice while she was being

buried and was calling him to Elysium where they will roam in the lsquograssy meadowsrsquo

and will be lsquohappy and forever youngrsquo What is more since he has already lsquoput up a

crossrsquo has repented of his sin (the seduction of the Vestal virgin) and has praised the

Lord he finally becomes a Christian and takes the road to Heaven which makes

their common wish ultimately unrealizable The paradoxical plot comes to a

humorous climax with the appeal to the lsquomadding worldrsquo

Oh madding world farewell

No one can put you right but our Lord Jesus

even if he is from Galilee and a Samaritan

25 (and of uncertain parentage)

and ends with the ironic linguistic mishmash lsquoHallelujah Chaere Valersquo

mixing even further the psychological map overturning identities and drawing on

the interplay of Christianity Greekness and Romanness Merjanskirsquos poem lsquopro-

vides evidencersquo about the process of construction of individual identities in this

Roman province for it points to the parallel existence of Greek Roman

Christian (and indigenous) identity in a funerary context In a broader per-

spective the epitaph reflects on the cultural hybridity of Romanness under the

Roman empire It also illustrates how this peculiar hybridity manifests itself

in material culture and despite the parodying and ironic mode demonstrates a

way in which mixed cultural identities could be expressed From the encounter

between different cultures comes a cultural hybrid that draws from the various

cultural spheres but also stands on its own The lsquofunerary inscriptionrsquo of

Merjanski uses language to communicate a shared Greco-Roman heritage already

under the rise and growth of Christianity22 The way in which the cultural inter-

section is represented by the Bulgarian poet provides modern readers with insight

into the concept of identity and self-perception both in ancient and post-modern

times

The closing inscription differs in several aspects from all the other epitaphs in

the book and provides readers with a peculiar poetic reflection which has

implications for the life of the poet Half of the tombstone on which the epitaph

was chiselled is missing therefore numerous lacunae tear the narrative to

pieces prompting the reader to grasp omitted snatches and reconstruct the whole

picture

22 On the interaction of Latin and Greek in Thrace see Sharankov (2011)

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year

fear

strife

but life

5 like a dove

without love

useless and deserted

to the utmost exerted

and though I loved her dearly

10 only myself I blame my darling

hardly sad abandoned and alone

in the dark trap of the ergasterium

my consolation is that on this strong stone

my name will live for long This was ordered

15 in my lifetime Ave

The poem contains no mention of ancient topics mythological or historical char-

acters Since the epitaph was written during the personrsquos lifetime no particular cause

of death has been provided Only two linguistic touches (ergasterium and Ave) refer to

and hint at a classically themed poem The plot is characterized by a complex mix of

authenticity ambiguity and escapism However paradoxically the poemrsquos fragmen-

tation does not result in complete disintegration and does not prevent readers from

building and (re)figuring the ideational poetic background The most striking inter-

connection between the missing sections is provided by the thirteenth and the four-

teenth verses which are actually not broken up by the lacuna but are powerfully tied

up and remind one of Horacersquos Exegi monumentum (or Ovidrsquos nomenque erit indelebilenostrum) Nevertheless the ironic hints prevail over ideas of everlasting art para-

doxically the epitaph which is fixed to a supposedly enduring material has not

retained the name of the poet and the stone itself has been damaged by time

In contrast to the common use of references to antiquity as a means of displace-

ment and dissociation from the dominant ideological and aesthetic pressure of

socialist realism and as a way of overcoming the discredited link between politics

society and literature in the totalitarian state in the new historical situation in the

late 1980s the epitaphsrsquo raison drsquoetre is to function in the opposite direction mdash as a

source of attachment and integration not only in a global European context but also

in the immediate Bulgarian milieu

Reframing the world of Virgilrsquos Eclogues on the millennial borderline

Our second case study diverges from the material discussed in the previous section

in that it bears signs of (at least) two ancient textus recepti The Myth of Odysseus in theNew Bucolic Poetry by Kiril Merjanski appeared in 1997 towards the end of the last

millennium at an important juncture in human history23 This fact is worth

23 Merjanski (1997)

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nloaded from

mentioning because the concept of the coming new age is among the key defining

elements of the poetrsquos aesthetic reappraisal of ancient themes and genres Unlike

most modern Bulgarian scholars whose interpretations foreground Odysseusrsquo arche-

typal text and figure my intention is to focus on those characteristics of the poem

that have been either ignored or underestimated Merjanskirsquos eclogues are prefaced

by two epigraphs from Virgilrsquos Eclogue 4 (4ndash7 50ndash3) which have not attracted

attention in existing discussions of the poems

Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas

Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo

Iam redit et virgo redeunt Saturnia regna

Iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto24

Aspice convexo nutantem pondere mundum

Terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum

Aspice venturo laetentur ut omnia saeclo

[Now comes the last age of Cumaean song the great line of the centuries begins anew Now

the Virgin returns the reign of Saturn returns now a new generation descends from heaven

on high See how the world bows with its massive dome ndash earth and expanse of sea and

heavenrsquos depth See how all things rejoice in the age that is at hand]25

Virgilrsquos Eclogue 4 predicts the return of a new Golden Age a theme that prompts

Merjanskirsquos visionary recreation of pastoral images The epigraphs are suggestive of

a reworking of Virgilian themes specifically the idea of the Golden Age in bucolic

poetry So Virgil still remains a lsquostandard ingredientrsquo26 in this original reworking of

the pastoral27

Merjanskirsquos bucolics inventively incorporate the figure of Odysseus into an ec-

logue environment a move that works because pastoral elements are not alien to

Odysseusrsquo wanderings and to the imagery of the Odyssey The character of Odysseus

undoubtedly serves as an important link between poetic pieces that appear frag-

mented on the surface However these poems embody several unifying themes that

look back to Homerrsquos Odyssey and forward to the present these themes include

spiritual wanderings endless beginnings and endings and the departures and

24 Interestingly Joseph Brodsky also uses the first two lines of Virgilrsquos poem for his lsquoWinter

Ecloguersquo as discussed by Zara Torlone in this volume For both poets the allusion to

Virgil becomes the inevitable signal of the genre that they are trying to rework

25 Translations of the original Latin text are drawn from Virgil (1916)

26 Skoie (2006 96)

27 As Zara Torlone observes in her essay for this volume the strict definition of pastoral is

clearly problematic and poets define its main characteristics differently from literary

critics While Brodsky characterizes pastoral simply by three features an exchange of

between two of more characters in a rural setting and love Paul Alpersrsquo and Thomas

Rosenmeyerrsquos comprehensive discussions of what pastoral is and what it does are infin-

itely more complicated See Rosenmeyer (1969) and Alpers (1996)

Y O A N A S I R A K O V A

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nloaded from

returns that fit the psychological (even psychoanalytic and Freudian) profile of the

post-modern individual so aptly This relay between antiquity and modernity is

mediated through the peaceful and settled idyllic enclosures that draw on the

Renaissance and the humanistic insights of the ancient worldrsquos past as an idyllic

golden age of harmony

And yet the subject matter of the new eclogues is not the rustic world but rather

the fancy of mythology and the idea of the Golden Age illustrated by means of

bucolic colouring In Merjanskirsquos book there are few idealized enchanted landscape

settings As programmed by Virgilrsquos second epigraph the landscape consists of

countryside sky and sea scapes mixed with urban elements This vista is supple-

mented by the device of an always extended meditative visualization that goes

beyond the protagonistsrsquo (and the readersrsquo) immediate gaze Thus the prologue to

the eclogues directs and transfers the plot of the poems to the deck of a ship and to a

seashore which symbolizes the point of departure and return

For eyelids squinted against the sun

the journey is not a way to get somewhere28

The idea of the journey not ending and not getting anywhere is interlinked with the

serene and calm harmony that exists between humans and nature on the shore The

leisure scene (cf Tityrusrsquo leisure in shade in Virgilrsquos Eclogue 14 mdash lentus in umbra)

has been further interrupted by a sudden shout lsquoLook Sharkrsquo thus introducing the

image of the shark that will play a pivotal role in the narrative of the poems

Merjanskirsquos multiple perspectives on his poetic topic are consistent with the

considerable variety of content and the unifying role played by the concept of

the Golden Age Here it is instructive to recall Mathilde Skoiersquos reminder that

the specific meaning of the term lsquoecloguersquo places emphasis on a selection from

various sources as well as signalling the diversity of an eclectic pastoral that draws

from various spheres29 In keeping with this particular lsquoprocess of eclectic recep-

tionrsquo30 every eclogue of the poetrsquos selection inserts numerous motifs And yet every

eclogue forms and retains particular thematic unity Bucolic fragments are framed

by bucolic monologic narratives (and occasionally by dialogues) involving issues of

everyday life and the worldrsquos circumrotation (Ecl 1) love (Ecl 2) departure (Ecl 3)

Odysseusrsquo obscure destiny encoded in Polyphemusrsquo secret files (Ecl4) Odysseusrsquo

ontological essence (Ecl 5) the reduction and the enlarging of the world in the eyes

of the characters (Ecl 8) return (Ecl 10) and death (Ecl 9) which presents a reprise

of the pastoral motif of lament for a herdsmanrsquos death for example in Virgilrsquos fifth

eclogue The various thematic concerns of the poet form a unity in his seventh

28 Translations of Merjanskirsquos eclogues from Bulgarian are made by Holly Feldman

Karapetkova (not published)

29 Skoie (2006 94)

30 Ibid

A ( P O S T ) M O D E R N R E A D I N G O F A N T I Q U I T Y I N B U L G A R I A N P O E T R Y

311

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eclogue which strongly suggests Virgilrsquos Eclogue 4 celebrating the advent of the

Virgo Saturnia regna and nova progeniesIn the Selected Epitaphs and in the confused thoughts of the characters mentioned

above the markers of parody represent distant ancient motifs by means of recent

contemporary strata sometimes via hints and shades of pop art Thus Odysseusrsquos

fate is ultimately concealed in Polyphemusrsquos secret files tellingly encoded lsquonobodyrsquo

(Ecl 4) and a letter to Odysseus which he never received was written on two

cigarette papers of the trade mark Gitanes and put in a miniature bottle of

Underberg the notes being signed in a promiscuous mixture of ancient and

modern languages lsquonemo oudeis Hukmo personne nobodyrsquo (Ecl 10) and clearly re-

calling and parodying to burlesque excess Odysseusrsquo answer to Polyphemusrsquo ques-

tion in book 9 of the Odyssey

Throughout the poems the sense of an ending has alternated repeatedly with the

sense of beginning that alludes to the infinite worldrsquos circle In Merjanskirsquos pastoral

poetics the dynamic of closure and continuation so characteristic of Virgil31 is

embedded in the perpetual expectation of a Golden Age which is in turn symbo-

lized by the perpetual rotation of the earth The protagonists experience a number of

risings and springs which entail a powerful sense of beginning In the first eclogue

Tityrus sings that Meliboeus lsquositting on the shore reads his unclear future in the flight

of a herring gull soaring over the oceanrsquo

calmly I will wait for the fall

and for the winter and the spring

For everything to start again

Tityrusrsquo song begins in a state of reflective longing for peace and harmony from

which beginnings and ends are expelled but ultimately strives towards a new open-

ing the continuous tension between the opposite views going through the seasonsrsquo

course Parallel perceptions are revealed in the third eclogue where Tityrusrsquo words

lsquoand again it is springrsquo visibly correspond with his wish lsquoto be reborn with the dawnrsquo In

Meliboeusrsquo augury a more complex pattern emerges for at first lsquothe ritual praxis of

predicting the future from the examination of the flight of birdsrsquo presents a trans-

parent allusion to lsquoa prominent feature of the Greco-Roman lore and the mytho-

graphic traditionsrsquo by its turning lsquoattention to winged creatures as celestial agents of

communicationrsquo32

The idea of freedom weightlessness and solitude represents a recurrent discur-

sive emotive dimension in the intratextual structure of the new eclogues in

Amaryllisrsquos love story in the second eclogue her hands are depicted as lsquofree and

weightlessrsquo in the eighth eclogue Meliboeus longs to be reborn lsquofree and alonersquo

31 Theodorakopoulos (1997 163)

32 Davis (2008 407)

Y O A N A S I R A K O V A

312

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nloaded from

lsquofreedom is not even a conceptionrsquo for the shark as Odysseus narrates in eclogue nine

and Odysseus himself dreams about being lsquoalonersquo in The departure of Odysseus fromlotus-eatersrsquo lands in the seventh eclogue But the poem which is primarily concerned

with freedom is The departure of Odysseus from the third eclogue

Freedom is not slabs of cheese

stacked against the walls of the kingrsquos cellar

Freedom is not a tin of Camembert

much less a slice of processed Swiss wrapped in plastic

Freedom doesnrsquot have a taste

It is like the air like the water -

it does not make you nauseous

If you give a loaf of bread and a knife

to a starving man he will eat and kill

Freedom is neither bread

nor knife

Significantly the concept of freedom is closely related to the ineluctable impulse to

depart while the idea of homecoming will be associated with death in the tenth

eclogue The two poles of departure and arrival that characterize the wanderer are

metaphorically related to the twin coordinates of autumn and spring and night and

day that define the herdsmenrsquos lives Although it has been remodelled in a conspicu-

ously modern idiom foregrounded by the metaphors of the tin of Camembert and

the slice of processed Swiss the poem makes quite an unusual inter-textual refer-

ence to Virgilrsquos textus receptus33 In the first Virgilian bucolic (Ecl 1 27ndash35) Tityrus

replies to Meliboeusrsquo question lsquoEt quae tanta fuit Romam tibi causa videndirsquo [And

what was the great occasion of your seeing Rome]

Libertas quae sera tamen respexit inertem

candidior postquam tondenti barba cadebat

respexit tamen et longo post tempore venit

postquam nos Amaryllis habet Galatea reliquit

namque ndash fatebor enim ndash dum me Galatea tenebat

nec spes libertatis erat nec cura peculi

quamvis multa meis exiret victima saeptis

pinguis et ingratae premeretur caseus urbi

non umquam gravis aere domum mihi dextra redibat

[Freedom who though late yet cast her eyes upon me in my sloth when my beard began to

whiten as it fell beneath the scissors Yet she did cast her eyes on me and came after a long

33 We should also note here the reference to Polyphemusrsquo cave from the Odyssey (9219ndash

220) lsquoSo we explored his den gazing wide-eyed at it all the large flat racks loaded with

drying cheese the folds crowded with young lambs and kidsrsquo (Homer The Odyssey

Translated by Robert Fagles New York Penguin Classics 1997 218)

A ( P O S T ) M O D E R N R E A D I N G O F A N T I Q U I T Y I N B U L G A R I A N P O E T R Y

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nloaded from

time ndash after Amaryllis began her sway and Galatea left me For ndash yes I must confess ndash while

Galatea ruled me I had neither hope of freedom nor thought of savings Though many a

victim left my stalls and many a rich cheese was pressed for the thankless town never would

my hand come home money-laden]

Libertas and caseus are not juxtaposed in the original passage where freedom

is closely associated with Tityrusrsquo love for Amaryllis and Galatea However in

the broader context of the shepherdsrsquo oppression in their country it might address

the idea of land confiscations their effects on the Italian countryside and the

loss of pastoral innocence This particular separation of life in town (ingrata urbs)

and countryside is transformed in the Bulgarian remake Merjanski takes Tityrus at

his word and develops the opposition and disconnect between freedom (including

self-sufficiency and prosperity) and cheese mdash a staple component of bucolic life

Departure a symbol of freedom becomes explicitly antithetical to the stable and

calm richness of the shepherdsrsquo lifestyle through strong and repetitive negations

Cheese and bread the food which symbolizes the herdsmenrsquos rooted connection to

land but also the human pursuit for material goods in modern times is opposed to

the sense of freedom mdash a staple component of modern life

As we have already observed at the end of the Myth of Odysseus in the New Bucolic

Poetry the return of Odysseus is associated with his death in opposition to the motif

of departure as freedom The last poetic piece from the final tenth eclogue entitled

lsquoThe death of Odysseusrsquo describes Odysseusrsquo death as seen by the shepherds The

poem revolves almost entirely around pastoral pictures and images but nevertheless

implies ambivalent emotions

We only have to load the wine

and at dawn with open sails

to set off for the luminous horizon

of our peasant bliss

The perception of death is connotative both of return (Odysseusrsquo homecoming) and

somewhat surprisingly of departure (the herdsmenrsquos departure after Odysseusrsquo

death) the idea of departure is further intensified by the aggressive prompting

lsquoBut letrsquos go Therersquos no time to wastersquo In the closural stanza the peace of the pastoral

setting is restored with yet another feeling of ending symbolized by the nightrsquos

falling down

To the sheep the growing stink

of our mortal bodies is fatal

Above the shepherd shouldering his crook

and driving the flock before him

look ndash a star distant and pale

rises again through the shroud of dusk

Y O A N A S I R A K O V A

314

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nloaded from

This description clearly reworks the Virgilian ending of Eclogue 10 (75ndash77)

Surgamus solet esse grauis cantantibus umbra

iuniperi grauis umbra nocent et frugibus umbrae

Ite domum saturae uenit Hesperus ite capellae

[Let us arise The shade is oft perilous to the singer ndash perilous the juniperrsquos shade hurtful the

shade even to the crops Get home my full-fed goats get home ndash the Evening Star draws on]

Readers may discern two close parallels between the texts Virgilian drawing on of

Hesperus is retained in the rising of the distant and pale star and the shepherd

driving the flock before him aligns with the Latin original lsquoite domum ite capellaersquo

Though points of divergence also appear with the replacing of Virgilrsquos umbrae the

word considered as an emblematic lsquobucolic markerrsquo34 and lsquoa figure of bucolic writ-

ingrsquo35 by the growing stink of herdsmenrsquos mortal bodies The singers (cantantes) and

the crops (fruges) altogether commute into a flock of sheep

The final message of Merjanskirsquos new bucolic poetry is assigned to the ecloguesrsquo

epilogue representing a prophetic vision of the impossible coming of the Golden

Age and reintroducing the image of the shark in a rather abrupt manner

The shark is a messenger

For the eyelids strained against the sun

she appears unexpectedly

Arises like some giant maw

from the murky depths of the soul

The setting makes explicit references to the prologue where the shark passes by

leaving no traces in humansrsquo minds lsquoNo sense of horror from what wersquove seenrsquo The

Virgilian virgo Astraea who must return as a symbol and messenger of the new

Golden Age has been identified with and turns into a shark a messenger of the

endless end The last verses of the epilogue mdash lsquothere is no end there is no endrsquo mdash

running as a refrain through the poemsrsquo texture (Eclogue 1 5 7 8) refer to the final

words of the prologue lsquothe beginning and the endalways go unnoticedrsquo and both close

the infinite circle and leave it open at the same time The end is constantly and

continually deferred by the perpetual revolution of the earth with no awareness of a

new opening

Although associated with a new beginning (or the start of a new reign) through-

out classical literature in Merjanski the optimistic implications of the Golden Age

34 Martindale (1997 109)

35 Martindale (2005 146)

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315

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Dow

nloaded from

imagery in eclogue 4 have been ironically reversed and replaced by pessimistic

visions The subversion of the idealized pastoral and (or rather because of) its con-

flation with endless spiritual wandering turns out to be a mark of Merjanskirsquos new

bucolic poetry which in a sense follows Virgilrsquos identification of the countryside as a

place of devastation or shattered and damaged harmony36 Through his narrative

the poet inverts the Virgilian concept of prophecy and renewal as expressed in his

fourth eclogue mdash the idea of disharmony has replaced the idea of harmony the

notion of the circuit has been presented in its extreme It no longer epitomizes the

regeneration of nature and life but rather represents a vicious circle from which

there is no escape the Golden Age becoming reachable only if the circumrotation is

broken up

The human pursuit (and attaining) of harmony with the cosmos as visualized in

Virgilrsquos Eclogue 4 has been doomed to failure A good example of Merjanskirsquos

reframing of Virgil is his first eclogue where Odysseus attempts unsuccessfully to

invert the worldrsquos circumrotation by inverting perverting and finally subverting

and confusing his everyday life and daily activities So Meliboeus (in lsquothe enlarging of

the world in Meliboeusrsquo dreamsrsquo in Eclogue 8) also dreams about turning back the arch

of heaven in order to reverse the place of birth and death of worm and azure and lsquoto

be born again ndash free and alonersquo

Merjanskirsquos eclogues could be appropriately construed as a post-modern version

of pastoral which involves lsquothe psychological chaos and spiritual impoverishmentrsquo

seen lsquoas the cityrsquos legacy and the corollary of technological growthrsquo in A J Boylersquos

words37 Explicit reference to this specific lsquocorollary of technical growthrsquo with lucid

modern connotations occurs in Merjanskirsquos seventh eclogue which anticipates the

arrival of a new age arrival humankind will assume its lsquoalgorithmic appearancersquo in a

place where death will be powerless on the verge of lsquothe face with its digital

counterpartrsquoIn the reinvented bucolic world of The Myth of Odysseus in the New Bucolic Poetry

a vast place is dedicated to a peculiar lsquospiritual landscapersquo (in Bruno Snellrsquos account

of Virgilrsquos Eclogues)38 The world of Virgilrsquos Eclogues which dramatizes herdsmenrsquos

lives love and exile has been transformed into a landscape par excellence of the post-

modern mind and millennial anxieties Merjanski takes up Virgilrsquos use of pastoral as

a framework for dealing with the everlasting worldrsquos circuit and the idea of the

Golden Age which are recast as quasi-post-modern concerns His new bucolic

poetry bears little (if any) relation to social reality and is rather overlaid with a

haze of utopia unreality and phantasm with no horizon for better times And

36 Richard Thomas aptly captured the pessimistic interpretations of Virgilian work in his

Virgil and the Augustan Reception ( Thomas 2001)

37 Boyle (1986 15)

38 Martindale (1997 110)

Y O A N A S I R A K O V A

316

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nloaded from

that is a particular point that distinguishes this specific Bulgarian (and arguably

Eastern-European) adaptation from Western European receptions of the Virgilian

Eclogues with their tendency to political and ethical readings39

The widespread appeal of pastoral in the West is still alive as is evident

in Stephen Harrisonrsquos recent treatment of Robert Frostrsquos and Seamus Heaneyrsquos

appropriations of Virgilrsquos Eclogues40 It is also instructive to compare Merjanskirsquos

and Heaneyrsquos use of eclogue poetics Merjanskirsquos The New Bucolic Poetry and

Heaneyrsquos Bann Valley Eclogue resemble each other in their loose reworking of

Virgilrsquos eclogues41 and in their (both common and different) millenarian feelings

and echoes regardless of the fact that Heaneyrsquos eclogue is lsquoa self-consciously mil-

lennial workrsquo42 which was read live on the Irish television channel RTE 1 on 31

December 2000 With its transposition of Virgilrsquos fourth eclogue onto lsquothe political

situation of the North of Irelandrsquo43 and its hopeful millennial appeal as well as its

suggestion of lsquothe old interpretation of Eclogue 4 as a prophecy of the coming

birth of Christrsquo44 Bann Valley Eclogue stands firmly in a Western tradition of

receiving Virgilian pastoral reception Although Merjanskirsquos new pastoral poetry

is not remarkable for its explicit or implicit political associations it may still be

seen as representative and to some extent reflective of the instability and moral

chaos that characterized Bulgarian society in the 1990s after the recent collapse of

the communist regime It is in reference to Bulgarian society that we should seek

further explanation for the peculiar pessimistic visions in Merjanskirsquos remake of

pastoral

This reframing of pastoral offers us a dynamic model for classical receptions This

analogy has been suggested by Mathilde Skoie in her introductory account of

Jacoppo Sannazarorsquos pastoral romance Arcadia In her discussion of the process of

invention and innovation in the genre of pastoral45 Skoie provides us with a brilliant

description of the process of pastoral reception

Thus Sannazaro describes the writing of pastoral as a matter of piping on the pastoral

instruments of your forerunners New pastoral poetry is presented as the result of a meeting

between the ancient and the modern poet The new poet literally gives life to the old form by

breathing into the old instrument This description of the writing of pastoral might be

figured as a model of the process of reception

39 Martindale (2005 140)

40 Harrison (2008 117) the discussion of Frost and Heaney is under the sub-heading

lsquoTwentieth and Twenty-first Centuries Virgilrsquos Eclogues Culture and Politicsrsquo

41 See Twiddy 2006 especially pp 54ndash7

42 Harrison (2008 122)

43 Ibid

44 Ibid p 123

45 Skoie (2006 92)

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317

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References

P Alpers What is Pastoral (Chicago Chicago University Press 1996)P Antov Poeziata na 90-te balgarsko i psotmoderno (Poetry of the 1990s The Bulgarian and The

Postmodern) (Plovdiv Janette 45 2010) [in Bulgarian]N Aretov and N Chernokojev Balgarskata literatura prez 18 i 19 vek (Bulgarian Literature in the 18th

and 19th century) (Sofia Anubis 2006) [in Bulgarian]J Axer lsquoCentral-Eastern Europersquo in C Kallendorf (ed) A Companion to Classical Traditions (Malden

Oxford and Carlton Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2007) pp 132ndash55J Boyle The Chaonian Dove Studies in the Eclogues Georgics and Aeneid of Virgil (Leiden Brill 1986)F Buecheler Anthologia Latina sive Poesis Latinae Supplementum Fasciculus I 492 (Lipsiae B G

Teubner 1895)H Botev Epitafii (Epitaphs) in Budilnik I2 (Bukuresht Lyuben Karavelov Hristo Botev 1873) [in

Bulgarian]B Gerov Inscriptiones Latinae in Bulgaria repertae Inscriptiones inter Oescum et Iatrum repertae ILBulg

145 (Sofia Sofia University Press 1989)G Davis lsquoReframing the Homeric Images of the Odyssey in the Art of Derek Walcott and Romare

Beardenrsquo in L Hardwick and C Stray (eds) A Companion to Classical Receptions (Malden MA andOxford Blackwell Publishing 2008) pp 401ndash14

P Doynov Bakgarskata poezia v kraya na 20 vek (Bulgarian Poetry at the End of the Twentieth Century)vol 12 (Sofia Prosveta 2007) [in Bulgarian]

mdashmdash Post Festum Nadgrobni slova i stihotvorenia (Post Festum Funeral inscriptions and poems) (SofiaPetex 1992) [in Bulgarian]

L Hardwick and C Stray (eds) A Companion to Classical Receptions (Malden MA and OxfordBlackwell Publishing 2008)

S Harrison lsquoVirgilian Contextsrsquo in L Hardwick and C Stray (eds) A Companion to ClassicalReceptions (Malden MA and Oxford Blackwell Publishing 2008) pp 113ndash26

C Kallendorf (ed) A Companion to Classical Traditions (Malden MA and Oxford BlackwellPublishing 2007)

R Kisyov Kriptus (Russe Avangard Print 2004) [in Bulgarian]mdashmdash Glasove (Voices) (Russe Avangard Print 2009) [in Bulgarian]R Likova Literaturni tarsenia prez 90-te problemi na postmodernisma (Literary Quests in the 1990s

Problems of Postmodernism) (Sofia Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Press 2001) [in Bulgarian]B Manchev lsquoOdisey i negoviyat dvoynik Antichnostta natsionalnata filosofia na Toncho Jechev i

poeziata na 90-tersquo (Odysseus and His Counterpart Antiquity Toncho Jechevrsquos National Philosophy andthe Poetry of the 1990s) in Kritika i humanism (Criticism and Humanism) (Sofia Human and SocialStudies Foundation 2002) vol 13 pp 80ndash101 [in Bulgarian]

C Martindale and R F Thomas (eds) Classics and the Uses of Reception (Malden MA and OxfordBlackwell Publishing 2006)

mdashmdash Latin Poetry and the Judgment of Taste An Essay in Aesthetics (New York Oxford UniversityPress 2005)

mdashmdash A Cambridge Companion to Virgil (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1997)K Merjanski Izbrani epitafii ot zaleza na rimskata imperia (Selected Epitaphs from the Decline of the

Roman Empire) (Sofia Typographica Press 1992) [in Bulgarian]mdashmdash Mitat za Odisey v novata bukolicheska poezia (The Myth of Odysseus in New Bucolic Poetry)

(Sofia Agentsia IMA 1997) [in Bulgarian]T G Rosenmeyer The Green Cabinet Theocritus and the Eurpean Pastoral Lyric (Berkeley University

of California Press 1969)N Sharankov lsquoLanguage and Society in Roman Thracersquo in Early Roman Thrace New

Evidence from Bulgaria (Journal of Roman Archeology Suppl 82) (Portsmouth RI JRA 2011) pp135ndash55

M Skoie lsquoPassing on the Panpipe Genre and Receptionrsquo in C Martindale and R F Thomas (eds)Classics and the Uses of Reception (Malden MA and Oxford Blackwell Publishing 2006) pp 92ndash103

P Slaveykov Na ostrova na blajenite (On the Island of the Blessed) (Sofia Alexander Paskalev 1910)[in Bulgarian]

Y O A N A S I R A K O V A

318

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nloaded from

H Smirnenski lsquoEpitafii ili slova nadgrobni na vodachi bezpodobnirsquo (1920) (lsquoEpitaphs or FuneralOrations for Leaders Most Ungraciousrsquo) Humor i satira (Sofia Narizdat 1964) vol 2 pp 101ndash4[in Bulgarian]

E Theodorakopoulos lsquoClosure the Book of Virgilrsquo in C Martindale and R F Thomas (eds) TheCambridge Companion to Virgil (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1997) pp 155ndash65

R Thomas Virgil and the Augustan Reception (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2001)I Twiddy lsquoHeaneyrsquos Version of Pastoralrsquo Essays in Criticism 56 (2006) pp 50ndash71I Vazov lsquoEpitaphrsquo in I Vazov Sachinenia (Works) vol 1 Stihotvorenia (Poems) Gusla 1881 (Sofia

Balgarski pisatel 1964) p 133 [in Bulgarian]Virgil in H R Fairclough (trans) Eclogues Georgics Aeneid Loeb Classical Library Volumes 63 amp 64

(Cambridge MA Harvard University Press 1916)P Yavorov Podir senkinte na oblatsite (After the Cloudrsquos Shadows) (Sofia Alexander Paskalev 1910)

[in Bulgarian]

A ( P O S T ) M O D E R N R E A D I N G O F A N T I Q U I T Y I N B U L G A R I A N P O E T R Y

319

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