"O MOTHER, TO BE REBORN WITH YOU:" FOUNDATIONAL MYTH IN VIACHESLAV IVANOV'S TANTALUS.

Viacheslav Ivanov is well-known as a Symbolist poet and literary theorist, but relatively little attention has been paid to his activity as a dramatist. Ivanov's first tragedy, Tantalus (published in 1905), was warmly received by contemporaries like Andrei Bely and Aleksandr Blok, and the author himself considered the play a central work within his oeuvre. It is thus worthy of renewed attention. To that end, this essay analyzes a symbolic gestalt developed within the tragedy that associates agricultural language and the image of the earth with parenthood, divine retribution, and a Dionysian understanding of death and resurrection. This approach sheds new light on many of the tragedy's more cryptic utterances. It clarifies the motivations of both Tantalus and his son Broteas, who are unwittingly trapped within a mythical cycle of rebellion against their fathers. When considered within the framework of this "foundational myth," the enigmatic goddess Adrastea's role as an embodiment of both vengeance and the earth also becomes clearer. Tantalus ultimately emerges as a successful creative embodiment of Ivanov's early theories of Symbolism and mythopoesis. I conclude by considering the rhetorical and conceptual relationship between Tantalus and Ivanov's later analyses of the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, arguing that the tragedy both adapts the symbolism of the novelist's later works and rehearses the concepts found within Ivanov's subsequent critical intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]