title: Potemkin’s Homer
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Pozdnev, Mikhail M.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2019-01-17T11:01:39Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2019-01-17T11:01:39Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2018-12
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Позднев М. М. Гомер Потемкина. Philologia Classica 2018, 13(2), 288–302.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: 10.21638/11701/spbu20.2018.209
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/15259
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: Vassily Petrov (1736–1799) rose from obscurity to become a poet laureate, librarian and private
  reader to Catherine the Great through his knowledge of the Classical literature and feeling
  for poetic convention. Aiming high and talented (he translated the Aeneis), he was able to set
  any event of recent history in the marble of a Pindaric ode producing pieces meant for eternity,
  but saw them crumble shortly after Catherine’s death. On evidence of misquoting, Petrov’s
  biographers claim that he owed his rise to Grigory Potemkin (1739–1791), who was his peer
  back in Moscow. While viewed at a distance (which tends to blur chronology) Potemkin will
  ever be the conqueror for the Crown and the man in the life of the Empress, it was Petrov who
  actually helped the future favorite to work his way up. They went unacquainted as peers, and
  their friendship is due, in large part, to Potemkin’s interest in ancient authors which Petrov
  could comment on. The letter quoted by Petrov’s late 19th century biographer I. A. Shliapkin
  in support of his vainglorious pretensions proves the opposite: gracefully thanking his victorious
  friend, Petrov goes on to praise his passion for Classics: “The hand that smote the Turks
  now solaces me with friendly lines! I see the Great Alexander amongst the din of victorious
  battle mindful of Homer”. The untrained eye saw Petrov brazen enough to go around calling
  himself Homer, while the trite allusion was made to the Ilias compiled by Aristotle to follow
  Alexander in his deeds of valour. Potemkin and Catherine expected Petrov to deliver the first
  Russian translation of Homer which the poet probably had planned but never accomplished.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: ru
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Philologia Classica;Volume 13; Issue 2
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Vassily Petrov
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Russian translators of Homer
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Grigory Potemkin
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: Potemkin’s Homer
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 09-Pozdnev.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/15259/1/09-Pozdnev.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 1,34 MB