Universe of Platonic Thought 2021

29th International Conference “The Universe of Platonic Thought: Rational Theology in Platonism”

Nina Sergeevna Ishchenko, CSc in Philosophy; Lugansk State Academy of Culture and Arts named by M. Matusovsky (Lugansk, LPR, Russia), Assistant Professor

Platonic Images in 'The Enchanted Wandered' by N. Leskov

The paper is devoted to the analysis of Plato's images in the story "The Enchanted Wanderer". The title of the story and its plot can be read as a Gnostic and Neoplatonic myth about the fall of the soul, the journey of life and the return to the heavenly homeland.

Keywords: Plato, Platonism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Leskov, The Enchanted Wanderer, Russian literature

Nikolai Leskov's story "The Enchanted Wanderer" was published in 1873. The title and the plot of the story allow us to consider this work in a Gnostic and Neoplatonic context.

The so-called "Hymn of the Pearl", an excerpt from the Gnostic apocryphal Gospel of Thomas of the 2nd century, allegorically tells the story of the soul's fall from the supercosmic spheres into the material world. In the Hymn about the Pearl, the eastern king sends his son to the land of Egypt to get the magic pearl. Attracted by the sweetness of life in Egypt, the prince forgets who he is and why he came here, and remembers his mission only after receiving signs from his father. In the end, the prince returns home with the pearl. The Gnostic history of the earthly journey of the soul also has neoplatonic parallels in the teachings of Plotinus and various neoplatonic schools. The plot of life's journey as a return to the heavenly homeland goes back to the Pythagorean-Platonic circle of ideas set forth in "Cratila", "Res publica", "Phaedo" and other dialogues of Plato.

In Leskov's story, the fate of Ivan Flyagin is seen as a return to the starting point, to a monastery, understood as a spiritual homeland, the home of the Heavenly Father. The hero, as a child, could get into a monastery, and he repeatedly heard this call at the turning points of his history, but he gave up his vocation for the sake of a life journey, experienced more and more suffering in the world, in order to eventually return to where his true place was. The Christian content of this plot is undoubted because Ivan is coming to God by self-sacrifice for others, which was not the case with the Gnostics and Neoplatonists. At the same time, the Christian content of the story modifies the Platonic plot, as was the case historically at the end of the ancient world.