From Yahweh to Jupiter: Orthodox Muscovy Deals with the Classical World

Considering a few instances taking place between 1680–1705, the talk shows how interculturalism, multilingualism, and multiconfessionalism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and in Ruthenia helped to spread Classical culture into Eastern Europe. In his collection, Multiflowered Garden (1680), the Belarusian Simiaon Polacki breaks with Orthodox skepticism towards ancient culture—deemed as sophistic—and includes references to Classical literature and mythology as signs of erudition and stylistic refinement to place the Slavic world in a line of continuity with the ancient one. The Polish-by-b