THE POETIC SKY OF KYIV IN SEARCH OF ITS ATLAS (BACKSTAGE OF A BAROQUE PLAY)

The panegyric and heraldic poetry of the early modern era provides abundant material for observing the value orientations of contemporary society and its search for a leader capable of worthily guiding the ethno-confessional community through the trials that abounded in the 17th century. In the cultural code of Baroque discourse, the modeling of the ideal hero encourages the actualization of ancient mythologies, in particular the figure of Atlas, who holds the sky on his shoulders, while the image of the victorious warrior is associated with the mythological Hercules. The Romanian prince Petro Mohyla headed the largest Orthodox monastery, the Kyiv Caves Lavra, from 1627, and from 1633 to 1647 the entire Orthodox Metropolis of Kyiv. In the panegyrics of that time, he is compared to the mythological Atlas, and his social mission is described as holding the Orthodox Church on his shoulders. The comparison of Kyiv with the sky correlates with the ideology ‘Kyiv as the second Jerusalem,’ which was actualized in the 17th century. The political crisis associated with the conclusion of a fatal-for-Ukraine alliance with the Moscow Tsardom, the military confrontation between various centers of Cossack control, and the transfer of the Kyiv Orthodox Metropolis under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Moscow led to a transformation of the value system. Ivan Mazepa, elected hetman in 1687, becomes the central figure of panegyric poetry. He is compared to Hercules—a mythological hero whose strength was exploited by the ruler of Mycenae, Eurystheus. Since then, Atlas occupies a subsidiary place in the figurative system of panegyrics. The exploits of Mazepa-Hercules are manifested in his campaigns to Crimea, into the civilizational sphere of the Ottoman Empire. Notably, Pylyp Orlyk, who authored a panegyric in Mazepa’s honor, would, upon becoming the next hetman, seek an alliance with the Ottoman Empire to fight the Moscow Tsardom.