“Poems on the Greek language” by Sergey Averintsev as a sum of Russian modernist poetry

An early poetic triptych “Poems on the Greek language” by Sergey Averintsev is a home composition that concisely reproduces both trends and artistic discoveries of symbolism, acmeism and futurism. The Greek language is understood by Averintsev as a special combination of the verbal and the written, with plasticity being ascribed to the written element, while the verbal is understood as theatrical and performative. These elements are reconciled by the special concept of music as the main test for the ancient body. This article reveals verbal, figurative and rhythmic references to various aestheticians of Russian modernism who thematized the symbol and the written sign, and finds hidden allusions to a number of concepts of antiquity, from Nietzsche to Golosowker. This archaeology of allusions clarifies the birth of writing as the main plot of the poem, corresponding to the course of the young author's acquaintance with the Greek literary tradition.