Abstract

The first complete translation of the Derveni Papyrus into Russian is prepared by Eugene V. Afonasin. The remains of carbonized upper part of a papyrus roll with a Greek prose text written in columns, found in the debris of a funeral fire of a Macedonian grave around Derveni, is now ranked among the most important literary finds ever made and is admittedly the oldest papyrus found in Greece. The papyrus contains a very curious commentary to an Orphic theogony and in this capacity is of great interest for understanding religious and philosophical developments at the end of the fourth – the beginning of the third century B. C. E.. The author considers the enterprise quite timely, since we now possess an authoritative edition of the text with commentaries and the photographs of the papyrus – a collective effort the Greek team, as well as a series of new studies, provoked by this long-awaited event. The present publication contains a Russian translation of the papyrus, supplied with short textual and bibliographic notes, occasionally supplemented by longer remarks of conceptual nature.