An axiological analysis of the bylinas about Dunay and Potyk

Based on an axiological analysis of the bylinas about Dunay Ivanovich and Mikhailo Potyk, the article reveals a number of epic motifs which are interpreted as a semantic unity of the hero's motivation, his deed, and its consequences. The article brings to light how the epic singer renders the spiritual laws connecting the motivation for a certain act with its consequences (i.e., the hero's punishment and his subsequent penance or perdition); and formulates cognitive ethical meanings belonging to each of the bylina's motifs. For each motif, the author identifies the following components: the hero's particular moral weakness or passion which captures him, evoking thus, sympathy - or the so-called «compassion» - in the listeners; the moment when the hero is overcome by his sin; the moment of the crime; and the punishment as a natural consequence of the hero's deeds. Also, the difference between axiological coordinates of every act - before and after its commission, in the evaluation of either the hero or the listener - is determined in the present paper. The motifs of the mentioned bylinas are classified here on the basis of their type and their involvement into parallel structures with similar motifs, or by the presence - or absence - of their antithetical counterparts. The result of the present study is a denial of the widespread theory according to which Russian bylinas should be described as «meaningless», as having controversial diachronous semantics, as damaged - in terms of the content - during their existence in this or that social milieu (peasant, skomorokh, minstrel or Cossack one), as presupposing allegedly «extraneous» and «recent» Christian concepts and ideologemes.