Martial’s “Trace” in the Poetic Legacy of A.S. Pushkin

This article explores the “Martial code” in the works of A.S. Pushkin. Despite Pushkin’s well-known love for Martial, repeatedly mentioned in Pushkin studies and in various scholarly and popular sources on Martial, Pushkin’s work, including his epistolary texts, lacks direct evidence of his familiarity with Martial’s texts. This study aims to fill this gap and highlight implicit references to the emblematic texts of Martial’s epigrams, as well as Pushkin’s adoption of the epigrammatic pattern established by Martial’s works. The study traces the interaction between Pushkin’s epigrams and Martial’s epigrams, revealing similarities in theme, structure, and artistic devices (laconicism, aphorisms, and a striking ending). The functional commonality of the epigram’s use as a genre of reputational action is demonstrated: just as for Martial, the epigram became for Pushkin a genre of moral denunciation, an ironic critique of the dark side of the cultural and political life of his era. It is proven that the famous epigram “Rumpitur invidia” (“Bursting with envy”) influenced A.S. Pushkin’s interpretation of the theme of envy and the motif of the relationship between the poet and his Muse in his drama and lyric epics. The conducted research allows us to demonstrate the reception of Martial in Pushkin’s work in two guises: Pushkin’s perception and reworking of the structure and functions of epigrammatics, as well as the use of the idea of the duality of the poet and his muse from Martial’s programmatic poem. The obtained results open up additional perspectives for the study of A.S. Pushkin and the interaction of Russian classical literature with the ancient tradition.