The utopian narration of Hellenism and Russian literary utopia of the XVIII century: an ongoing dialogue with mith

The article deals with the problem of the myth and utopia correlation in the works by well known Hellenistic authors and in the Russian literary utopias of the XVIII century. The analysis of the works by well known Hellenistic authors as well as Russian writers of the XVIII century makes it possible to specify the way they used folklore and literary utopian sources and mythological legends, tales etc. Their somewhat exalted resuscitation of the myths might have been explained by the common generic features of myth and utopia as well as influenced by the transitional character of both periods. In both cases a kind of reawakening attitude towards myths might be regarded as the authors intention to express their ideas in the massoriented and thus mythologically furnished form.