About the sources of the figurative definition of A. S. Pushkin as “The Sun of Poetry”

The article is dedicated to the problem of the sources of a brief notice about the death of A. S. Pushkin, released on January 30, 1837 in the 5th issue of “Literary Additions” (“Literaturnye Pribavleniya”) — a supplement to the newspaper “Russian Invalid” (“Russkiy Invalid”). It is proved that the semantics of the figurative definition of the importance of Pushkin as “The sun the Russian poetry” according to V. F. Odoevsky goes back to the Bible, in which the sun’s symbolism is equivalent to the connotation of the necrologic notice. A significant source of the image of “the sun of poetry” in Odoevsky’s obituary is the creative heritage of Pushkin in which the sun appears as a majestic, sacral source of life, full of true, Divine wisdom, giving people the joy and happiness and pointing at a saving way. This semantics of the image can be seen in the poems “Bacchanal Song”, “From Barry Cornwall” (“I Drink to Mary’s Health”), in the critical essay “The Triumph of Friendship, or Acquitted Alexander Anfimovich Orlov” and the last lifetime publication of the great poet in “Literary Additions” — the poem “Aquilon”. The textual convergence of the definition of the significance of Pushkin given in his obituary by Odoevsky with the words of Metropolitan of Kiev Cyril “the sun of the fatherland set below the horizon” from the “History of the Russian State” by Karamzin, going back to the “Power Book” (“Stepennaya Kniga”), is explained by a common biblical authentic source.