Tajemnica Akteona. Modernistyczne misterium dionizyjskie w wierszu Bolesława Leśmiana

Abstract

This article examines Bolesław Leśmian’s poetic reinterpretation of the myth of Actaeon, immortalized in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In the classical narrative, the Greek hunter is transformed by Artemis into a stag and torn apart by his own hounds. Leśmian identifies with this mythological figure, framing his own condition as that of a modern Actaeona creator burdened by hypersensitivity to the surrounding reality, both in its physical and metaphysical dimensions. Through this lens, Leśmian develops a new variant of the modernist topos of the accursed poet, while simultaneously constructing his own version of the modernist myth of the artist as a “primitive man,” endowed with the ability to penetrate the secrets of nature and its hidden processes, perceived as manifestations of divine forces, as once described by Ovid. Unlike the ancient poet, however, Leśmian portrays himself not as an external observer of these mysteries but as an integral participant, equally subject to enigmatic metamorphoses.