In a comprehensive study on the mythologeme of Oedipus
frequently occurring in fin-de-
siècle European culture, the author ventures to
scrutinise the explicit conflict between father and son in D. Merezhkovsky’s
novel
Peter and Alexis
. The mythical story re
discovered by Freud, not only
stimulated the psychoanalytic models of psychosexual development and
culture, but also fascinated Russian Symbolist’s imagination. By relying on the
theme of patricide the article juxtaposes the story of Oedipus with the story
about Theseus. Loci in Merezhkovsky’s theoretical essays offer interpretation
of the cultural message coded in the myth
