Rhéa Silvia by Valery Bryusov. Short summary

5 seconds

The sad love story of Mary and Theodates. The young men imagined themselves heroes of an ancient epic and met in the ruins of the old city. Maria ended her life in the same way as her heroine.

1 minute

Half-destroyed Rome, 546-568. The city suffers from constant raids by the Goths and Byzantium.

The main character is Maria, the daughter of a manuscript scribe. Depressed by what she sees, she dreams of an ideal world in which there is no place for war, destruction, and cruelty. Trying to ignore reality, she lives out her desires.

Maria is inspired by her favorite characters: Caesar, the god Bacchus, Romulus. Book dreams are the only thing that gives the heroine the strength to live. One day, while wandering through the ruins, she discovers ancient bas-reliefs. In the image of Rhea Sylvia’s workbench, she recognizes herself.

In the ruins of the old city, Maria meets the young man Theodatus, whom she imagines to be the god Mars. They begin a kind of love game, in which the young man gladly joins in. The lovers meet only at the ruins.

Theodatus disappears, and Maria herself soon gives birth to a child. But upon learning that her lover is dead, she throws herself into the Tiber, repeating the story of her beloved heroine.