THE SPIRITUAL AND THE PHYSICAL AS NARRATIVE ELEMENTS IN "THE LEGEND OF BORIS AND GLEB" AND OTHER TEXTS ABOUT BORIS AND GLEB

The problem of soul and body correlation as one of the eternal problems is to be found in the oldest monuments of oral old Russian culture, connected with the death of Boris and Gleb, the Saint Princes. Their physical and spiritual characteristics are not opposed to each other as it can often be observed in educative texts, but rather one flows into the other. The prism of spiritual-physical code serves as the main instrument for meaning extraction, and spiritual and physical attributes are expressed clearly and distinctively. Prince Svyatopolk deliberately destroys his soul for earthly world and loses both as a result. Boris and Gleb sacrifice their mortal life and attain the eternal life. In The Legend of Boris and Gleb the activity of spiritual-physical characteristics is significant, and in the Nestor's chronicle their relative share is smaller.