The article discusses the features of the conflict in the drama Acteon by Nikolay Gumilyov. Taking into account the methodology of analysis developed by Vladimir Bibikhin and some parallels in painting, we clarify the nature of the conflict. The mythological image of Hebe's peacock that has no matches in the ancient mythology is the key to understanding this drama's aesthetic program. We prove that this image combines two motifs: the motif of multicolored beauty that attracts attention, and the motif of message, which goes back to the images of angels and Iris. This image «changes the optics» rather than it has some meaning. Thus, the potential of the traditional rhetorical imagery was complemented by the modernist representation of art as a message. This allows us to specify the conflict of the drama's main characters without reducing it to the literary conflict between symbolism and acmeism. Instead, it is put into the context of a more general conflict between rules and experiment in art.
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