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Abstract:

The subject of this note is a pseudonym of Vyacheslav Ivanov (1866-1949), a scholar of Roman history and Greek religion, a major Russian poet, a Kulturträger and a mystagogue. The word Ζακλης that has puzzled the biographers is of course a literal rendition of the Slavic name Vyache-slav "whose fame is far and wide, very famed" into Ancient Greek; the real question is what made the poet choose an obscure Aeolic version of the intensifying prefix δια.
Interestingly, as the note shows, in his private correspondence prior to 1903 Ivanov used another pseudonym with the same meaning, Ἀριστοκλῆς. The year 1903 was a turning point in Ivanov's career - it is then that he started publishing prolifically on Greek religion and in particularly on Dionysus. Moreover, in letters to his partner, L. D. Zinovjeva-Annibal, Ivanov associates himself with the figure of Zagreus (Ζαγρεύς), the chief deity of the "Orphic religion" as it was understood by the Altertumswissenschaft of the time. Clearly, changing his nom de guerre from Ἀριστοκλῆς, potentially loaded with undesirable associations, to Ζακλῆς that had an Orphic ring to it (Ζακλ-ῆς ~ Ζαγρ-εύς) was just one more step in Ivanov's forging himself a new, mystical identity.

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Ζακλῆς