Kotel’nikov, G.E.: The Priest of Osiris

Title

Zhrets Ozirisa, Sankt-Peterburg 1914
The Priest of Osiris

Keywords

Summary

The full title of the play is The Priest of Osiris: The Mystery of the Pyramid of the Pharaoh Khаfre. One-act play in verse. The plot can be summarized as follows: Aira, widow of Pharaoh Khefre, is beloved by Osorkhon, a priest of Osiris, who, in a monologue, confesses his love for her. Aira prays in front of the statue of Osiris, mourning her husband, while Osorkhon secretly watches her. He informs the other priests that Osiris has spoken to him and instructed them to cast all statues of Khefre into the water. When Aira returns to the temple, she notices the absence of her husband’s statues and anxiously inquires about their whereabouts. Overwhelmed with despair, she sees Osorkhon and questions him about the statues. To her astonishment, he asks why she doesn’t recognize her husband and claims that he is, in fact, Khefre, who returned to her thanks to her prayers, with his soul inhabiting the body of the devoted priest of Osiris. Filled with doubt, Aira continues to ask for information about the statues, to which Khefre explains that the statues now reside in the realm of Osiris, who has sent her the soul of her beloved husband in return. Finally convinced, Aira embraces Khefre with tears of joy.

Bio

Gleb Kotel’nikov appears to have been a multifaceted individual with a very diverse range of roles throughout his life. He served as an officer in the Russian Imperial Army, worked as an excise official, and pursued a career as an actor. He is best known as a Russian and Soviet inventor: in 1912, he invented the knapsack parachute and he also developed a braking parachute. In 1910 he moved to Saint Petersburg, and in the same year he became a member of the drama troupe at the Saint Petersburg People’s House, adopting the alias “Glebov-Kotel’nikov”. Here he took on various acting roles, including a portrayal of Svidrigailov from Fedor Dostoevskii’s Crime and Punishment. He also experimented with dramaturgy. In 1914, while in Saint Petersburg, Kotel’nikov published several of his own plays, including Miniatures, Donkey at the Watering Hole, The Mysteries of Elena the Beautiful, Priest of Osiris, and Temptress.

Sources

A. Glebov, G. Zalutskii, Sozdatel’ aviatsionnogo parashuta, Moskva 1951;
A. Nazarov, Puteshestviia kak metod postizheniia bytiia, Moskva 2016, p. 157-161.

M.E.