362 RUSSIAN BALLADS

So the author of the Morisco Poema de Jose describes how women
lost their senses at sight of Joseph's beauty, and Theodore Pro-
dromos (Rhodanthe kai Dosikles) describes his hero's stroll in the
capital. Samson has become one of the Russian champions, and
has three 'byliny5 to his name, of which the second is the Biblical
story of his wedding. The other two show him usurping the place
of the giant Svjatogor. He plays a part also in the early chapters
of the Thidrekssaga. David's procuring the death of Uriah is
allegorized in Dobrynja's shooting an arrow at Marina's 'dove5, who
is the dragon Tugarin (Speranskii, Dobrynja i Marina) > a story which
is not older than the seventeenth century. Solomon is, as usual, the
type of the sage beguiled by women. These matters receive a more
lush development than the Bible warrants, and so resemble (it is
said) Talmudic tradition. Critics have thought this due to the
Khazar Jewish khanate established in South Russia, but it may be
unnecessary to argue in favour of a specific and ancient Jewish
influence on the 'byliny', since, as we have noted, these develop-
ments are found in Greece, Germany, Spain, and elsewhere.

A definitely Greek influence is proved by the use of the name
Etmanuil Etmanullovic in some ballads, since this hides the name
of the emperor Manuel Comnenus who conducted active intrigues
in Galicia about the year 1196. He boasted his descent from the
Doukas family, of which Digenis Akritas was the most famous
scion. The epos exists in a Russian translation (Devgenn), but
apparently has no importance for the study of Russian ballad
origins. Doukas, however, becomes Djuk, a ballad hero; and his
surname of Stepanovic seems to be an acknowledgement of St.
Stephen of Hungary's prowess. The Indian kingdom of Djuk
Stepanovic, which so far eclipsed that of Kiev, corresponds to the
kingdom of Prester John, in which Manuel showed much interest.
From the Alexander legend the ballad-mongers perhaps took the
idea of giving the magician VoPga a snake for father; Nizami
reports a conversation between Alexander and a ploughman of
exceptional beauty, which offers an analogy to the conversa-
tion between Vol'ga and Mikula (Speranskii, VoTga i Mikula).
Veselovskii devotes a whole essay to working out the correspond-
ences between the ballads ofSaurLebanidovicandihe Cappadocian
ballad of Amouris. The Tugarin, who was overcome by Aljosa
Popovic (Speranskii, Aljosa i Tugarin\ has been identified as the
Tugorhan, chief of the Polovcy in the late eleventh century, who