The religious attitude of the authors is also very different. Vergil believed or pretended to believe in the gods of Rome. He had to maintain the proper attitude of piety to the state. Kotlyarevsky treats them as brawling and unidealistic beings, very human individuals with all the vices of the Kozaks and little of their human virtues. Thus Juno, the tutelary deity of the Latins and the implacable foe of Troy, becomes a very ill-tempered _baba_ and she is described accordingly. The gods who drink their fill and beyond are ordinary mortals. In this there is a great deal of the scepticism of Voltaire and the criticism of paganism by the older Christian tradition that believed in the evil character of paganism, perhaps even more than a deliberate satire on the rulers of Moscow with their almost divine pretensions as is thought by Yefremiv (Istoriya Ukrainskoho Pis’mentsva Vol. I, p. 361). We can never forget that Kotlyarevsky was an Orthodox Christian, writing for his coreligionists and that they had been taught that the pagan gods were either non-existent or evil and hence not deserving of a respectful treatment. It is not so often noted that the _Aeneid_ of Vergil is not the only source of Kotlyarevsky’s poem. He undoubtedly knew his Homer, especially the _Odyssey_, and the gods of the _Eneida_ are often human in a manner similar to those of the Greek poet, although there is not the same naivete in their description and Kotlyarevsky does not feel the need of making them superhuman with the human virtues and vices raised to a high degree. The Greek influence can be clearly seen, for the poet perhaps for metrical reasons is far more apt to name the ruler of the gods Zeves (Zeus) than Jupiter, the regular form in Vergil. There is also a deliberate slurring over of supernatural incidents. The miraculous plays very little role except in the transformation of the ships of Aeneas into swans. Kotlyarevsky follows Vergil in passing over lightly the episode of Polyphemus but he cannot resist the temptation to bring Aeneas close enough to Circe’s Isle to see the animals into which her different victims have been changed. Thus the Poles have become rams, the bearded Muscovites goats, and the Prussians foxes. He does not hesitate to depart from Vergil in the account of the visit to the underworld. He definitely says so himself: For Vergil, may he reign forever, Was always wise, as we well know. We would not harm him now or ever But he lived many years ago. Besides in hell conditions differ From what they were when he looked thither. And when the long departed wrote. I now will give the present story, Will change, omit some details hoary, And from my elders I will quote. (III, 42) So he includes in hell all those who have transgressed the Kozak spirit and code and all who are working in this world to make unbearable the lot of the poor people.