DEVILISH HORSES AS POETICAL IMAGE IN WORLD’S LITERATURE

The article presents a survey of literature with apocalyptic or mystic horses in the works of different authors of world literature - from biblical John the Theolog to the XXI century. This literature shows a wide spectrum of interpretative approaches to images of strange horses. They can be natural creatures with wild and wayward temper (works by Voltaire, Byron, Hugo, Brecht with Mazeppa plot) or can be figments of somebody’s destroyed conscience (“The Copper Rider” by A. Pushkin) or show themselves as mysterious creatures on the brink of usual and fantastic worlds (“Crimean plot” by Yu. Kerner, novella by Th. Storm “Der Schimmelreiter (“The Rider on the White Horse”), “A Horseman in the Sky” by A. Bierce). Horses can serve as messengers of some supernatural forces of unknown origin (horses by John the Theolog, devilish creatures by H. Bürger, N. Žukovsky, E.A. Poe, E. Mörike, R. Southey, H. Ibsen, A. Droste-Hülshoff, F. Kafka, M. Bulgakov). A specific case of the topic is linked with humorous plots, where the devil serves as a horse for the literary character (R. Southey, N.V. Gogol). The research shows that the appearance of mystic horses in a literary work is for most cases omen of evil and the death for its characters.