The Virgin in Song
DIVINATIONS: REREADING LATE ANCIENT RELIGION
SERIES EDITORS
Daniel Boyarin Virginia Burrus Derek Krueger
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
The Virgin in Song
MARY AND THE POETRY OF ROMANOS THE MELODIST
Thomas Arentzen
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS Philadelphia
THIS BOOK IS MADE POSSIBLE BY A COLLABORATIVE GRANT FROM THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION.
Copyright © 2017 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Arentzen, Thomas, 1976– author.
Title: The Virgin in song : Mary and the poetry of Romanos the Melodist / Thomas Arentzen.
Other titles: Divinations.
Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2017] | Series: Divinations: rereading late ancient religion | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016045439 | ISBN 9780812249071 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Romanus, Melodus, Saint, active 6th century. | Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint—In literature. | Christian poetry, Byzantine—History and criticism. | Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint—Poetry—History and criticism. | Hymns, Greek—History and criticism.
Classification: LCC BV467.5.R63 A74 2017 | DDC 264.2/3—dc23
LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016045439
for Benedicte
CONTENTS
A Note on Editions and Translations
3. The Mother and Nurse of Our Life
Appendix 1. On the Annunciation
Appendix 2. Catalogue of Hymns Referred to in the Study
A NOTE ON EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS
Scholars use one of the following two critical editions of the Romanos corpus:
1. Paul Maas and C. A. Trypanis carried out the first and only complete critical edition of Romanos’s kontakia, Sancti Romani Melodi cantica: Cantica genuina (Oxford: Clarendon, 1963). It includes the fifty-nine kontakia that the editors considered authentic. The OE also has a supplementary volume of pseudo-Romanos, Sancti Romani Melodi cantica: Cantica dubia (Oxford: Clarendon, 1970).
2. José Grosdidier de Matons produced a French edition, Romanos le Mélode: Hymnes I–V (Paris: Cerf, 1964–81), in SC. This unfinished edition in five volumes consists of fifty-six hymns that the editor considered authentic. Thirty-two additional kontakia were intended to appear in the PE.
In this book the OE text and numbering is used. The texts in PE do not deviate radically from those in the OE, but the PE editor regarded more kontakia as genuine. For a directory of kontakia with their PE and OE numbering, see Appendix 2.
All the kontakion translations in this book are my own. For other English translations, consult the bibliography.
References to the Old Testament follow the LXX numbering. English scriptural quotes are taken from the NRSV translation. Greek names are not transliterated consistently, but are given in their most conventional English forms.
ABBREVIATIONS
| AABS | Australian Association for Byzantine Studies |
| AB | Analecta Bollandiana |
| AClass | Acta Classica |
| AOC | Archives de l’Orient chrétien |
| AE I–IV | Ῥωμανοῦ τοῦ Μελῳδοῦ ὕμνοι [the Athens edition] |
| ANF | The Ante-Nicene Fathers |
| AnzWien | Anzeiger der philosophisch-historische Klasse der österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften |
| AUU | Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis |
| BBOM | Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs |
| BMGS | Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies |
| ByzSt | Byzantine Studies/Études Byzantines |
| BZ |
Byzantinische
|