Romanos Melodos

Belarussian icon (1649) depicting Romanos Melodos

Romanos Melodos ( ancient Greek Ῥωμανὸς [ὁ] Μελωδός , * around 485 in Emesa in Syria ; † after 555, before 562 in Constantinople ) was a Byzantine hymnographer . He is considered the most important poet in Byzantine literature. The epithet comes from the Greek melodós "singer"; Another, seldom used epithet is theorrhetor (from theós “god” and rhetor “speaker”). In the Orthodox Church Romanos is venerated as a saint (feast day: October 1st ).

Life

Romanos was ordained a deacon in Berytos in his youth . He probably came to Constantinople during the time of Emperor Anastasios I (491-518) , where he continued his life as a cleric at the Church of St. Mary of Cyrus ( en tois Kyrou ), where he was buried and where his relics are still kept today become. Emperor Justinian I (527-565) was one of his clients .

After his death, Romanos and his work were forgotten and only rediscovered in the following years and their literary and literary historical importance was appreciated. The little that is known about the biography of Romanos from the Menaeon - the Orthodox liturgical monthly book - for the month of October has inspired later to legendary expansion without contributing to concrete knowledge of his personality.

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About ninety hymns have survived under Romanos' name, of which research now recognizes about sixty as genuine. Little is known about their origins or their exact date. The legend ascribes a much more extensive work of a thousand hymns to Romanos. Unprovable, but not impossible, is his authorship of the hymn Akathistos , the most famous Byzantine Marian hymn , which is sung while standing (hence akathistos ).

Romanos' language is close to the Koine of the 6th century and strives for simplicity and imagery for all the rhetorical stylization that is characteristic of the entire Byzantine poetry. It is shaped by the biblical and patristic Greek, whereby semitisms are recognizable, which are explained with its origin.

Its sources and templates are the Bible , the Apocrypha , Martyrs 'and Saints' lives, the Chrysostomos liturgy, Ephraim the Syrians and the Greek Fathers of the Church , especially Athanasios and Cyrillos of Alexandria , John Chrysostomos , Proclos of Constantinople , Basil of Seleukeia and the Cappadocians ( Basil of Kaisareia , Gregory of Nazianzen and Gregory of Nyssa ).

The form of the hymns of Romanos Melodos is Kontakia , a series of strictly uniform stanzas connected by acrostic poems ( oikoi ). In his formal language, Romanos followed the Syrian poetry of Ephraim the Syrian. His hymns usually have eighteen stanzas and do not go beyond 24. At the beginning of the contact there is usually a short proportion in a different meter. The oikoi are connected to the Prooimion by a refrain . At the end there is a closing prayer.

In terms of content, the sermons are poetic, mostly in dialogue form. Occasions for are primarily the pericopes of the church year and its solemn festivals, but Romanos can also occasionally find topicalities (natural disasters, political events), for example in the famous hymn To any earthquake and fire (No. 54): Romanos created him in Commissioned by Emperor Justinian on the occasion of the rebuilding of the St. Sophia Church, which was destroyed in the Nika uprising (532) . It celebrates the divine wisdom and power ostensibly, but above all serves the panegyric of the Byzantine Empire.

Melody and meter ( heirmos , "row, chain, pattern verse ") when reciting or singing the Kontakion are coordinated. The meters (different for Prooimia and Oikoi), coordinated with the given melody lines, were initially designed specifically for each Kontakion, but Romanos already developed the habit of using the meter of an older Kontakion again.

expenditure

• Sancti Romani Melodi Cantica. Vol. 1: Cantica Genuina . - Vol. II: Cantica Dubia . Ed. V. Paul Maas u. Constantine A. Trypanis . Oxford, 1963-1970. (Complete edition)
• Romanos Melodos. The hymns . Trans. U. explains v. Johannes Koder . 2 half floors. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 2005-2006. (= Library of Greek Literature: 62nd Dept. Byzantine Studies.) ISBN 3-7772-0500-1

literature

• Herbert Hunger : Romanos Melodos. Poet, preacher, rhetorician - and his audience. In: Yearbook of the Austrian Byzantine Society. 34, 1984, ZDB -ID 2550-1 , pp. 15-42.
• Franz Tinnefeld:  ROMANOS the Melode (St.), Byzantine hymnograph. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 8, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-053-0 , Sp. 633-636.

Web links

• The Catholic Encyclopedia: Romanos Melodos