Read The Virgin in Song: Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion)

The Virgin in Song: Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion)

Thomas Arentzen

4.9/5 (23442 ratings)

Description:According to legend, the Virgin appeared one Christmas Eve to an artless young man standing in one of Constantinople's most famous Marian shrines. She offered him a scroll of papyrus with the injunction that he swallow it, and following the Virgin's command, he did so. Immediately his voice turned sweet and gentle as he spontaneously intoned his hymn "The Virgin today gives birth." So was born the career of Romanos the Melodist (ca. 485-560), one of the greatest liturgical poets of Byzantium, author of at least sixty long hymns, or kontakia, that were chanted during the night vigils preceding major feasts and festivals.In The Virgin in Song, Thomas Arentzen explores the characterization of Mary in these kontakia and the ways in which the kontakia echoed the cult of the Virgin. He focuses on three key moments in her story as marked in the liturgical calendar: her encounter with Gabriel in the Annunciation, her child's birth at Christmas, and the death of her son during Good Friday. Consistently, Arentzen contends, Romanos counters expectations by shifting emphasis away from Christ himself to focus on Mary as the subject of the erotic gaze, as a breastfeeding figure of abundance and fertility, and finally as an authoritatively vocal woman who conveys the secrets of her son and the joys of the resurrection.Through his hymns, Romanos inspired an affective relationship between Mary and his audience, bringing the human and the holy into dialogue. By plumbing her emotional depths, the poet traces her process of understanding as she apprehends the mysteries that she embodies. By giving her a powerful voice, he grants subjectivity to a maiden who becomes a mediator. Romanos shaped a figure, Arentzen argues, who related intimately with her flock in a formative period of Christian orthodoxy."We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Virgin in Song: Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion). To get started finding The Virgin in Song: Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion), you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Pages: —

Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: —

Release: —

ISBN: 0812249070

Description: According to legend, the Virgin appeared one Christmas Eve to an artless young man standing in one of Constantinople's most famous Marian shrines. She offered him a scroll of papyrus with the injunction that he swallow it, and following the Virgin's command, he did so. Immediately his voice turned sweet and gentle as he spontaneously intoned his hymn "The Virgin today gives birth." So was born the career of Romanos the Melodist (ca. 485-560), one of the greatest liturgical poets of Byzantium, author of at least sixty long hymns, or kontakia, that were chanted during the night vigils preceding major feasts and festivals.In The Virgin in Song, Thomas Arentzen explores the characterization of Mary in these kontakia and the ways in which the kontakia echoed the cult of the Virgin. He focuses on three key moments in her story as marked in the liturgical calendar: her encounter with Gabriel in the Annunciation, her child's birth at Christmas, and the death of her son during Good Friday. Consistently, Arentzen contends, Romanos counters expectations by shifting emphasis away from Christ himself to focus on Mary as the subject of the erotic gaze, as a breastfeeding figure of abundance and fertility, and finally as an authoritatively vocal woman who conveys the secrets of her son and the joys of the resurrection.Through his hymns, Romanos inspired an affective relationship between Mary and his audience, bringing the human and the holy into dialogue. By plumbing her emotional depths, the poet traces her process of understanding as she apprehends the mysteries that she embodies. By giving her a powerful voice, he grants subjectivity to a maiden who becomes a mediator. Romanos shaped a figure, Arentzen argues, who related intimately with her flock in a formative period of Christian orthodoxy."We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with The Virgin in Song: Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion). To get started finding The Virgin in Song: Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion), you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Special Offer | $0.00

Special Offer! | $0.00

The Virgin in Song: Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion)

The Virgin in Song: Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion)

More Books

Eloquent Virgins

Eloquent Virgins

A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments

A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments

The Musical Times

The Musical Times

Catalogue of Printed Music Published Between 1487 and 1800 Now in the British Museum: L-Z and First supplement

Catalogue of Printed Music Published Between 1487 and 1800 Now in the British Museum: L-Z and First supplement

The Guardian

The Guardian

Our Christian year, lessons for elder scholars in Sunday schools, by a teacher

Our Christian year, lessons for elder scholars in Sunday schools, by a teacher

Helps to the Study of the Book of Common Prayer

Helps to the Study of the Book of Common Prayer

The New Music Review and Church Music Review

The New Music Review and Church Music Review

Sound of the Crowd: a Discography of the '80s (Fourth Edition)

Sound of the Crowd: a Discography of the '80s (Fourth Edition)