Political approaches to Byzantine liturgical texts (original) (raw)

Roy Eriksen & Peter Young (eds.), Approaches to the Text. From Pre-Gospel to Post-Baroque, Pisa-Rome: Fabrizio Serra Editore [Early Modern and Modern Studies, 9] 2014, pp. 63–81.

Abstract

The deeply religious character of the Byzantine society gave way to a political system that has been characterized as a “political theology”. Established already during the fourth century, this ideology was based on a close relation between the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of heaven and, thus, between God and the emperor. This ideology was used by emperors to strengthen their own power and/or the legitimacy of their dynasty. To reach its aims, the imperial propaganda used –among other mediums– the sanctification of emperors or royals and the composition of liturgical texts. The paper discusses cases of such a use of hymnology

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References (28)

  1. See SOPHIA MERGIALI-SAHAS, op. cit., pp. 51-55.
  2. JOHN WORTLEY, "The Wood of the Holy Cross", 14, argues that "there is strong evidence that from at least the tenth century until 1204 the Holy Wood was conserved in the Sacred Palace, at the 'Lighthouse' church".
  3. See JOHN WORTLEY, "Relics in the Great Church", Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 99, 2006, pp. 631- 647.
  4. See SOPHIA MERGIALI-SAHAS, op. cit., pp. 45-46.
  5. ANATOLE FROLOW, "La Vraie Croix et les expéditions d'Heraclius en Perse", Revue des Études Byzantines, 11, 1953, pp. 88-105, here 104.
  6. See APOSTOLOS SPANOS, "Imperial Sanctity".
  7. Ibid., pp. 199-200.
  8. See GILDERT DAGRON, op. cit., pp. 201-203.
  9. On royal sainthood in mediaeval Western Europe see, among others, GÁBOR CLANICZAY, Holy rulers and blessed princesses: dynastic cults in medieval Central Europe, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  10. See APOSTOLOS SPANOS, "Imperial Sanctity", pp. 197-198;
  11. APOSTOLOS SPANOS, NEKTARIOS ZARRAS, "Representations of Emperors as Saints in Byzantine Virtual and Textual Sources", in Hybrid Cultures in Medieval Europe. Papers and Workshops of an International Spring School, (Europa im Mittelalter. Abhandlungen und Beiträge zur historischen Komparatistik 15), edited by M. Borgolte, B. Schneidmüller, Berlin, Akademie Verlag, pp. 63-78.
  12. 58 This is also shown in the case of the emperor Nikephoros II Phocas (963-969) who, entering a war against the Arabs, tried in a synod to issue a decree that those who fell during wars would be celebrated as martyrs of the Church; his proposal was refused by the patriarch and the bishops; see APOSTOLOS SPANOS, "Imperial Sanctity", pp. 200-201.
  13. See JOHANNES KODER, "Imperial Propaganda in the Kontakia of Romanos the Melode", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 62, 2008, pp. 275-291;
  14. EVA CATAFYGIOTU TOPPING, "On Earthquakes and Fires: Romanos' Encomium to Justinian", in Eadem, Sacred Songs: Studies in Byzantine Hymnography, Minneapolis, Light & Life Publishing, 1997, pp. 125-138 (originally published in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 71, 1978, pp. 22-35).
  15. Ὁ µμὴ εἰσερχόόµμενος διὰ τῆς θύύρας εἰς τὴν αὐλὴν τῶν προβάάτων ἀλλὰ ἀναβαίίνων ἀλλαχόόθεν ἐκεῖνος κλέέπτης ἐστὶν καὶ λῃστὴς (John 10.1; trans. John Marsh, quoted from STEPHEN W. REINERT, op. cit., p. 296).
  16. STEPHEN W. REINERT, "Political Dimensions", p. 295.
  17. These are hymns where pagans, members of other religions and heretics are discriminated in a way that strengthens the Byzantine identity. See ARCHIMANDRITE EPHREM (LASH), "Byzantine Hymns of Hate", in Byzantine Orthodoxies. Papers from the Thirty---sixth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Durham, 23-25 March 2002, edited by Andrew Louth & Augustine Casiday, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2006, pp. 151-164.
  18. See, for example, SIDNEY H. GRIFFITH, "Setting Right the Church of Syria: Saint Epharem's Hymns against Heresies", in The Limits of Ancient Christianity. Essays on Late Antique Thought and Culture in Honor of R. A. Markus, edited by William E. Klingshirn & Mark Vessey, Michigan, The University of Michigan Press, 1999, pp. 97-114, here 110-112.
  19. See JEAN GOUILLARD, "Le Synodikon de l'Orthodoxie. Édition et Commentaire", Travaux et Memoires, 2, 1967, pp. 1-313.
  20. See SUSAN ASHBROOK HARVEY, "The Politicisation of the Byzantine Saint", in Sergei Hackel, op. cit., pp. 37-42;
  21. ROSEMARY MORRIS, "The Political Saint of the Eleventh Century", Ibid., pp. 43-50. 74 There are also cases of hymns having the opposite content and result. Let us recall a number of hymns composed during or right after Iconoclasm (726-843), which indirectly present the iconoclast emperors as 'illegal' or 'impious'. In a hymn dedicated to the iconophile saint Theophanes Graptos, for example, the anonymous hymnographer uses a very common means of political devaluation by presenting the iconoclast emperor as a tyrannos: "through your teaching, O sung by all, you defeated the tyrant" (Tαῖς διδαχαῖς ταῖς σαῖς, Παναοίίδιµμε, ἐτροπώώσω τὸν τύύραννον...; MR I, p. 387).
  22. JOHANNES KODER, op. cit., p. 290.
  23. On the poetry of the kontakion and the kanon see ΚARIOFILIS MITSAKIS, Βυζαντινὴ ὑµμνογραφίία. Ἀπὸ τὴν ἐποχὴ τῆς Καινῆς Διαθήήκης ἕως τὴν Εἰκονοµμαχίία, Athens, Grigoris, 1986 2 , pp. 171-329, 465-482; KARIOFILIS MITSAKIS, The Language of Romanos the Melodist, München, Beck, 1967 (Byzantinischen Archiv, 11);
  24. ALEXANDER KAZHDAN, A History of Byzantine Literature (650-860), in collaboration with Lee. F. Sherry -Christine Angelidi, Athens, The National Hellenic Research Foundation, 1999, pp. 384-407; CHRISTIAN HANNICK, "Exégèse, typologie et rhétorique dans l'hymnographie byzantine", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 53, 1999, pp. 207-218; THEOCHARIS E. DETORAKIS, "Κλασσικαὶ ἀπηχήήσεις εἰς τὴν Βυζαντινὴν Ὑµμνογραφίίαν", Ἐπετηρὶς Ἑταρείίας Βυζαντινῶν Σπουδῶν, 39-40, 1972-1973, pp. 148-161 (repr. in Idem, Bυζαντινὴ θρησκευτικὴ ποίίηση καὶ ὑµμνογραφίία, Rethymno 1997 2 , pp. 184- 197);
  25. ΝIKOLAOS Β. TOMADAKIS, Ἡ γλῶσσα Ἰωσὴφ τοῦ Ὑµμνογράάφου, Ἐπιστηµμονικὴ Ἐπετηρὶς Φιλοσοφικῆς Σχολῆς Πανεπιστηµμίίου Ἀθηνῶν, 23, 1972-1973, pp. 21-42.
  26. See ALEXANDER KAZHDAN, People and Power in Byzantium. An Introduction to Modern Byzantine Studies, Washington D.C., 1982, p. 88.
  27. See for example APOSTOLOS SPANOS, "Imperial Sanctity"; APOSTOLOS SPANOS, NEKTARIOS ZARRAS, op. cit.; SERGEI HACKEL, op. cit., pp. 37-105;
  28. IOLI KALAVREZOU, "Helping Hands for the