medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The tendency to paradox that Bill East describes below is a strong
element of Byzantine liturgy, particularly in the hymns for Megalo
Evdomada, Holy Week. One example from Friday vespers"
He Who freeds Adam from the curse is bound
He Who tries the hearts and reins is unjustly tried
He Who shut the Abyss is shut up in prison
The whole Great Friday Evening service, apart from the scriptures, is
all based on the paradox:
He who closed the depth of the sea is beheld wrapped in linen and
embalmed with myrrh
-- expressed in dozens of forms:
Today the grave holds Him Who holds creation in His palm.
The Holy Week liturgy is all I have at home, and as a Byzantinist I am
extremely uninformed about the history of the liturgy, but if you are
looking for paradox, I think it was well set in liturgical forms by or
by the time of John Chrysotom, & I would suggest translations &
borrowings from the Greek as a powerful influence on these. I have seen
all these [below] images in Byzantine hymns, though without the texts to
hand I can't say anything about dates.
For another great Hymn to the Virgin, look at the images in the
Akathistos Hymn [the hymn (sung) not-sitting]:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/akathis.html
[excrpt]
Hail, O Container of God's Wisdom!
Hail, O Treasury of His Providence!
Hail, O Reproof of foolish philosophers!
Hail, O Confusion of speechless wise men!
Hail, for you perplexed the inquisitive minds!
Hail, for you dried up the inventors of myths!
Hail, for you ripped the Athenians' meshes!
Hail, for you filled the Fishermen's nets!
Hail, O Retriever from the Abyss of Ignorance!
Hail, O Lamplight of Knowledge to many!
Hail, O Ship for those who seek Salvation!
Hail, O Harbor for the Sailors of Life!
Hail, O Bride and Maiden ever-pure!
[RESPONSE]: Hail, O Bride and Maiden ever-pure!
DW
Bill East wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> QUEM TERRA, PONTUS, AETHERA (1)
>
> The hymn for Matins on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin is
> �Quem terra, pontus, aethera.� This is translated by J.M. Neale as
> Hymn 214 in the English Hymnal, which describes it as �c. 9^th cent.�
> However, Raby in �The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse� describes
> it as �6^th century� and comments, �This hymn has been ascribed to
> Fortunatus, notably by Dreves, but Strecker pointed out that
> manuscript authority is lacking, and that the hymn is more like an
> imitation of Fortunatus�:
>
> Quem terra, pontus, aethera
> colunt, adorant, praedicant,
> trinam regentem machinam
> claustrum Mariae baiulat.
>
> Neale�s translation:
>
> The God whom earth, and sea, and sky,
> Adore, and laud, and magnify,
> Who o�er their threefold fabric reigns,
> The Virgin�s spotless womb contains.
>
> The hymn contains a number of striking paradoxes, which may have
> suggested the authorship of Fortunatus, who has a pretty taste in
> paradox. The striking thought of the first stanza is that the
> immensity of God, so much greater than the universe he has created, is
> contained in the tiny womb of Mary. The paradox is a little stronger
> in the Latin than in the translation, for it refers, not to the
> �venter�or womb of the Virgin, but to her �claustrum�. Usually found
> in the plural, claustra, in classical Latin, the word means a bar,
> bolt, lock, barrier, dam, dike, barricade or enclosure. It gives us
> our word �cloister�. He who by nature is immense, infinite, impossible
> to confine, has consented to be enclosed and carried (baiulo, �carry�)
> in the Virgin�s womb. There is perhaps an echo of 2 Chronicles 6:18,
> where Solomon, the builder of the Temple, says: �Behold, heaven and
> the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which
> I have built!� Mary, it is implied, is the new Temple.
>
> The second stanza expresses much the same paradox in a slightly
> different way:
> Cui luna, sol et omnia
> deserviunt per tempora,
> perfusa caeli gratia
> gestant puellae viscera.
>
> Neale:
>
> The God whose will by moon and sun
> And all things in due course is done,
> Is borne upon a Maiden�s breast
> By fullest heavenly grace possest.
>
> It may be helpful to give a more literal translation of the last two
> lines (Neale has rendered the first two pretty well): �The entrails of
> the girl, with the grace of heaven poured out upon them, are
> carrying.� Jesus is still in the womb, not at Mary�s breast. �Viscera�
> is a fairly visceral word: the flesh, the entrails, the vital organs,
> the womb. This very physical organ contains the one whom the moon, the
> sun, and all things obey. Moreover, it is the womb of a �puella�, a
> little girl. The word is a diminutive in form, a feminine equivalent
> of the masculine �puellus� which is a contraction of �puerulus�
> iteself a diminutive of �puer.� This little girl�s very fleshly organs
> contain the immensity of God.
>
> More anon, Bill.
>
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