§ 114. THE POETRY OF THE ORIENTAL CHURCH. 581
ai"e some of the oies of Gregory of Nazianzen and Sopbrcuiui of Jerusalem, has impressed scarcely any traces on the Greek ottice books. The flourishing period of Greek poetry coinyides witli the period of the image controversies, and the most eminent poets were at tlie same time advocates of images; pre-eminent among them being John of Damascus, who has the double honor of being the greatest theologian and tho greatest poet of the Greek church.
The flower of Greek poetry belongs, therefore, in a later division of our history. Yet, since we find at least the rise of it in the fifth century, we shall give here a brief description of its peculiar character.
The earliest poets of the Greek church, especially Gregory Xazianzen, in the fourth, and Sophronius of Jerusalem in the seventh century, employed tlie classical metres, which are entirely unsuitable to Christian ideas and church song, and therefore gradually fell out of use.' Rhyme found no entrance into the Greek chm-ch. In its stead the metrical or harmonic prose w^as adopted from the Hebrew poetry and the earliest Cliristian hymns of Mary, Zacharias, Simeon, and the angelic host. Anatolius of Constantinople (t458) was the first to renounce the tyranny of the classic metre and strike out a new path. The essential points in the peculiar system of the Greek versification are the following: ^
The first stanza, which forms the model of the succeed'" ng ones, is called in technical language Ilirmos, because it draws the others after it. The succeeding stanzas are called Trqparia (stanzas), and are divided, for clianting, by commas, without regard to the sense. A number of troparia, from three to twenty or more, forms an Ode, and this corresponds to the Latin Sequence, wliich was introduced about the same time by the monk Notker in St. Gall. Each ode is founded on a
' See some odes of Gregory, Euthymius and Sophronius in Daniel's Thes. torn, li). p. 5 sqq. He gives alss the hymn of Clement of Alex, {liixvos rod aurripof Xpt(rrou), the v/j-vo^ eoiSti'dj and Sfivos fcrirfpivos, of the third century.
' Pee the details in Neale's works, whom we mainly follow as regards the Easi em hymnology, and in the articie above alluded to in the " Christian Bc'uen) •wancer " (probably also by Neale).
582 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
Iiirnios and ends with a tropariou in praise of the Holy Virgin. The odes are c<jniinouly arranged (probably after the exuruplt of such Psalms as the 25th, 112th, and 119th) in acrostic sometimes in alphabetic, order. Nine odes form a Canon. Tlie older odes on the great events of the incarnation, the resurrection, and the ascension, are sometimes sublime; but the later long canons, in glorification of unloiown martyrs are extremely prosaic and tedious and full of elements foreign to the gospel. Even the best hynmological i)roductions of the East lack the healthful sim])licity, naturalness, fervor, and deptli of the Latin and of the Evangelical Protestant hymn.
The principal church poets of the East are Anatolius (t i58), Andkew of Crete (660-732), Germanus I. (63^734), John of Damascus (f about Y80), Cormas of Jerusalem, called the Melodist (780), Theophanes (759-818), Tueodoke of the Studium (826), Methodius I. (846), Joseph of the Studium (830), Metrophanes of Smyrna (f 900), Leo YI. (886-917), and EuTHYMius (t 920).
The Greek church poetry is contained in the liturgical books, especially in the twelve volumes of the JVIenoea, which correspond to the Latin Breviary, and consist, for the most part, of poetic or half-poetic odes in rhythmic prose." These
' Hence this last troparion is called Theotokion, trom deoro/cor, tlie constant predicate of the Virgin Mary. The Stauro-theotokion celebrates Mary at the cross.
' Kavwv. Nealo says (Hymns of the East. Gh. Introd. p. xxix.): "A canon consists of Nine Odes — each Ode containing any number of troparia from three to beyond twenty. The reason for the number nine is this : that there are nine Scriptural canticles employed at Lauds {iU rhv "Opbpov), on the model of which those in every Canon are formed. The first : that of Moses after the passage of the Red Sea — the second, that of Moses in Deuteronomy (ch. xxxiii.)— the third, that of Hannah— the fourth, that of Habakkuk — the fifth, that of Isaiah (ch. xxvi. 9-20) — the sixth, that of Jonah — the seventh, that of the Three Children (versos 3-34, our " Song " in the Bible Version) — the eighth, Benedicitc — the ninth, Magnificat and Benedidusy
^ Neale, 1. c. p. xxxviii., says of the Oriental Breviary : " This is the staple of tUo0e three thousand pages — under whatever name the stanzas may be presented — forming Canons and Odes; as Troparia, Idiomula, Siichera, Sticlioi, Contakia, Cathismata, Theotokia, Triodia, Stauro-theotokia, Catavasiai — or whatever else, ^'inc-tenths of the Eastern Service-book is poetry." Besides these we find poetica" pieces ako in the other liturgical books : the Paracldice or the Great Ocloechus, ic eight parts (for eight weeks and Sundays), the small Octoechus, the Triodion (i'oi