Kontakia
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Sung verse sermons give biblical figures argumentative voices, turning the liturgy into drama in a Greek pitched at the congregation rather than the schools.
- doctrine delivered as dialogue between biblical characters
- a congregational refrain binding long stanzaic form
- accentual metre following spoken Greek
- Syriac homiletic verse adapted to Greek liturgy
Romanos, a Syrian by origin, composed long stanzaic hymns for the night offices of Constantinople, each running to twenty or more stanzas linked by a refrain the congregation sang back. The technique is dramatic: Mary argues with the angel, Peter with Christ, Adam with Death, and doctrine emerges from the exchange rather than from exposition. The metre is accentual rather than quantitative, following how Greek was actually spoken, and the debt to Syriac verse homily is generally accepted.
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