Catanyctic Religious Poetry: a survey

Abstract

The study of religious poems and hymns designated or traditionally regarded as catanyctic reveals that this term is either used with a specific meaning (i.e. for verses advocating or expressing contrition) or in a more general sense (i.e. for verses concerning the topic of penitence itself ). In particular, a brief survey of religious poems with the designation catanyctic, used in its specific sense, confirms that the term was employed in this way from the end of the ninth century until the end of the Byzantine era. However, religious poems of the same type transmitted without the designation can be traced back even earlier (e.g. Theodore Studites). All these poems are closely related to the corresponding liturgical hymns, examples of which appear as early as Romanos the Hymnographer's day (i.e. the sixth century). Despite their common features, catanyctic religious poetry displays a greater variety in form, language or metre and function than hymnography. Such poems are composed in various metres (Anacreontic, dactylic, iambic), verse lengths (of seven-, eight-, twelve-, and fifteen-syllables), levels and styles of language (learned, simple koine or even vernacular), and poetic genres. Serving a variety of ends they may be a personal catanyxis, an aid to catanyctic contemplation for ascetics or laymen, an apologia or a way of demonstrating personal penitence, or even a mode of self-representation.