The Medical Motif in the Kontakia of Romanos the Melodist

Abstract

The use of the figure ‘Christ the Physician' and of related medical analogies has quite frequently arrested the attention of scholars investigating patristic literature. There is no need of tracing the ultimate origin of this motif, or of documenting its appearance in numerous writings of the Fathers, both Eastern and Western, since recent study has treated both of these aspects in some detail. In spite of this rather specialized research, however, one seeks in vain to locate the name ‘Romanos' in lists of those authors who have pictured Christ as the Divine Physician of body and soul. This article, then, will have as its specific purpose an analysis of the use of the medical motif in the kontakia of Romanos the Melodist (d. 556). Such an addition to the literature on this topic is warranted by the importance of the Romanos corpus in the history of Christian Greek letters and the corresponding importance of the ὁ Χϱιστòς ὁἰατϱóς theme as an illustration of the Melodist's poetic technique.