The Image of the Virgin Mary in the Akathistos Hymn

Brill Academic Publishers
Leena Mari Peltomaa
ISBN: 9004120882
price: $75.00  

The Akathistos Hymn, the most famous work of Byzantine hymnography, has been enshrined in the Orthodox liturgy since the year 626, and its image of the Virgin Mary has exerted a strong influence upon Marian poetry and literature. Anonymous, undated and highly rhetorical, the hymn has presented a challenge to scholars over the years.
This study has been undertaken by an innovative method. The approach brings new insights to the era which brought forth the hymn, and the metaphorical image of the Virgin becomes conceptually accessible to the modern-day reader. The investigation leads to the conclusion that the Council of Ephesus (431) constitutes the most likely historical context for the hymn's composition.
The book will be of value to all scholars of early Byzantine and Marian studies.
Readership: Byzantinists; early Church historians and theologians; Mariologists and all who are interested in the cult of Mary and its origins; Orthodox Christians who are familiar with the Akathistos tradition.