Thomas Arentzen - ‘Your virginity shines' - The Virgin Conception in the Annunciation Hymn I by Romanos

The sixth century liturgical poet Romanos Melodos composed dramatic hymns for the great feasts in Constantinople. His career coincides with an important phase in the history of Mariology: In the wake of the Ephesus council Marian devotion starts to make historical footprints throughout the Church of the Empire; sources reveal a growing interest in the person of the Theotokos, especially in the capital. Recent studies have focused on images of the Virgin in texts like the Akathistos and the homilies of Proclus (e.g. Peltomaa: The Image of the Virgin in the Akathistos Hymn, 2001 and Constas: Proclus of Constantinople and the Cult of the Virgin in Late Antiquity, 2003). My aim is to explore the Marian image in texts that belong to a later part of the post-Ephesian phase and which present a much broader image of her.    

In this short communication I will analyze Romanos’s Hymn on the Annunciation (XXXVI in the Oxford edition). The focus of the analysis is the function of virginity; what does this symbol symbolize? What role does the virginity of Mary play in hymns intended for a civic audience? 

I will suggest that in this hymn Marian virginity has little to do with asceticism; she does not renounce anything. The text implies, on the contrary, a connection between Marian virginity on one side and Marian abundance of gifts on the other. I think that it is possible to see a paradoxical logic of fertility repeated in Romanos without necessarily inferring that Mary is a pagan goddess in a Christian dress (cf. e.g. Benko: The Virgin Goddess: Studies in the Pagan and Christian Roots of Mariology, 1993). Hopefully this reading will contribute to a more complex picture of the Mariology of Romanos and his era.