E@NIKO IAPYMA EPEYNQN II\TTITOYTO BYZANTINQN EPEYNQN THE NATIONAL HELLENIC RESEARCH FOUNDATION INSTITUTE FOR BYZANTINE RESEARCH EPEYNIilIKH BIBAIOOHKH 2 RESEARCH SERIES 2 AAEEANAPOY KAZNTAN ALEXANDER KAZHDAN ITTOPIA TIÐ BYZANTINIÐ AOfOTEXI\IA> A HISTORY OF BYZANTINE LITERATURE (6s0 - 8s0) (6s0 - 8s0) ME TH TYNEPIATIA TAN AH O. TEPPY - XPIÐTINAT ATIEAIAH IN COLLABORATIONWITH LEE R SHERRY - CHRISTINE ANGELIDI FSI¡ü.t rt ñr uot ' o ¡''¡rtlnlrtli: xrogrlrlrtll ( 4\ a¡ \, A@HNA 1999 ATHENS 1999 066 66 CHAPTER EIGHT THE PRINCELY NUN: KASSIA A. Biography Little is known about the life of Kassia (her name was also spelled Kasia, Eikasia or Ikasia).t Some chroniclers of the tenth century record that she participated in a bride-show (like Maria, the granddaughter of Philaretos the Merciful, almost two generations earlier) arranged in 830 for the young emperor Theophilos (829-42).2 The story goes that Theophilos liked Kassia most and was ready to offer her the golden apple (and with it the crown) but her arrogant response made him change his mind. It was Theodora whom he finally chose as empress, whereas the jilted Kassia founded a monastery where she led the "philosophic life". The extent to which the bride-show in general and the case of Theophilos in particular are the product of legend-making remains a matter of dispute.I. Rochov drew attention to l The basic monographs on Kassia are K, KnUvBACHER, Kasia, SBAW, L897,305-370 and I. RocHov, Studíen zu der Person, denWerken und dem Nachleben der Dichterin Kassia, Berlin 1967 IBBA 38]; cf. Elt., Person, Werke und Nachleben der byzantinischen Dichterin Kassia, Helikon 6, 1966,105-715. After Rochov's book several articles of all-embracing character dealing with Kassia appeared: E. CATAFycrorou ToppINc, Women Hymnographers in Byzantium, Diptychø 3,1982-83, 107-110 and E¡,t., The Psalmist, St. Luke and Kassia the Nun, BS/EB 9,1982,799-210; C. C¡serrI BRA6H, Donne copiste nella leggenda di Bisanzio, OCLP 4t, !975, 484-488; Ph. BlecHopoulou, Brpl.royqccpr.zó ôoxi¡lo y!0 frlv Kco[o]íc-Kco[o]rsÚ, Byzantinos Domos l, 1987, 139-159; T' A. MESCHT, Zizn' i tvoréestvo vizantijskoj poetessy IX veka Kassä, Autoreferar, Tbilisi L988 (the entire dissertation was published in Georgian: Tbilisi 1987); nun IcNRrtr¡, Cerkovno-pesnotvorðeskie trudy inokini Kassii, Bogoslovskie Trudy 24,1983,320-336 (without knowledge of scholarly literature). 2 The date 830 was established by W TnnaocoLo, The Problem of the Marriage of the Emperor Theophilu:, GRBS 16, 1975,325-34t, rather than 82112 suggested by E. W Bnoox, The Marriage of the Emperor Theophilus, BZ 10,1901, 540-545. 3t6 The predominance of monastic culture (ca. 775-ca. 850) the independent version found in lhe Vita of the empress Theodora,3 Kassia's victorious rival, describing the same contest from the view-point of the empress' panegyrist; Kassia, however, is not mentioned in the vita. To the same effect, E. Lip5ic interpreted gnomic poems by Kassia (in which the poet condemned those who bear malice and chastised foolishness) as reflecting her failure at the bride-showa On the other hand, the golden apple, a folklore symbol of erotic desire, indicates, according to J. Psichari, a legendary etiology for the episode.s T}:'e Patria of Constantinople is aware that Kassia, the beautiful woman who wrote poetry during the reigns of Theophilos and Michael III, founded a monastery in the capital (Preger, Scriptores,276f.).This information supports at least a part of the story concerning the bride-show, namely that Kassia became, at a certain stage in her life, a nun, although the Patria does not say that she became a nun after or as a result of her failed attempt to marry into the imperial family. Three letters of Theodore of Stoudios (Fatouros, Theod.Stud. epistulae 2, nos. 217,370 and 539) are addressed to Kassia; in the lemmata of two of them she is titled kandidatissa. G. Fatouros dates two letters to 816-18 and the third to 821-26. The Kassia of the letters belonged to the higher echelons of society: one of her relations was a strategos who had recently died, without having broken off community with the Iconoclasts. Theodore praises not only Kassia's piety and her support of persecuted Iconodule monks, but also the style of her writing which he finds astonishing in a young girl (ep. 370.I-6).Theodore says that Kassia "from childhood became Christ's bride" (ep.277.I}),and her contact with Christ presaged her monastic perfection just as smoke precedes the flame (ep.370.22-23). If we assume that by 818 the young Kassia was already a nun or novice, her identification with the heroine of the legend of the beauty contest of 830 becomes difficult,o but Theodore's language is vague, and it is not impossible that he was speaking about a moral trend rather than a formal step. Rochov, in any event, identifies the addressee of Theodore's missives as the poetess Kassia. However, Kassia's biography can be established only hypothetically, especially since it depends on her identification with the addressee of the Stoudite's letters. If we assume the historicity of the bride-show tale, Kassia must have been born around 810. She was thus very young when TheodoÍe, ca. 818, praised the high quality of her writing. She belonged 3 RocHov, Studien, t4-16; cf. A. Menropour"os, Biog r{ç criroxgcreþcrE @eoôóqaE (BHG I7 3t), Symmeikta 5, 1983, 2591 4 Lpsrc, Oðerki,320f, s J. PstcHnnI, Cassia et la pomme d'or, Annuaire de t'É,cote pratique des hautes études, Section des sciences hístoriques et philologiques,l9T0-1I,5-53.4, LrrrlEwooD,The Symbolism of the Apple in Byzantine Literatve,lÒB 23,I974,47f..,assumes, notwithstanding the folklore character of the use of the apple, the possibility of a real bride-show arranged for Theophilos. 6 This difficulty is clearly formulated by Farounos, Theod.Stud. epistulae L, 365* n. 719. The difficulty remains even if we accept BRooK's (as above, n.2) date of B2Il2. The princely nun: Kassia 377 to the monachophile and Iconophile milieu, even though among her relatives there was at least one high-ranking Iconoclast. Her title of kandidatissa remains enigmatic: Rochov thinks that her father was a kandidatos, ahhoueh this title normally designates the wife of a kandidatos. Her Iconophile views (rather than her arrogance) surely hampered her marriage with Theophilos. In frustration at the misfortune she had inflicted upon herself, she turned to the life of the nunnery, or possibly she was directed to the convent by command of the angry emperor. If, however, the story of the bride-show is mere legend and the letters of Theodore were sent to another Kassia, the whole biography falls apart. We can be sure only that Kassia lived in the first half of the ninth century and that she was a nun in a Constantinopolitan convent. B. Troparion on Mary Magdalene and other liturgical poetry Ed. with English translation A. TRlpoltrn , Kassia: The Legend, the Woman, and her Worfr, New York-London 1992 Various hymns and secular poems have survived under Kassia's name. Rochov minutely surveyed her corpusT indicating, among other things, how hard it is, in many a case, to tell her genuine works from spurious ones. One example is the Kanon for Holy Saturday by Kosmas the Melode. The first four odes of this kanon were previously written by the "noble and wise virgin (nun?) Kassia" according to an oral tradition known to Theodore Prodromos in the twelfth century. According to Prodromos' account, a certain Mark, bishop of Hydrount (Otranto), was commissioned to replace Kassia's troparia, since it was considered unsuitable to mix "feminine composition" with the words of Kosmas (PG 133, L235D-12374). Prodromos' statement is paralleled and confirmed by the Chronicle of Theophanes Continuatus (p.365.21-2a) who narrates that in the days of Leo VI (886-912) "the wisest monk Mark" (defined here not as "bishop of Otranto" but as the oikonomos of the monastery of St. Mokios [in Constantinople], evidently the same person) expanded (or restored) the tetraodion of Kosmas. G. Schirò considers this information legendary and attributes the entire kanon to Kosmas,s whereas Rochov sees in Kassia the original author of the first tetraodion. A Sticheron for Adrian and Natalia is attributed in some manuscripts to a certain Ephraim of Caria, in others to Kassia; a manuscript (cod. Athous Vatop. 1493) 7 Besides her monograph cited above, see the survey of additional findings in: I. Rocuov, Neues zu den Hymnen der Kassia aus Cod. Meteor. Metamorphoseos 291, in J. Dutr,tvnn-J. Invscrinn-K.Tneu (eds.), überlieferungsgeschíchtliche Untersuchungen,Berlin 1981 ITU 125],495- 498. 8 G. ScHtnÒ, La seconda leggenda di Cassia, Diptycha 1,t979,303-315. 318 The predominance of monastic culture (ca. 775-ca. 850) bears the lemma "Of Ephrem or the nun Ikasia". Rochov suggests that "Ikasia/Kassia" is the distorted "Caria", a scribe's interpretation of the Kcrqúoç. The assumption of two different traditions is a more plausible explanation. One of the most famous poems of Kassia is the Hymn for Holy Wednesday, a troparion on Mary Magdalene (the hymn was eventually titled On the harlot,Mary's name never being mentioned), republished, translated and ingeniously commented on by A. Dyck.e It is not the first time that the "sinful woman" of the Gospel of Luke (7. 37-48), who wet Christ's feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, appears in Greek poetry: Romanos the Melode devoted to her a kontakion Romanos, as Dyck emphasizes, follows the plot of the Gospel, contrasting Mary with Simon the Pharisee and proclaiming true love higher than formal veneration. Kassia, on the other hand, turns from the sphere of human morals to the metaphysical relation between the sinner and God: the heroine of her hymn cherishes no claim to be better than anybody else (a pharisee, for instance), but in her humbleness she genuflects before the Lord and asks for His forgiveness. The poem opens with a short, fourline preamble: the woman fallen into many sins brings Christ myrrh (unguents) for burial. The preamble is not a simple statement of this fact: "O Lord," exclaims the poet as if introducing her heroine, "[here is] the woman fallen in many sins" who in tears brings myrrh. In other words, the author, already in the first lines, is personally involved in Mary's destiny. In the preamble, we are at the end of the story: Christ is dead, and Mary assists at his burial. Yet at the same time, we are at the beginning of events: the harlot recognized Christ's divinity (at the banquet of Simon the Pharisee which Kassia has no need to mention, since her audience knew the Gospel) and accepted the function (rcrÇr,E, an important Byzantine term designating "office" and, in a broader sense, "order") of the bearer of myrrh (pugogógoç), the epithet which became the title of Mary Magdalene (it was used in the early seventh century by Modestos of Jerusalem; cf. PG 8612,3276A). Thus the beginning and the end of events merge, time is eliminated, and the poem transcends the realities of the narrated saga. The rest of the poem is a direct actorial speech, Mary's words addressed to God. She begins with a dramatic exclamation "Woe's me! (oí¡ror,)," a loan from ancient tragedy frequently employed by hagiographers and hymnographers about to mention some frightful fact or situation. She laments:'A gloomy moonless night, a goad of lewdness, a lust for sin, overwhelms me." The epithets of darkness, an obvious characteristic of night, are extended in the poem to the sensual desires of the sinful woman. Kassia does not put the finger on the kind of sin (as she avoids indicating Mary by nane); fornication is not mentioned expressly, but the metaphors used by the poet, "the goad of lewdness" and "the lust for sin", are the keys to the heroine's past. It seems that at this point Kassia turns to the episode of Simon's banquet: the streams of tears, the kisses, the wiping of feet with the e A. Dvcr, On Cassia, Kúgw f¡ èv noÀÀaùE, Byzantion 56, t986, 63-76. Cf. as well E. CArAFyGIorou ToppING, Kassiane the Nun and the Sinful Woman, GOTîR 26,1981,,201-209. The PrincelY nun: Kassia 319 locks of her hair -all these actions are borrowed from the Gospel, but in the poem they acquire a specific role, they are humble elements of everyday life opposed to the omnipotence of the Supreme Being: "Receive the streams of [my] tears, [Thou] Who siphon the water of the sea up to the clouds";10 "Listen to the groans of my heart, Thou, who lay low the heavens by your ineffable emptiness";11 "I shall kiss and wipe Thy immaculate feet," that is, the feet which could not be dirty, which are above ordinary washing.Thus Kassia continues to characterízethe mighty feet: "Eve, as she heafd their footfalls in paradise, hid herself in fear." In other words, the sinful woman recognizes the incarnate Christ's divinity. He is then given the attributes, and becomes the incorporeal divinity of Genesis and the Psalms; this is emphasized by the abundant use of biblical' primarily psalmic, vocabulary in Kassia's troparion' ' God is omnipotent, the heroine is feeble. Moreover, she is sinful. "Who will be able to measure," she exclaims, "the number of my vices and the abyss of my crimes?" The peak of repentance is reached, and Kassia slows down (the last two lines are much shorter than the two preceding them) and in utterly prosaic manner presents the final opposition: Mary knows that her vices cannot be measured, but she solicits God Who has immeasurable mercy, "Please, forgive [lit. do not disregard] Thy bondsmaid'" Dyck stresses correctly that the poem begins on a milder note which then rises sharply with the onset of the actorial speech and continues to ascend until it comes to the climax. The use of rhetorical figures is restrained, and the language ís simple. Alliteration is rare and subtle (e.g. 1;u1ooÕotc ototqg pou). Artistic play is contained mainly in contrasts and the double sense of cardinal words. As in Andrew's Megas Kanon -only here in a very condensed form- the individual expectation of salvation becomes extended 10 Unlike Dyck, we understand veçéÀaq not instrumental ("who use clouds to draw the water") but as dative of motion to: "in the direction of the clouds." The reading or¡¡rovíf