Acrostic in Byzantine Hymnography and Slavonic Spiritual Poetry in Byzantine Hymnography

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to investigate the functioning of the acrostiс verse in various contexts of the spiritual culture of the European space. This ancient form is used in Old Testament poetry, Byzantine hymnography, Ukrainian sacred monody and spiritual song. The methodological basis is the application of systemic and complex approaches, which ensured the establishment of valuable social and cultural functional elements within the historical development of mankind. The use of comparative method of research contributed to the identification of structural models that ensured the integrity and systematicity of the evolution of culture on the example of form-forming structures. In this context, we also use the heuristic method of research, which contributes to the modeling of structural connections within cultural and artistic forms. The use of the specified research methods contributed to obtaining own theoretical results. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by the originality of the theoretical principle of comparing the form of the acrostic in different genres over time intervals. Conclusions. The ways of arranging poetic texts, which laid the foundations of Byzantine hymnography, are a complex system formed on the basis of ancient metrical and melodic constructions. The acrostic became the evidence of the adaptation of such experience of ancient forms of poetry – as a source of a number of important form-creating processes. The long-term use of the acrostic is evidence of the use of liturgical experience in the context of synthesising the “technological developments” of ancient cultures and singling out among them the most functional, in particular, the acrostic.

Key words: acrostiс, Byzantine hymnography, sacred monody, baroque poetry, Bohohlasnyk, spiritual song.