International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Alexandra Nikiforova
, 
Anamnesis and Mimesis in Maundy Thursday Rites: 
A New Evidence from the Ninth-Century Tropologion from Sinai ΜΓ/ΝΕ 56+5 
Tinatin Chronz
, 
The Early Jerusalem Euchologion in Georgian Transmission. 
Comparative Edition, Translation and Commentary

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496
Andreas Andreopoulos
University of Winchester, Winchester, United Kingdom, 
[e-mail]
Liturgical Dialogues: Clergy and Laity Concelebrating
The entire Divine Liturgy may be approached as a series of dialogues, either between the Son 
and the Father, or between God and the people, or between the celebrant priest and the laity. The 
whole arrangement of the space, the words and the actions of the Divine Liturgy from a dramatic 
point of view points to the ancient dramatic tradition, in form and in content, and yet one of the 
greatest differences between the two is the participation of the laity/chanters as opposed to the more 
passive place of the audience. In this presentation we will examine the dramatic participation of the 
laity focusing on the instances of the Divine Liturgy where the dynamics between the priest and the 
laity extends beyond the antiphonal dialogue, and the laity completes the phrase of the priest, thus 
truly demonstrating the understanding of the Divine Liturgy as a concelebration between the clergy 
and the people.
Pia Houni
University of Tampere, Helsinki, Finland; 
[e-mail]
Theatre and Church as Lovers in Dialogue in Byzantium
In their academic studies, all theatre scholars have learned that theatre history begins in 
Ancient Greece and moves on through early Roman drama to the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It 
is easy to understand the lack of information about theatre history, and it is common to follow the 
traditional western narrative. Today, a small group of people have begun to revisit the questions, 
”What happened to theatre after Ancient Greece?” and “What is the heritage of tragedies and 
comedies in the Byzantium period?”
For theatre scholars the Early Byzantine period is especially interesting, when Neo-Platonist 
influences connected with early Christianity. Under Theodosios I (r. 379–395), Christianity became 
the Empire’s state religion. The dialogue between church and theatre was obviously present when 
John Chrysostom argued forcefully against theatre in his homily, 
Against those who have abandoned 
the church and deserted it for hippodromes and theatres
.
The second interesting point to look at theatre in Byzantium culture is through textual and 
performative materials, which are close to the idea of theatre. Some of them were adaptations of 
Ancient Greek tragedies, some pieces were adapted mythical stories and most of these narratives 
resembled theatre dialogue (such as Haplukheiros 
Dramation, 
Prodromos 
Apodemosfilia, 
Katomyomakhia, Bioprasis 
etc.
)

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497
These two approaches to the question of theatre in Byzantium present how concretely theatre 
was a part of a city’s planning. Maps of Byzantium demonstrate clearly how theatre and church 
exist side by side (as they still are in the most modern cities). In my presentation I will look at 
the dialogue between theatre and church. The second part of my presentation will consist of short 
examples of art pieces we can aesthetically name as theatre.