THE THIRD NEWLY DISCOVERED BULGARIAN MEDIEVAL POETESS –TOMIRIS Cover Image

ТРЕТАТА НОВООТКРИТА СРЕДНОВЕКОВНА БЪЛГАРСКА ПОЕТЕСА – ТОМИРИС
THE THIRD NEWLY DISCOVERED BULGARIAN MEDIEVAL POETESS –TOMIRIS

Author(s): Veselin Panayotov
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theology and Religion, Bulgarian Literature, Philology
Published by: Шуменски университет »Епископ Константин Преславски«
Keywords: hymnography; canon on St Clement of Rome; Tomiris

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the hypothesis connected with a newly discovered hymnograph signed with the name Tomiris in the canon on St Clement of Rome (in the service for 25.11). This name is connected with the historical memory of the Scyth queen Tomiris, who after the historic victory against Cyrus the Great, returns to her motherland – Little Scythia in the Balkan Peninsula. A town Tomi (now Constanta in Rumania) was named in her honour. It is interesting to note that the name was inscribed according to the Greek variant of the name of the great Scyth queen. This is the reason that makes me suppose that the author of the canon is a woman. It is obvious that Tomiris was a lay person (not a nun) who took part in the creation of the early service minei. She probably came from Little Scythia (now northern Dobrudzha). She was asked to write a text important for the Cyril and Metodius’s epoch – a canon on St Clement of Rome. Some peculiarities of the service are a reason for assuming that Tomiris probably worked together with Methodius’s disciple Leon. It is impossible for now to locate the place where Tomiris worked. It is quite possible that it could have been one of the three literary centres – Pliska, Preslav, Ohrid, but it might have been the town of Tomi itself, which was one of the early centres of the Chrisyian culture in Bulgaria. But if she was a disciple of the Thessaloniki apostles she might have worked in a place connected with the last (Moravian) of Cyril and Metodius.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 15
  • Page Range: 271-282
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Bulgarian