Асиметрия в името на симетрията: композицията на старобългарския анонимен канон за Богоявление
Аsymmetry for the Sake of Symmetry: The Composition of the Anonymous Old Bulgarian Canon for Epiphany

Author(s): Regina Koycheva
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Кирило-Методиевски научен център при Българска академия на науките
Summary/Abstract: The Anonymous Old Bulgarian Canon for Epiphany, which was composed probably by several hymnographers and discovered by Georgi Popov, is distinguished by the equal length (about 60 syllables) of its stanzas and at the same time by the highly varying number of troparia in its odes. This variability is a result of the authors’ purpose to group the 60-syllable stanzas in two multitudes, which are almost identical in amount and have their boundary between the sixth and the seventh ode of the canon. Thus the asymmetric odes form two symmetric canon halves. In Old Bulgarian studies, the two-halve structure of the eight-ode canons was first indicated by Stanka Petrova in the two original Old Bulgarian canons in honour of St. Methodius. The canon for Epiphany by St. Clement of Ohrid, which was discovered and published by Anatoly Turilov, and the canon for the same feast by St. Cosmas of Maiuma have also such a two-halve form. It can be assumed that this type of composition was invented after the removal of the second ode from the nine-ode canons as compensation for the lost uniformity in the triple form of the canon.

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