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Abstract This volume examines Christian, Jewish, and Samaritan liturgical poetry from late antiquity (ca. third–fourth c. ce) both within religious traditions of biblical interpretation and conventions of prayer and through the lenses of performance, entertainment, and spectacle. Because liturgical poets were as invested in engaging their listeners as orators and actors were, this study analyzes hymnody as a performative genre akin to oratory and theater, the two primary modes of public performance. Liturgical poetry’s “theatricality” draws attention to subjects ranging from adapting biblical stories to the liturgical stage, just as works of Greco-Roman antiquity were popularized in this period, to adapting physical techniques and material structures to augment the performers’ ability to engage audiences. Specific techniques of oratory and acting in antiquity offer concrete means for elucidating the affinities of liturgical presentations and other modes of performance: indications of direct address and apostrophe; creating character through speech (ethopoeia); and appeals to the audience’s senses, including vivid descriptions (ekphrasis), a popular technique. Serious consideration of performance demands a difficult leap to imagining the world beyond the page. While late antique hymnody has survived primarily in textual form, the written word is quite remote from the actual experience these scripts reflect. The authors consider more speculative but recognizably essential elements of these works’ reception, including ways that liturgical poetry could have borrowed from the gestures and body language of oratory, mime, and pantomime, and how poets may have used the physical spaces of performance and accelerated changes visible in the archaeological record.
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