AND BYZANTINE GREEK. 59 



The following prose troparioii began to form part of the evening communion-service 

 about the middle of the seventh centui-y.'^' 



Nvv at Swafiei? rSiv ovpavtov aw I'jiuv aopdrui'; Xarpevovcnv. 'ISoii yap elffiropeveiai 6 ^aaiKevt 

 rrj'i Bo^T]<; • iSou Ovala (ivariicr] TeTeXeicofievr) Bopv<popecTai. HIcttu koI ttoOo) TrpoaixdwiJiev, 'Iva 

 fiero^oo J/BJ)? aicoviov yevcop-eOa. ' AXktjXoma, dXXrjXovCa, dXXijXovi'a. 



The uKudta-TO'; vp.vo'i is the office of the Virgin, partly read and partly sung on 

 the Saturday of the fifth week in Lent, in commemoration of the repulse of the Avars 

 and other barbarians from the walls of Constantinople in the early part of the seventh 

 century .^^ The received account is, that, on the evening succeeding the destruction of 

 the hostile fleets by a hurricane, the people met in the church of the Deipara at 

 Blachemse, and, all standing (or rather standing up all night), rendered thanks to their 

 patroness for their unexpected deliverance.^^^ But it is to be remarked that the dis- 

 tinctive portions of this office, namely, its twenty-four houses or stations (oIkoi,), so 

 called, do not contain the slightest allusion to that event, and therefore it is not easy 

 to believe that they had originally any reference to it. It is possible they may be 

 identical with the eyKwfua, the ^n-aises of the Virgin, which, according to Theo- 

 phanes, were used m the time of the emperor Mauricius, but of which we have no 

 further notice.-^** As to the kuvcov attached to the dKd6i.aTo<i vp,vo<;, it was composed by 

 Joseph the HjTnnographer, who lived in the ninth century. 



KovT aKiov of the 'AkuO i(TTo •; vp,vo<;}^ 

 Trj virepp,ay(m ffTpaTijytp ra vncrjT-^pia, 

 ifi? XvrpciiOelaa twv BewSiv ev^apKXTi^pia, 



*'* CnKON. 705 (A. D. 645) Toira TM €TCt eVt Sepyiou trarpidpxov KavcnavrivovTroXeas OTrb Trjs A' ipSofidSos Tav 

 vrjareiav IvBiKnavos A' ijp^aTO -^j/aXKea-dai pcra to KaTevBvvOrjra iv to Kaipa tov elcrdyetrdai ra Trporiyiaa-piva Sapa els 

 TO Bva-iacrnjpiov diro tov <TKcvo(j)v\aKlov jiera to etnelv tov iepta Kara TtjV doipeav tov XpiuTov aov, evBeas Spverai 6 

 \abs Nui/ al dvvdp.eis ran oipavav, K. t. X. 



"= See above, §§ 32. 33. 



"^ The Byzantines assert that Constantinople was dedicated by its founder to the Vir<nn. Cedr. I 495 

 22. HoROL. mai. 11. (Compare Chron. 725, 9. Theoph. 487, 7. Gil, 14. PoRrn. Adra. 102, 12.) 



^^ ThEOPH. 409 (A. D. 580) Tm 8' avra cr« KOTeSet^ev 6 ^aa-i\evs MavpUios yeve(Tdai els tijv fiv^pTjU Tijs iyias 

 flfOToKou Tiju XiTijj/ ev BXap^cpvots Kal iyKa/iia Xeyciv Tijg heinroivqs ovopAtras outtju iravrjyvpiv. 



It may be observed here that the orxot of the dKd6i<TTos Zpvos are now called by the uneducated Greeks 

 Oi x<"P^''«^P°' '^^ iravayias ; the word xaipeTicrpoi being suggested by xo'pf, which stands at the beginning of 

 nearly all the verses in the longer oIkoi. 



"5 This KovraKwv is mentioned by Constantino Porphyrogenitus. Porph. Cor. C09 01 Se ylfaKrai avadtv iv 



Tu apjiavi i/'dXXouo-t GeoTOKia i^poa^iopa Ka\ rfj inodi<r€t Tap emviKiav dppd^oirra, ofoy tA Upoora<ria (po^fpd, Kai to 'Ejti 

 (Tol \aip€i, Kai to Tft^oy d(cara/xdx';TOi', Ka\ to T7 vmppAxa (rrpaTriya to viKrjT^pia, Ka\ rd tovtois opoia. 



