The metaphysics and the metaphorics of Cassia's poetry (9th c.)

In this article the author analyzes some troparions of Cassia, a nun and poetess living in the 9th century in Constantinople, towards the end of the iconoclastic controversy. Her hymns dedicated to the saints, anchorites, ascetics and converted harlots are the examples of beautiful literary metaphors. By means of them, Cassia leads the recipient to what is unearthly, metaphysical and divine. Especially Cassia likes to describe the women, former prostitutes, who after their conversion were living repentant lives in the desert. Cassia in a very imaginative way depicts the condition of their souls and the love to Christ. Additionally, the poetess underlines the role of the woman in the human salvation, of the Mother of God of course, what is an allusion to the "Triumph of Orthodoxy" and the role of Byzantine empresses to defeat iconoclasts.