Mystical epithalamium in Origen’s "Commentary on the Song of Songs"

Bibliogr. s. 223.

The following paper aims to prove the thesis on the notion of the epithalamium in Origen’s Commentary on the Song of Songs, that is the mystical epithalamium. In Origen’s Commentary we are faced with the attempt to define the genre of Song of Songs as the epithalamium, the marriage song (lat. nuptiale carmen) in the form of drama. The song is sung by the persons of action: the soul or the Church under the figure of Bride, who is wedding and burning with heavenly love towards the Bridegroom, and the perfect Bridegroom, who is the Word of God or the Christ. During the action we can also recognize the utterances of the Bride’s companions and the Bridegroom’s friends and fellows. The Origen’s interpretation is based on his allegorical exegesis of the Scripture, in which we have three levels of reading: the historical, the ecclesiastical, and the mystical. The paper tries to examine the genre of epithalamium in the ground of the ancient tradition of singing epithalamium’s songs, and then we argue the thesis. There are following problems under consideration: the title of The Song of Songs, its authorship, the three kinds of philosophy, the necessity of preparation for reading this book. At the end we consider the notion of indeterminacy on the ground of the poetic narration and Origen’s interpretation of Song of Songs.