Conclusion

Summary

The performance of hymns that sought to arouse and embody compunction were momentous events in the history of Byzantine emotions. Compunction became more than a personal feeling of remorse arising from the consciousness of one’s own sinfulness and a desire for forgiveness through repentance; it became a liturgical emotion and a collective feeling. Hymnody collapsed the distinctions between singer and scriptural characters, between temporality and the biblical narrative of salvation. Emotions were an embodied experience, enacted through sacred song and liturgical mysticism. Compunction was an emotion intertwined with paradisal nostalgia, a desire for repentance and a wellspring of tears.