CHRISTOS PÁSCHON

CHRISTOS PÁSCHON. – In Latin Christus Patiens, this is a bizarre cento of tragic motifs concerning the Passion of Jesus, attributed as early as the time of St. Gregorio Nazianzeno and, according to the latest investigations, assigned to the eleventh century. It follows the form of Greek tragedy, with choruses and dialogues imitated from Aeschylus, Euripides, and others, from whom entire verses and hemistichs are reproduced. The result is a pagan atmosphere that contrasts strangely with the sacred subject. The Madonna, so anguished and human in Jacopone’s Pianto and in the Stabat Mater, is here almost profaned by language that echoes the gloomy grief of Hecuba and the frenzied anguish of Medea.