Author: Paola Grasso
Caʼ Foscari University of Venice
Published in Slavyanski dialozi, XXI, 2024, 33.
Abstract: The use of isocolic structures is one of the most widespread rhetorical devices in Old Church Slavonic literature. A comprehensive contribution to this issue has been offered by Riccardo Picchio, who observed in many Old Church Slavonic texts a large presence of entences which can be divided into logical-syntactic segments, rhythmically marked by the same number of accents. This paper aims to offer contribution to one aspect of the issue which deserves to be examined more closely: the likely origin of the use of this rhetorical device from contact with Byzantine Christian literature through translations. This article proposes an analysis of the isocolic structures found in Oration 38 (On the Birth of Jesus), composed by Gregory of Nazianzus (329–390), and their rendering in the Old Bulgarian translation, realized between the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century. The present analysis shows that, except for a few cases, the Slavic translator reproduced the isocolic structures of the original text and recreated the same rhythmic effect.
Key words: Old Church Slavonic, translation, Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 38, isocolic structures