Theodore Prodrom as an interpreter of texts of Christian hymnography and his commentary on the canons of Epiphany
Works of Orthodox hymnography used in worship were written by Byzantine authors, many of whom are glorified by the Holy Church as saints and recognized as inspirational and talented poets. Among them is St. John Damascene and St. Cosmas of Maiuma, who lived and wrote in the VIII century. Their poetic language is full of all sorts of images and is very complex, and therefore difficult to translate into other languages. It is known that the Slavic translations of the liturgical works of these authors are not always easy to comprehend, and often there may be questions about the accuracy of the translations. In our study, we review the Byzantine commentaries of the writer and poet of the XII century Theodore Prodromus on the canons of Epiphany, compiled in VIII cent. by St. Cosmas of Maiuma and St. John of Damascus. As mentioned above, many places of these works are complex, and the commentary compiled by Theodore Prodrom reveal very well the meaning of the individual expressions and phrases of the irmos and troparion.