concept
Kontakion
kontakion
also: кондак
A short stanza summarizing an akafist's or canon's theme, alternating with the longer ikos across the genre's thirteen paired sections; Ieronim's fluency with this technical vocabulary shows his close familiarity with akafist form.
Reading notes
- On Holy Night §45 the first kontakion always begins with 'chosen' or 'elect'
A kontakion is a short stanza of an akafist or canon that summarizes its theme; in an akafist the kontakia alternate with the longer ikosy across thirteen paired sections. Ieronim's fluency with this formal vocabulary -- kontakion, ikos, the fixed opening formulas -- shows he has absorbed the genre closely enough to critique it, even though he insists he could never write one himself.