Andrew Mellas was the recipient of a CHE travelling fellowship while a PhD candidate at The University of Sydney working in the Performance research stream. His thesis unravelled the complex thread of katanyxis, often translated as ‘compunction’, in Byzantine poetry—especially in liturgical Hymnography—using the ‘history of emotions’ as a methodological framework. Andrew graduated in May 2018.
Contact
andrew.mellas@sydney.edu.au
Academica.edu Profile
Research
Tears of Compunction in Byzantine Hymnography
Publications
Gador-Whyte, S. and A. Mellas, eds. Hymns, Homilies and Hermeneutics in Byzantium. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2021. (Published November 2020).
Gador-Whyte, S. and A. Mellas. ‘Introduction’. In Hymns, Homilies and Hermeneutics in Byzantium, edited by. S Gador-Whyte and A. Mellas, pp. 1–7. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2021. (Published November 2020).
Mellas, A. ‘The Tears of a Harlot: Kassia’s Hymn On the Sinful Woman and the Biblical Mosaic of Salvation’. In Hymns, Homilies and Hermeneutics in Byzantium, edited by. S Gador-Whyte and A. Mellas, pp. 124–38. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2021. (Published November 2020).
Mellas, A. Liturgy and the Emotions in Byzantium: Compunction and Hymnody. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Mellas, A. ‘Crying out with the Compunction of the Prodigal Son: Byzantine Hymns, Liturgical Emotions and Icons of Repentance’. In Cultures of Compunction in the Medieval World, edited by G. Williams and C. Steenbrugge, pp. 15–26. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
Mellas, A. ‘Herakleios or Herakles? Panegyric and Pathopoeia in George of Pisidia’s Heraklias’. In Herakles Inside and Outside the Church, edited by A. Allan, E. Anagnostou-Laoutides and E. Stafford, pp. 116–32. Leiden: Brill, 2020.
Mellas, A. 'Dreaming Liturgically: Andrew of Crete’s Great Kanon as a Mystical Vision'. In Dreams, Memory and Imagination in Byzantium, edited by Bronwen Neil and Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides, pp. 293–314. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
Mellas, A. 'Tears of Compunction in St John Chrysostom’s On Eutropius'. Studia Patristica 83 (2017): 159–72.
Mellas, A. 'The Passions of His Flesh' - St Cyril of Alexandria and the Emotions of the Logos. Phronema 29.1 (2014):81–100.
Mellas, A. 'Feeling liturgically'. In Creating Liturgically: Hymnography and Music. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Orthodox Church Music, 8–14 June 2015, pp. 392–413. Joensuu: ISOCM, 2017.
Mellas, A. ‘Words Tinctured with Passion: St Gregory of Nyssa’s In Canticum Canticorum and the Emergence of Affective Mysticism in Byzantine Hymnography’. Phronema 30.2 (2015): 169–85.
Mellas, A. ‘The Chora Within: Unveiling Asceticism in St Athanasius’ Life of St Antony’. In Alexandrian Legacy: A Critical Appraisal, edited by D. Costache, P. Kariatlis and M. Baghos, pp. 122–38. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015.
Presentations
Conference Presentation: 'The Affective Experience of Wordless Melisma', 7th International Conference on Orthodox Church Music: Liturgy and Music, Finland, 6–11 June 2017.
Conference Paper: 'Dreaming Liturgically', Australian Association of Byzantine Studies 19th conference on Dreams, memory and imagination. Monash University Law Chambers, Melbourne, 24–26 February 2017.
Presentation: 'Fellow-feeling in St John Chrysostom’s Homilies', Patristic Symposium on St John Chrysostom. St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, Redfern (Sydney), 23–24 September 2016.
Conference Presentation: ‘Liturgical Emotions: The Affective Mysticism of Byzantine Hymnography. “The Psychopaths of the Otherworld: Medieval Demons and Cognitive Empathy”’, ‘Moving Minds: Converting Cognition and Emotion in History’ conference, Macquarie University, Sydney, 2–4 March 2016.
Panel Presentation: ‘A Harlot’s Tears: Compunction in Byzantine Hymns’, International Medieval Congress 2016, University of Leeds, UK, 7 July 2016.
Symposium Presentation: ‘Fellow-feeling in St John Chrysostom’s On Eutropius’, Patristics Symposium, St Andrew’s Theological College, Sydney, 23 September 2016.
Guest Lecture: 'Experiencing Hymnography in Constantinople: From the Cathedral to the Monastery and Back Again', Postgraduate H8530A Byzantine Studies course, St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, Redfern (Sydney), 13 October 2015. Invited.
Guest Lecture: 'Byzantine Hymnography', St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College, Redfern (Sydney), 6 August 2014. Invited.