"Love Not Dancing, the Mother of All Lasciviousness." Polemics and Condemnations of Dancing in Syriac Literature

This study investigates a sample of Syriac translations of Greek literature and original Syriac sources portraying condemnations of dance and dancers. In its first part, it analyses the Syriac translation of Severus of Antioch’s Hymn 296 and Pseudo-Chrysostom’s Homily on Herodias’ Dance, to assess their influence on Syriac Christian biases against the discipline. In the second part of the paper, the focus shifts to original Syriac texts featuring condemnations of dance (chronicles, canons, homilies); here, the discipline is demonised both for its connections to theatrical representations and as relics of pre-Christian rituals. Throughout its parts, this study also offers some reflections on the vocabulary of dancing, alongside its ties and differences to the corresponding Greek lexis.