The Melismos: The Child as Sacrifice in Byzantine Art

This paper is a history of the Melismos. It is a documentation of the appearance, dispersal, modification and decline of that visual form, It is, above all, a search for the meaning of the Melismos. It follows the fascinating history of the idea of the child sacrifice, seeking to reveal the special circumstances which led to the appearance of that idea as a work of art, and it attempts to document the subtle shifts in emphasis which modified both the form and the content of the Melismos.

[Excerpt from Introduction. Pages 1-2]