A “kontakion” (‘[liturgical] scroll‘) is a Christian hymn in Greek and in verse units whose structure is determined by the word accent. It is divided into a varying number of stanzas (“oikoi”, literally ‘houses‘), which are preceded by one or more introductory stanzas (“kukulia”, ‘hoods‘). According to Byzantine tradition, the kontakion as a form of poetry goes back to Romanos the "Melodist" (born before 485, died after 565). The 29 hymns translated in this work, which are primarily dedicated to saints (including numerous martyrs), were probably written after Romanos' lifetime. They do not refer to traditional early festivals in the church year—unlike approximately 60 works that are generally considered to belong to him—although they were possibly also recited in the Sunday mass liturgy. Rather, they were not written until the end of the 6th century and were probably not used in church liturgy. Regardless of their history, however, their literary quality is in many cases high. This volume offers the first German translation of these hymns with commentary, thus opening up a form of Byzantine poetry to a wider audience.