Selected Poems of Gregory of Nazianzus: I. 2.17; II. 1.10, 19, 32: A Critical Edition with Introduction

289 Pages·2009·2.99 MB·English

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ISBN Print: 9783525252871
Hypomnemata
Untersuchungen zur Antike und zu ihrem Nachleben

Herausgegeben von

Albrecht Dihle, Siegmar Döpp, Dorothea Frede,

Hans-Joachim Gehrke, Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Günther Patzig,

Christoph Riedweg, Gisela Striker
Band 177
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
© 2009, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
ISBN Print: 9783525252871
Christos Simelidis
Selected Poems of

Gregory of Nazianzus

I.2.17; II.1.10, 19, 32: A Critical Edition
with Introduction and Commentary
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
© 2009, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
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Verantwortlicher Herausgeber:
Albrecht Dihle

Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
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Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind
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ISBN 978-3-525-25287-1
Hypomnemata ISSN 0085-1671
Umschlagabbildung: St. Gregory the Theologian and the brothers in Christ:
from codex Dionysiou 61 (s. XI), f. 142r. © Holy Monastery of Dionysiou,
Mount Athos.
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FOR PARASKEVI

πέπειcμαι γὰρ ὅτι
οὔτε θάνατοc οὔτε ζωὴ
οὔτε ἄγγελοι οὔτε ἀρχαὶ
οὔτε ἐνεcτῶτα οὔτε μέλλοντα
οὔτε δυνάμειc οὔτε ὕψωμα οὔτε βάθοc
οὔτε τιc κτίcιc ἑτέρα
δυνήcεται ἡμᾶc χωρίcαι
ἀπὸ τῆc ἀγάπηc τοῦ θεοῦ
τῆc ἐν Χριcτῷ Ἰηcοῦ
τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν.

© 2009, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
ISBN Print: 9783525252871
© 2009, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
ISBN Print: 9783525252871
Preface
Gregory’s Poem on his own Life contains
some beautiful lines […] which burst from
the heart, and speak the pangs of injured and
lost friendship: […]. In the Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Helena addresses the same
pathetic complaint to her friend Hermia:
[…] Shakspeare had never read the poems of
Gregory Nazianzen; he was ignorant of the
Greek language; but his mother-tongue, the
language of Nature, is the same in Cappado-
cia and in Britain.
E. Gibbon1
Gregory of Nazianzus (ca. AD 330-390) is a very important theologian of
the early Christian Church and was undoubtedly one of the most learned
men of his generation. In the Byzantine period Gregory became ‘the most
widely imitated Christian author’ (Mango [2002: 103]).2 Apart from ora-
tions and letters, he wrote poetry (about 17,000 verses) in traditional, i.e.
archaic and Classical, language and metres. The poems were widely read in
Byzantium, and there is a strong case that they were part of the school cur-
riculum. In later times, Aldus Manutius’ 1504 edition of Gregory’s Carmina
predated the editiones principes of such central classical authors as Plato
(1513), Pindar (1513), and Aeschylus (1518). Aldus translated the poems him-
self and he is very enthusiastic about them in the brief preface to his book.
However, the reception of the poems in modern times has been less sympa-
thetic.3 And although Gregory’s letters and the great majority of his orations
have recently been edited, most of his poems are still awaiting a critical edi-
tion. For the moment we have to wrestle with the Maurist edition (Paris,
1778-1840), reprinted by Migne (henceforth M.) in his Patrologia Graeca
vols. 37-8 (Paris, 1858-62).4 The lack of a critical edition of these poems im-
pedes serious study and full appreciation. A century ago, Cavafis used to say

1The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 27, n. 29. The last sentence
was cited by U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Kleine Schriften (vol. IV, Berlin, 1962), 639.
2 Cf. J. Noret, ‘Grégoire de Nazianze, l’auteur le plus cité, après la Bible, dans la littérature
ecclésiastique byzantine’, in Mossay (1983: 259-66).
3 See Edwards (2003: 1-49).
4 The Maurist edition consists of two volumes; the poems are included in the second
(1840), edited by A. B. Caillau (‘post operam et studium monachorum Ordinis Sancti Bene-
dicti e Congregatione sancti Mauri; edente et accurante D. A. B. Caillau’). There are some
discrepancies between this edition and M. and I will refer to some of them in my notes.
© 2009, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
ISBN Print: 9783525252871
8 Preface

to his friends: ‘Δύο ποιήματα ἐναυάγησαν γιατὶ δὲ βρῆκα Γρηγόριο Ναζιαν-
ζηνό’!5
This book offers a critical edition (from 29 manuscripts), with introduc-
tion and commentary, of four poems (266 verses): two autobiographical
(II.1.10 and 19), one lament (ΙΙ.1.32) and one gnomology (I.2.17). The intro-
duction discusses features of Gregory’s poetry in general, using material
from the entire corpus. I also discuss his relationship to Hellenistic poetry
and other poetic texts (from Homer to Theodore Metochites), and offer an
account of the poems’ reception in Late Antiquity and Byzantium: SEG
48.1847-8 (Apameia; s. VI); CIG 4.9065; the epigram in Photius’ copy of Ps-
Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca (Bibliotheca 142b) and various imitations in several
Byzantine authors are brought together in this context for the first time.
However, the introduction is necessarily brief and does not intend to exam-
ine in detail all issues that arise.
My commentary on the text is primarily linguistic, but I treat literary,
historical, and religious questions suggested by the text alongside my de-
tailed verbal work. The introductory chapters to each poem (I. General Out-
line, II. Literary Characteristics, III. Place in Gregory’s Life and Thought)
include historical and theological evidence which is relevant to understand-
ing the poems. In addition to echoes of and sources for the poems, I investi-
gate their influence in later centuries. The fate and the understanding of the
poems in later ages are also reflected in the three different Byzantine para-
phrases, which are transmitted by the majority of the manuscripts together
with the text of the poems. The paraphrases of my four poems are edited as
an appendix. A section of the introduction discusses their linguistic charac-
teristics and the support they offer for the idea that Gregory’s poems were
used in schools.
Some of the verbal parallels cited in my commentary are not intended to
help the reader to understand the poems, but only seek to shed some light
on Gregory’s compositional technique, his knowledge of certain earlier au-
thors, or his fate in Byzantium. This is sometimes the case with the same
words or phrases used in other poems of Gregory at the same metrical sedes,
or references to the use of uncommon words by earlier or later authors.
Similarly, some of the variants in my apparatus offer no more than a picture
of the kinds of errors found in the manuscripts.
Difficult or rare readings are discussed in detail in the commentary. One
of these cases is the word προνόμοιcι (I.2.17. 15), which had previously been

5 ‘Two poems of mine were shipwrecked because I could not find a copy of Gregory Na-
zianzen’: G. Seferis, Δοκιμές (vol. I: 1936-1947, Athens, 1974), 343. The English translation is
from G. Seferis, On the Greek Style: Selected Essays in Poetry and Hellenism, (tr.) R. Warner
and T. D. Frangopoulos (Boston-Toronto, 1966), 140. Cavafis was ‘an admiring reader’ of
Gregory, according to R. Liddell, Cavafy: A Biography (London, 2002), 120.
© 2009, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
ISBN Print: 9783525252871
Preface 9
thought to occur only once, in Aeschylus. Gregory uses the word with a dif-
ferent meaning from that traditionally ascribed to it in Aeschylus. The new
meaning makes much better sense in Aeschylus and, moreover, invites a
reconsideration of a textual problem in the Aeschylean verse in question. I
have made a new proposal which is closer to the manuscript transmission
(Simelidis [2003 and 2005]). Scholars have not sufficiently appreciated to
what extent Gregory is able to inform our understanding of classical au-
thors.
Gregory’s poems present particular interest as an attempt to create a dis-
tinctive Christian poetry within the tradition of classical literature. Gregory
may not have been the first to write classicizing Christian verse, but his po-
etry is the earliest Greek verse of this kind that survives in any great quan-
tity. Gregory often wants to engage his reader in exploring literary allusions.
In fact the reader of Gregory’s verses can often fully understand his text
only if he is aware of the classical texts to which Gregory alludes. The fact
that some texts which he echoes are erotic (cleverly transformed) is particu-
larly striking, and may throw some light on the tolerant attitude of the Byz-
antine Church towards the various kinds of classical texts (cf. Wilson
[1970]).
© 2009, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
ISBN Print: 9783525252871