Exposition of the Pentecostal Hymn of Damascenus, from the Roman Edition

EUSTATHIUS, METROPOLITAN OF THESSALONICA: INTERPRETATION OF THE PENTECOSTAL HYMN OF DAMASCENUS

NOTICE

Hitherto, the name of Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessalonica, has been famous on account of his outstanding commentaries on the poems of Homer; now, at last, he comes forward also as an interpreter of a sacred poem, and one, indeed, first printed in the beloved City [Rome], where his Homeric lucubrations also first saw the light of day in the year 1550. Among the hymns that bear the name of Saint John Damascenus, that which celebrates the divine Spirit and is sung by the Greeks during the period of Pentecost is noble, both for its theological profundity and for the sweetness of its meter. Let us set aside for now the controversy as to whether this hymn actually has St. John Damascenus *ho pantu* as its parent, or some other homonymous person—a matter upon which Eustathius himself speaks in his Preface, and which is also learnedly discussed in the recent Venetian edition of the Greek Pentecostarion of 1837. For we are not asking now about the author of the hymn, but we are happy to bring forth its most learned and rich interpreter to the public in the realm of letters. At least two copies of this work have come to light: one is the Vindobonense [Vienna manuscript], which Lambecius accurately describes in *B. Vindob. ed. nov.*, vol. V, p. 556, by whom it was indeed praised, yet not committed to print; the other is Vatican 1409, a paper manuscript written in very small letters and countless abbreviations, which, having discovered it long ago and finding it so long buried in the cloisters, I decided at last to place in the final part of this volume. It was fitting, indeed, that Lambecius, and especially Allatius in the *Prolegomena Damascenica* (ch. 68-70, cited by Le Quien), should have discussed this writing at length so as to reveal the unknown work to readers; for me, however, as I now present the whole work to the world just as it is, and of such quality, there is no need to speak at length: for to everyone whose eyes are, in some measure, imbued with Greek letters, this [work of] Eustathius will commend itself by its own dignity and merit. Certainly, the Greek Church, after those Fathers of the first centuries, has scarcely any interpreter equal to Eustathius, who presents himself as possessing such a store of the Greek language and such skill in theological faculty and various matters.

PROEM OF THE MOST HOLY METROPOLITAN OF THESSALONICA, LORD EUSTATHIUS, TO THE IAMBIC CANON ABOUT TO BE EXPLAINED

^A You have seemed, O brother, to have long suspended that spiritual request, passing the time and speaking with more caution, yet holding back out of reverence, until you finally delayed as much as was permitted so that it might come forth and be set in the open, and you exerted effort so that it might be brought to completion. Wherefore, turning these things over with yourself, as someone has said, and muttering somewhat with a low voice, today you have brought it to light and have wished to challenge me to a difficult work, which is the interpretation or clarification of the melodic hymn being sung today to the most holy Spirit, a hymn neglected indeed by those who pursue such things more diligently, yet by no means worthy of being so despised. For this hymn proceeds from heavenly inspiration through the super-celestial Paraclete, whom the poet venerates by celebrating; and the author is exalted on high by that inspiration, in some parts bringing things forward in pedestrian speech and advancing modestly, ^B while in others appearing to be carried by metrical sublimity; adapting to this his divine matters and chanting in poetic words. And it is not in fact inferior to those who have not grown accustomed to such things, to whom simplicity is dear; thus it seems to have come forth like a divine image prostrate in the act of adoration, unworthy indeed of the hypocritical luster of interpretation. For thus, to me who was inquiring, the equality of the commentators concerning such great beauty is shown; unless perhaps it pleased them to reserve this sacred, engraved seal from any unconsulted person; or otherwise, to leave all the glory of this divine song lying within, not that it might be safe from snares, but because of ineffable admiration, so that it might bring forth amazement through the mystery rather than by such an explanation, which would be unequal to the solemnity of the feast ^C and the wonder of the marvels, so that it might be marveled at by its mysterious quality rather than by its exposition, not being raised up by any pride of one’s own, but by the majesty of the feast. But thus, O friend, with the burden of so great a work

^A you have laid upon me—would that it be not to the very end a heavy one!—I, for my part, do not know whether I am conspicuous for pallor or for blushing in view of the things I am deemed worthy to perform. For shame and fear at once have come over me: shame, that by not refusing I might be mocked in many ways; and fear, that by once consenting to the work and thus entering the arena, I might be hissed at by those who pursue this beauty in the present life, if indeed they have some other subject of great study. Yet, persuading myself ^B so that the rationale of the request, being divine in itself but troublesome if not brought to completion, might no longer be found within you, I follow your will. And since you have long since conceived a holy desire in your soul, and having been in labor, have brought forth this day—having waited for the opportunity, as it were, of set purpose—I have come to act as midwife to what has been born, and to bring it up as far as it is in my power to have it so, and to return it to you—I do not know if as a heroic offspring, or perhaps as some monkey that is at least worthy of being gazed upon by the simpler sort. For we know human nature, which does not utterly despise any of the struggles in our life, ^C not even the most trivial, or, so to speak, the most worthless; and the matter is similar as if, from the fruits of the ground, some things were laid out for the pleasure of some and others for others. I, therefore, will also be pleased if it is deemed worthy to come into the encounter with some moderate, good things, as I judge it, which I am about to perform; and it will be possible for me, too, to say to those who are my peers—to use the word of Glykis—that "I too seem to be someone on earth." But if I should fall short of this reputation, I will be content with your satisfaction alone; and not having the admiration of the crowd, I will cherish solitude; and bordering this single ambition with the purpose of a friend and true friendship, ^D I will not boast of the pledge subsequently performed for me, that I have prevailed as if it were my will that words of praise be multiplied for me; just as I am accustomed to say frequently to myself, that just as one wise plan overcomes many hands, so too does one good prayer overcome the praises of many. Being compelled by you, therefore, for as many thousand paces as the Holy Spirit, who receives praise from the wise brothers with whom the most holy Church of God is filled, shall provide a prosperous journey, I shall begin from where you requested.

And indeed, I note first of all that many attribute the present hymn to the author of the hymns of the Lord, one of the Nativity of the Savior Christ, and the other of the Baptism, and others again to the great John of Damascus. I, however, cannot follow this opinion, for the reason that this canon is not carefully perfected; and guessing from the style, I set these two carmina aside, and attributing them to another author, I assign this one to another artisan, whoever he might be. Nor can I attribute it to the great Damascene, for the reason that light comes into the divine Scriptures from God, and into this illustrious Damascene; and who will imitate and reproduce his elegance, which he puts forth in all his writings? From such an idea, however, the aforesaid canons are far removed.

^A If anyone were to say that he deliberately changed his own character in the iambics he composed, he would first hear that this learned rhetorician always turns out to be clear in everything, almost even against his will, with his nature for writing tyrannizing him; and he is even more so such a person in his verses, because poetry aims more at pleasure, and in this way he prides himself most on clarity, and not on lack of clarity. Plato, at least, when he writes poetically, is clearer and sweeter than himself. Then he will hear further that the great man was not unaware of what his epic poetry was like; for he did not merely leave behind a few pages of verses, but also wrote a dramatic work, as experience has taught us who have come across a drama of his, composed on the history of the blessed and chaste Susanna, but falsely noted as being a poem of John Mansur. ^B Now Mansur was the surname by which the accursed Copronymus used to speak malignantly, mocking him as being of Syrian origin; and the style of the composition of this drama was strictly Euripidean. For Susanna wove her own genealogy, and grieved if she should succumb to such an evil in the garden and suffer violence; then, likening the place to Paradise, she recounted how the evil demon was again hastening to deceive our primal mother Eve through me; thus, both the epic poetry and the light of clarity are free from grandiloquence, and are not obscured by a crude style in the illustrious Damascene.

In imitation of this, in great Thessalonica, ^C certain deacons previously composed iambics: the one an indigenous man, Sumanes by name, church archivist by ecclesiastical dignity; the other a wise man from the great city, a deacon and master of sacred arts, Michael the prot-ekdikos, who later suffered from the harassment of a demon. Both of them won glory for a hymn to the most holy patron of the city, the myroblyte great martyr, since they had not said anything base and shone with clarity. Even before them, the most wise John the Geometer, having undertaken a similar work on the most holy feast of the Nativity of Christ, was able to boast that he too shone with a similar light of gravity, clarity, and sweetness, having nothing harsh either. But if anyone, contentious, prefers to say that he wrote the spiritual melodist in a sophisticated manner, or otherwise inflamed by a dithyrambic fire, which the witty and wise Theocritus somewhere determined to use as a method, ^D either to capture praise or to equate himself with others ennobled by such poetry, even if he says some unproven things and puts forth only probabilities, let it be, however, that he spoke the truth. For, so that we may not be accused of having spoken so affirmatively about things we should not have, we grant that the holy melodist Damascene changed his own speech, as a dissimulator of voice, through an imitation not of the kind that is simply practiced by many when the opportunity arises, nor of the kind that is famously narrated about some heroic person, but according to that apostolic

harmony of languages, that he might be skilled in art and diverse in voice, and through divine inspiration polyglot.

Now therefore, O most holy Damascene, give thanks to those who have cast upon you such canons, and when you have composed those words, as it seems, and have brought them forth, and have thus multiplied your offspring, receive also a third canon to the Holy Spirit. For what prevents that it too should be ascribed to you along with the others, so that we may attribute to you this basket—that is, a calathus, or a coop, or a hamper—a work, as they say, of the learned John Arclas? Nor are they bestowing an honorable name upon this diligent and grandiloquent philosopher; ^B those whom I hate, just as I do others who, swelling with envy, have nicknamed the ancient and learned teacher—whose doctrines have made many men, many times over, clear-sighted—Choeroboscus; not because he himself manifested himself in such a way when he expressed his own writings to the life; these famous men bring forth nothing less than, according to the faith of the Massalians, the custom prevalent among the Latins, among whom, without any cause or necessity, it is the habit to call the natives by added, hateful names, calling one a Pannonian, another a Sclavonian, another a pagan; as if it were to be desired among them for one to be of unknown name, which happens to the common folk along with the fleas, or to be so foully named, even if a man be noble for a long time. But this is by way of digression. But those who mock the man of such learning as Choeroboscus, let them live under a snout; and those who speak of Arclas, they would be worthy of such a domicile if they attribute such things, by fabricating them, ^C to noble men. I do not say that a man worthy of all praise, otherwise wise and skilled in music, has not published to the public and thus with prudent zeal concluded divine hymns in verse; for we know many such, both ancient and recent, who rejected writings falsely attributed to them.

The holy and noble patriarch Lucas, therefore, who poured upon us the golden dew of beneficence while he was serving among the deacons, encountering the poem of the Spider—a work wonderful in its epic construction, which was inscribed upon a shield and lay in the inner part of the great monastery that Studius the Roman had built—he also made something similar, even if it was unequal in appearance, for that old one was truly inimitable; nor did the holy old man mock it in any way, but as a spiritual man, that he might relax the tension of labored effort, he made rest a labor, and leisure a sweet business of the good; ^D to which anyone clinging might be able to say, that it was not so bad. But before that, we saw a methodical work being written when Alexius Comnenus bore the Roman scepter, the scope and end of whose work was to compose heroic verses, terminated in a quantity of poetry corresponding to them, having each counted with equal letters, so that neither would one exceed the neighbor, nor by one letter, and all the letters were so concatenated that their equality was manifest; and the width

of that epic poem contained thoughts glorifying ^A the empress. And readers going over the two ends of the verses, and piling letter upon letter, found on the right a complete heroic verse, and on the left another similar one. And these were sacred acrostics, each one separate from the other, clinging to nothing of the base of the poem. And this poem was written in an accurate square, surrounded not by linear sides, but by grammatical ones. And the diameters themselves were also signally marked with red letters. For four venerable names, of equal letters, so drawn out that they were placed compositely, showed the individual beginnings of the diameter. And to the observer, it occurred that nothing had hindered the craftsman of that poetic square, and that he could have ^B barred the material with the diameter endings if he had wished; but he did not wish it. But since he had measured it at first, and had left the beginnings mutually opposed, so that those diameters might occur to the mind towards perfection, he labored in the middle of his epic, and described a rhomboidal figure from four letters. And this work was elegant, and in another way, but also in the skill of writing; and the sides of the whole square and the beginnings of the diameters in the names and the rhombus shone, adorned with red letters; and the remainder of the work was written in common characters, and it was truly a delight of the eyes and a learned ornament of the mind.

And that man seemed to us clever; nor did he belie his cleverness, I say in truth; however, he seemed not to have begun so beautiful a work from himself, but to have received it from an ancient invention. For previously there existed a similar Greek poem, although as to its thoughts entirely different; for the second, as an imitation, had royal praises; but the archetype consisted of foreign substances. But certain things have escaped me; for the volume has gone off somewhere among the Latins; woe is me that I should remember how much I have suffered, being captured and reduced to slavery! But happy am I that I have been truly liberated by God the Savior! Being mindful a little, I can relate how Sarapis—this name of a demon—badly drew out one beginning of a diameter. But ^D the remaining three were other similar ones of equal letters; and Zeus squared the rhombus in such a figure: Z indeed standing in the middle of the verse separately, and ε being subject after one verse, as if placed under the vertex; and in the middle of both these letters were ε and υ, properly in the middle of the word or letters, so that the subject junction of the two triangles of the rhombus described might fittingly result; since those verses were not heaped up for density by the letters, but were neatly resolved for clarity. And indeed, these two were turned into poetry by men for whom leisure was a study.

^A But the time that measured us revealed also to us a Levite, a man skilled in executing rational undertakings to which he might set his hand, named Olynthenus. We saw the web which he wove metrically, and we marveled, hearing that this art was ancient, yet having never encountered such a thing until him. The composition of that work was as follows: to the first verse lay adjacent another, similar to it, conformed to it in its graphic elements without omission; and under the second was laid a third, similar in the number of letters; and under the third a fourth, and so on, as far as he wished or was able. And the letters were arranged column-wise, as it were, for clarity, so that each verse was placed lying upon the next, just as if the elements were suspended from one another. They presented columns, both in width and in depth, all straight, and since the thoughts in each part were brought together in a readable way in the manner of an acrostic, the rows ^B along the width were allotted their own distinct thoughts from the beginning to the end, and likewise those along the depth. That web was not the one of Penelope, which is so storied and famous, nor the veil of Helen, embroidered with the struggles of the Greeks, but rather a complex of wisdom, whose fine work was also its secondary task. The warps of this web were, so to speak, the verses in depth, and the woof, those in width; its poetry is considered the weaving, but the reading is its analysis; and he who set it up might aptly be said to have woven a wise word. How difficult such a weaving is, he will know who attempts to manage it: he will be wise if he perfects it exactly, but he will not be able to be such in many things, even if he be the wise man described thus. As for wings, and axes, and eggs, and altars, and ^C tokens, and more decorously to say, the ornaments of the Muses—let Theocritus, or anyone else who appears such, show these; he did not yield himself to learned men for the sake of undiscerning critics, but rather used his skill for no mean and idle pursuit. Concerning these, it is possible to say that such labor to them was a painless toil, a sweet travail, a labor without grief, a musical occupation, an immaterial pleasure, leisure wisely working, a sharpening of the soul to keenness, a habituation to newer thoughts, a commendable innovation of language, a method of not walking in the footprints of the many—which indeed the wise Callimachus practiced—an inventive path of newer poetry, a glorious avoidance of tautology, a proof of native talent, a demonstration of mental wealth, a novel and ambitious handling of language, a transformed attire of wisdom, a wondrous good, a staging of intellectual wealth, an expression of psychic power, a showing forth of graphic strength. ^D Now, as to the matter we were considering earlier—whether many of those among us, both the ancients and the more recent, applied themselves to poetry, whether on account of an innate facility or for some reason or other, and this happened to the one wishing to Damascus

^A illuminator of God’s Church, to imbue with iambics a philosophical disposition; and this not according to his own nature, which, so to speak, fills men with light through the Holy Spirit, but in imitation of a poetic character—in one way most dignified and sweet in its conception, but in the way it expresses itself, rigid and rough, according to the one speaking thus; in which character he also appears different from what he was before, as if difficult of approach; and it is confirmed from somewhere that this is beyond dispute. I bow in profound reverence, and I accept what is confirmed for the purpose of confession, knowing that I would indeed be censurable if, being an old man, I had not yet learned of a thing so beautiful after having investigated it. Yet I will endure it, for I do not doubt that God does not give all things to all men, nor does the long time through which experience is gathered impart skill in everything to everyone. But if those who are to bear witness and confirm the matter in question are not to be found, I bow nonetheless, and I defer to the opinion of the many, and for the future I submit to the friendly command, well weighing this: that what has been introduced into the holy Church, as if already manifest and proved and judged, and proclaimed in psalmody, would certainly come into contempt if it were not admitted to have been sown by the mind of the blessed Father; and on this account it is not to be despised as spurious and interpolated and therefore worthy of rejection or distrust, but rather adopted and held in high estimation. For how would it not be worthy of censure to make little of, rather than to revere whenever it appears, ^B a pearl in the ecclesiastical foundation—or a stone, or lime plastered over—while the dogma concerning the Trinity and the discourses interpreting divine mysteries, with which the blessed servants of God offer praise, are not to be spoken and chanted and fittingly composed with reverence, and without omitting anything, and to be explained with clarity, so that the eyes and the mouth, and the hands and the habit of the body, and the soul itself may thus be sanctified?

Thence therefore one must begin where I had proposed, and it must first be set forth how the author of the work being commented upon conducts himself regarding the disposition of his style, whether his nature was such as we in fact know it to be, or whether he strove to speak through imitation in the best and various languages. For there is as much of purity and of light, as far as clarity is concerned, in the scripture of this canon, ^C as there is of stellar light in a wintry night; for the philosopher is thus darkened in many places, both on account of the depth of his thoughts—the theological ones being for the most part so—and on account of the wondrous conciseness of his style; and at times also because of words that are not common, but, as it pleases him, altogether unusual or difficult to imitate; he also adapts to his words various meanings, which pure-language stylists do not hesitate to censure as if they were defects of speech, because they do not comply with the laws of a subject matter that is sublime and therefore difficult, through which the effects of the art of rhetoric prove useless to most people, even though they themselves do not perceive that it is an alien and unaccustomed way of acting to speak in a sublime manner, or to recite solemn words, or to inflate voices and sayings, and natal divination. ^D

and other such things. ^A It is another thing to theologize alone in a tuneful manner and to be subject to measure and the rules of meter as if to a master; for if they were disposed in such a way, having laid down their votes, and having gathered themselves whole, they would cherish the person who wrote correctly according to the proposed argument: although sometimes a writer may neglect something out of necessity; but if he who chants the proposed solemnity seems to delight in upright words, let it be permitted to him to do more carelessly what he has judged, as it were in a way born into this, neither acting out of contempt, but out of a reverence pleasing to him, nor for blame, but to one pleasing to himself. ^B

These things are sufficient for the dissertation undertaken; we must now come to the half-acrostic discovered by more recent poets: I called it half because, contrary to the custom of the ancients, the meter is not composed of the beginnings of all verses separately from the left and separately from the right, with the highest elements hanging together from one another from the beginning to the end; but it completes half of this work, having taken, clearly, the beginnings only of the individual verses placed on the left side; whence, by remote and least difficult imitation, there has been devised by most poets that notation which is still observed by many, of the beginning only of the stanzas, to each of which is adjoined the first to the second, and that to the following, and so on the rest in succession, forming one iambic, from the first letter in the first stanza to the last: although now this is neglected by us, faint-hearted and slothful as we are, who have deprived the psalmody of the second ode among the sacred canons—which time preserved for us entire—and likewise the canons consisting of nine series, ^C of a series each, cutting down the ennead into an octad; and I do not think that this theft which we have found is to be reckoned among things truly sacred: even if the illustrious among the learned, Theodore Prodromus, who interpreted the sacred canons, renders a dignified cause for it. Matters therefore being thus, since the melodic canon to be interpreted is preceded by an acrostic responding to the following [stanzas], it must be considered before the canon itself, constituted as follows: ^D

The Acrostic.

Of these four verses, the first and the third are heroic, the second and fourth are elegiac. But what a heroic [verse] is, and what an elegiac one, is to be learned from the commentators; their meaning, however, is this: O Word, begotten of God the Father, you have sent to us who dwell on the earth, and for this reason to the wretched, as in tongues of fire, just as the canon will lead, the Spirit con-

- ^A -solator again another, that is to say, a second one now after you have been assumed into heaven. For since the Consoler, your Son, had already descended to us, the Consoler again, the ^B Holy Spirit, comes a second time from the bosom of the Father, bearing to the laudators of the Holy Trinity a sign of your immaterial divinity, that is, of your nature and birth, and to those who chant, grace for their hymns. In these, the term "begotten of God" [theiogenē], by its very presence, as they say, reveals a violent constraint upon the meter in the epic poetry; for this reason, he calls the Word "begotten of God" [theiogenē], whereas it would be impossible not to pronounce it with a diphthong, but rather with the sole letter ε, [must be] "born of God" [theogenē]. For it is manifest that God is one thing, and divine is another. The soul, for instance, not being God, is divine; so that the Word "born of God" is one thing, and [the Word] "begotten of God" is another. Perhaps, however, the Word is now found to be "begotten of God" not because of a generation between two immutable persons, but because it is commonly called begotten, since through Him—that is, through the divine Word—we ourselves become divine and godlike. But if someone does not take "divine" as a derived participation in nature, but rather conceives of God Himself in this way, and calls the Word that is from the Divine—that is, from God the Father—"begotten of the Divine," I do not know if he will find anyone to readily accept this. For my own part, it does not please me to think that way; but concerning the Paraclete, what must be said will be said below. ^C

The "another" is perhaps said simply instead of "a different one," or for that dogmatic precision which he who has achieved accuracy knows, who distinguishes "others" [allas] but not "different ones" [alloias]; following whom, and as if walking in the light, one would not say that a different Paraclete had been sent, but "another," according to the present scripture. And the divine synonymy gracefully brings together into one that Generator—who is spoken of here—and the begetter, and the one who caused it to sprout, and the Father. ^D The "seed-bearer" is more common; but the canon will instruct more clearly that the Holy Spirit is sent from the bosom of the Father, in which it will be found written again, and in the poetic dialect of the Ionians, in "tongues." For as an epic poet, he is troubled and uses words such as poetry is wont to love; and the Holy Spirit brings a sign of the nature of the Son, not one in accordance with the singular pronunciation of the acrostic, but various, such as befits the truth. For the Word, the dispenser of truth, spoke truly when He promised to send the Holy Spirit of truth—the love which He first had for His disciples, whom the Holy Spirit also loved, and who also taught them as the Spirit of wisdom. Furthermore, a sign of this is what He manifested, both the consubstantiality with the Father and the Spirit, the shared illumination, the shared sanctification, and the sharing of grace, which the Holy Spirit, coming from there, brought—just as then to the disciples, and soon to the initiators of the nations, so also now to us, the spiritual chanters, that is, those occupied with hymns. This good [gift] also overflows to all of God's laudators, among whom the melodist skillfully mixed himself for the sake of participation in charity. We must see, however, whether this [one] who bears the form of the incorruptible deity can also be accommodated to the word through the correctness of the masculine communication, so that the Son may be said to give to us, through the Holy Spirit, a sign of His own nature.

That ^A *phytle* signifies not only nature, as has been said according to the interpreter, but also origin, is evident commonly; and such a meaning is fitting for the Son as Begotten, through Whom the Holy Spirit comes down to us. It is clear that from such a *phytle*, also the word *phytalimos*, which is uttered outwardly with the double-sounding nu, has been derived; coming about both from the fact that it makes plants to grow, and especially from *phytle*, so that it might be *phytlamios* from it, and by transposition *phytalimos*; as if he were some father and thus the cause of growing, which concept also named the *phytosporos* (plant-sower). And the acrostic having been prepared in this way, it is time to conclude the things preceding the canon up to this point, that from here the discourse might pass on to it for us, having noted that such a canon is ^B sometimes faulty in places, due to the transcripts having long since erred, as will appear in what follows.

Hirmus of the First Ode

The slow-tongued one, covered by the divine cloud, Gave utterance to the God-written law: For having cast off the veil from the eyes of his mind, He beholds Him Who is, and is initiated into the knowledge Of the Spirit, praising Him with divine songs.

Interpretation

2. But if it seems strange that a man should act as a scribe, or that he should converse with the Invisible, and with Him Who is unreachable and inaccessible—

^A to the eyes of the mind—for it is not simply a piece of wood, or a beam, or some other such common little body that lies before the eyes of a man to prevent him from a divine vision; rather, it is a worldly grime mixed with the humors of life, coating the intellect of the soul like mud, so that it is not able in the least to reach out to the vision of God. If, therefore, this seems unusual to some, let them realize that Moses was no ordinary man when, as someone says, he spoke with God like a most intimate friend, nor did he use human eyes, but almost angelic ones; nay, entirely angelic. For no foreign material or grime, like that of which we spoke—which delights in smearing and darkening the light of the soul, and thus rendering human prudence useless—marred his vision. But having wiped it off and cast it aside, or more aptly put, having shaken the obstacles from the eye of his mind, he saw the Lord, and was immediately initiated, or rather, he received the knowledge of the Spirit Who is celebrated today, Who is and is known and is seen forever with Him; whom he immediately also honored, as is fitting, not with common songs, but with truly divine ones, inspired from above, just as in this celebrated exodus. For it did not happen to him as it did to Manoah ^B to say: "We are lost; we have seen God," but rather: "We have lived, we have led a life, and we have been strengthened; we have drawn near to God, we have held discourse as disciples." Whence it is necessary to rejoice and to praise God, and to sing joyfully—not simply in the way that things commonly praised are, but truly divine things, through which the goodness of the soul is demonstrated, and the joy in what is good. For to praise God or divine things is the virtue of the soul; but to express them by singing is the token of gladness, since we have learned that no sad animal is accustomed to sing.

3. See also in the aforementioned hymn the phrase

divine cloud-covered

4. See also the word

covered

so-called clouds, ^A which, being woven like a net, are spread out for the birds, and holding them by circling around them, keep them inside, and do not allow them to slip out of the mesh. Thus, in a way, to speak precisely, Moses, having been taken possession of by God and covered, was wholly His, and for Him and through Him he performed what was commanded. A meaning of this sort is also linked to the Sea being covered by the water, while its foundations were uncovered during the crossing of Israel. Thus, that sea also covered Pharaoh together with those around him; and the uncovered face looks out from such contemplation, and the eyes uncovered in the Davidic manner, having put off such a covering, have opened to see broadly.

5. See also how Moses, though covered by the cloud, is nevertheless ^B not darkened, having been plunged into gloom like one whose ^C eyes of the mind have been daubed with mud, as the Psalmist says, but rather he was poured out within only to such an extent that the world was hidden, and in peace he might see God, and shine forth by word and deed, having put off the cloud, coruscating lightning, and being freed, like the sky without a covering of clouds. For the cloud was altogether an enigma, signifying that the prophet required leisure, so that he might thus know in the Davidic manner, and that he might flash forth from there spiritually. These things indeed correspond to the feast now being celebrated, in which the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and the flame, along with the diffused light and the sanctifying rain, is provided according to the holy Joel—which rain David understood otherwise as a dark wave in spiritual clouds; he would not have understood it to be most radiant through holy baptism, in which we thus put on the true light, Jesus Christ.

6. The slow of speech is opposed to the rapid of speech, but this one does not merit more blame than the other. For the slow of speech might at some time have something good, in that by prolonging his phrase and thus—as it were—repeating and bringing it back around, he settles what is said into the souls of the hearers for a more accurate memory and knowledge, proceeding step by step in his discourse and being easy to follow. But he who is rapid of speech, and thus muddles his words into what is inarticulate, as if setting an uncontrollable tongue upon his words, and running faster than what he says so that he is difficult to follow, as if he were being carried along a steep descent by a torrent, would perhaps run past his hearers, having made sound without substance, and suffering, as they say, from a pain in his lungs—such as we know many to be who have experienced being "swift-tongued," pouring forth their words in a heap. For my part, let a teacher fall to my lot who is full in his tongue, according to Moses, and not one who utters "winged words" and is thus empty-tongued. If, however, such a one is rich in a tongue that runs, just like the pen of a scribe who writes quickly, I call him blessed.

7. Here it must be noted that, even if, as is recorded, the slowness of speech came upon the great Moses from the burning, it is not the same with the "harshness of sound," which the most holy poet Cosmas attributes to him when he says, "To the slow of speech and harsh-sounding Moses." For in his mouth his tongue was restricted, [the]...

^A and being the mistress of the sounds formed therein, it is not the cause of raucity, nor of heaviness, nor of other ailments that render the voice ill-sounding, because it does not participate in all of them; but many sounds are inarticulate and require no tongue, being formed in us by themselves, even when we are asleep, or otherwise silent and not speaking at all. A physical defect, therefore, was the harsh sound in Moses, and it did not arise from inflammation either. Regarding his being "slow of speech," it must be noted that this epithet is not cast at the divine prophet in a mocking way, but is chosen for a certain paradox, as it is a novel thing that he who was thus defective in his tongue was not an erring interpreter of God’s words. Hence, he did not call him "most illustrious" Moses, but marked him by his "slowness of speech," as if by a preeminent conjunction with the demonstrative article, he could absolutely designate him who speaks divine things, had he so wished. For if a common man, and, so to speak, the lowliest, had had to commemorate the very name of Moses at the beginning of a poetic song, saying: "God-given Moses, once covered by a cloud"; or otherwise: "Moses, once covered by a divine cloud"; or "Moses, having entered a divine cloud"—how, if he wanted to appear a sublime poet, would he have been so foolish as to present the "slow of speech," while keeping silent the illustrious name of Moses? And such a thing we have here.

8. But the cloud (γνόφος), if it is necessary to provide something pleasant for those conversant with general education, ^C is not far removed from a cloud (νέφος) and darkness (ζόφος); and it is constructed as follows: There is a hidden verb, not clear in usage, *nephō* (νέφω), "I do not shine," from which the *nephos* (νέφος) is more simply deduced; through the usual change of the letter *e* into *o*, *nophos* (nóφος) is produced; hence, consequently, the middle [form] between the verb mentioned and the noun is deduced, just as *keklophen* (κέκλοφεν) is said. But the unused word *nophos* (νόφος) is this: from the three middle letters, taking by one *gamma*, by another *delta*—the communion of which is also in *pēdō* (πηδῶ) and *pēgē* (πηγή), and in *gēpedon* (γήπεδον) and *dapedon* (δάπεδον)—makes *gnophos* (γνόφος) and *dnophos* (δνόφος). One of these, *gnophos* (γνόφος), having been pitted, like the immutable, and having taken the friendly *zeta*, *zophos* (ζόφος) is produced; ^D which also happens in *mados* (μαδὸς) and *mazos* (μαζὸς), as the ancients say; for *mados* (μαδᾷ) of necessity [becomes] *mazos* (μαζός). In the cloud, and not openly, were the wonders concerning the divine writing of the Law performed, as befits the King of all, the Lord, both terrible and a lover of men, as the holy Scriptures teach us a thousand times over, dealing sweetly with us in those things which pertain to us, just as they do gravely, and, so to speak, royally; so that He might teach proud men, and especially those who are in high offices, for the most part to concern themselves with and become like those who are under their hand, through agreement and concurrence in condescension, but not to forget gravity when it is necessary, lest the subjects, having recklessly exalted themselves, be turned and tumble into insubordination, and thus into anarchy, which would be in no way convenient for them or for the magistrates. And

furthermore, the cloud of Moses ^A is said to be a symbol of philosophical rest, stillness, and quiet, and of virtuous concealment; for it is proper that those who commune with God should not wander in darkness—God forbid!—but neither should they approach divine things in a public and tumultuous, or, to put it more nobly, festive light, but rather in a quiet scholarly obscurity, in which those who are at leisure know God, as the psalmist says. Such are these matters.

9. But the phrase, "the slow-tongued one spoke," seems like a rhetorical antithesis; for eloquence and slow-tonguedness are, in a manner, opposed to each other. For if someone is slow of tongue, how could he be eloquent? And again, if he is eloquent, and that in the matter of a God-written law, how could he be slow of tongue? And yet the thought remains secure according to the idea of loftiness, which is dignity. For he will express the manner ^B somewhat as follows: the one who was hampered in his tongue—not through a stutter, but as if bearing a heavy "ox-tongue" and mocked for stammering—spoke, not ministering to common phrasing, but to the voice of God. If someone going onto the stage in a theater, having been well instructed by a noble director, carries off much praise, how much more to be marveled at would he be who, under God, the director of wisdom, interprets His words rhetorically and clearly? Therefore, carried away by such an antithetical figure and thought, the poet—as regards the phrasing—did not say that the slow-tongued one had fully mastered or clarified the God-written law; but, like the thunders of the figurative ^C cloud, he emitted a frequent rustling of the unchangeable God, tripling it in one word for the glory of the Trinity, and speaking great things gravely, as was fitting. But what need have we, in such matters, of that Moses, a rhetorician of stentorian voice, whose thinness of voice ascends even into heaven, being heard by God? And he makes the elements listen through a strange transformation: he divides and moves the sea, and rends the earth itself so that it gapes because of wickedness, if one considers what happened regarding Dathan and Abiram.

10. But if it was not through a defect of nature, but from the searing ^D of a coal, which he received in exchange for an ancient stater of gold, that the sweet Moses was allotted his slow-tonguedness, this too is a very great dignity for the servant of God; for which reason it is said that he had a golden mouth, and that he was allotted a tongue of fire just like the apostles, and, like the great Isaiah, was fed with the coal prophetically. If even those who are deaf from birth are made to distinguish speech by God and are marveled at, and those who are stammerers clarify their speech and also induce a miracle, how great would be this slow-tongued rhetorician, who, acting as the voice of God, obtained such extraordinary renown? To express the same thing in another way: if diligent human practice can heal a tongue that is defective in speaking—which the orator from the Paeanian tribe devised as a remedy for a defective nature—how could Almighty God, the creator of nature, not be able to heal His own orator if his tongue is ill? It should be noted that what he pronounced is not necessarily to be taken as "he brought forth perfectly and elegantly," but the author desired to signify sincere and ma-

- ^Anifesta locutor, just as do diligent and generous orators, such as was Moses, not speaking from himself nor bringing forth his own, but divinely [speaking] those things which were of God; whence those orators, too, breathed upon by the Holy Spirit are invincible, who, as the poet will later sing, though they were unlettered, closed the mouths of the Greek philosophers with none other than the Word; and it was entirely fitting that such be the preachers of God.

11. ^B The God-written law, which God Himself wrote with His finger, by which He also casts out demons and removes burdens which no one could ever bear, and performs ten thousand other miracles. One might derive from this—even if in other cases it seems that the law-giver and the legislator are at times distinct—that in God both coincide. For the same God both gives the law by commanding, and brings it about by writing it onto bodies; thus the same One both legislates and acts as law-giver. It is clear that the law found to be God-written is that which was sent from God through Moses to the Israelites for the pre-eminent distinction from other laws—those of nature, of the nations, and whatever else is rightly distinguished from such a law. For the irrational and indecent laws, and furthermore those that are brutish, such as the laws of the Cyclopes and the Laestrygonians, are not to be mentioned at all here, where the discourse is about the law rightly written by God; just as neither are those of the self-governed, or any others, such as those of women, or of tablets, or of children, and whatever others there may be of that sort. For they are not worthy of memory here on account of their worthlessness. But if every political law is recognized as a gift of God, and an invention of wise men, such a law is certainly good, and is truly accepted as given and enacted by God.

12. ^C That mire is a muddy moisture, and because of this is suitable for smearing—and is something other than matter simply—has already been clearly explained, beautifully representing by way of a natural conjecture the idea and notion of the comparison between the law and the flesh in us, who were fashioned from mud; whence our mental lamp being darkened, as if it were smeared by it like muddy tablets, to speak openly, the reception and manifestation of light in our minds is destroyed. And this lamp, ignited by the Father of lights, is not permitted to be illuminating and light-bearing until we have first wiped away the muddy, inner marsh—when we shall also be able to see, that is, to understand, the God who gives light, once the wet mud that falls and covers [the mind] to obstruct the light has been removed; so that from this point, the light-bearing region in our soul may both receive ^D the cheerful light from God and send it forth, most sharply, in order that he who says so may most certainly perceive Him who is beyond all vision.

13. 13. The word "shaken off" displays nobility and a noble ease from the liberation from evil; thus the Israelites were saved when the Egyptians were shaken off into the sea; thus Paul shook off the viper that was biting him from his hand. This word is customary, and in the psalms

...is suggested herein, and the Psalm-like [phrase]: "I am shaken off like the locusts." The eye of the mind, as ^A from this part hints at the total duality of man. For as to one door of someone’s house, in respect to the perception of the senses, another is set opposite in the mind, so it is in the other four senses. And if hands are adjacent to hands, and feet to feet, and middle parts to middle parts, by way of a duality between the senses and the mind, there would be no need to point that out to men who are not neglectful, but who are well-trained to behold this twofold glory in man.

14. For the phrase, "He beholds Him who is," gives us reason to marvel that in the thick darkness the most visionary Moses sees better than men see sensible things in pure light. For they, looking askance, imagine that things which do not exist, do exist. Moses, therefore, as one beloved of God, ^B truly beholds Him who is Who is, with a true eye. It must be known that the phrase "he beholds Him who is" signifies that Moses was not then deluded, nor did he merely imagine things in this way; but that he saw God Himself as far as it is possible for man to do so; what kind of God? His Lord, whose name is "He who is," according to the text: "I AM WHO I AM," in an excellent mode, indeed. And if Moses did at other times behold the things that are through God, and thus saw the things pertaining to the cosmogony—not simply, but by a philosophical method, namely, by reason of their existence—now, however, he beholds Him who is, through whom all things exist, and to whose sovereignty all things are subject. And in the word "he is initiated," note that as soon as Moses saw Him who is, he was straightway initiated into the things of the Spirit, in which is the God-written law, so that just as he who has seen the Son has seen the Father, so he who has seen and understood ^C what He is, and has thus known Him who is, straightway has knowledge of the Spirit also. This is a great good, which was granted also to the apostles in today’s feast.

15. It is impossible to find a word more appropriate for those who perform divine mysteries than "he is initiated" (*myeitai*). For it is from this word, at any rate, that among the Greeks the *mystai* (initiates) were the first to receive—from those who had obtained the priesthood—what seemed to them the most divine things in a secret and mystical manner, and were thus initiated and taught the sacred rites; such as the Attic Greater and Lesser Mysteries, and those of Trophonius and Ammon, and the like. This word is derived either from *myein*, which is to close the lips; for it was necessary that the initiates should be silent in every way and altogether about the things which were performed, as the Pythagoreans most especially show, and those who revealed the mysteries were punished with death; or from the word *myein*, which we also call *kammyein* (to close the eyes), ^D because he who is thus being initiated must be recollected into himself alone, according to the whole man, and not allow anything of his own to stray or wander outward, nor even that which is the sight of the eyes, lest the initiate, having drawn in some of the external images, should turn the initiation into something like a dream. Not, however, that the initiate should close his eyes in such a way as to fall asleep and thus become dead; but that he should close his eyelids like doors, as it were, and preserve all the light for the mystery; the symbol of this is the time of initiation among the Atticans, and its arrangement; for night, it was...

the time. Otherwise, it was disposed as daylight by the rekindling of the lights, for it was night which had to close the eyes, as has been said; this was an enigma; but the fire-bearing lamp-lighting ^A of the vigil, for him who is sleepless, was to look upon and contemplate the matters of the mystic rite.

16. To me, however, the metaphorical sweetness of the wise John does not seem to have added the divine cloud of spiritual initiation here without purpose, but for a fitting metaphor or transition, so that the divine cloud might be a divine darkness suitable for the restraint of the wandering soul; and a corresponding initiation, light-bearing and under the sun of the most holy Spirit, ^B and truly scientific knowledge—for he calls this knowledge of the Spirit to distinguish it from other notions, just as the third ode will speak of various types, of which there is that of character, the physical, that pertaining to learning, and the most supreme, the theological, that of the Father, the Son, and the holy Spirit, of which the divine poet, having made mention here, signified the other two as well. For the law of God is triadic; likewise also the initiation of the knowledge of the Spirit or of the Son or of the Father is common to the holy Trinity; this can also be understood from the phrasing of the melodist. For having said "he sees Him who is," he set forth the holy Trinity; and by calling it the initiation of the Spirit, he left it to us to understand the same, as can be gathered ^C from another poet, who, in the ninth ode of the prose canon, having said that the apostles, illuminated by the inspiration from above, came to know the whole Trinity, introduces in the following strophe the peoples of that age who were to be initiated into the knowledge of the Trinity.

17. 17. One might say that Moses was initiated into the knowledge of the celebrated Spirit not only prophetically, but by the grace of God and apostolically, and this can be derived from the words of the strophe. For through the cloud, there is signified the house in which the disciples were found sitting today; for that divine cloud was called the house of the prophet, and the cloud, ^D as it were, overshadowed the interior of the house, not allowing him to be touched by the sun's rays. But by the eloquence implanted in him, the wisdom of the apostles, previously unlearned, is noted; and his slowness of speech, which did not harm his fiery eloquence, signified the fiery tongues of the disciples, made by God the master out of unlearned men; and the division of the tongues and the peoples who were then present, the divine law manifested; for it itself was distributed to the stubborn Israelitic people for their correction; and Christ distributed the Spirit, as will be sung below, to the gentile people who were themselves stiff-necked, as shown by those who were present from among them at the feast, and who accused the holy apostles of drunkenness; but the mentioned violent wind and the fire within it, that cloud signified. For such aerial passions run through clouds, happening sometimes by chance, sometimes by the command of God; and some such thing it was concerning the knowledge of the holy Spirit. One could also, by circumlocution, state the same regarding the Spirit.

^A and the knowledge of the Spirit as it exists in the human mind; if indeed, even among us, according to external wisdom, the mind cannot grasp the knowable object with precision unless it is in some way assimilated to it.

18. It must be noted, moreover, that it is possible to state in another way how Moses was initiated into the knowledge of the Spirit through the Law, which he learned from that source to be God-written; likewise he was initiated ^B through the vision by which he saw the existence of the holy Spirit acting as mediator; and further, through the darkness with which he was enveloped in a contemplative manner, having turned back from there to a graspable divine understanding, so that just as a bright cloud later overshadowed those who were with the Savior, so in turn did the shadow of the darkness transmit the most divine illumination of the Spirit. From that time on, as is likely, the prophet having been initiated in a more hidden manner, later beheld it more openly on Tabor, in that light ^C and at the same time by viewing the fiery tongues in a more vision-seeing way, and thus chanted in a song-like manner to God; the end of the following troparion will also show this in the words, "imparting the Spirit and the Law of God."

19. Regarding the word *gerairon* [honoring], which is to deem worthy of honor and veneration, the root is *geras* [honor]; and thus also for the word *kerairein*—which some write as *keraiein*—the word *keras* [horn] lies beneath it, from which the ancients, pouring out drink, ^D used to celebrate their pleasant banquets. "Divinely-inspired songs" are properly those which we sing while having the Divine within us, and the term will be explained better in what follows. It must also be noted that in the phrase "in the divinely-inspired songs" (*en tois entheois asmasin*), the article is placed superfluously for the completion of the meter, which is necessary for the melody; for the Greek phrase signifies nothing different if one were to say "in divinely-inspired songs" (*en entheois asmasin*). So too, the phrase "in the fiery form" (*en purino to eidei*) among the sacred singers does not have a necessity for the article of the dative case; for *in fiery form* (*en purino eidei*) was already complete.

Troparion

II. The holy and venerable mouth said: "Shall division not come to you, O friends? For I, sitting upon the paternal highest throne, Shall pour out the Spirit To shine upon those who desire the boundless grace."

20. After the *eirmos* [model-stanzas], following those that pertain to the feast, the melodist paraphrases the lordly promise made to his most holy disciples, not only in the words, "I will not leave you orphans," and in many other evangelical passages, but also in the words, "Stay in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high." And firstly, he honors the most holy treasury from which the holy treasure of the aforementioned promise was brought forth—that is, the mouth of our Savior Jesus Christ—calling it holy and venerable, adding to this name two words that coincide into one, because he had nothing else more fitting and august to say. For the [verb to] "venerate" is set apart for God alone, in the sense of [ascribing it to] the *oikeiosis* [propriety/assignment]...

which is holy and venerable, just as it is also "solemn"—for which reason the Son, who succeeded the one among the Romans called God, hesitated to deprive himself of the epithet according to such a term, yet otherwise, being flattering toward him, he led himself into naming himself "Augustus" [Sebastos], so that one holy, most divine notion might apply to both—as it were a double garment—namely, that of God and that of the "August," and might dwell together with the living Father and live together with the Son throughout their whole life through the dignity of the concept. For if anyone is in truth "August," [he] is also God, since God indeed is "August" in reality. And taking pleasure in these most worthy solemnities for that venerable one, the one among holy kings who is equal to the Apostles, Constantine, rightly named by his epithets ^C [the venerable and the solemn], shrank from inscribing for himself some long title of honor, as did the princes after him. But he deemed it worthy to assume this one title of "August" alone, inscribing his letter thus: "Constantine Augustus, greetings." But if now this beautiful name is multiplied—that there should be gods, and many of them—what is the harm in all being sons of the Most High, and therefore "Augusts"?

21. "Therefore," he says, "he speaks, the all-holy mouth of the Word incarnate, when he was still moving about among us; for the prophet who said that 'the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things' always hints at the mouth of God." He says therefore: "O beloved disciples, there shall be no separation for you," that is to say: "I shall not leave you, I shall not depart, I shall not be remote and separated from you." "How then," one asks, "will I accomplish this, who am soon to be taken up from you?" According to the bodily form, I shall no longer converse with you; but, having ascended on high after a little while, and sitting with the co-eternal Father, I shall not cease to be with you always; but I shall also pour out upon you the abundant grace of my Spirit, which you all desire to shine upon you. Not that I, who came as the Light into the world, shall be extinguished when I am taken from you, and shall no longer shine upon you; but—with the Holy Spirit—I too shall shine forth, enlivening you just as the Father does. And this promised flashing radiance will not be understood only in the mind, and according to the operation that will follow from you in the final times, but it will be known immediately, in due time, clearly, evidently, commonly, and, so to speak, universally—not before two or three witnesses, or certain others whom one might easily count, but before a great multitude seeing with their eyes, and thus marveling, and crying out with their mouths what the divine Scripture teaches.

22. It is to be noted, furthermore, that in the expression, "there shall be no separation for you, my friends," by "friends" he implies immediately—in the present instance—only the most holy Apostles; yet, otherwise, through them, the saving promise passes on also to those who come after them, and it does not cease descending, [on those who are] living in an apostolic manner—to say the same thing, and in a manner worthy of God. Observe, however, how he uses the term *nosphismos* ["separation"] here in a sharp, keen sense; for it is taken in a simple and mild way, even if in another respect it is unconventional according to common parlance; for many among us now understand [the term] to mean to usurp, and to make another's property one's own; and ^D

^A to make a [nosphismos] of such appropriation—for thus also is one said to [nosphizesthai] the things of one’s neighbor, and to commit a [nosphismos] of the things which are in the possession of others. And such is to [nosphizesthai]: to act away—that is, apart from the owner—regarding some thing through an unpraiseworthy acquisition. But this [will be handled] in what follows.

23. The foremost of the poets among the Greeks ^B sets the term [nosphizesthai] in a sense that this holy melodist also knows. For, he says there, [it means] to “nosphize” a wife and daughter from a man, which is to set them apart for oneself; and [it is said of] a woman who has murdered her own husband, to “nosphize” him while he lies there still breathing. Having followed those usages precisely, this holy melodist declared the [nosphismos] to be a withdrawal, which is separation, namely, to become "apart" from one’s companions. And as for [the term] "for you" [[hymin]], it might also be safely held through that which is written, so that the Savior, bringing Himself into the account as well, may say, "Neither shall I separate Myself from you, nor shall you separate yourselves from Me." For if, according to the proverb, that which is severed from what is severed is [itself] severed, it would not be likely nor possible, while I am with you, for you not to be with Me, and the reverse. The cause of such a non-separation is friendship; for since through it each one of ^C you is "another" [that is, like] me, and I am what each one of you is—no one is separated from himself while living; therefore, there will be no separation for you unto eternity.

24. The most high throne has a grand structural composition, as if it were some brilliant architecture; but it will suffice only to show its height from this text: “Who dwells in the heights and looks upon the lowly” [Ps. CXII, 5-6 (LXX)]. For to Him who is so all-seeing, the throne of inspection is absolutely the most high throne. And if indeed it is also noble for its throne to be the heights of the mountains, yet far more august are those things which are in heaven, whose gates, according to the Psalmist, are lifted up when the Savior Christ is taken up [Ps. XXIII, 7 (LXX)]. Observe here, however, the "paternal throne"; for He did not say "unto My own most high throne" ^D—that is, "My own"—lest any division should appear between Him and the Father, shadowed forth by a duality of thrones. He preferred to say "paternal throne," so that, as there is one adoration of the holy Trinity, being worshipped together in one adoration, so also might there be one seat and one sitting-together; of which the throne reveals the royal rest in goodness of the holy Trinity, while the sitting-together is a symbol of its indivisibility. The word "sitting-together" [[synedriazon]] is derived from the more commonly spoken "assembly" [[synedrion]]. For the seat [[hedra]], which is a base [[kathedra]], produces the three-syllable verb "to seat" [[hedrazein]], though not "to sit-in-assembly" [[hedriazein]]; but "to sit-in-assembly" [[synedriazein]] is a judicial term, befitting the Son who both judges and co-judges with His equals, the Father and the Spirit, and who is to come to judge the living and the dead.

25. The [phrase] "I will pour out" [Joel II, 28] is a prophetic expression, taken from Joel, and it contains very holy thoughts, of which one also refers to the holy baptism, into which we descent, and thus, rising again with Him, we have been clothed with the robe of salvation, having been surrounded by this luminous tunic, and…

^A revealing that the divine Spirit has been poured out just as upon the saints of that time, so too upon those who came after them, and up to us. And if we choose to call the river's flow silver, and also beautiful and bright, because it flows gently—what adjective might we justly apply to the said prophetic stream, desired by the holy apostles according to the sacred hymn, which also illuminates them with fire, and flame, and light for the common good?

26. It must be noted, moreover, that as will appear in what follows, our inspired John loves to make his verses fluid, as one might say, artfully, from such sacred texts; he rejoices to sprinkle this style of writing from the Holy Scriptures, from which we possess, if we have need, springing waters, such as those that gave life to the Samaritan woman; and fountain waters to which the ancient Holy Scripture refers; and evangelical rivers flowing down from the abyss of divine wisdom; and dews and voluntary rains; and showers, which He sprinkles and rains and pours out for their salvation in common; and as a shower descending upon the fleece, and as it were dripping upon the earth, whose name is poured-out ointment, as we have received through His glorious emptying. A saving cloud is borne over us, itself luminous, inasmuch as it contains the sun within itself, and is pregnant with the rain that nourishes the world, which, having suddenly inclined from there, in no way ceases to make prosperous and to vivify the true spiritual man of the world. ^B

27. With such words the aforementioned verb "I will pour out" is in a way reinforced by the dense Holy Scripture. Here it must be borne in mind that this word is written for the heavenly dew, so that not only may the Son be believed to be the rain poured out upon that most pure fleece, but the Holy Spirit may also be understood as a voluntary and desired rain, as of old and later upon the holy apostles, so also now poured out upon every Christian creature. From the verb "I will pour out," as has been said, both the effusion of wisdom sent to the worthy has come to be, and all spiritual joy and grace have from there been poured out upon holy lips. But if something else must be interspersed, from this arises the Israelite multitude, when, having multiplied in Egypt like the sand of the sea, they filled the whole land. Having such a heavenly effusion, sweet and joyful and consoling, we too, even as we rejoice at the goodness granted from above, at the same time turn to a contrary frame of mind; ^C and let us be cautious and humbled, especially when we hear: "Pour out upon them thy wrath," which only those will escape who "pour out their prayer" before God.

28. In these things, the word "I will pour out" is to be understood as a contact and touch of the Savior Christ, by which He is not separated from His friends; for while He pours out the grace of the Spirit upon them, so He is always present with them. As for the Spirit, it will be firmly linked to "I will pour out," so that it may say: "I will pour out of my Spirit." And the "I will pour out" is also made prosperous, ^D

signifying that which is abundant and great, just as "the mercies of God are many," and "the multitude of his kindness is great." Nor does "inexhaustible" fall far from a meaning such as this. ^A

Second Troparion of the First Ode

The Terminant, the most certain Word, Fills the heart with a tranquil form; For having completed the work, He gladdened his friends, With a violent blast and tongues of fire, Having distributed the Spirit, as Christ promised.

^B 29. The beginning of the present troparion seems to be a sententious utterance, so that the first two lines entirely declare that the "terminant that has stepped forth"—that is, the firm and most truthful Word—makes hearts tranquil. But it does not hold thus simply; rather, the name of Christ, placed at the end of the fifth iambic line, must be adapted to the two opening lines, and one must speak thus theologically: "Christ, the terminant, the most certain Word, is the cause of tranquility for the hearts of his beloved." Whence is this evident? If we bring down the present maxim rhetorically to some particular fact, we may make it worthy of belief through him. For behold, he says "terminant that has stepped forth" and "stable," and as the Word of God and the Father, [He is] truthful, having already promised to his beloved disciples an unswerving heart-tranquility, and having brought the promise to effect, he gladdened them. But what was the work which, having promised, he fulfilled? To distribute to them the Holy Spirit, not calmly or quietly in some manner unnoticed and so unknown to those in the world, but with manifestation in a breath of a violent wind, which could not remain hidden, and in tongues of fire, as if tongues similar to fire, ^C as if from some favorable breath downward, appearing upon the disciples, and setting them aflame invisibly with most holy thoughts and utterances; as if they were speaking in the tongues of angels, and were being inscribed among the ministering fiery spirits.

30. Such, then, is the meaning of the troparion, as set forth in summary according to a first and simpler interpretation. But it is possible to interpret it otherwise, more elegantly: The aforementioned terminant and Word, Christ, knowing that his holy disciples were troubled by despair and sorrow after his departure, put an end to such turbulence for them, so that they might be at rest. But how did he suppress the turbulence? By sending a violent breath, to which tongues of fire were admixed in a wonderful manner; and having done this, he gladdened the holy apostles according to the promise given to them. And it is a sweeter and more fitting thought, ^D if God insusurrated a joyous tranquility to his apostles through a violent breath. Thus, with the second meaning of the troparion being set forth in a summary, it must first be pointed out that even if one can truthfully call the terminant "certain" and "unfailing,"

yet it is necessary for the sake of clarity to distinguish the individual parts of the troparion.

31. The term *horos* is equivocal. For *horos* is spoken of in the masculine gender, commonly and most habitually as a description on the ground, which is a definition, derived from *horan* (to see); for such a boundary makes what belongs to each person—whether a field, or a vineyard, or a plot of land, or to speak generally, a place—visible and easy to see. For this *horos* is a term of place, and is appropriately called "fixed," whence the proverbial precept that each person ought to remain within his own boundary, that is, not to overstep what is just or holy. The same is also called *horion* in the neuter gender, from which comes the proverb, "Remove not the ancient boundaries." ^B From such terms are derived *horizo* (I delimit), *aphorizo* (I separate), and likewise *ōrise* (it delimited), and the forms *apemnemoneusen* (it recorded) and *emnesthe* (it was remembered). The term *aphorizo* has a double significance. One is sacred, as when we say that God separates voluntary rain for His servants, and that someone is separated from the servants of God; and, "God separated such-and-such to serve Him," or as He delimited by choosing—it is the same to say *ōrise*, with the preposition *apo-* being redundant here, just as in *apemnemoneusen* in place of *emnesthe*. The other interpretation of *aphorizein* denotes exile and expulsion from customary boundaries, according to which sense one is also separated ^C from the Church and from one's fatherland, that is, one is removed from its boundaries; and here the preposition indicates a privative casting-out, as also in *apemēnissen*, that is, he laid aside his anger, having entered into peace.

32. Furthermore, *horos* is also spoken of philosophically as the definition of the essence of any given person or thing. It is not, however, taken in a broader sense, just as one who says that "an animal is a living, sensible essence" provides the boundary, or the defining account, of the animal, and a manifestation of its essence; for he indicated clearly, accurately, and firmly—and, so to speak, distinctly towards the truth—what an animal is. So, too, he who says that "man is a rational, mortal animal, capable of mind and knowledge," stated the essence of man in such an account. For this is what a man is, which the aforementioned definition stated; and the same holds similarly for all other things about which one might speak. ^D Furthermore, *horos* is spoken of philosophically as a part of a proposition, or as a kind of simple word; and to speak more clearly, as a single term delimiting and circumscribing and thus clearly and perfectly manifesting a certain thought, that is, one simple notion. Thus, a proposition is most simple and complete, not elaborate, and easy to grasp, as "Socrates philosophizes." The terms of which it consists are "Socrates" and "philosophizes," each of which is called a *phasis* among the learned; for it states a certain thought, a truth that has gone forth, delimited and simple, "Socrates" and "philosophizes"—the first being the essence of a man, and the latter, the action.

33. Among such terms, the syllogistic "middle term" excels most, which, as the philosophers teach, existing in the middle between two extremes, and falling in the middle of them, draws them together methodically.

^A For it is from these (and of those two which are at least, according to them, the propositions which the middle term, when doubled, completes) that the resulting conclusion is firm and stable, inasmuch as it is true, and in this way the effort of the one weaving the syllogism is brought to an end. And a term of this kind is most appropriate, as it seems, to the perfect term who is celebrated here, the Messiah Jesus Christ, the precious cornerstone who reconciled rational beings who had been wrongly divided from God. For falling as he does, a middle point between us sinners and his all-holy Father, he accomplishes what is of the greatest concern to him: gathering us into unity, and appending us to himself, consistently with the holy David, and presenting us before his face to be seen. And thus he does not merely complete our salvation together with the Father and the Spirit, but proceeds necessarily with us; for to us who are willing, this result is granted as requested, but he generally hesitates to save others against their will, and to constrain the jaws of those unwilling to approach him with bridle and bit. ^B For the kingdom of heaven is not so violent that it saves us by dragging and forcing us against our will; for if that were the case, the demons would have experienced this before us. Therefore, he justly and of necessity allows those who are, so to speak, indocile and stiff-necked, and so impatient of the rein that they cast away completely the bit that would guide them, to be cast headlong into the abyss.

34. Furthermore, "limit" (term) is spoken of in a divine manner and sense also in the case of holy pronouncements and divine commands. We speak, then, of some "limit" of the holy synod, and of "imperial decrees"; this itself lies very close to speaking of "boundaries." And from this we say: "The holy synod has defined," and "The emperor has decreed." ^C They derive the occasion for being named in this way either from the boundary mentioned in relation to lands; for just as that one describes what is within it so that it is unchangeable, so also the aforementioned venerable limits make that which is commanded by them both firm and inviolable, and indisputable, and unassailable in the future, and, so to speak, beyond contention; which appears to be the virtue of a boundary on earth. For a place which is precisely delimited by agreement is no longer ambiguous as to who possesses it; for which reason it does not stir up quarrelsome strife, such as those suffer who, according to the poet, contend about boundaries — that is, they fight about the borders of land, or invade the boundary dividing the estates. ^D We call them "definitions," as has been said, both holy and divine, or (named) from the one who philosophically explains the essence of the subject and makes it known most clearly. For just as that definition establishes the mind firmly—that is, securely—in grasping whatever that thing is whose essence we are seeking, so too these venerable definitions set forth demonstratively what leads to well-known and practical, indubitable certainty, which they declare.

35. There are four ways, therefore, for us here, according to what is useful in the present matter, in regarding the "term" in passing; for the term is by no means in the neuter gender here...

^A nor is one to think that something is cast aside, I suppose. ^B It must be said, in passing, how well and not inappropriately these four [meanings] will fit our Savior Jesus Christ. And first, one must apply oneself to the first; and it must be said that the Son is called "term" by theologians, in the same way as He is called "Word" of the unbegotten Father, as one who defines Him, shows Him, and makes Him known through Himself. For just as a boundary stone fixed in the earth, if it had a voice, would say to the inquiring listener: "He who sees me knows what is bounded by me," so too the Son says: "He who sees Me, sees the Father," and "I am in the Father, and the Father in Me." Such a boundary, then, being great, and being Son, and being God, necessarily possesses, as if by a metaphor of things well-founded or fixed, that which is to be "firm"—that is, stable, immovable, unshaken, inaccessible, passable for one alone, constant, solid, immutable. For if a boundary is useful which no one will transgress by plucking it up or changing it, such as we know those who leap over and pass beyond ancient boundaries do, how would not the Son be a perfect boundary, who is immutable according to the Father, and according to nature most firm and completely immovable? And this is the first, rapid interpretation of "term," taken from the earth, and most known and most clear.

^C 36. One must bring to bear on our Savior a "defining" mind, according to the philosophical term, and with equal quickness and rectitude. For if a "term"—that is, a definition—is a discourse recognizing or manifesting an essence or a person, or simply whatever it may be, then the Son, who is the Word of the Father, would also be a definition of Him, insofar as He has made known to those in the world, and still makes known, His name; substantially, that is, and as the Father possesses the Godhead. For, in any case, even among the philosophers, a fixed "term," a secure and stable definition, true in its essence, is a substantial recognition for the sake of imparting knowledge of an underlying name; and the chanter seems to have settled on this notion precisely. Wherefore, as if having derived it from this, he introduces, paraphrastically or by way of substitution, the "most true Word," bringing, as it were, into one both the Father’s boundary and Word; to the one of which is attached "perfect," and to the other "most true." ^D The Son of God the Father, certainly, is to be understood as the "term," according to the third meaning of term in a proposition, if one were to examine His mind closely in this way: "I," He says, "am in the Father, and the Father in Me." The Son, therefore, is the term—simply existing and thought of, having a complete and in-Himself perfect mind—of this most holy dualism, as it were, which is always joined into unity; but even if He is thought of as coexisting with the Father, united with Him, acting together, and most certainly and in absolute truth—which is otherwise defined for him who knows how to inquire through the fact that He is mediator, so as to bring us into that unity of which we discoursed a little before as was permitted. Thus, also, I have touched upon this briefly, and as it were, as a sign of the highest matter and thought.

^A For the Son is the limit of the Father, and as the will, pre-eternal, divinely counseled, typed, and defined, most sovereign and most holy, He Himself has fulfilled it. Becoming the first herald of our salvation, and as the finger of the Father, in the manner of a limit and a word, He was written in the most holy and most pure virginal volume, and thus was perfected as a divine limit and rendered unto men for the greatest, most excellent, and most true good. And thus, a perfect limit having passed through, as was fitting, He was seen by us who have lived together with the most holy and most true Word.

Regarding Him, it must be said more clearly that since the signification of the word is not simple, but tenfold, as the ancients set it forth, the highest meaning in such an expression is the substantial Word of God, the creator before all substance, the cause and of that very word according to man by which he is called rational. I mean not only of the prolation of the voice peculiar to man, but also of the inward thought which informs the one who is man among us. Since this word is at times false, suggesting either sinfully or by some other happenstance, at other times it is in accordance with truth—the Word in the beginning is distinguished by not being simply "attrekes" (straight/true), but "attrekestatos" (most straight/true), that is, most true. Some derive this from the privative "a" and "torein" (to pierce/clearly see), and "ekas" (remote), so that "attrekes" is the negation of what is remote—that is, the not being far from the clear and substantiated truth. Others derive it from the privative particle "a" and "treo" (to fear). For he who rejoices in the truth ^B not only is not ashamed when speaking before those whom he might address, but neither does he fear.

38. It must be considered here that just as the essence of God is above every essence, and all things pertaining to Him are above all worldly things, so also is His truth above every truth. For the word that is in us—either when it speaks truth—does not itself cause or make the thing about which it speaks true, but expresses the truth accepted from that thing. But the all-holy Word and limit of the Father, the self-truth, is also truthful in the works of which He is the author and producer. He does not lie regarding their creation, as if faking them crudely, but has fashioned them in ineffable wisdom. Whence we rightly sing that all His works are true, and that He has made all things in truth; from which perspective, the Word is also truth. Most surely, then, and most loftily did the wise John sing of the Word of the Father as the most true.

39. Coming here to the word and discerning, not by thought, but from the actual work, that certain men, either simpler and thus less profound, or otherwise predatory, lay claim to the limit concerning the earth, and as if examining the partitioning of the land, they remove its limit from the perfect limit and Word of the supersubstantial God, as if it were unworthy to attach any earthly, thick name to the supersubstantial—I, indeed, struggling and burning with zeal to say much to them, but knowing the matter...

^A not to be timely, I shall measure my speech so as not to expose myself to blame either before them or before others who possess discernment. And, before all else, for the easing of our anger, I shall set before them a table such as one prepares for guests, by which I believe they will be delighted and become gentle. The offering shall be, for some, a sheep, and for others—for it is probable that some Nazirites might also chance to be there—a large bass. And if they choose to have these brought to the table, such that they would devour the sheep while it lived, with its wool, with its hide, with its flesh, hooves, and entrails, and the fish with its scales and the rest of its bodily state, I shall take care not to respond to them immediately—not while sitting in my right mind, but struck with wonder that I have seen men who are voracious. But if they prepare them properly and not in the manner of beasts, and eating what is choice and common, as is fitting, and throwing away the rest as useless and as superfluous matter, then, confident, I shall converse with them, and after I have overcome them, I shall boast, saying that I have carried off the victory.

40. And, having first reproached those men—those about whom my present discourse is—for being, beyond what is proper, defrauders regarding God, I shall suppliantly demand that there be given to me those who will gather the names by which God is designated on account of some action of His, toward an ^B emulous diligence and His own proper truth. And if my discourse succeeds well, I shall give them many thanks, and not I alone, but also all those who may encounter that treatise after me. And so, before I let them go to collect what I long to learn, I say that the Son of God is called the perfect limit, derived from an earthly boundary—not that He suffers being circled about and moved around, He who encompasses the circuit of the earth, who is omnipotent, incomprehensible, and infinite; nor that He is touched by hands, He who is contained within; nor that He circumscribes the Father and constricts Him as if in a circuit, nor that He does anything else as if to a Father who suffers. But among all such actions and utterances, a chosen earthly limit, the perfect limit of all things, is the Word of God, the Father’s Son, according to the aforementioned congruent reason. And this is for our sake, and through us who have need of learning, nor can we learn otherwise than through the sole powers implanted in us, in which God is said to dwell; nor only by this, that the qualities of God are situated in us and in the things surrounding us, and through the mediation of these God is in us. If we think rightly, we ourselves are also in Him through these things, attributed to Him; and like sincere perfumers, we offer these ^C odoriferous aromatics, prepared as if from the well-scented material of the names of the adorable One which are in us, so that the Lord may smell an odor of sweetness and one that is acceptable, whether it ascends from the earth or originates from elsewhere.

41. But if, O thou ^D who art over-busy and most tenacious of precision, thou dost reject that discussed limit, and...

because of the low, thick, and heavy nature of the utterance and the thought contained therein, thou dogmatizest that it cannot be lifted on high so as to be ^A suited to the unmingled, weightless, and supercelestial God, it is then permitted to thee, from now on, to deprive not only the Son and Word of God of every worldly expression, but also the pre-eternal Father and the co-eternal Spirit. Do not, therefore, discard all the names that exist among us, as if none of them were proper to the ineffable God, but rather [as if] all of them were our own humble terms—just as we know the world-creator is explained as a "fabricator," of whom there will be speech in what follows: a "fabricator" because he himself does not possess great excellence; the "maker of all," whom those who call him "the Beginning" do not even designate with a fitting meaning; and further, the "creator," which is [equivalent to] world-creator; and the "governor," [which suggests] a merchant and therefore someone calculating, as usually happens with incongruous things; [or] the "cornerstone," an estimation that is not sufficiently weighty. But why should I mention such words as these and all others like them which, being deemed unworthy of being attributed to God, are attacked by the power of speech within thee? I fear that, proceeding on a path that is impassable, thou mayest think to take away from the holy Trinity even those very things that are proper to it. For neither will [God] be called Father according to a judge like thee. For "Father" among us is entirely subject to passion, whether it is so called from begetting according to the flesh, or from elsewhere. And "Son" is deduced not from a supernatural origin, but from following [natural] birth, according to the wise; and "Spirit" from "breathing forth" and "breathing into" us; and "to breathe" implies a certain instability. And thus also otherwise, and to say the whole, it is moved or even counter-moved in manifold ways and not according to any single part.

42. But if thou thus attempt to call the sophists' dialectic to thy aid, thou hast stripped God of all the authority he enjoys among men; and when thou hast despoiled him of his name, thou castest us out from the communion and intimacy that intervenes between us and God. For since thou hast not even left us [the right to say] "Lord, have mercy," allowing us only the lifting of hands ^B and the raising of eyes toward the mountains from whence help will come to us, then already it will be permitted to us, like lions that go about roaring and demanding food from God, to moan and roar. But just as thou, O man, offerest no terrestrial, aerial, or marine animal—like a sheep or a sea-wolf—while distinguishing and rejecting between that which is to be offered and that which is not; so we, according to the pattern of the holy Fathers, regarding each of the names which we, having taken from our own most humble sphere, attribute to God—or rather, [when] we offer his own back to him—rightly offer them to him, taking away and not even taking into mind that which is alien to God; much as if, having flayed a sacrificial animal and washed it for purification, we offer it according to what is holy.

43. We call him Creator, therefore, and Artificer and ^D "Maker of all," for no other reason than that he brings forth his works diligently, just as they [do] according to themselves, and so also he; not [because he is] only creating and making all things with supreme art, but because that which...

he brings them into honor and establishes the things which have been made, and loves them, and cares for them, and deems them worthy of all providence. ^A We call God himself the Governor, not only of the vessel of the world, but as one who steers our own skiff as well, according to his own judgment and will, through the waves; although some of us, spurning his art of navigation and preferring to be tossed by the massive waves of life, dash ourselves against reefs and rocks to our own destruction. For even as we scrape away from the corner — stone whatever is superfluous — the useless grit or dross, so to speak, in a stone-cutting fashion — we retain only that which raises the soul toward heavenly and divine things. For Christ the Savior, having become, as it were, a wall-partition between distant natures, unites them into one body, as it were; these things, which appear diverse according to the temperaments of nations and peoples, are not directed toward the same end. Yet through the mediation, contact, and union of the Savior, they become one single thing and gain communion of spirit, so that those which were formerly wandering and discordantly at odds become unified. ^B And by his mediation and the touching and gathering together of each, they are made into one, so as to be established readily toward the rectitude of a spiritual household, things that were previously going aslant, but which afterward are set right into a state of compatibility.

44. ^C By the same logic, the Father, who is the Father of all in common, does not act by irrational instinct, but because he cares for all of us after the creation and birth of the world; and he rejoices if we are multiplied and increased as he himself wills; and he feeds and enriches those who are worthy, and makes some fathers according to the flesh, and others according to the spirit; and like a benevolent father, he bestows an inheritance, and indeed the kingdom of heaven. And thus God is truly a Father; wishing that the carnal father, who according to the ancients generates through another, should also be honored, and considering him to be godlike to us, yet not enduring it if the lesser of the two is preferred among us over him.

45. ^D The Son, moreover, is co-eternal with such a Father, having blossomed forth from him, inasmuch as he has proceeded from him without passion, because it is divinely [wrought]. And he, that [Father], loves this one who is consubstantial with him, and honors him with a twofold glory: one indeed before the creation of the world, and another after the incarnation and manifestation which were for the salvation of the world. And he possesses him as heir of all things that participate in his eternal life and kingdom, and measures out the inheritance of the Son along with him; not an inheritance to be ended by death, but one that will extend as a benefit of communion throughout eternity, so that everything which the Father has toward us, the same things also pertain to the Son, and that what belongs to the Son, the same also belongs to the Father, and that both should exist as immortal and co-eternal. For this one is the Son of that Father; just as the Father adopted us as sons by way of dignity, so also he, by having granted us this privilege, made us his brothers. For since he has conferred paternal love upon sons and brotherly love upon brothers, it is altogether fitting that that Son, one who is without origin, be called the Son of the Father, who is without beginning.

46. The Holy Spirit, moreover, has been deemed worthy to be named in this way among holy Christians for no material cause, because he is related to all life

and is the cause of every breath, ^A and the God of spirits who refreshes those in us who are failing due to wickedness, rescuing them from despondency, and, to sum it all up, he is the life-giver, the source of life, and in very truth the life-bestower. For he does not only bring forth all sorts of plants and preserve them, as co-creator and co-provider and co-sustainer and co-establisher with the Father and the Son, but he also warms all living things with the Spirit naturally united to them from God, and leads them to growth, and holds them together in life; whence also nature is named thus, according to an ancient sage, as being a sort of "blowing" (physis from physesis) according to the origin of its production. For it blows, as it were, and in this way distinguishes, and causes to swell by way of inflation, and increases the living body, like a skin being inflated; and from this it has the attachments and extensions of those things which are born of earth, and nourished, and grow; the Holy Spirit taking part in every good thing in the world, and not only that which is according to nature, but also that which is beyond nature; and the Holy Spirit lays hold of the perishing soul, not in a way that is airy, but in a way that transcends reason; and thus he refreshes it unto salvation, and by a spiritual fire performs the duties of those who sail spiritually, granting them the first sailing with full sails, ^B and kindling it into an angelic flame, and grants a second sailing to those who navigate with the Spirit.

47. Therefore, none of the lower terms that correspond to our own situation can be raised up to God unless, as far as is possible, it is appropriately applied between him and us. And this matter is compared to a king who, abounding in most precious wealth and resplendent with multi-talented finery, sometimes endures being wrapped in a garment that is among the lowliest out of some necessity, neither feigning, and while also adorning the not-so-costly wrapping with the decent things with which he clothed himself. And why do I not hasten to say how God rejoices in being called a shepherd? And he himself is not at all hesitant to be seen as meticulous, such as the one in the holy Gospel who left the ninety-nine sheep to be fed—as if he were herding them with his soul—and labored for the searching out of the one that had been lost of the hundred; and furthermore a builder, according to: "Unless the Lord build the house," who also taught us to build on firm ground and not on sand; and a guardian of a city, for if he does not guard it, its guards watch in vain; and a vine-dresser, according to the holy contemplation concerning him; and according to the Gospel, a householder. And even if he is not a fisherman in the literal sense, he is certainly a friend of fishermen on account of the disciples who practiced such a craft very well—for there is nothing strange in him becoming a friend to the glorious things of his own hands according to man, even if he were called a lion or an eagle, ^C welcoming the former from among the irrational land creatures, and the latter from among those of the air. And what is this to me, even if a worm is not deemed unworthy as a name for him? The same one knows how to enter the womb of the Virgin Mother, and to emerge from there as an infant, and to be laid in a manger, and to follow the nature according to the flesh, doing some things in a manner worthy of God, while also suffering others, and through all things adorning the human nature, just as in his taking on the sinless-

^A human being, 48 so also in his accepting words as many as are according to man; and [he did this] for our salvation so greatly abased himself—for which cause he was also incarnate—as even to be called by name sin and curse, whereas we had no complaint from any quarter, we take him captive, and so it is right that it be rendered back to him. 48. Let not, therefore, he who has stooped to such names for the sake of acceptance, and has deigned to be called by them, and finally has even taken up man himself, despise the earthly boundary; or to say the same, the notion according to him, and now also in a way his action, which through good invention has been handed down to life, and is distributive of equality, and justifies those who are in this life, and ^B works together with that which is common, humane, peaceful, and free from civil strife. And such a boundary would rejoice to be named, not in respect of majesty, as also the Holy Spirit is symbolically depicted not very grandly by vapor and smoke in prophetic fashion; but for me to summarize the discourse and to complete it quickly, if not entirely, O brother, are we to refer the thought of these things religiously to God, whose gift is in us and…

49. How then again, and from where else, should we name him, or greet him, or know him, or hand him over to others for instruction? Shall it be from the things which Paul, carried up on high and initiated, learned? And yet, having learned that as he was able to learn as a man, he had learned! It was surely possible according to man; but would man learn if not by human dialect? Are then the earthly and human ^C steps not despised even by the heavenly? Furthermore, if even from the things mystically revealed to Paul, it was necessary for the inspired psalmist John to name the Son of God, not [as] a boundary or Word, but something better—for perhaps even the word will not be accepted as being made proper to the supersubstantial Christ by those who dare everything, because the spoken word is fluid and so involuntary—but neither he nor we learned anything of those topmost words; for it was not permitted to the most holy Paul to say those things, and consistently he did not say them.

50. Come then, O man, let us also, even as every other nation, speak from those things among us ^D with human and correct language, and immediately also with spiritual [language] speak of the things of God as we are able; choosing the virtue in words and the good according to them, both psychic and spiritual, and so befitting God. Allow [the nature of] God to be clarified by us as we have received: [to speak of] one above us from those within us according to us; from understandable things the incomprehensible; from things of the earth the heavenly; from things sensible and coarse, him who is above all sensation and immaterial; from things circumscribed in place, him who is omnipresent and fills all things and is uncircumscribed; and from things visible and limited, the invisible and limitless. And if you grant and allow these things to us, then at once the boundary of the earth will not be for us useless for the proposed contemplation, being taken strictly in its more common sense, as was said before, but also subdivided more logically and as is possible by the three other boundaries [taken] according to homonymy, because there is also in them consistency and solidity and stability; yet not according to that which stands in a coarse and bodily manner and has thus traversed [the ground]. For the boundary that has traversed the earth is observed otherwise in a ditch, and

as importunate; let me rest, lest I excite you anew, you who do not wish to assign a limit to Christ the Savior, and who do not wish to proclaim a sublime and severe word; of which one is the Word whom He made His own, the other the Son. If you reproach the fact that such names have been conferred by men upon the Son of God, not only has God driven you to madness, but the demons also, who are servilely subject to God under those very denominations, will rise up against you; and thus the fixed limit of the Father, the Son, might be spoken of as a limit fixed upon the earth. For from the earth many things and many names are offered. ^B 51. The serene heart, which the Savior gladdens—whether it is naturally inclined or otherwise ordered to be agitated in terrible times, and from there not untroubled—is of no one other than the man who loves God; he who, when gladdening the heart, has put forth a sweet blossom of the countenance, according to the Preacher. By all means, the serenity of the heart is an exemption from all anxieties and cares, both foreign ones and as many as we humans suffer from the assaults of others. From these, which swell up like waves within us and disturb us—according to, "Why are you troubled,"—the rising of thoughts, as much as the rising of waves, is calmed into a gentle serenity, as God commands and thus gladdens us by caring for us. It is clear that the "serene-formed" heart does not here signify a pseudo-serenity, in that merely feigning quietude is not being serene, but rather one might say, is "serenity-like." But since, most of all among the other parts of the body, a blooming form ^C according to the gaze reveals that a person is rejoicing, and a serene face is a mirror of a soul that is rejoicing, for this reason he called the heart "serene-formed," out of which the joy of the countenance rises shining, offering a friendly humor and showing itself as if it were a rosy-fingered beauty of dawn. And otherwise, the form being received into the nature by the most holy Fathers, to speak against it, in truth it would be a "serene-formed" heart that is naturally and truly serene because it has anchored itself joyfully in God Himself; whose serenity according to joy is unflooded and undistracted, as it is above all containment, through its own eternity and being thus unceasing; so that a "serene-formed" heart is not one feigning to be in serenity, according to the "fire-formed" in what follows, but the truly well-serene because of the stability within it, which it possessed through the fixed limit of Christ, who is also the most true Word, who also commands the storm to stand still into a breeze, and humbles the waves; so that the sum of the concept of the "serene-formed" heart is the aforementioned fixed limit, the true Word, who also commanded towards truth and immediately made a fixed serenity, that is to say, a stable one, through which all manner of waves are stilled, as even the winds and the sea, whichever one might take them and it to be, obey them. 52. And the "perfects" is not placed simply instead of "makes," from which origin someone might have more poetically said "does well," or otherwise "gives substance" or "creates." But it is clear that He makes a serene-formed heart, yet not otherwise than in a priestly manner and according to some holy ritual, He gives substance or creates. Where, indeed, when someone [has] serenity

according to God, [should one] say that it is brought about according to the human [mode], so that from this [state] he who rejoices according to it may be called perfected in a holy manner? Having spoken of the heart, [he does] not [do so] indefinitely, but, as it were, with a universal determination through the article, he might perhaps indicate the heart for all; but certainly that heart which is beloved by God; for Christ makes such [hearts] to be of serene-form, bringing about what He promised. The physical organ itself, however, should not be understood as the heart here, but one must ascend from it, in the customary way, to the soul—which he indeed wishes to effect, he who says that both his heart and his flesh rejoice in God; for surely he did not assign the heart to that incorporeal [thing]. It is evident, moreover, that it is the same thing, by way of polyonymy, to call the heart "spirit"; wherefore also David, having said "a contrite spirit," attaches to it "a contrite heart," ^B through which, being a most vital and sovereign part in us, human life is at some point made known, as is every power of the soul, and the activities of the mind.

53. But let us be seekers of words that reach their end, which indeed is less profitable for a prudent man, as someone of the ancients has already taught, but [rather] he enjoins that we should cleave to a perfect friendship; lest, seduced by words and vain hopes, we live like dreamers and liars. Thou, therefore, note what is written, and place before your eyes what relates to the omnipotent God. But the Attics say "warmed" [εὔφρανεν], wishing to apply the natural augment, just as in "he blessed," "proved," "prospered," "lightened," "found," "happened," "decided," and in others. If, however, anyone wishes to prefix the [augment] to such words, let him do so, conforming himself to the common dialect. Note, however, that the expression uttered above, "For having finished the work, he gladdened the friends," ^C is faulty in two places; for the participle, equally with the verb itself, is ill-formed. For when the fourth foot is a spondee with a final [syllable], as in "having struck," and "having spoken," and similar ones, [and when] it has the fifth foot brachycatalectic, contrary to the rule, as if it were an iamb or trochee, therefore it is not easy to scan and measure the verse according to our common iambic. But if anyone, using critical judgment and in the Ionic manner, wrote "for having finished the work," or "he brought it to an end, gladdening, or having gladdened the friends," he will cure both the leading [syllable] of the fourth foot and the laxity of the fifth; and thus he may transfer it into a sound iambic verse. If we dissent from anyone [who says] that one ought to write [it] thus, it is not that we have remarked upon what is not entirely customary, but we will adapt [ourselves] to [what is] blameless; for that "to finish" [περαίνειν] for the most part denotes "to terminate" and "to perfect," while "to try" [πειραίνειν] signifies something different, can be learned from elsewhere. ^D

54. The poet calls the holy apostles friends to Christ, following the holy Gospel; but as signs and indications of divine presences and operations were [already mentioned], they are indeed the signals and badges also of His energies—the storms and gusts of winds, the turbulence of the sea and the heat, the dark air, the violent ether, the sky's

^A roar, and the tremors affecting the earth—nobody is ignorant of this. It is known likewise that creation itself stands against us in opposition to God whenever we provoke Him to wrath. In this instance, however, the violent wind of which the poet speaks in no sense serves Christ the Savior, but rather the Holy Spirit, as servile bodies obey a supreme king, just as sacred Scripture signifies in this place—though less clearly—or in another way, as the servile bodies of God serve His glory in the customary manner, and this to the confusion of us, the useless servants who are of no service to our common Lord in anything. To prove this, one could gather hundreds of passages of sacred Scripture by which it might be shown that, by divine nod, He threatens us with terrifying visions, so that we may believe they are truly sent to us by the Divinity Himself for correction.

55. The Lord did indeed rain down fire, and sent storms; these things happened in another way also for castigation, without historical notation, being silently well-pleasing; for thus, looking down upon the earth, He makes it tremble, as He alone knows how to do. Therefore, in this instance as well, with the sending of the divine Spirit, the Comforter from above, and with His effective arrival and operation, there necessarily follow certain things that are terrible for God to entrust; for he speaks of a "violent wind," and "tongues of fire." And indeed, to the good and most gentle Spirit, who recovers human souls and is thus desirable, there attends a violent wind, as if ^B vying to blow down and resoundingly trumpet and signify this royal advent, and warming and illuminating and enlivening with most divine fire—but also indeed as if working, setting afire what is necessary, and bringing it forward, and indeed tempering those who are zealous in the Spirit and approaching His table, just as divine food and a sacrifice pleasing to God; and in another way also consuming and causing to vanish, and resolving into nothingness things unworthy of His approach. But aerial fire also, breathing forth flame, descends simultaneously to terrify, so that with the terror, consolation might also appear, and so that, by the invisible fire of the holy Spirit, the spectators might take something from the visible and, in place of a simple good, obtain a double good.

56. If that aerial fire was shaped into fiery tongues, mingled and carried along with the violent wind, this was another cause of wonder to the spectators. For on the one hand, it struck them with astonishment by being composed into tongues in a manner not naturally suited to be transformed; and on the other hand, it provided assurance that the friends of God, the apostles, would no longer use the tongues that belong to the earth—which natural order binds, which steel carries away, which fear shuts, and which perplexity silences—but rather those which are heavenly and divine and indeed impassive; and furthermore, such as ^C burn up all the matter of impiety, just as dry chaff or brushwood, and those which are luminous and bright because of the theological manifestation; and indeed, they are all-wise, as breath of fiery power, not according to rhetoric or any other sophistry, but according to the most revered Lord, who Himself came to cast such fire upon the world—He who is Light, having come into it in another way, and [who… ^D]

^A transforming what was human into angelic, and bringing over things superior to human tongues, inasmuch as they were touched by the finger of the Spirit and resounded with things salutary to the world by chanting, so that even those who were initiated by the holy disciples spoke in strange tongues in a wondrous manner according to David, I mean tongues they had never learned. For it was necessary by these tongues to speak against the vain, and thus to bear witness to the Spirit of God and to announce heavenly things. For if for the atheists labor and difficulty arise from tongues, to the pious, on the contrary, there comes sweetness as honey; so that the ^B tongues of the ancient peoples, by which an immense light was kindled and which rose into the air for the aid of the most wicked king, were humbled into the miseries of human life. But the tongues of the present feast, and those who were enlightened by them, have pledged themselves to God, the King of kings. For they contain the fire of the Trinity, which does not consume external things. For because it came from above with a violent wind, it did not strike into tongues of flame like thunder and contrary to the natural law, but it illuminates and perfects in a wondrous manner those who were endowed with that light, and it leads them—as if by the violent wind that resides in the power of the Holy Spirit—to the Father of lights.

57. It remains for both them and us to say that the fire written of symbolically is God, and that it was not poorly understood by the wicked-minded Phoinix—the all-wise Lord did not so misdirect matters, that behold, by sending these fiery tongues upon His disciples, He might display the life-giving power and operation of the Holy Spirit through a visible object, and indicate a supernatural meaning through a venerable thing. From this we recognize that the apostolic language also became fiery, and that the lightning bolts were sent from heaven to the holy apostles with spiritual reason, which did not stir the godless hearers to a song. By the lightning bolts, however, we are not to understand simply the voices of thunder, such as we have known elsewhere, but the sons of thunder. For as the thunder urged them on, they and those who came after them, the teachers, spoke; in which sense John also is the "son of thunder," just as he is also a divine lightning bolt, an offspring of such thunder, ^C because of his having flashed not only with a God-befitting brightness of life through virginity, but also theologically. But if tongues are opposed to tongues according to the nations, yet the apostolic ones, even if they appear to differ according to the one who has spoken thus, due to a misunderstanding of a "drunkenness" of appearance, they nevertheless agree spiritually in another way, and come into one harmony; wherefore it was for some to say that the tongues from above were tongues of fire.

58. But what they themselves do is not the work of fire, nor of lightning, nor of any other things that are fires in the world, but of an intellectual flame, such as also ^D signifies the angels; it does not represent them, but it writes in symbols; he who possesses it

^A receives a light-bearing mind, proceeding from the Father of lights, and bringing it to the illumination added to man, and augmenting the faculties, which it transforms from human into divine and apostolic, nay, even into the warmer nature of God, so that the Lord might thus be called the God of gods of the apostles, who is able to multiply fiery visions, and now to manifest fiery tongues in mysteries, and at the same time to move and bring back to the mind those who concern themselves with questions; whose miracles, to speak briefly, are represented symbolically, as the poet sings: The wind is a symbol of the Holy Spirit; the power of which expresses the virtue of the God of powers, and the fire exhibits the work of the divinity, which is at once scorching and illuminating, whose presence pertains to present matters, and in which regard the tongues indicate wisdom; whose abysses also flow before God as rivers to those who are worthy to drink from them and to draw them out for the common benefit. But let these things suffice so far. ^B

59. But the violent wind is distinguished from that which comes with a sweet breeze and which stirs the voice. It is not, however, the violence of the wind which divided the Red Sea into parts, and which buried the children of the most blessed Job under a ruin. Wherefore even now it is declared a wind not on account of violence, but on account of solemnity. For violence is something strong and is derived from force [via], which among the ancients signifies virtue, and of which there is much discourse. For from this, life itself also draws its origin. For he who has much of human life, he also possesses great virtue. But that which among our people is heard as tyrannical and inhuman force, and which by legislators incurs punishment, that the philosophers called excessive insolence. But prose writers also join the term *biaion* [violent] with the word *antithesis* and use it in this sense. But from where the poet took the word *glottematos* I do not know. ^C But perhaps in the crowd of vocabulary a little drop has trickled in, whence we know it to be derived from the verb, as we know other similar things. But if somewhere "speaking water" is read, one might likewise call this wind speaking, divinely and mediately, because of the word with the divided wind.

60. But "distributed the Spirit," is the same as "apportioned." But it is distributed in no other way than according to the grace which is given to each from God, who distributes different things to different people, just as He judges, and which He will never cease doing. ^D But if anyone, seeing another superabundant in charisms, suffers violence from it, God, the giver of charisms, will be able to say to him: "My grace is sufficient for thee"; adding also that: "My power is made perfect in weakness." For if you are weak, no grace having been taken from me, I, He says,

^A will fulfill the weakness by the power that is in me. It should be known also that the word "distributing" (Greek: *neimas*), from which the word "distribute" (Greek: *nemo*) begins, from which also comes the word "law" (Greek: *nomos*), indicates that the distribution today of the most Holy Spirit to the holy apostles and disciples of Christ has for them become a law, as will appear in what follows; so that, having ordered this well as they were commanded for our sake, they have become lawgivers to us, who are truly Israelites—[the word "Israelites" meaning] clearly those who, through them and by means of them, have become spectators of God.

61. The word "promised" (Greek: *hypescheto*) then moves beyond the syntax; for having finished the work, it passes from there to all the partial aspects of the divine work in common. ^B "Promised" is a greeting-word, derived from "to undertake" (Greek: *hypeschen*), the usage of which is in the phrase "to submit the neck" (Greek: *hypeschen auchena*), that is, to submit and to be under, by way of the obeisance of a hand being extended. For thus, in a certain way, Christ the Savior also "promised" [or "undertook"] for his disciples, having submitted himself for the sake of the condescension of humility. And having promised a benefit, those who are friends owe it to themselves to undertake in return both the reception of the good being given and the repaying of gratitude in return. Otherwise, if one interprets these words differently, it has a conjunctive sense. For it is evident that he who promises something, especially to true friends, is held by them, or is possessed by them, or is bound as by a debt. And the word "to promise" (Greek: *hypischneisthai*) is in line with such verbs; and likewise "promised" (Greek: *hypescheto*), and as many other such words as there are.

Hirmus of the third ode

62. The nexus of this third poem, in a very subtle way, depends upon the festive subject; it is composed in the rest of its texture regarding the matters of the holy prophetess Anna. This is done by the law of the psaltic hirmology, which that prayer of hers also facilitates for those dealing with the third odes. This holy poet says, therefore, while at the same time ennobling the good thing of Christian sequence and prayer, and the holy Anna herself, that it is so great and such a good thing to pray and to ask for the better things from God, that the indissoluble shackles and the bonds ^D of the womb of the one not bearing children due to sterility—of her who was, as Scripture proves, the prophetess Anna—were broken not by any gift, such as are great among men, but by the prayer, dear to God alone, of the woman suffering the affliction; and it finally permitted her to walk freely in peace through her life by having brought forth children. And at once the same prayer also carried away the insults, that is to say the reproaches, which Anna was suffering maliciously from those who were contentious, and especially from the prolific Peninnah, who was also proud of her children; who, having nothing else to say against the chaste and God-fearing prophetess Anna, out of the foolish accounting of sterility, as if the reason for slandering depended upon it, were slandering her as...

being a sinner, and for that reason not receiving the fruit of the womb from God; yet ^D she would surely have been sorrowful in giving birth, but would have rejoiced after the birth, because a human being was born through her into the world, and for this reason she was not permitted by God to conceive and bring forth, so that joy might never come to her. But he says, the bond of sterility was "ruptured" for that holy Anna, who bore not many, but one great son, named by prayer Samuel, which means "asked of God"—not a simple prayer, such as many of us breathe out with only our extreme lips, aiming to breathe and pray at the same time, but one she sought with supplication, with contrition of heart, from God who is all-powerful and all-knowing. Such, then, is the meaning of the whole stanza.

63. Now the mind [of the hymn], which hangs for a little on the feast being celebrated, as we have said, is the contrite spirit of Anna, which is itself a holy charisma coming from God to good people, just as it comes from the Father and the Son, and thus also from the most holy Spirit whose feast we celebrate. For there is nothing in us that is good, which has not descended from above. As for the words in the stanza, where it is written "ruptured," it could also have been written "loosed." For bonds are loosed, and so are fetters, according to the text: "Loose the sandal from thy feet." For to bind and to shackle are ^B of the same order, and a fetter, being a kind of bond, is named after the foot. Therefore, it is the same thing to loose fetters and to loose a sandal from the feet. This is made most manifest by another melody, in which it is read that God "loosed," or, what is the same thing, "ruptured" the insoluble bonds of the sterility of the Mother of God’s mother. By a similar reasoning, because of her, the curse by which women bear children in sorrow after Eve was loosed or ruptured, as if it were a solid and most firm bond. But the equality of the words "rupture" and "loose" is manifested in this: "Having ruptured the bonds of hell, He loosed the sentence of death." And thus the chanter could have written "loosed" instead of "ruptured." But here the word ^C was placed before the word "loosed" because the diction is equally honorable and, so to speak, resonant; but especially to show the hardness of the bond and the speed of the release. For consonant with him who said "bonds unbreakable, insoluble," iron ones are ruptured, and whatever others are similarly hard to them—such as the silver one at Ephesus, which the great Alexander ruptured after striking it with his sword—but those things are loosed which are able to be bent. The dignity of the word is also shown by its derivation: for from the *rho* comes "I am powerful," just as *rhōsis* (strength) and *rhēssein* (to rupture) are derived.

64. The "fetters of the womb" is a distinction from other, multiform bonds. It is not obscure that a "fetter" belongs properly to the feet, whence it seems to have been derived. But the bonds of the womb ^D are in any case many, whence the term "of the barren one" is placed for the sake of distinction. For a barren womb seems to be fettered, in that it is not able to run forth to perform its own functions.

If someone wishes to inquire what it was that robbed the prophetess of offspring; just as total sterility renders a woman barren, as we know, through the humors that generate sterility, so too that which is sterile has been made so by a certain author of sterility; he will learn that her womb had been made sterile by a paralysis of nature—a condition many wombs suffer—but that, having been healed by God, it flourished in childbearing. ^A

65. But regarding the intolerable injury, the reproaches regarding the lack of offspring as stated, it must be understood that these are a species of injury, especially when they bite the hearers to the quick ^B and penetrate to the depths of the soul; at such times they are uncontainable; for it is difficult for one enduring reproach, while containing the pain and as it were stewing in it, not to be in some way saddened in return. But such an injury may also be called "unbridled" in another sense, not on the part of the listener, but on the part of the speaker: because, while all words are winged, and fly from the mouths of men swift and fleeting, here the devil also lends a hand and flies along, rejoicing together with the one who rejoices in insult. For just as to one who is angry and deals blows, wrath distills in the chest sweeter than honey, so too is it for the one who insults with anger; so that we can say with Herodotus that, just as where wine is drunk words are brought forth, so too, when wrath melts in his heart sweeter than honey, ^C insults pour forth. Note, moreover, that the poet subjects the unbridled calumny to rhythm, which is indeed clear from the second verse. For having said in the first, "He broke the bonds of the womb," and then having added "and an intolerable insult," and applying "he broke" to this kind of insult too, he allows us to perceive that, just as what was broken above was a bond, so too the "broken" thing below has a similar meaning; and it is impossible to gainsay that painful things often pierce a man more than iron. ^D

66. Furthermore, he distinguishes the injury suffered by the woman blessed with children on purpose, so that we might not think that Anna suffered insult simply from anyone at all, but especially from women blessed with offspring. Yet they should have reflected that good fortune is not necessarily reserved for good people alone, but sometimes also for the wicked, as that passage demonstrates: "You received, O rich man, your good things in your lifetime, and Lazarus likewise bad things." You therefore, women happy in childbirth, and you, fathers rejoicing in offspring, do not so incautiously inveigh against those who are indeed good but are afflicted with childlessness, lest, having grieved the Holy Spirit, you experience a change in your own affairs, as God shall judge, who both gives children and takes them away. Remember, moreover, that it was not merely the injury of one good woman that saddened Anna: for from that source others are shown, and the prophetess is not said to be molested by that one alone, since many reproached her with Phenenna’s fertility, saying that she too would have been a mother, if she had been a servant of God such as that one was.

^A 55’. Now the fact that the prophetess’s prayer alone ^B sets aside the other divine offerings [refers to] the pure prayer, which the very name given to it honors. For it is called *euchē* (prayer/vow) from *eu*, that is, from the "excellent" or "best," *echesthai* (to be held). Now the "best" and that which is most perfect among the virtues is God; to whom, having come, the God-loving man is "well" in the most sovereign sense, that is, he "possesses" God, who admits such a prayer. One must know, however, that *euchē* (prayer/vow) and *proseuchē* (supplication) do not always signify the same thing. But when someone asks of God, lifting up the soul to Him and standing in a way before Him, that is, being near Him, that sort of thing is *proseuchē*; and immediately, it is also *euchē*. But when, having recalled the good things from God, he promises what he wishes to do virtuously by way of recompense, then he is praying and making a *euchē*, but not simply a *proseuchē*, but rather what is commonly called in this way a "stipulation" (undertaking), which is in some way itself approaching *proseuchē*, and for this reason is called *euchē*. And to speak otherwise: *proseuchē* seems to excel over *euchē*. For *proseuchē* contains the totality of the latter; but in addition, it is favored by the fact that it indicates proximity through the preposition, by which it shows that he who prays is standing before God and, being confident as if before a friend, he carries his requests to Him; in which there is often also a certain gift-giving will. Wherefore such a one might well claim to enter his high station before God, and to bring his petition before Him. ^C Yet the cantor did not simply place the word "alone" here in ordinary and plain language, but most philosophically. For he said it toward the understanding of those things which, as the philosophers say, are yoked to *proseuchē*; for perfumes, libations, sacrifices, and various offerings are yoked to it. He says, therefore, that the prophetess’s prayer worked wonders through God, not with some companion or accessory to it, but *alone* by itself, through which, as it is rightly referred to in every way, man is safely kept, having no [other] covering or worldly superfluity.

58. ^D That [phrase] regarding the prophetess Hannah, [that she had] from the God of knowledge, signifies in the soul of the holy woman the knowledge, or rather foreknowledge, and the good hope [derived] from that. For knowing well that even if the bonds of fruitlessness were otherwise indissoluble, yet they would be loosed for her, no less than for the blessed Sarah, if she prayed to God with a contrite spirit, she did so; and she found that which had come to pass for her beyond hope. But the [expression] "bringing a contrite spirit to God" has suffered the disjunction of the offering in the Ionic manner. For just as *zōa graphein* (to paint animals), said disjunctively, is the same as the compound *zōgraphein* (to paint/depict), so also to "bring to such a one" arrives at the same point as to "offer to such a one." And he said "contrite spirit" not according to the meaning of the broken reed of Scripture, or of the psychic bones, which are sung of as being crushed by the weight of pleasures, but he signified the soul humbled according to virtue; which happens when a man acting well deems himself to be nothing; at which time the soul is said to bow down and be bent like a collar, and to have stooped, so as even to raise others up for salvation, not however to suffer in accordance with that...

^A late and literal contrition or humiliation—as is shown by these bowings and genuflections, which are the self-abasement of soul and body—this contrition and bending is taken from trees, many of which are bent, whereas not a few, being dried out, are broken in pieces, that is, they are rubbed together and worn down. This is what the bones of those who are humbled according to David’s manner before God also suffer, as it is necessary that those firm structures—the sins committed by force—should be crushed, for it is by this means that even the soft parts are humbled. Therefore, conversely, for those who are curing themselves into spiritual health, it is necessary that the interior parts be crushed through humility, and brought down from that intense and unstable height, so that, once the interior parts are healed and restored to the upright interior man, the exterior—the carnal and material man—may also stand firm. For thus, when a crooked tree is straightened correctly, the bark itself is stretched into a similar rectitude of habit. Therefore, a contrite heart—that is, as David interprets it, one who bears a contrite and humbled spirit—will not be frustrated in those things which are from God, having been crushed; or, to put it the same way as David interprets: such a one shall not be despised by God.

69. Here, however, other Davidic bones must also be considered, not one of which shall be broken. And what are these? Those to whom God is near, because they are humble in spirit and thus worthy of salvation. For such as these are like lions, and are so firmly knit together in spiritual bones that they are like a fire-breathing instrument, crushing those who persecute them; they do not need the breaking of bones like those who are worthy to suffer in such a way. But if anyone, thinking that the "upright" is opposed to the "contrite and humbled" soul, and calling to mind the "upright spirit," should say that he prefers to have an upright spirit rather than a contrite and humbled spirit, he will hear that such a good desire is for him only half-perfect; for he ought to say that he does not love the upright more than the contrite spirit, but loves both equally, since both lead to an equal end of goodness. Most of all, therefore, it is better for him to know that first the heart must be crushed, like a mountainous and rough rock, projecting on a precipice, rejecting what is level and therefore humble, smooth, or even; then one must proceed to instruct the upright and unhindered [way] for those who walk in the life dear to God. For otherwise, a soul that is not crushed will not be correctly directed toward goodness, just as neither will stones of stumbling, which, if not removed to level the path, will not allow one to follow the upright way.

70. But that I may otherwise bring this argument to a head, crush, O friend, this aforementioned rugged, hill-like rock, and once you have cut it into small pieces, carry it away diligently; and having observed the appropriate operation, and reflected within yourself upon the holy building, as the most divine Scripture commands, and having amassed sufficient material, begin the building under the auspices of the Lord in the name of God; and directing it into rectitude, partly by the plumb line, partly by the level of spiritual art, adapt the house into a temple worthy of God, so that an upright spirit may dwell therein; for thus, and not otherwise...

^A will the most holy Spirit enter thy house, that is, thy heart. Having earned this much for thee from the master of sciences, the great David, we have handed it over for thy profit; for he says, "Create a clean heart in me, O God," as if repeating from the beginning of life; and, "Renew a right spirit within my bowels." What, then, shall I do? That my sacred house being thus established, and remaining unharmed by the blowing of winds and the flooding of rivers and the shaking of earthquakes, I may be a leader against the passions, and not become servilely subject to them, being strengthened by a ruling spirit through thee. To summarize the whole in brief, contrition is necessary before all things, as has been said; then ^B fitting construction, after which the right spirit shall be renewed in our bowels. Therefore, a spirit that is contrite is as desirable as one that is right.

71. I speak again of laudable, voluntary contrition, which those who are the first to declare their sins and judge themselves experience happily. For those who are crushed and bowed down by others and from elsewhere are not happily affected. For what good will it be to a wicked man and sinner to have his arm "crushed" according to the psalms, or to one who has been led into a snare, and whose soul has been humbled? But it is necessary to remember that that most holy contrition comes through God, who proves and does not reject a contrite spirit, as worthy to be joined to Himself; and such contrition is so named because the soul bruises and breaks itself with another, and that which is hard in itself it attenuates and diminishes into a spirit dissociated from the body. Who, then, is that "other"? God, by whose assistance to His own creature, so that the soul may be perfected by Him alone, the composite man who wishes to be crushed into that docile humiliation which is in God, easily attains the good of contrition. These things are indeed metaphorically derived from the crushing and bending of plants; ^C but another separate tropical meaning which is called "crushing" appears to be useful, so that the soul contrite according to God, and thus neither rough nor hard, nor proud, may be considered dear to God. But there is another mode of contrition, that is, a metaphor, which here wishes to show that which is completely worn; so that a spirit that is humbled is also crushed, as if truly broken through humility; or in other words, it is crushed in that it is worn in many ways, or in some one greater way on all sides. ^D

72. The singer calls the almighty God "Dynast" [Power] in a scriptural sense, either simply as Ruler, or instead of "mighty and strong," since the word "powerful" [dynatos] is neither metrically nor melodically useful here to the poet. Such a word does not always find praise among the ancients, but there are some who call a violent man a "dynast," not speaking in the proper sense, but placing a middle term and putting the dynast as the powerful one. For "powerful" is found in divine Scripture not only said with praise, as in: "The Lord is strong and powerful in battle," and, "Gird thy sword upon THY thigh"

O Mighty One," but also used with reproach; as even he who boasts in malice, so also a dynasta (powerful one), as we see commonly. This dynasta, therefore, is God, whose arm is fortified by power: but he whom the Most High overthrows perishes, lying low. Thus also the power of a horse, that is, vigor, has its own praise. So too the faculties of living in an eighty-year-old man. Not such, however, is tyrannical power. One must ask further, if, just as "I test (peirazo) / tester (peirastes)," "I examine (dokimazo) / examiner (dokimastes)," so also "powerful (dynastes)" is derived by some from "I have power (dynazo)," why is it not accented accordingly? Perhaps the poet ^B has confused it, as with the small animal, regarding which is the proverb: "The death of the pyrausta (fire-insect)," for those who perish quickly through their own folly.

73. To speak of God as the God of knowledges and wisdom is the same thing. But what knowledges? They are certainly, first, those which are in God Himself, which are incomprehensible and ineffable even to the angels themselves, according to which He knows Himself; then, also those among men, which are also of God, inasmuch as they have descended to them from Him. The great Peter confirms this word for us when he says: "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." But if anyone, a boaster among all, prides himself on having discovered some craft or method, though a frequent crowd of wise men has passed such things on, yet he is not the God of this knowledge; he is merely a producer, by way of the discovery of art, from the God of knowledges, to whom alone it belongs to be God and Lord of knowledges, as well as of others—those which pertain to the various specifically named pursuits—and who prepares these pursuits, as being fitting for Him and Him alone. For it is not said that He prepares them for others, but for Himself, according to the harmonious theory of the holy Anna. Here, however, it must be known that if, according to the most holy Peter saying, "You know all things, you know that I love you," the sense of "to know" (eidenai) and "to recognize" (ginoskein) is the same, one might perhaps be afraid to call God [the God] of "cognitions" (eideseon), just as of "knowledges" (gnoseon), fearing lest he ^C be thought to rave in the manner of the Platonic species of ideas. And yet, he who is so cautious, if he brings knowledges and cognitions into one according to a correct understanding and opinion, would not say anything absurd, as will appear in what follows from our author.

74. That the knowledge of God is set before other knowledges, as the one which is properly true and certain, is manifest also from the fact that no one can know the mind of the Lord, while those who reason rightly about God are secondary to Him, such as those who were then dwelling in Judea, according to that saying: "Known in Judea is God," where the holy Israel were those minds that beheld God. Therefore David excellently added: "In Israel is His name great," where also the psalmist, as "We magnify and exalt the name of the Lord," was speaking rightly; for there ^D it was being greatly magnified. Now such knowledge or science...

is required of all men: "Know, for," he says, "I am God," which is to say, recognize, understand. ^A But these are the first, and others are the second kinds of knowledge; the former belonging clearly to God himself, the latter shining upon us from Him. There are also other kinds of knowledge of God besides these, namely, of our own hearts and ways, to which the prophetess herself, inclining, seems to remind God, because she knows that she possesses a pure heart and recognizes that she walks according to virtue. Therefore she seeks a reciprocal grace from Him, so that He might dispose, or rather, that He might readily and henceforth lead him, and this through her prayer; and thus, having prayed, she persuades Him and obtains the desired request.

^B 75. But if there are also other kinds of knowledge beside the Most High which cannot be numbered among those dear to Him, He Himself is nonetheless the Lord of them, disposing them as He wills, and not allowing them to rule over or harm those who serve Him, but also leading them away or changing them, and introducing His own by ineffable grace, by which a man who is endowed, according to the prophets and the disciples of Christ, speaks of God, not being agitated by wicked spirits that harass those who are contemplative, but being sheltered, as if dwelling within a divine tabernacle or holy temple—things better than the Mosaic cloud, and, so to speak, divine retreats. "For I will shelter him," He says, "because he has known my name." Such was the prophetess Anna, who knew God in that she was sheltered by Him, and thus in stillness, inwardly in her heart, she conversed with Him, not crying out with an acute and manifest shout, but rather, like the holy Jonah from the belly of the whale, crying out from the distress of her heart from within. Therefore, most wisely, David also, after the shelter which comes through the knowledge of God, added, "He will cry out to me, and I will hear him"; for He, even while the good man is still speaking, and even before he speaks, inclines His ear and hears him.

76. Since these things are so, it would be well for us to say also that the admirable prophetess, having succeeded in her ode in restraining those taught by her not to speak of high things with pride, and knowing that boasting is the companion of vainglory—we are aware how foolish and lacking in mind and knowledge are those who do such things, and because of this are turned away ^D from God—immediately philosophizes that God is in reality knowledge and the God of knowledge, and that He loves those who are truly known by Him. Therefore, having paid attention to such a philosopher, and regarding her as a herald and a teacher, God grants her that which was in her prayer, namely, the beloved child whom she had requested. Furthermore, it must be acutely stated that by proclaiming the Lord as the God of knowledge, the most holy Anna philosophically opposes those who, by blaspheming, pronounce that there is no knowledge in the Most High; as if saying that we men do not know, and for that reason, as those not possessing knowledge, we ought ourselves to say, "Who has known the mind of the Lord, who knows all things even before [they come to pass?]"

^A For He alone is truly most wise, and as He is all-wise, so also is He all-knowing, and He is Lord not of knowledge or of knowledges, but of all knowledges; from which it is also gathered that He is the cause of neither wickedness nor of any evil. For sin is not knowledge, but is essentially ignorance. And if it is ignorance, then the one who sins does not possess wisdom in so far as he sins; therefore, the Lord of knowledges is most wise and most holy. And if the union according to the blessed Adamic marriage, by which Adam knew his wife, and she too knew him, is among the number of knowledges, then God is the God also of this knowledge. Therefore, He will also bring to pass, in relation to it, a most worthy effect and ordinance, consenting to the fulfillment of what she herself requested.

77. But it is not impossible to say here, as the prophetess ^B theologizes in condensed fashion, that she declares God to be the cause of all good things. For she says, "God is the Lord of knowledges," and no constructive knowledge remains idle with Him, but all pass over into good work, and this is completely fitting for this best of all craftsmen. It would not be absurd, however, to say that to the good knowledge which is according to God there are also joined: laudable foreknowledge, and discernment, and recognition, and the noble condemnation of sins previously committed, and forgiveness, and circumspection, when they discuss things while spiritually circumspecting one another. For such are certain knowledges approved by God. In these things, however, it must be noted that the melodist ^C here skillfully and wisely applied the term "Lord of knowledges" to the Potentate, showing that, just as we know a perfect man to be conspicuous in word and deed, so also it is fitting to know God to be both a Potentate and a knower; and especially over all such, He who, being such and knowing what had to be done in the case of Anna, at the same time being powerful, did it without needing any other to cooperate.

First Troparion of the Third Ode.

78. It is possible, I think, for someone to dare to say here that the beginning of the good work, ^D according to the set-forth troparion, is not entirely radiant, which the ancient Theban poet requires. For if what is placed in the fifth verse, *with the lightning of the Spirit*, is not in the dative, but ends in the nominative, and someone arranges the syntax as follows: "The lightning of the Spirit is incomprehensible," one could not much praise such extreme inversion; and for someone to use this with excessive boldness would be to distance himself as far as the heaven is from the earth, or at least as far as those things above that can be seen from those which are beneath the earth, or as far as one can plunge into the deep. For a simple and unpracticed person, passing by and having heard, "For it is incomprehensible, the most divine," immediately endeavors to perceive what this is, and it wearies him over a long

^A period to await the explanation, and in this way the long hyperbaton does not rest the hearing. But if someone thinks of some other noun taken from the common usage according to ancient custom, this will alienate one who is not listening carefully. For perhaps it will be possible to say that, just as from the verb "to reign" there is derived in some way or another the noun "the king," or "the one reigning"—as in, "For it is no evil to reign," or in, "To the king there is a noble palace"—likewise also in the case of "I will judge." The direct noun would be "judgment," understood from "I will judge." So here too, from the verb "it revealed," there slips into the thought the idea that "it is incomprehensible." ^B One might likewise say, having forced it, that it is possible to securely understand from the word "incomprehensible," as a common noun, "apprehension," which we Christians take as a most celebrated lemma and possess as a common dogma. Most divine and having taken and kept the triadic, above-being power in one God, the three-personed one; which apprehension, or grasp and comprehension, is in another word "incomprehensible," since also this alone of it is apprehensible, its being incomprehensible according to the one who has philosophized thus. It is possible also for the "thearchy" governing such a noun to be drawn from "the most divine," and to achieve securely and correctly a similar syntax. Whether, therefore, according to the first account which follows the long hyperbaton, one manages the rhetorical order of the troparion, or according to the three terms that have borrowed directly a feminine noun—the dative "by the flash of the Spirit" remaining ^C when it is understood—it produces a thought regarding the person of the proposed melodic work in the one encountering it, and casting his gaze upon it. Let it therefore be decided by the lover of contemplation which he prefers; but I think that the first account would please one because of its obviously unencumbered nature.

The revealment of speakers having revealed the illiterate.

^A The word of the troparion is as follows: *incomprehensible* [ἄληπτος] is currently found, meaning that which is ungraspable, which it is not possible to seize. This expression, being homonymous, also signifies the irreprehensible, whether a man or a life, of which, because it is virtuous, no one can find anything worthy of accusation. The word seems to be metaphorically derived from the technical terms of wrestlers, who, being anointed with oil and skillfully inclining themselves, take care not to offer holds to their opponents. Whence the chaste Joseph, who fled naked from the Egyptian mistress so that he might not be seized, could be very sweetly called "incomprehensible." ^B To this "incomprehensible," according to the method of the wrestler, is opposed "cautious" [εὐλαβής], which clearly anyone who wishes could easily seize. However, the word *ἐστὶν* is sharpened because of the continuity of the *eirmos*, so that "is incomprehensible" [ἄληπτός ἐστι] harmonizes with "it rent asunder [ἔῤῥηξε] the belly" regarding the oxytone accent; to others, however, as the technicians desire, it ought to be enclitic. But whoever is weary of hearing this, let him disregard it, while it burdens us in no way.

82. ^B The most godlike [θεαρχικωτάτη] surpasses every intensity of brightness: for one lightning is superior to another, and more divine, and one is more primordial, more primary, and most primary. But as for the most godlike enlightenment of the Spirit—and forthwith also of the Father and of the Son—we would not rightly say that anything is superior. For this signifies the most definitive energy of God, teaching the world in various ways and thus saving it: what work of God could be superior to this, after the economy of the Incarnation, where all things tend toward our salvation and thus to the fulfillment of the world above? ^C The term "thearchical" [θεαρχία] and those things derived from it are theological. The word "covenants" [ῥήτρας], when circumflexed, which means "orators" [ῥήτορας], has not been turned into broad usage, just as neither have "fathers" [πάτρας] for "fathers" [πατέρας], "mothers" [μήτρας] for "mothers" [μητέρας], or anything else of that sort. However, "daughters" [θυγατέρας] has been found contracted from the simple form: either someone uses the word that way, or it must be referred to poetic license and the necessity of this for the sake of the meter. ^D Nevertheless, we call "covenants" [ῥήτρας]—paroxytone in the feminine gender—the agreements made about certain specified points; the singular of which is, "But come, let us make a covenant [ῥήτρην]," and that is like "phratry" [φρήτρη] and such things. The word "revealed" [ἐξέφηνεν] is proper to lightning, upon the shining of which those things that were until then in darkness are made manifest, just as the disciples, who were obscure, were revealed when they were illuminated by the Holy Spirit; and not only did they shine, but they also gave this good passion to others. He calls "illiterate" [ἀγραμμάτους] those who do not know letters at all, whom one might call analphabets, or those who knew a few letters: in which signification he also used the one who wrote that a bishop can be illiterate, i.e., one trained in a few books of sacred scriptures. For he who knows nothing at all would be loath, I think, even to light a sacred lamp.

83. ^D The word "sufficiently" [ἅλις], it means "enough" as an adverb; it comes from [ἀλίζω], [ἁλίσω], that is, "I gather,"

it has to be adjusted, both for those who are eloquent and for the illiterate, and for those who stop mouths. ^A Now, among the Greeks, there were two kinds of sophists: especially the rhetoricians who were "plasmagraphs" [fiction-writers], those who, while practicing on fictitious subjects, were fashioning advocates for true wisdom. Such was the sophist Libanius, and Aphthonius, and others. Furthermore, there were philosophical sophists, dialecticians, who, when conversing among themselves, played with subtleties and were thus both convicted and convicting; not desiring to be in charge of disciplines, yet working hard at this annoying art. Hence, we have taken up the habit of calling every wicked person—especially the prince of evils, the demon—a sophist of malice. But [the term] "stopping mouths" is taken as equivalent to "closing the mouth," and, to speak of one as the other, "muzzling." The expression is derived from vessels with narrow necks, which are called by the ancients "narrow-mouthed." Such are those whose mouths are gathered into a narrow opening, so that it can be plugged with a very thin piece of skin, or with tow, or with a small piece of wood. Therefore, to "narrow-mouth" [sustomizein] is to make the one being convicted into one who is speechless, because he is unable to bring forth a single word from ^B his mouth; as if one could not open it wide, but the lips were gathered together like a purse or some small jug. This is what the sophists who stood against the most holy disciples of God learned—not through fear or violence, but by being silenced by the apostolic word proceeding from the all-wise God.

84. Here, it is not at all untimely or superfluous to relate that a certain philosopher was devoted to two students, whom he followed with great care. One of them would receive teachings easily and almost instantly, but would quickly forget them afterwards; the other, with great labor, would keep the explanation he had received fixed in his memory forever. The first he likened to a wide-mouthed flask, which is easily filled but also easily emptied; but the second he likened to a small, narrow-mouthed jar, which more slowly receives the water and [more slowly] casts it out. Such indeed is the word. ^C He calls the "profound night" the most ancient error of the Gentiles, through which, as if walking in darkness, they were unable to see the light of truth, nor were the Greeks themselves [able], to whom worldly wisdom shone. Yet this night was of a new kind for them. For it was not the sun, sinking beneath the earth, that by its shadow there caused a darkening of creation; rather, this heavenly sun of truth was filling the world; but they, while seeing, did not see. It was destined, however, that in the end, in a later wonder, the reverse of this first condition should occur for the Gentiles. For when the unsetting sun, having descended from heaven upon us, went under the earth, at that moment the first night was driven away from those people, and light without evening ^D shone upon them. It should be noted that "profound night" indicates that it was extremely black, lightless, and dark. The metaphor is taken from the depths, from wells, and pits, and chasms, and dungeons, and seas, into which pure light does not penetrate, because light, being by nature raised upwards, is not naturally inclined to occupy itself with things that are either deep or otherwise angled or hidden away. From this, one must also understand the "deep..."

worship down to the very ground, and that deep serenity which, he who does not possess, prays to be rescued from the deep waters.

^B 85. As for the word "extracting" [or "those being extracted"], it has just been stated as equivalent to taking out, and thus leading forth; it is also accustomed to be said of those drawing anything up out of the deep. One "extracts" a person who is drowning in the midst of diving, or one who has fallen into deep mud; and from this, it is used more figuratively of one who has fallen into captivity. Related to this word "to extract" are "to rescue" and "to take out"; however, "to be destroyed" and "to be taken" [to death] are not such things. For we do not lift someone out of the deep, but when we raise up those who have fallen, we are not "destroying" them, even though someone might say "he destroyed [i.e., took] him" to mean that this is what he will do. That the term "to be extracted" and "the one being extracted" can also have a passive meaning, as can "to be withdrawn" and "the one being withdrawn," there is no room for doubt.

By "infinite peoples," he means only those who have been illuminated by the lightning of the Spirit. For even if a vastness of the Gentiles is otherwise manifest, if one were to consider those who even now walk in the darkness of errors and who even lie in wait for us in the nocturnal hours; yet, those who are illuminated according to God are also "infinite." Let all the saints be brought before our minds, and we shall certainly marvel at the infinite quality within them, though this is not taken in the strict sense. For if not even all men from Adam until the consummation of the world would be strictly called "innumerable" or "infinite" before God, how could infinity apply to His saints and to the rest of the Christians together? There are, therefore, "infinite" peoples, whose multitude, even if it has a limit, is nevertheless no more known to us than that which is strictly infinite. If the earth itself is sometimes said to be ^C immense, and at other times to have boundaries, that point must also be examined, as it will be useful for those present here. One must consider, for a similar purpose, the phrase "infinite peoples consenting," which is found in another poet.

86. The lightning of the Holy Spirit, and especially that which concerns today's festival, in which there is a violent spirit and tongues of fire, has a certain sweetness in addition to its majesty, arising from the natural concept by which we are led up to the most divine contemplation. For we know that even the lightning which is perceived by the senses indicates a sensible spirit which pre-existed before its own generation and which produces it; for when this is enclosed within a cloud and, through motion, becomes inflamed and seeks a way out, the violent rupturing of the gloom produces thunder, while the spirit generates the lightning, which paints the air with daylight colors. Since such physical things are true, he knows how to teach the one who desires to seek what is pious from every direction in the present festival. ^D And just as that fire illuminates the night—and I do not speak of that ancient fire which provided help to the Jews, but of simple fire—so too does the lightning; and those who are experienced know that it often greatly aids travelers and those who sail, and becomes a salvation for them; with whom, I think, debts of thanksgiving are stored up for such kinds of lightning. But by all means, and in every way, do we owe the greatest thanks to the Holy Spirit, through whose lightning the night is in many ways deeply res-

removed: not only the night of the soul, but also the night of life, which is almost incomprehensible in how many and what kind of nocturnal errors it has filled its measure.

Troparium second of the third ode.

^B 87. Theology. The present troparion does not trail after it an entirely common sentiment. The poet begins in a festive manner from the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father, singing vividly and solemnly as befits the meter. His beginning is structured according to the first Theologian, the evangelist, who said: *In the beginning was the Word*. For he says: *He was proceeding*, and so on. But here it must necessarily be noted before the interpretation that after the first two distichs, the following are written thus: *Whose, through the paternal authority of the Son, now manifests the kindred torch — the fiery sound in Sion*. And as for this scriptural text, as also for the one before it, the necessary things have been said; for now, we must apply ourselves to the meaning of the troparion, which is as follows: ^C *He was*, as has been said, *proceeding from the unbegotten light*, that is, from the Father of lights, *the incorruptible splendor*, that is, the Holy Spirit, light proceeding from light, and omnipotent in other ways and in many manners, but especially in that He has the emission of light as His own. Therefore, the torch or brightness of this said Holy Spirit, as His own as it were to a great light, the authority produced by the Father through the Son—which is common to the Holy Trinity—He manifests today to the nations that are present, sensibly and so openly in Sion on the feast of Pentecost, the fiery resonance; that is, as was said before with the fiery tongues, the violent wind blowing from above with a sound, and vivifying the believers at that time; and through them, those also who are to hear from them the proclamation and the truest history of the miracle.

^D 88. Note that in the first verse, the sublime melodist, speaking mystically and for that reason not entirely clearly, called the Father the "unbegotten light" to distinguish Him from the Son, the begotten light. In the third verse, having placed the Holy Trinity, he indicated the name of the Holy Spirit through a monosyllabic pronoun, while he clearly named the Father and the Son. With these, the mystical splendor is immediately understood, which is also declared through the pronoun as the Holy Spirit. It is to be wondered at concerning the observed troparion that the poet manifested it as all-luminous; and, so to speak, he lit it as a mystical seven-branched lamp: since he proclaimed the Father as the unbegotten light, and gave the Son to be understood as the begotten one, whom he wholly separated, calling the Father the unbegotten light; in the second verse, having inserted light and spi—

^A brilliance, he displayed a certain spiritual light through the phrase, and kindled a corresponding beacon; and in the fifth and final verse, he caused a fiery sound to resound.

89. Regarding the procession, that it is individually and exclusively attributed to the Holy Spirit, just as begetting is to the Father and being begotten to the Son—for the Father begets, and the Son is begotten from him, while the Holy Spirit proceeds from the same Father—this is consistently used, proven, and professed in the divine Scriptures. And just as that great wise man who was discussing the immortality of the soul in Crete spoke sweetly to the effect that the soul is immortal, so also can we say now that to dogmatize that these three alone—that the Father begets, that the Son is begotten of the Father, and that the Spirit proceeds from the Father—are characteristics special ^B to them, while all other things of the Godhead apply equally to the three, that is, to the most holy Trinity, is truer than the time when we truly set these forth in our own clear, summery Scripture. Therefore, it is my desire not to desist at all from this expression, but always to keep this one alone pure upon my tongue. Not that the term "production" is not also good—according to which, by reason of divine polyonymy, the most holy Fathers say the Holy Spirit is a production, and others besides whom the characteristics indicate—but because this name is the primary one for this property from the Gospel, and carries the sense of a root, as it were; and from it, as from a certain theologically established principle, every expression of "proceeding" breaks forth according to the evangelical sense. ^C

90. Forced, therefore, to accept the procession of the Holy Spirit as an "going out," even though both these terms return to one sense on account of the Son saying, "I went out from the Father," I know indeed that this word was uttered by God, and I love it, adapting it to a very correct sense; yet I do not desist from the procession itself. And thus the Holy Spirit is indeed proceeding from the Father. But why does he call the Father "light"? No one is so dull in the vision of his mind as to be ignorant that he is not gazing upon that light of His as something which we can touch, nor understanding His brightness. He calls that light "unbegotten" on account of the Son, who is indeed also light ^D himself, yet begotten, as has been said; so that by a certain same method of polyonymy here, the light is attributed to the Father; for otherwise it would not be fittingly applied to the light, except as to God the Father. And the expression frees the poet from the slowness of speech through the swiftness of the synthesis: for he spoke four words—all-power, strength, work, light—quickly, as if heaped up into one globe of many things gathered together, necessarily applied to the subject, with the meter compelling him. But if the ancients judge that such things befit comic poets, noting that such a synthesis was very rare among the ancients, let them lay down the law for themselves, leaving the divine men to speak spiritual things spiritually, however they may excel. The aforementioned word signifies that which is *pansethenoutorgophoton*, that is

the all-powerful, being the Holy Spirit, the efficient cause of those things that are worthy of God, and it is also able to be the producer of that incorruptible light which we celebrate today. And in another sense, the poet calls the Holy Spirit a "splendor" according to an exceptional paradox; for no other splendor is both all-powerful and all-working for the purpose of illuminating.

[L] 21. One might safely say that the word *aphthiton* (incorruptible) could have the same power as *adyton* (unsetting), as applied to solar light; ^B since the hour of the sun’s setting is *phthinas* (waning). The word is derived from *phiio* (to wane), whence also come *phthimenos* (he who has waned) and *phthitos* (that which has waned); yet nothing prevents it from having been derived from *phthino* (to wane) as well. If the immutable stem is not contained in this word so that it would be *aphthinton*, like *anaklintron*, it is nothing new, since neither *katakritos* nor *kritos* take the vowel of the present tense from *krino*. However, from *pino* (to drink), neither such a form nor any other emerged; but that word is kept singular, while the related word for "drink" (*poton*) is derived from elsewhere; just as *pitos* is the wet place, from which one can drink, as in "the flowery places for drinking." ^C For it has sprung from *pio* (to drink), the future tense of which is in use among the lyric poets, whence also comes the Olympic *Pisa*, as if one were to say "a watering place"; from there also comes the medicinal *piston* (drinkable), which is what is drunk, just as *christon* (anointed) is that which is anointed. It must be noted that the Holy Spirit appears to be called an "all-powerful-working-splendor" by analogy with the sun, which is both a very powerful and light-bearing element in the world; therefore, the melodist, separating in every way the sun that is above the mind from the sensible sun, calls that one *aphthiton* (incorruptible), which is *adyton* (unsetting), as *phthinein* (to wane) is also spoken of in regard to the setting of the sun, as has been said.

[L] 22. *Śelas* (splendor) has a slight difference from *phos* (light) among the ancients, but now, by reason of polyonymy, it is taken in place of light. The beacon of the Holy Spirit, ^D congeneric with the paternal authority of the Son, as has been said, does not restrict the divine authority to the Father alone—as if to a source or receptacle—and from there for the Son to receive it and for it to be derived from him and pass on to the Holy Spirit; but rather, this efficacious beacon is shown to be imperial, of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, brought forth together and in a similar way by the three. For there is one authority in the holy Trinity, and it is entirely the same, not arriving from without, not transmitted for the fulfillment of a need, not conferred by grace, but eternally and essentially inherent in it, present, and operating equally; even if our tongue and way of speaking, interpreting things most divine in a human fashion and imprinting divine types with the wet clay of the mouth and tongue, cannot perfectly depict the invisible image. For the paternal authority is the same and is of the Son and is in the Son; and this authority of the Son is likewise in the Spirit. The beacon congeneric with the Spirit is manifested through the authority of the Son from the Father, because according to his promise, as it has been said,

^A such a manifestation has taken place, not as being dependent from the Father, but working according to his power as the illumination. Therefore, it did not take place without the communion of the co-operating Spirit, nor that of the Father, whose message he sent to the disciples. The word "manifests" is appropriate to the feast, as has also been said, during which the miracle of the holy Spirit took place clearly and manifestly and before the eyes of many, and, as he said, visibly. Indeed, it might be possible to call the "congeneric" [beacon] "innate," according to the synonymous concept found in the ancient lyric poet; but the expression of the sacred melodist is better in every way; for the preposition indicating commonality reveals the Trinity most clearly, as well as the beacon situated here. But such is the case according to the meaning of the first line of the troparion exposed, in which we understood the congeneric beacon in the accusative case.

^B 93. Now there is also the other scriptural [passage] already mentioned, and it too says that the fiery sound produced miraculously today manifests the paternal authority of the holy Spirit through the Son, and makes it manifest through the [beacon] congeneric to it—that is, the fiery [beacon]—which is to say, it reveals a beacon congeneric with him, being different from the one interpreted just now. For the melody seems to say that the fiery sound of today, the symbolic one, which is produced through the holy Spirit, has such a beacon conjoined to itself; for being fiery, it is at the same time also beacon-like. This often happens to the air by nature, in fact, but not in any mystical way as a portent befitting to God, such as the one now being celebrated. Note, however, that there is something else besides the uncreated radiance and the altogether shining light, [namely] this illumination said to be of the fiery sound: for those are supernatural and spread throughout the world, whereas this is now circumscribed in Sion alone, ^C like some permanent and ever-shining lamp. Concerning the lamp and the lantern, and things similar to them, it will be spoken of in what follows, where there will be discussion about the fire-formed. Observe, however, that the term "fiery" indicates that the tongues which the most famous feast bears are not fire in actual reality, but fire-like. For fire is entirely one thing, and that which is derivedly called "fiery" is another. Just as wood and "woody," wine and "winey" are spoken of differently. Therefore, a thick, dried-out herb might be called woody, but yet not wood itself, and pears might be "winey," but not simply wine. In like manner also are the "scorpion-like" tongue, and the "sooty," and not a few others.

94. It is to be noted, however, that "fiery" ^D is indeed taken for an adverb as equivalent to "in a fiery manner." But since it was dared by those before us to take "sound" as a neuter, so that the melodist might say freely "the fiery sound," instead of "the resonant sound according to fire," or, as was said, "a violent wind"—let it be good and acceptable to them, as also pleased some, that the "lament of the myrrh-bearers" be called "lament"; yet one would never admit this for the poet, well knowing that air is indeed resonant and

^A violent, and indeed sometimes fiery, and is so called; but "fiery sound" is not accustomed to be said. For sound is not a substance that might be kindled, but an accident of a substance apt for inflammation and suffering combustion; or, to speak more clearly and quickly, it is a certain voice of struck air, just like a hum, a murmur, or a crackling, and so also is the sound; as those are not kindled, so neither is this. It is better, therefore, to say "fiery" adverbially, for ^B *purely*-as (instead of *fiery-like*), as also in the following fourth ode it is placed—namely, *truly* and *undoubtedly* for "truthfully," as shall appear there. Perhaps it is not absurd to think that the sharp-witted poet, wishing to paraphrase quickly in two small pieces the aforementioned violent breath and the tongues of fire, and wishing to say that a fiery air appeared and its sound, was hindered by the narrowness of the meter, and thus said it without a conjunction, specifically the fiery thing, and specifically the sound thereof. Here, "echo" is taken indefinitely for sound, not for him who was called the ^C *cicada-sounder*. But as for *to the nations*, it must be referred to the aforementioned countless peoples who are in Sion today.

Hirmus of the fourth ode.

45 The poet of the feast of the Holy Spirit speaks theologically also in the present ode, and having directed his speech to the Son of God, then passing on to the holy apostles and to the Holy Spirit sent to them, he brings the hirmus to a conclusion, skillfully toward a concept characteristic of the fourth ode of the holy Habakkuk, the prelude of which is: "Glory to thy power, O Lord." In the first two verses, however, he makes the phrasing difficult, as the meter does not permit him to explain it more clearly. For he wishes to say: "O most powerful Word of God and Father, who as the only-begotten Son of the Father hast been born of the unbegotten without a mother, which no other son has possessed, but Thou alone," and the rest. ^D Since, however, the choice of meter does not favor the vocative case, and having judged *only* (οἷος) as equivalent to *alone* (μόνος) as being synonymous, he placed this second, and added a third to them, *only* (μόνον) in a single verse; hence he brought about a rather difficult phrasing in the hirmus.

46 From its very beginning, therefore, "King of kings" and the rest, not vocatively as it should have been, but having expressed it in the nominative by metrical necessity, he brings forward this concept: "Thou art the King of kings (for such is the King of kings); Thou, therefore, to speak in the Attic manner, O Ruler of all, and Word and Son of the Father, who in those born from the ages art isolated by the miracle of generation, proceeding from an uncaused or rather beginningless and unbegotten Father, so that the Father might not be begotten, nor have a necessity to beget by consequence of nature; but proceeding from thence sole, only, O Ruler of all,"

^A who alone and, if one may say so, most solely proceeded as one from One, as we have said, from the Father; you have sent, as one who knows not how to lie, as you promised to your apostles, your Spirit, equal in power and true; for through him, as through you and the Father, we breathe, living both lives; insofar as you also bestow benefits in common. To whom? To your apostles, who sing that prophetic verse: "Glory to your power, O Lord"; for it is better to write it thus than with the letter v. The Savior is King of kings, because, according to the wise writer of proverbs, "through him all kings reign," shepherding those around them with the aid of the staff and the rod "which God will give them." But he is not called King of kings according to a precise definition, as if the meter hindered it; for he is not simply a king of kings, that One is the supreme King. For there have been and are a thousand kings in the world who are nevertheless not called supreme kings or supreme leaders. Therefore, the pedestrian sacred Psalmist spoke more safely regarding God: "He who is the King of kings and God."

^B 97. But let us examine the existing difference between *oios* and *monos*, and understand that *monos* is said in relation to something linked, as the wise say, for it is expressed in relation to others linked with it, all the other sons; but *oios* is said in relation to something that is one in itself, which has no brother linked to it by way of similarity. So, even if by way of synonym it is the same to say *oios* and *monos*, yet the clear interpretation removes the confusion between them. For this holy poet says that the Word of God alone was begotten from all the sons as *oios*, that is, one from the *oios* Father, who is uncoupled, and for that reason alone. And the reasoning is similar, as if someone, separating a certain person in praise by way of specialty and not wishing any other to be considered besides him, would say that *oios*, or this one, possesses that kind of praise, alone and not with any other whatsoever. In like manner, the melodist associated the terms *oios* and *monos* with the Son of God; saying *oios* because this Son alone, and no one else at any time, is the one Son generated, ^C alone to the unbegotten Father of fathers. In those things in which he speaks quickly, he means that while there are a thousand only-begotten sons to their parents, yet *oios*, that is, one son, who is *monos*—which is the same as saying only-begotten—is from the *oios*, that is, the one only Father, and there is no one else except you, O most solely.

98. Moreover, remember that even if *oios* or *monos* were three times in the *heirmos*, the same meaning could be piously preserved. For the Savior alone was generated as the only Son to the one Father alone. And thus also *oios* himself went forth from the Father who is *oios*. But the melodist arranged the phrasing, alternating it as the meter allowed. It should also be known that one might not absurdly call the phrase "one proceeding from one Father, the only Word" an antistrophe or equivalent to this: "Only Only-Begotten Father ^D of the Only-Begotten Son." For both revolve equally around the same matters.

although the one begins from the Father as the only Only-Begotten and ends at the Only-Begotten Son, while the other does the reverse. There is, however, a difference between the two, in that in the former case it sufficed safely for the word "only" to be tripled, whereas here it is uttered once, as the word "os" by its doubling fills the place of the other. As for why "os" is correctly written as "the only" (ho monos), the ancients teach, saying that we have not received from "ios" in the masculine gender, but the feminine has been found in "he mia." It appears that its neuter is also "to en" (the one), according to the one who said that some died "to telo" (by the dart) or "as one" (hos eni). That which is circumflexed will take refuge in the analogy of the feminine. For just as "ia" is, on the one hand, grave-toned, but the genitive "ias" is circumflexed, as "mia mias," so also "ion" is, on the one hand, "to en" with a grave tone, while the oblique cases "iou" and "io" are with a circumflex. ^A

40.

Concerning "Unausables" (Anaition)

99/100. Note that "aitiatos" (caused) and "aitiateos" (blameworthy) are not the same; the former is a good expression, but the latter is disparaging. And even if the Father is here "anaition," as has been said, He is in another way the cause of all things that exist, and we attribute to Him every good thing—that is, we judge Him to be the cause of all goods. Let no one, playing, say that non-being and nothingness are "un-caused," as if they had no cause of their existence. For a cause is the cause of some being, whether that being is a substance or an accident. But non-being and nothingness, not being substances, just as they do not have a cause, so neither will they have "anaition" predicated of them. ^D

If, by chance, one were to call the substance of that which is, and of nothing, "nothing" itself, then he too is joking, calling "nothing" a substance and a being, [that is] the thing itself not being and being nothing; and thus, by leading the argument into an absurdity, he contradicts himself. Furthermore, one should know that "aition" [cause] is used in a median sense when it refers to he who provides the opportunity for some action or passion, whether blameless or blameworthy. But the word is [also] used when taken specifically with regard to something singular and in the sense of reproach; for example, "the cause [aitios] of the writings of Callimachus," that is, he who wrote those things is to be blamed and punished. However, the term "Panaitios" [all-cause], while seeming to possess a venerable praise appropriate to a philosopher—who provides the suitable cause for every thing—is peculiar to unhypothetical philosophy; and it is a divine thing, befitting God, with whom are the causes of all good things as the "all-cause," and who, knowing all things, ^A distributes knowledge to those who philosophize according to human capacity, to some with abundance, to others otherwise, as He wills.

101. To say "isosthenes" [equal in strength] for the Spirit has the same force. The same is true of saying "homosthenes" [of the same strength], but not "homoisthenes" [of like strength]. For just as we are dogmatically forbidden to say "homoousion" [of like substance] in reference to the Holy Trinity, just so are we forbidden to say "homoisthenes," even as we are forbidden "homoodynamon" [of like power]. It must be noted, moreover, that if it is written "isosthenes sou" [equal in strength to you], it has the same force and the phrase requires no supervision. But if it is written otherwise, "isosthenes sou Pneuma" [your Spirit is equal in strength], so that you mean "your Spirit is equal in strength to you," the meaning must be referred back to the chanter; for "the Spirit which is mine and the Father’s I shall send" has been sufficiently explained elsewhere. Now, "nemertes" [unerring/true] comes from the privative *ne-* and the verb *hamartanein* [to err], and it signifies that which is true and infallible in whatever way truth may be exercised among men, and according to that which would not be called "a lying man." One would not deviate from what is right, however, if one were to take this expression as an adverb, as was previously shown, so that the poet says: "You sent [it] truly." For it was not possible for You to have lied in saying that You would send the promise of the Father to the disciples. For Your word is truth, and we know You to be Truth itself, ^C no less than You compare the Father and the Spirit in holiness. The phrase "You sent to the apostles" shows that the Holy Spirit has, even now, something [present]; and it is no new thing to think of it thus: for the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, has been sent to the apostles, and the Savior Christ, as a messenger, came to us from the Father as a Savior; just as the Angel who is above all angels, because He is supersubstantial. The word "beneficus" [beneficent] shows most clearly that the gifts coming from God are a benefaction, and certainly not merely in part, but commonly. The good, then, sent once to the apostles, reaches us even now and will reach us into eternity. ^D This, moreover, "Glory to Your power," is an intimation that those who are powerful ought to be beneficent toward the imitation of God.

First Troparion of the Fourth Ode.

^B The holy chorus of this pneumatic chant, while dancing in an ecclesiastical manner and distributing spiritual and soul-nourishing delights, and adorning the festival with a variety of thoughts as is customary, directs us toward the present spiritual assembly. It brings in the mixture of the most divine bath, which has a share in the Holy Spirit (that is, the washing of holy baptism), and it arranges the meaning of the troparion sweetly, as if toward the chambers of a bath such as the more refined providers prepare. For with them the washing is mixed, and they prepare it as something delightful for both the head and the shoulders, and the stream is furnished there in a cheerful manner, just like the rain. Those men also exert themselves for the fervor that renders it good. ^C Accordingly, as the melodist leads the disposition of this festive troparion toward such an idea, he writes the meaning as follows: "O Word of God, who mixed the divine bath of Christian regeneration with a human nature that is not simple, but composite—that is, composed of an immortal soul and a corruptible body. And how did You mix it? By Your Word, that is, by rational ordination and the analogy befitting the divine molding of man." Or in other words, by Your Word, through the most holy prayers of the Church, You pour out for me, beyond the remaining ritual that appears corporally and is otherwise understood theoretically, a stream from Your incorrupt side, which, to speak explicitly, was pierced ^D by the soldier's lance. And to such a divine bath You add more zealously the inspired fervor of the Spirit, which warms those who are fervent in the Spirit, the evident symbols of which are the hot waters from the pattern of the holy Fathers. That such fervor of the Holy Spirit—the vital, life-giving, and divine zeal that instills itself into the soul—is the ultimate cause and the most essential goal of holy baptism, the composer indicates by saying that this entire holy initiation is sealed by the fervor of the Spirit. For just as an unsealed treasure is exposed to snares, so too is an impure baptism, which is not through the Holy Spirit Himself, easily assaulted by the demons who lie in wait: such are the baptisms of other heretics and of the Anabaptists who baptize daily, from whom the Holy Spirit is absent, as He does not recognize them even if they invoke Him. One must, however, consider here that the bath is also divine—that which is produced through tears and that which is monastic; for in these too the fervor of the Spirit is kindled and glows in those who receive them fervently. One must additionally keep in mind that just as the Spirit, being uttered along with it, adorns the aforementioned fervor, so too is the divine element added as an ornament of the bath. The Word, moreover, which precedes the second verse, is an ornament of the thought, as has been said and will be said again.

^B 103. Regeneration, however, having received its beginning from the Greeks, comes to us; it is like a stone cast at random at the time, but later, by divine construction, inserted into a place where it is well-pleasing, or perhaps transformed from a pebble into a glowing lamp, or like an ignoble shrub from Mount Lebanon, grown to the height of a cedar so as to be suited for a holy roof. By means of such expressions, what was from an unworthy state is changed into a worthy one, and from an unholy into a most holy one. ^C The ancient poet, varied in his wisdom, did not explicitly utter such a term, but merely hinted at it, saying: "Now may you neither be, nor be born"—for this "neither now be living, nor be born," as it relates to the future, indeed hints at regeneration. After him, those around Pythagoras gave it a name, calling it "regeneration," meaning by "again and again being born," as they said, that human souls are transmigrated or transferred from bodies into bodies, and thus complete the cycles which they, gazing with squinting eyes, beheld. And truly, he so strengthened such a doctrine that not only did those outside the flock eat such deadly grass, but even some from the Christian fold and court, among whom one will especially wonder at the wise Origen, who so slipped into that irrational heresy after he had turned back from a sound mind.

104. The most holy Church, however, knowing that the most beautiful name of regeneration had been applied to a most evil opinion, and fearing that it might perish through disuse on account of its emptiness, ^D celebrated it, asserting that the state after the migration from the present things to better things is called regeneration—because, in contrast to the generation in this world among corruptible things, there it is incorruptible—and also the transformation of this life into the good, especially when we are sanctified by the holy tonsure, honoring it with the same appellation, as if we had just now been brought forth into life again. Thanks to you, O beautiful Christian expression, that you have thus nobly liberated this term—august indeed, but dishonored by the opinion which it served—and have brought it as an honorable gift to God, who purifies for Himself through repentance those who are becoming His own, as if through a desired bath, and immediately permits them to bear this name of honor. It is to be noted that, in following common usage and writing, we here speak of "regeneration" (παλιγγενεσία), and in this we act rightly. But if one must adhere to the iambic meter, and one must in no way depart from it in the present case, it ought to have been written so that the antepenultimate syllable by such a letter (the eta) achieves the proper measure; otherwise it limps. And that sense is also accurate: for as we are renewed by this holy bath, so we are even more properly born again as sons of God; so that it is good as the more common term, and for the paliggenesia which the meter requires here.

105. But the word, concerning which it was written above, can be conjoined even with the composite nature. To the word...

^A of God, man has been composed in a more elaborate way, and thus in a greater and more glorious way than those things which were produced before him, as one can gather from the most divine Scripture. And therefore, according to such a conception, the composite nature might perhaps morally be called man; for otherwise the other bodies that have been produced by the command of God are also composite; for they are by no means simple. And the word *kerannys* (mingling), ^B if it were taken for the transformation at the bath, is not unlovely even for the conception of holy baptism; for those things also are mystically mingled, as those who have been initiated know, for whom the most holy chrism and the precious oil have been most divinely consecrated. Moreover, since *kerannynai* (to mingle) is a convivial word, and came from *keras* (a horn), by which the ancients offered drink, it has lately been transferred from there to signify more divinely a mixture which consists of the holy, fervent blood and water which flowed from the side of the Savior Christ. It is also possible to think that the composite nature ^C according to man is perhaps referred to the *kerannynai*, so that this spiritual *kerasma* (mixture), or compound, may be adapted to the God-formed composite, and this most divine composite—that one from God—may be mingled with this composite. But it must especially be considered that the present expression is also an enigma of the fearful taking part in the most holy mysteries of God; for the most holy commixtion of the Lord’s blood and water is mystically enacted there, as well as the spiritual fervor flowing from the uncorrupted side by which we were fashioned. But if the word "from the uncorrupted" was joined to "mingling" according to a certain ^D fortuitous, yet pleasant, rhetorical figure of sound imitation—such as many things that fall from writers—it is not necessary to define it accurately; it is only to be noted that such a thing exists also in the following: "he bows his knee to the knee of the Father," and elsewhere: "having come forth from one who has not known wedlock," and "having been pierced in the side."

106. The word *ombroblyteis* (rain-gushing) is marvelous for signifying that which happened concerning the holy blood and water, when it went forth from the Lord’s pierced side. For otherwise the raining from above and the gushing from below would be incompatible joined into one; but in the case of the God-man Word, who was affixed to the all-venerable cross, the expression is most worthy of consideration. For *ombros* (rain) signifies the sanctifying blood and water descending from on high and from the divine side, while *blyein* (to gush) signifies those things flowing forth from the assumption of the earthly. And the side of the Lord God is uncorrupted, because it did not suffer the fate of a man simply. For even if the Lord’s flesh, of which the side was a part, was mortal ^C before death, yet it did not see corruption, nor indeed any decay after the passion and the resurrection, as the illustrious light-bearer of the Holy Scriptures from Damascus explains. The word "pierced" (νενυγμένης) is taken properly, as ancient usages show, in which "to pierce" (νύσσειν) is used for "to prick" (κεντεῖν); but otherwise it is used figuratively (tropically) and "to pierce" is said of inciting someone by words or deeds to any action whatever.

107. The fervor of the Spirit has been provided for...

spiritual warriors as a weapon of note, useful against the heresy of the Hydroparastatae, which there will be another occasion to address should the need arise. This heat is indeed life-giving to those who have been fervently washed in the holy Spirit who unites, but it burns like fire those heretics mentioned, and all others like them, through the heat of the blood and water that flowed from the most holy side; the most holy interpreter reminds us of these in his exposition, where he shows the Son of Thunder and Theologian, writing in his epistle, saying: "There are three that bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three are one." What is this one? It is that which concerns the one divinity, to which we must strive to be restored through the heat and perfection of the holy Spirit.

Troparion of the fourth ode.

108. Since the most holy Apostle said that at the name of our Savior Jesus Christ every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, the poet sings ^B here that this has just come to pass, even if others may interpret the time of this miracle differently. "Everything bends the knee," he says, "to the Paraclete," that is, to the Son of the Father and consubstantial with the Father. And such a desirable and most divine bowing has occurred because the grace of the Spirit has shone, not simply, but upon all; through this light, all things illuminated have been subjected, as if immediately enlightened by perfect knowledge from God and the Lord of knowledge, and having recognized the omnipotent Master, they have readily submitted to Him. But what is this spiritual grace? It is the acknowledgment of the holy Trinity. For, he says, the whole world knows ^C in three persons, as is true—as was said a little before—the one substance, just as the nature which belongs to the most holy Trinity, of the unbegotten Father, the begotten Son, and the proceeding Spirit; and no one has ever managed to speak of them as three before having also bound them into one and worshipped them. Yet, not having yet, so to speak, resolved them into unity, the melodist again prostrates everything trifoldly to those three most holy persons, having as many august epithets to offer as the scriptural field was rich; yet, due to the ^D constraints of space, he is content to call this one substance inaccessible and eternal.

109. This, indeed, is because God is invisible: "For no man has seen God at any time." But He is also tremendous, not just as a consuming fire, but much more so, and for this reason unapproachable. For to whom could He be accessible, if not to one approaching with reverence towards that very illumination? "Draw near," he says, "and be..."

illuminated," ^A so that you may indeed become good, and, with revealed face, behold God in an angelic manner, bearing no veil of dark shame upon your countenance. Wherefore David also adds, after "Be illuminated," "and your faces shall not be ashamed." But the holy Trinity, the one God, is not yet inaccessible; rather, He is eternal, for He Himself created not only times and seasons, but even the ages. Therefore, He was not one to be subject to time, who is the author and Lord of all time.

Now, the phrase "bends the knee"—which is to say, "worships"—in the act of kneeling, or falling upon the knees and genuflecting—is derived from taut bodies ^B which, being humble, bend. Such are what are called taut hairs. The over-stretching of a taut object is either that which is fixed and, as it were, stretched too tightly into a straight position, or else it is the deprivation of this, as if it had no need of further tension, which, having lost that state, becomes bent. Such are all bodies that are not straight, in which the hairs are curly, and the hooked instruments are curved, and things are twisted in the form of a hook, and, no less, things that are bent in the manner of fishing-baskets. The bowing of the knee is the symbol of ultimate submission; therefore, when a nation is subjected to powerful kings, it is said to bow the knee to them. To say "all things" poetically, or "everything" in the apostolic manner, is, for the wise, of the same significance, for the totality of the world is signified by either term.

^C 110. We call the Son a Paraclete to the Father—just as we do the Spirit—since the Father Himself is not unworthy of the matter, nor can He be deprived from another source of being called by such a name. For He is indeed invoked for our affairs, not only by His own benevolence toward us, but also by us, who invoke His own aid toward ourselves. Furthermore, He calls us, as if He were coaxing us and softening us with a whisper, and in every way He draws us, so that He may make us His sons and heirs. For if the Father did not will and could not call us to better things, perhaps neither the Son nor the Spirit would have such an honor. And besides, where the holy Spirit is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son for the miracles He performs, it would be absurd to deprive Him of the honor of being our Paraclete.

111. It is necessary to know that, before all those who are among men as imitators of God and teachers, as it were, of paracletes, the One who is properly the Paraclete—the Father, the Word, and the Spirit—came to the ^D most blessed disciples, and after them to those who through them have known God; He who is present not only to those who speak and are in need of Him, but even to those who have not yet spoken; and this is what it admittedly means to advocate. He advocates, that is, He calls them near to Himself for salvation, those who possess their reason toward Him in countless ways, such as through the beauty of the creatures which He made for our sake, and the multifold benefit without labor to us that comes from them, and through the goodness by which He lavishes good things upon the good, while acting otherwise toward the evil; and through the way He encourages the mind and intellect to be discerning of good and evil, so as to accept and choose the one, but to reject and cast away the other, as if it were of the...

^A unworthy of a man before God. And if He afflicts us, and brings to our remembrance that we are His servants, in doing so He urges us to do good; in every way, He thus calls us to things that lead to salvation, just as He does by putting to death and making alive, by making poor and making rich, by humbling and elevating, and by all other means of this sort. 112. Now, that which is most accessible and most ready of all, and as one might rightly say, most driven along the public road and most common to the people, and truly universal, He calls forth even by His disciples and teachings at whatever times are opportune; some of these are circumscribed and enclosed within the most holy Gospel, while others are spread almost into infinity through ancient traditions. For those who act as Paracletes—I say this confidently—after God, were first those in the most ancient Law, the prophets and teachers of salvation, and thereafter as many as were apostles before the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which we celebrate today, who often, by argument and rebuke, appealed to and corrected the peoples, according to the command: "Reprove, rebuke, exhort" (2 Tim. 4:2). Their successors, the apostolic men, whose grace according to the Holy Spirit has reached even down to the present generation, similarly exhort their hearers to virtue, ^B and especially the priests, to whom it is expressly prescribed to exhort the people.

113. In these matters, however, note that even though we know the Paraclete to correspond to such exhortation, and we say that an exhortation is sent up from us to the Paraclete, nevertheless, no one among us could be called a Paraclete; for this name is attributed to God alone as a special prerogative, since He comes to us when we call upon Him rightly, draws near to those in need, and dwells in us when we call upon Him in a manner befitting Him. On the other hand, He deems it worthy to remain honorably upon the throne of the glory of His kingdom, so that nothing unbecoming may reach Him. There is, moreover, a reasonable explanation for this ^C doubling of the calling: the calling from us to the Most High, and again the calling from Him back to us out of those things that concern us. For let us suppose that someone has fallen into a pit from which it is difficult to escape, and that a noble and friendly man—knowing that such a person is standing over this chasm—is implored to call upon him for his rescue. If that man, leaning his head over and calling out his friend's name, exhorts him to stretch out his hand from below, and being heard, takes hold of his friend’s hand, and by pulling him up returns the man to mother earth, so that he is restored to where he stood before the fall—lo, that one, having been called upon for the sake of saving a man, has in turn called upon him and saved him. So also the Lord, the Paraclete, loving the man who calls upon Him to be saved, ^D calls upon him to be so affected, and lo, there is also a double calling here: one from the Savior Paraclete, calling forth the one in need, and the other from the one who might be called—if one may say so—the "paracletor." Hence, he who entreated one of God's saints sings beautifully, saying: "I call upon thee to call upon me."

^A 108. Regarding the Trinitarian, co-natural connection, according to which Christ is called Son, most co-natural to the Father, something was written above regarding the "co-natural beacon." Now it must be said that this expression is taken, in an appropriate manner, from branches belonging to the same plant and consubstantial with it, and from shoots having their origin from a single root. For in similar fashion, the Son is most co-natural and consubstantial with the Father, just as the Holy Spirit is, according to divinity and everything else which we Christians hold as dogma. Now, regarding the essence of the person, concerning which it is not necessary to speak as though it were unknown to ecclesiastical men—if anyone intends to write something here as though out of the necessary zeal, let him take a vessel to measure the sea! For to engage in such philosophy, and to be a measurer of the sea, are the same thing. However, this much must be said, in brief, as a reminder to those who are beginners: that there is one essence of the holy Trinity. For its "being" is singular to it, and it is not divided into differences that would alter or change it. Rather, it is one, God simple and unchangeable. For if, even when each of us remains who he is, any diversity of essence is denied regarding those who are like us—since, whoever we are, we are such regarding the diversity we possess—who would dare to deprive the holy Trinity of such a—so to speak—kinship, consubstantiality, and identity, and to see in it a contradiction arising from an unsociable and innate diversity? And thus, indeed, one essence unites the holy Trinity, such as it is reasonable to observe in the super-substantial God, who is also above every essence, both worldly and heavenly, and is their Cause.

109. And those among the outsiders who were wiser, having pondered this, philosophized about that which "being" is in the proper sense. Yet, while they remained with such a thought for as long as the knowledge within them allowed, they afterward divided this into as many entities as one could not easily number, believing in polytheism. But the most holy transmitters of our faith, dividing this aforementioned divine essence into three—the Father, I say, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are to be worshipped by all Christians, and are indeed not to be venerated by all others ^B who, through them, in any degree, have reached a cursory touching of divine knowledge—led this one God into a Trinity, and named these three "persons," having nothing more august to impose upon them as a mark of honor; but from the most honorable part of man, whom God in the Trinity fashioned according to the image of God, having personally imaged Himself, they distinguished Him by that character. And these same saints, while striving to bring this division into three back into unity according to righteousness, do not divide them into things incompatible, alien, and not-growing-together. Nevertheless, they impart a distinction in such things according to properties or characters; inasmuch as the Father is unbegotten, as has been shown beforehand, the Son is begotten, and the Spirit, in other respects, is identical with the Father and the Son, yet has, in a particular way, appropriated the procession from the Father.

^A And so, while they concede that all other things are common—whatever else one might say—the Trinity, which is saving for all of us, is circumscribed by its characteristic properties but diffused infinitely by the supersubstantial nature of its powers in operation and providence; it teaches us men also to be formed into a certain multipartite and divine communion.

116. And as they ponder these three as one, they do not hesitate to converge them swiftly, timelessly, and instantly—as has been stated—even though they are distinct. This, faster than one could say it, is how the One is in the Trinity, and the Trinity is a monad. Therefore, having made a distinction ^B—just as one might separate branches that are consubstantial and of the same kind, separating them only as much as is sufficient for them to be seen, and then immediately returning them to their primary union—the same men produce the conception of the Holy Trinity by means of the human mind, reason, and spirit, which in the same order coalesce and concur. And having adumbrated that venerable and most worshipful Trinity within this beautiful trinity of ours, they lead us to contemplate, as far as is possible through this, how it is that this is both three and one at the same time. For when within us the mind is father, and the reason in it, and the spirit from it and through it—which three are measured and conspire inseparably into something one—so also the greatest Father, and His most holy Word, and the most holy Spirit are ^C conceived in a similar way. But this Trinity is truly one, and this monad is three, not according to those produced and made things which have a cause in us, but as the only and true cause of all of us and of all things above and below.

117. And so it is that the saints, speaking not as men but with the tongues of angels—or rather, by the authorship of God—established such things as we are permitted to gather from the divine and sacred Scriptures. They also strove to introduce this same philosophy into our minds in another way, both accurately and wisely. ^D They posited the greatest world as a house, as it were, and suspended there three lamps by hypothesis, the holy, triple-shining Trinity. They contemplated these lamps shining individually and illuminating the house; then, they thought of the brightness and rays coming from them, mutually overlapping and cooperating to perform one supreme and final good: the administration of the house through illumination and practical demonstration, for the sake of which such lamps were lit. By this example, they teach us the singular, composite operation of the Holy Trinity, so that its trinity is neither veiled by confusion but manifest, nor is the operation, while being common and unconfused, hindered. Such teachings are indeed most wise and sublime, along with many other inventions of right reasoning, yet they themselves are nonetheless briefer and more corporeal, such that they...

^A convincing the man who is curious about inscrutable comprehension, unless God himself, revealing the eyes of those who are dim-sighted or otherwise struggling with the contemplation of the sun of truth, manifests himself and teaches things that surpass human understanding. Therefore, lest we be compelled to extract from manuscripts—as though scouring for them—the sayings of the holy Fathers, which are clear without us in making manifest that the most holy Deity is one in three persons, and lest we appear vain in occupying ourselves with things obvious to all, let this kind of thought be limited for us at this point.

But the phrase, "The light of the grace of the Spirit has shone forth," ^B must be understood in two ways: either that the grace of the Spirit who is being celebrated has brought about a radiance illuminating souls, or that today a light has shone forth, rising up, which is not customary or sensible, but is the grace of the Holy Spirit—so that it is the same thing, here, to speak of "light" and "the grace of the Holy Spirit."

Third Troparion of the Fourth Ode

^C Ye who are worshippers of the triple-rayed essence, Be all initiated into the most divine principle; For as a benefactor he initiates supernaturally, And Christ gives an igneous form for salvation, Bestowing the whole grace of the Spirit.

118. The poet moralizes along with the present troparion and philosophizes on the matters of the feast. The moral instruction says: "All of you who are worshippers of the triple-rayed essence, be initiated"—that is, become mystes, celebrating a rite, and thus be perfected by such a most divine essence. ^D The philosophical theory, however, provides full conviction that such an essence, through Christ—who is truly a benefactor—supernaturally perfects, that is, initiates and consecrates with sacred things, teaching and instructing; and he fashions an igneous form, not to provide a blush for shame or beauty, but for salvation, offering to his mystes the whole grace of the Spirit. For God is not imperfect, just as his most perfect nature is not, nor is anything else of those things pertaining to him, nor is the beneficence and grace which is from him and through him. For even if he who receives something very small is accepted—he who, according to correctness, rejoices in worship and grateful praise, as he is truly worthy of praise—yet God himself is magnificent in his gifts, inasmuch as he is at once the lord and giver of all liberality and greatness, and he delivers himself entirely to the man who is innocent, if he has become worthy of this.

119. It must be noted that "be initiated" is in the imperative mood, and that this holy word is mystically cognate with "rite," "ruler of rites," and those who are interpreters of the mysteries. Such also is the word "initiates," which was placed above. And these things, and all such things we have mentioned before, are "delineated"—as someone said. To speak clearly, they are summed up and look toward the perfection according to man, which those practice who look toward the true righteousness and correctness, and not toward judgment or condemnation, imitating divine things. Perhaps such is the thought for those who are...

^A Forte vero talis quædam sententia eos exornat qui in τέλει, id est in dignitate sunt secundum istud: Illis qui sunt in dignitate (τέλει) constituti, parebo; necnon forsitan bellici ordines hinc (τέλη) dicuntur propter illorum velut initiationem ad bonam compositionem, ob quam etiam de talibus quæstionibus liber honorabiliter τακτικὸν dicitur. De voce autem ἀρχικωτάτῃ jam scriptum est. Οὐσία vero prorsus juxta communem formam hic sumitur, non ex quadam prævia, sed ex illa quæ in secundo versu posita est.

120. Τὸ δὲ λατρεύειν, πάλαι μέν ποτε ἀντὶ τοῦ δουλεύειν εἴληπτο, διὸ καὶ λάτρης ὁ δοῦλος ἐλέγετο, παρὰ τὸ λὰ ἐπιτατικὸν μόριον καὶ τοῦ τρεῖν, ὅ ἐστι τὸ φοβεῖσθαι. Οὕτω γὰρ πρὸς τοὺς δεσπότας τὸ δοῦλον γένος διακείσθαι χρεών· ἐπεί τοι ὁ δοῦλος παρὰ τὸ δέους ὅλος εἶναι ὠνόμασται. Ὁ μέν τοι ἄλλως διακείμενος δοῦλος, οὐ λάτρης ἀλλὰ ἀτρεὺς καλεῖσθαι ἂν εὐγενέστερον ἐθέλοι, ὡς οἷα δεδιὼν μὴ καὶ τρέσας κληθείη κατὰ τὸν οὕτως ἐπὶ δειλίᾳ κωμῳδούμενον. Ὅτε δὲ, ὦ οὗτος, εὕροις τινὰ γραφόμενον τῇ πορνείᾳ λατρεύειν, ἢ τῇ φιλαργυρίᾳ, οἴκτειρε τὸν ἄνθρωπον τοῦ μυκτηρισμοῦ, καὶ τῆς ἐλεεινότητος ὡς εἰ καὶ εἰδωλολάτρην ἤκουσας, οἷα δεδουλωμένον κακίαις τοιαύταις. ^B Ἰστέον δὲ καὶ ὅτι τὸ «ὅσοι λατρευταί» διασαφητικόν ἐστιν εὐκρινῶς τοῦ, τελεσθήσονται τὰ τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος, ἀλλὰ ἐπιλέγῃ· μόνοι πάντες οἱ αὐτῆς λατρευταί. Τὸ δὲ τριφεγγοῦς οὐσίας, ἀπὸ εὐθείας ὀξυτόνου συνήθους ἐκλήθη· καὶ ἔστιν ὡς ἡ πολυφεγγής, οὕτω καὶ ἡ τριφεγγής· εὑρίσκεται δὲ καὶ ἑτέρας λέξεως ἡ τοιαύτη λέξις ἐν τῷ, τρίφεγγον οὐσίαν δοξάζομεν. Ἐποίησε δὲ ἐκεῖνο ἡ τῆς χασμωδίας ἀποφυγή, καὶ τὸ δυσμελὲς εἰ μὴ οὕτω μεμέλιστο· τρίφεγγος δὲ καὶ τριφεγγῆς ὁμολογουμένως ἡ τρίφωτος· φῶς γὰρ ἅμα καὶ φῶτα ἡ ἁγία Τριάς, καθ’ ἣν φωτὶ φῶς θεώμεθα, οὐ μὴν ἐν σκότῳ κοσμικώτερον. Παράδοξον δὲ πάντως καὶ ὑπερφυὲς μίαν οὐσίαν τριφεγγῆ εἶναι· διὸ καὶ μόνῳ τῷ ἐν Τριάδι ἑνὶ Θεῷ τὸ τοιοῦτον ἰδιαζόντως ᾠκείωται. ^C

121. Ἰστέον δὲ ὅτι τὸ τρίφεγγος καὶ τριφεγγῆς ὁμοιότητα ἔχει πρὸς τὸ ἄτερπος καὶ ἀτερπής· ὧν τὸ μὲν κεῖται παρὰ τῷ εἰπόντι — ἀτέρπου δϊζύος ἐκλελαθέσθαι — τὸ δὲ παρὰ τῷ φράσαντι — ἀτερπέα αὐλήν — ἤγουν λυπηρὰν κατασκήνωσιν. Τὸ δὲ ὑπερφυῶς τελεῖν, ἀσφαλῶς εἴρηται· μυηθῆναι μὲν γάρ τινα πρὸς τέχνην ἄκραν οὐκ ἔχει τι ὑπερφυές· τελεσθῆναι δέ τινα μυστικῶς, ὡς οὐ μόνον ἐγγίσαι ἢ εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὸν Θεόν, ἀλλὰ καὶ παραστῆναι αὐτῷ ὑψοῦ ἀποστολικῶς ἀρθέντα, ^D ὑπερφυές τε ἅμα ἐστὶ καὶ εὐεργεσίαν πλουτεῖ ἀνυπέρβλητον· διὰ τὸ ὑπερφυῶς τελεῖν, καλῶς ἐπῆκται τὸ εὐεργέτης, ὁ Χριστὸς δηλαδή· τὸ δὲ πυρσομορφοῖ ἁπλούστερον μὲν ἀντὶ τοῦ, ἐξομοιοῖ πυρσῷ, καθὰ καὶ προγέγραπται, ἢ λαμπρύνει τὴν τοῦ μύστου φύσιν. Μορφὴ γάρ, ὡς προέφημεν, καὶ ἡ φύσις, ἢ καὶ τὸ πρόσωπον, καθά ποτε δεδόξαστο καὶ Μωϋσῆς τῇ κατὰ πρόσωπον

^A

It also manifests the nature of the initiates: for the form, as was said before, is either the nature or the appearance; just as Moses was once glorified by the illumination of his face, so Christ, making credible already beforehand that miracle of the Transfiguration in which He shone more brightly than the sun, caused him who stood there together with Him to learn more how God distributes all things that He has to those who serve Him. And these things have been said fairly simply regarding the word "fire-formed," as it was termed.

^B 122. Otherwise, God "fire-forms" His true worshippers unto salvation, configuring and likening them to the fire, which is in truth a saving beacon and lighthouse: standing before an island or maritime land, it shines forth for those who are hesitant as to where they are going by sea or by land, or who fear an imminent danger. Such are those from God and through God, and indeed a thousand others, merciful and kind in soul, lovers of their brothers, humane, and above all pious toward God, but especially kings and their related princes, and most of all those who are of the bishops, for whom the name is granted as an abundance ^C of spiritual oversight, and thus to guard the gift graciously; if not—which may You not allow, O Lord, to happen—either a violent storm will extinguish the lamp of their mind and reason, or the blinding dust will be poured into the eye that constitutes the bishop. Rightly, therefore, I think, the God who is one in the Trinity is said to "fire-form" those who worship Him correctly.

123. It must be known that *phanos*, *pyrsos*, and *phryktos* are the same thing; and *phanos*—which some of the ancients write as *panon* with a "p"—comes from *phaino* (to shine), from which comes *lamp*. From this, as a diminutive, comes the *phanarion* (lantern) that we use. Since the verb "to shine" (*phainein*) is homonymous—for in the Attic dialect *phainein* was used for to accuse, which was a kind of category of accusation ^D known as *pittakoma* in the popular tongue—at Athens a certain prosecutor of lawsuits was mockingly called a *phanos*, as if he were "shining" light on things and thus harming some. And in a way, such a person is likened to a sycophant, who is himself so named from the "pointing out" (*phainein*) of figs. The *phanos* is generally a saving thing. But the *phryktos* (beacon), though it also shines, is not named from the work it performs for salvation, but from the material that sustains it, which is roasted wood or brushwood; and it is derived from the root *phrygo* (to roast), from which the verb *pephryktos* is derived, whence come *phryktos*, *phryktoron*, and *phryktoria*, the guard kept according to the *phryktos*, just as *phylasso* (to guard) comes from *orao*. Such being the case with the *phryktos* and its derivatives, the *pyrsos* is more familiarly named, though not more beautifully than the *phanos*. One might say that the *phryktos* is further from the intention of discovery of the three, being named from its material, as was just said; the *pyrsos* is closer, being fire itself produced from such material; and the *phanos* is closer still, as being derived from the word "to shine," for which reason brushwood is gathered and the *pyrsos* is lit, so that it may shine for those who necessarily need it.

^A 124. From this point is completed the fourth, and most final, and most necessary [object] for those who need either a phanos or a pyrsos, namely the salvation of those who look towards such a brightness. That a phanos is also constituted in another way, without dry material and the display of carbonized fire, is clear from the constructed pipes and vessels in which certain moderate torches are lit at night, whether from wax or oil, wanting as much as some thin gauze [placed] around in a circle to [break] the blasts of wind, through which such lights are extinguished. And if smoke during the day often provides from afar the same indication as a pharus, and it itself also saves, that [smoke] can also be called a phanos through catachresis, or homonymy—not according to what *phainein* is, which is to shine, ^B but according to the common word *heteroion phainein*, that is, to show—and to lead to light, which a properly named pharus does.

125. Further, it must be considered whether one could also rightly call the places that provide salvation by day, or the smokes that are signs in islands or in other places as is likely, *phanoi* or *phryktoi* or *pyrsoi*. For perhaps someone who has not readily hit upon a better name will make bold even to name that black smoke a *phanos* because of the *phanen pyr* (the light that has appeared), of which the smoke is a sign, dyeing the air as it rises into a darker [hue]. For the same reason, he will also call the same smoke *pyrsoi*. However, one would be cautious about calling it *phrykton* or *phryktoron*. For such smoke as is found in the poet—that is, dry wood and truly *phrygana* (brushwood)—is not necessarily emitted from dry material; rather, that useful smoke is wont to rise from green wood piled onto the fire that is being troubled. But let us, as the saying goes, "go out from the smoke" of this discussion, ^C having sufficiently fashioned the *pyrsomorphos*, which is to say, "forming as if into a *pyrsos*."

126. It must also be known that from *pyr* (fire), *pyros* (of fire) comes *pyrros*, with the unchangeable letter *rho* doubled, to which, for a semivowel, the *sigma* is added, so that it becomes *pyrsos*, from which comes *pyrsomorphos*. Nor is it obscure that a man is called *pyrros* and a woman *pyrra*, [just as] those who are also [named] from the rose, *rodeoi*. It has been said, too, that *pyrsen thrix* (red hair) is *pyrra*. And just as *Pyrrhos* is a proper name [accented] with a grave accent on the penultimate syllable, to distinguish it from the adjectival oxytone, the history shows. And *porizein* is the same as to provide, being derived either from *poros* (passage/pore), from which comes *emporos* (merchant) and the words related to it, or from *poroi* (pores), from which, being for the most part hidden, things useful to us come forth, or from the adverb *porró* (far), from which is also the Aeolic *porsó* and *porsynó*. ^D However, the verb *ekporizein* indicates a certain expulsion and expenditure. For thus fire, being present to one who is shivering in the season of winter, *ekporizei* things that cause grief—that is, it draws them out, leads them away, empties them. And there is here a metaphor from those who sweat, whose bodily pores filter out superfluous moisture; thus also, thieves might wittily be said to *ekporizein* the property of others. But otherwise, to explain the matter precisely, just as among the ancients *exaision* (extraordinary) and *ekdikon* (unjust) [are used for] what is outside of the *aision* (lawful) and the

^A just; so too, *ekporizein* once meant not to provide, but to lead away. But later rhetoricians bring *porizein* and *ekporizein* to the same thing, as is shown by the phrase: "he provides a preparation of food," which is to say, he supplies [it] lavishly.

Hirmos of Ode 5

127. A short time ago our good poet, having mentioned the divine bath, and having departed from it a little, has ^B turned back again as if he were a lover of bathing; and he does not open up the whole entrance figuratively, as he had plumbed the depths there, saying, "You provide me with a streaming bath," and so forth; but having inclined otherwise, just enough to touch upon this good thing, here also he turns back to the sons of the Church and exhorts them to be purified, already washed and illuminated, yet still forever in need of the same grace, which a fervent Christian will never be sluggish in asking of God. He says, therefore, such things as: "Light-formed children of the Church, receive a cleansing bath for sins," that is, washing away, just as if it were much filth and thus heavy, the sins within us; by which cleansing, having been washed, "you shall be whitened as wool," serving ^C in the tabernacle of God, and [be] "above snow," of which, in due time, the effect is something very good for those upon the earth. What kind of cleansing, then, do I mean? The fire-breathing dew of the holy Spirit; which he will straightway interpret as the Zionist law, saying: "For now from the renowned Sion, of which there is very much talk everywhere on earth, a law has gone forth." What is that law? The grace of the holy Spirit, which, as has been said, bears the form of fire and tongue.

128. It must be known also that here the bath seems to be a paraphrase of the divine bath mentioned in the fourth ode. And so, "[a] cleansing of sins" interprets the divine [bath] periphrastically, though it is itself entirely a divine bath; the "fervor" of the Spirit there, the ^D expression *pnoov* (breathing) in this connection demonstrates. This "dew" denotes the "shower" and the "streaming" there, for the shower and the dew are not of a different kind, just as neither is the "river." And the "light" and the "torch" which shine later in the third and fifth lines adorn, more than that [previous] ode, that luminous cleansing according to the Spirit, or rather, the enjoyment of the children of the Church. At the same time, one must ponder the aforementioned dew of the Spirit, which is a remedy for the children of the Church, as being of the character of the fifth ode according to Isaiah; just as the light, which shines before those who see how much God commands, whose light are the commandments upon the earth. But the "torch" mentioned in the word *pursos* (torch), not without probability, might also be said to be

^A flashing from this same ode, mindful of the fire that consumes those who oppose us. And such is this.

129. The aforementioned "bath-like" purification is so called in order to distinguish it from other holy purifications, such as that which is performed through confession, that through penance for evil deeds, and that through moral virtues. We know, furthermore, of him who was purified in his lips by an ember in a spiritual sense. Another was also purified who had shown zeal toward God, and who had borne witness for Him, or had done some other similar good thing. But the principle of all these is the "bath-like" and fire-influenced dew of the Holy Spirit here handed down. It is called "dew" because, as it were, it rains down from above and fattens the beautiful plants of paradise (good men), and summons them to a ^B wealth of fruit; and it is called "fire-breathing" because through it and by means of it there is a new manner of spiritual power, according to which the water burns what is appointed by God, and the flame waters what is worthy of salvation; so that it is for this reason, according to the poet, the fire-breathing dew of the holy Spirit, and at the same time a dew-bearing fire with spiritual fervor, and thus a bath-like [purification] for the seemly purification of the soul.

130. The word *amplanēma* (sin) and *amplakia* is used in the feminine gender; it is derived from the phrase "to go backwards," because the sinner does not walk straight along the path of life, but in sinning retreats from righteousness as if in reverse. The compound *puripnoon* (fire-breathing) is a synthesis of "breathing fire," not of a flame that is ^C of burning air so that one, filled with it, might breathe fire like a Chimera or a Catoblepas, but such as angelically inflamed the apostolic men for divine mysteries, of which the fire-shaped tongues were a symbol. Note further that its masculine form is accented on the antepenultimate syllable, but the word shortened by syncope, the trisyllabic *purpnoos*, has the accent on the penultimate; as also from those, a little later, *puripnous*, and the adverb *purpnoōs*. Observe also here a concept from the outside world received by the holy hymnographer for a spiritual hymn. For the expression "to breathe fire," which was initially invented concerning the Colchian bulls ^D and the Lycian Chimera, which are described as fire-breathing animals, he has now skillfully appropriated for the fire—so to speak—of that artificial and alien torch, mysteriously lighting it and dedicating it to the Holy Spirit, through whom He has perfected the "bath-like" purification for the faithful. But if, in later times, someone is said to have "breathed the power of fire" because of his eloquence, or because he is fervent in some way similar to a fever, these are spoken of metaphorically, and are not expressed in an anagogical and exalted manner. It must also be noted here necessarily that *purpnoos* (fire-breathing) bull, and *purpnoos* Chimera, are rightly accented on the final syllable because of the action they demonstrate, just as in this phrase: "a woman; for she is the first to bring forth," and they "breathe fire." Furthermore, the dew is resolved into the passion, just as also the boy, who is accented on the penultimate syllable; for it is exhaled from the fire, becoming vapor, and is almost dew; for it is not

^A exactly fire that hinders, but it warms, as though it were bathwater.

131. "Light-formed children" means either of form, that is, of nature, as was stated before, and truly bright, or likenesses of light; but the word ^B "Church" is sweetly placed as the mother of the aforementioned children, so that the poet might call them ecclesiastical children, washed by her for a bright purification, ^C pleasing to God. The law that has now "gone forth" is not from elsewhere, but from Sion, which, according to the hymnographer, is the grace of the Spirit. And it must be considered here that we have rightly said that the phrase "distributing the Spirit as he promised," which we mentioned a short while ago, is demonstrative of such a concept. For if we do not propose that what belongs to the Holy Spirit are laws ^B igniting with tongues of scripture the things that save, we shall scarcely deem foreign lawgivers worthy of speech. The words "law has gone forth" does not otherwise proceed rightly in meter, because of the short termination of "gone forth"; for the fifth foot proceeds as a pyrrhic. It has, however, a remedy through the rule of a common syllable, such as also occurs in the case of an aorist ending in this way—"Nestor did not escape the cry"—but some have written "had gone forth," in the pluperfect tense. Such a spelling is perhaps not accurate, because of the adverb "now" which begins the verse regarding the manifestation of the New Testament. For that word admittedly denotes the present, and is adapted to the perfect and present. The pluperfect, however, has already ^C passed, and has passed away in time. But since he who wrote in such a way can say that one tense has been taken for another by custom, as the pluperfect for the past, and also that he wished to indicate that the law which has now arrived, as being from the beginning well-pleasing to God, had come in the pluperfect; up to this point must it be reasoned.

132. The fact that the aforementioned law "has gone forth from Sion" is in agreement with the most holy Gospel; for it was necessary that it, too, should begin from Jerusalem, being for us a cause of repentance and the remission of sins. See indeed the word "tongue-fire-formed," which is lightly regarded by those who are excessively and uselessly delicate about matters of grammar, but is dear to the sacred poet, and through him beloved by those who love the beautiful. For it is permitted for any rhetorician, ^D just as it is for the excellent foreign Xenophon, to write something now and then that is not approved, choosing what is pleasing to him according to a special character. Let us not, therefore, foolishly cry out against a man who is not ignorant, but who chooses what is not accepted by others, as it seems fit to him. Confidently, therefore, O poet, sound forth even in what follows, as you like, the "uncreated-co-crafting-throne," which we shall indeed gladly hear, praising it all, and celebrating it as if it were a brand new song. But those who are not content may stop their ears, smearing them with wax—or mud, of which they are indeed worthy.

133. It is to be known that our poet seems to delight in the expression "of the form"—that is to say, personal—taking this as a person himself—

^A a word known to him. Wherefore he often applies the tongue to it, signifying here, at the end of the connection, either that which is true by nature or that which is according to appearance, so that it might be "tongue-of-fire-formed," or fashioned towards an image through tongues of fire, as was possible, and thus light-like for the manifestation of the most divine light, the "fire" being taken simply for "light." Yet in other words, this grace, which thus imitated a torch, configured tongues of fire; by which tongues the ignorant were made wise, and they uttered good and truly wise and most divine words; but philosophers, with the tongue cleaving to the throat of each, stammered forth empty things.

Troparion of the fifth ode.

XII. As He willed of His own authority, The Lordless Spirit comes down from the Father, Making wise the apostles in tongues, Sealing in them the life-bearing word, From the Father, of the form which the Savior spoke.

134. The poet philosophizes on the descent of the Holy Spirit in the troparian laid out here, teaching that He was not sent from above in a servile manner for the benefit of the gathered Gentiles, but, as he says, as it was well-pleasing, according to a proper and indeed common good-pleasure of the holy Trinity, but also that He descends from the Father of His own authority and as Lordless. ^B Since there is the same good-pleasure, and likewise the same power and lordship, He who accepts such a descent is both the Father and the Son, just as He is the Holy Spirit. He descends, he says, "making wise in tongues," that is, through fiery tongues, by which the Holy Spirit was signified, sealing—that is, confirming—the life-bearing word which the Savior spoke; that is, the word of the Savior Christ, who truly said that the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, would come upon the apostles and would lead them into all truth. And he calls such a word of the Son also "from the Father," as having from thence its strength according to operation, and "of the form" because of the truth, or for that Word and Son who is Truth itself, or for the equal Father. ^C Instead of "co-natural," according to the meaning of "form," which denotes the nature. For all things that the Father is able to do, and all things that are co-natural to Him, are also of the Son. For our wise poet seems to have wished to force those things which are of the Son—that is, the virtue from the Father, which is the power consonant with the Father, and that which is co-natural with Him—more fervently to unite with the word firmly promised by that same Son as being most true. Such is the sense of the strophe, as far as it is given to us to understand, according to the text delivered of it.

135. But if anyone, thinking the life-bearing word itself to be the Son of God the Father, should wish to connect the phrases "from the Father" and "of the form" to Him, I do not think he would easily be able, according to such a sense, to join the phrase ^D "which the Savior spoke" to them. It would be better, for the arrangement of an easy meaning, if one were to write in the straightforward and nominative case: "of the Father," "of the form," so that the Holy Spirit might seal the life-bearing, most true word which the Savior spoke.

^A Since these points have been added, and because it is good to examine the members of the strophe part by part, according to custom, it should be known that although the expression "just as" (καθώς περ) is not much used by the ancient rhetoricians, and the term "just as" (καθάπερ) is preferred to it, just as "just as" (καθώς) is preferred to "just as" (καθὰ), nevertheless the melodist, because of the meter and its common and holy usage—of which "just as the Father has sent me" is an example—has chosen "just as" (καθώς περ).

^B 136. He says "was well pleased" (εὐδόκησεν) in a very solemn manner; for to "be well pleased" (εὐδοκεῖν) is a lofty expression, and one allotted to God and to divine men, such as kings in particular. It possesses solemnity because it is declarative by judgment; for we do not say "he willed" (ἐδόκησεν), nor is that used for such matters, but "he was well pleased" (εὐδόκησε) and "he is well pleased" (εὐδοκεῖ). That one is properly "sovereign" (αὐτεξούσιος) who, being master of himself, is permitted—without command—to do what he wishes; and such a person is said to act "sovereignly" (αὐτεξουσίως) in whatever he does, as if it were permitted for him. ^C An "adεσποτον" (headless/masterless) thing is, for now, that which is not ordered under any master. Ancient rhetoricians call an anonymous book "adεσποτον," where neither the author nor the master is clear; so also an "adεσποτον" inquiry, which is untitled and thus obscure; and an "adεσποτον" report is one that is unverified, of which we do not know the source. If the Spirit descends from the Father, the Son also sent Him; and He descended in a sovereign manner, "adεσποτον." By all means, the Holy Spirit, in descending, is not circumscribed by place, just as the Son is neither having descended nor having ascended; for the Holy Trinity is always present everywhere.

^D 137. "To make wise" (σοφίζειν) here signifies to make people wise, and by no means to deceive. And he said "in tongues" (ἐν γλώσσαις) necessarily, employing a poetic style; and the expression is Ionic, for they say "Muses'" (μούσῃσι) and "spheres'" (σφαίρῃσιν) for "Muses" (μούσαις) and "spheres" (σφαίραις). We should not, however, think here only of the tongues that once appeared in the form of fire, but rather of the languages of foreigners, by which, as is celebrated in the poet's song, the disciples were renewed and made wise. If the Son is called the "equal-typed seal" of the Father, the melodist is not to be blamed for saying that the Holy Spirit also seals the word of the Son; for nothing prevents that which is venerable in the seal from being attributed to the Holy Trinity. ^D The "life-bearing" (φερέσβιος) word, properly and primarily, is not the common word of man, but the Word of the Son of God, who is often celebrated with such an expression, but especially because He is the *ratio* (λόγος), or cause, of all beings, and for this reason is also "life-making" and "life-bearing," that is, bearing life to us; which is life twofold, that which concerns both soul and flesh, and that which is considered according to living (βίον)—which he himself calls "life" (ζωή), when he who celebrates the Ithacan hero says that to him there was much "life," calling the rest of the possession of living "life," and especially that which exists in various animals. From the word "to bear" (φέρω) comes "life-bearing" (φερέσβιος), just as from "I rule" (ἄρχω) comes "arch-wealthy" (ἀρχέπλουτος), and as from "I bear" (φέρω) comes "house-bearing" (φερέοικος). Through the frequent short vowels and the...

false derivation of the meter, by the addition of the letter σ, the word *pheresbios* was formed; nor could *Theodotos* be spoken in meter as *Theosdotos*. Similarly, the Word also punctuated *thespesion* [divine-spoken], and the *thekelon* [divinely-fated] from *theoeikelou* [divinely-resembling], then *theskelon*. ^A

Second Troparion of the Fifth Ode

138. The poet philosophizes that the holy apostles owe thanks to the great teacher Christ, and no less to the Holy Spirit; and indeed also to the Father. For the supreme Ruler, the Son, as Word and pursuer of all irrationality, *iēto*, that is, healed from sin and tended the minds of the apostles before the ascension. And one might rightly sub-understand in the imperfect form of the verb *iāto*, that He both healed them then, and continued to heal them thereafter. ^B And performing and having performed this, He was preparing—or had prepared—for Himself, by the breathing of the Spirit, a pure house, that is, a holy dwelling in each apostle. And this, the most wise builder, the Son of God, had already accomplished before today's day for the holy disciples, having systematically constructed those houses for Himself through divine artifice; for "to construct" (kataskeuazein) is a technical, or if I may say so, architectural term: whence it is named by the wise "construction." Now, however, the Holy Spirit, as ever seeking a worthy habitation and abiding place for Himself, having found the souls of the holy apostles—that is, those intellectual houses of theirs—swept and shining with beauty, and filled with fragrant aromas, ^C and most suitable for attracting Him, He inhabited such houses, inasmuch as He is of the same virtue and consubstantial with Him. Here also there is full liberty and no necessity of decree, where neither envy nor contention is found. Therefore, the Holy Spirit enters this house of the Word, which is at once also the Father’s, today, or, to speak more simply, He dwells [therein].

139. *Iēto* could have been said more commonly with the letter alpha as *iāto*. But the following, as though foreign, is Ionic: *iētros* and *iētreion*; and like "He will not heal the eye, nor the Earth-shaker," he himself also writes *iēto* here instead of "he was healing." He says that Christ heals the *phrenas* [minds], not the *splanchna* [vitals]—the bodily chests, that is, from which "phrenitis" [the disease of the mind/delirium] is derived—but the spiritual ones, according to which we deem that they seem to be "sound-minded," and not to suffer from mental delusion or mental damage, ^D and we do not think that those things played any part in this. For a doctor will sometimes do that, fearing lest the patient under treatment suffer poorly from the perversity of the disease. But the Doctor of souls, the Son of God, in the apostles, prepares for Himself a dwelling, the mind, which is that which is "thinking" in humans, which the poet called *phrenas*...

and as for that which is "from sin" (*ex hamartias*), it is set down for the sake of precision of meaning: for the healing of the spiritual mind, as also of the heart, is the rooting out of sin.

^B 140. Note this *iēto* (*ἰῆτο*), meaning "heal the mind" from sin; through which it is signified that just as bodily diseases are the bad conditions of the body, so also are sins for the mind; and that as soon as the healing of those is completed, the one being healed immediately becomes a house of God. But that diseases or sins reach the body, he learned who heard thus: "See, you are made whole; sin no more" (John 5:14). And this matter also has its reasonableness. For if the organic body of a man harms the soul, just as it often wounds an artificial and skilled person and otherwise grieves his own instrument, which is not always impassible, well, sometimes it also itself suffers a certain antipathy in due season. Know, however, that the conjunction *men* (*μὲν*) here is not yielded in the customary way, but appears to be a particle without a counterpart, such as is read at the beginning of the venerable Book of the Acts of the Apostles; unless one should link it with this: to say that "what was before this, God the Word was preparing as a pure house; but now the Holy Spirit dwells in this house." ^C But the poet, pressed by the constriction of the meter, says this, having omitted the initial letter of the pronoun [omitted in Greek text, referring to *eautō* / *heautō*], which is also marked with the rough breathing; and having changed the letter *k* of the conjunction to the aspirate *ch* of the same order, after the elision, through synaloepha, of the diphthong *ai*; which diphthong is thus insinuated as elided in this: *erchom'* having "unto the ships." And the poet also has an ancient precedent for this usage from *Oedipus Rex*, namely *ch’ autou*, that is, and of himself.

141. And *pantarchos* (*πάνταρχος*) is equivalent to *pambasileus* (*παμβασιλεὺς*), and *pantana* (*παντάναξ*), and *anax anaktōn* (*ἄναξ ἀνάκτων*), and *basileus basileōn* (*βασιλεὺς βασιλέων*), and *kyrios kyrieuontōn* (*κύριος κυριευόντων*), and what is greater, *theos theōn* (*θεὸς θεῶν*). ^D Now it is more solemn to say *pantarchos* with the *t*, just as also *pantana*, than with the *n* alone, and the reason is clear; and for this cause *pantourgos* (*παντουργός*) was chosen to be attributed to God, with *panourgos* (*πανούργος*) being set aside as being for the most part spoken of in an evil sense, even if the author of Proverbs introduces a good meaning for it, where he appears to be praising the *panourgon*. In a similar way also the Wisdom of God is called *pantaitia* (*παντατία*) by our fellow holy melodist, not consistent with the proper noun *Panaitios* (*Παναίτιος*). That the same meaning is preserved even without the *t* in such terms, just as it was with the *t*, is clear, apart from many other things, from *panōlethria* (*πανωλεθρία*), and from "I call the all-seeing (*panoptēn*) circle of the sun"—it is the same to say "the one seeing all," and as one might say "all-observant (*panteteptēn*)." And the immaculate house is that which is above every primary, supernal order, which is entirely fitting for God. Such indeed is the temple of God, that house; so that according to the Davidic supplication, of which we made mention, the things therein may be: for the Son and God prepares indeed the apostles into an immaculate house, creating a clean heart in them; but there dwells, according to the poet, a right spirit therein, of dedication.

^A

142. Or, to say the same thing, concerning inhabitation. ^B Indeed, the sacred reading is brought in from things outside and consecrated to God. Among the Greeks, it was said "to establish" (*idryein*)—to institute, at the beginning, into a temple, according to the honorable and established ritual, that which was honored by them: any divine likeness or statue whatsoever that was entirely god-like. It should also be noted that the idea concerning the immaculate or pure house may be thought to have, in a certain way, a relation to the aforementioned washing; for the sacred melodist very skillfully and artfully kept the trope of the washing, just as in the phrase "the divine washing of regeneration," so also a little before in the phrase "the washing-vessel, the cleansing of transgressions." For cleansing fittingly adheres to the washing-vessel; likewise, also, the fire which the washing-vessel requires. And having set his mind, friendly to such a notion, upon the "snow-formed children"—that is, white and pure, in accordance with "wash yourselves, become pure"—meaning clearly, according to the Scripture, "and your garments," which is to say, those who have cleansed the outer and surrounding garment of the soul and whitened it in such a washing. Thus, therefore, the wise melodist, having directed that metaphor, adapted to it also the aforementioned immaculate house; for if, as the body is the garment of the soul, so also the house of the latter is the selfsame body. Therefore, just as it is necessary to cleanse such a garment, so also is it necessary to sweep the same spiritual house, so that the Holy Spirit may remain therein as a grace of inhabitation, or rather of dedication; so that this house, and those houses like it which follow the aforementioned Zionite law of the grace of the Holy Spirit, may become destructors of the houses of unrighteousness, of which, therefore, it is said in David—just as that holy cave of the birth of Christ judged the robbers' school of caves, which has reproach and rebuke in the holy Gospel—to be reproved. ^C

143. But the Spirit is of the same power, and also of equal power, with the most holy Son, and likewise also with the Father, as was written before; not, however, of "similar power," for that would be heresy. And thus, not even of "similar substance," but of the same substance, or in other words, consubstantial. Whence he also says the Spirit there is consubstantial with the Son. It is not to be rejected, however, to say "co-powerful," and "identical-powerful," and "identical-substance," but all these and suchlike are correct. It is clear that it is impossible for the Holy Spirit, being consubstantial with the Word, not to inhabit the same house as He. ^D This is held on account of the light of the feast. For the "light of the Spirit" is said by way of periphrasis; for it is taken for the Spirit. And here the poet speaks poetically; for periphrasis is a poetic figure. Whether, therefore, one says "the Spirit inhabits," according to the verse "renew a right spirit in my inward parts," or "the grace of the Spirit," or "the light of the Spirit," these are all sanctified by one notion. But if the light of the Spirit inhabits the aforementioned divinely-prepared house, then that house is also "God-built," according to David, into which they who built did not labor in vain, and its lucid gates are prepared for God for the unhindered reception of light, which He radiates; and of spiritual light...

such a house is full, against which the night knows not how to boast. ^A

144. These things being so, it occurs to us, as we return to the beginning of the explained strophe, to consider whether God did not necessarily heal the hearts of the apostles according to the song; for once having been united with Him with all their soul, they were all pure according to His word, except for one, the cursed Judas; but as for other hearts, difficult to cure in their sinning, and thus healing them, He prepared for Himself a house of apostles, that is to say, an apostolic house, of which the stewards were established as the apostles, as if they were laborers, faithful servants and friends, associated and assigned under the Master of the house, who is God. But if He said "house" in the singular and not "houses" in the plural, we should not marvel, recalling the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the house of God, which is comprehended through the midst of the ecclesiastical expression in the most holy symbol of the Christian faith, which saves the world. ^B

Hirmus of the sixth ode

Propitiation for us, O Christ, and salvation Presently Thou hast shone forth from the Virgin, That, as the prophet from the belly of the sea-beast, Jonah, Thou mightest snatch from corruption The whole of Adam, fallen with all his kin.

145. The sense of this hirmus is not coherent with the rest of the most luminous festival, touching upon it only a little insofar as it says, "Thou hast shone forth from the Virgin," that is, after having spoken of the supernatural birth, he immediately, as was fitting, applies the author of the sixth poem to the miracle of the beast, according to which he parabolically depicts the affairs of Adam, saying thus: "Christ the Master, as our propitiation and salvation, Thou hast shone forth from the ever-virgin Theotokos." Why? Because Thou didst descend and humble Thyself to such a degree that, for our sake, He who is our Creator also became man, in order that, manifestly, just as Thou didst miraculously rescue the prophet Jonah—who prefigured Thy three-day resurrection from the tomb—from the belly of the sea-beast (for beasts can also be whales), so too Thou mightest snatch the whole of Adam, fallen with all his kin, from corruption. ^C For to the whole of Adam—that is, the entire human nature derived from Adam—and also to the soul, and in another way to the body, a penalty was given for the Adamic sin, and all who from then were subject to corruption were restored to their primitive state through the birth of Christ. ^D

146. Such is the meaning of the hirmus; but some copies, instead of "propitiation and salvation" (*hilasmos* and *soteria*), have "as propitiation and salvation" (*hilasmon* and *soterian*) in the accusative case, so that the poet would say that Thou hast made propitiation and salvation to shine upon us. The former reading, however, is more august, for Christ is in reality our propitiation and salvation. The word *ilaō* is the root of *hilasmos*, whence also comes *hilasastai*; but the verb produced from it, *ilemi*—as *istēmi*—is not clearly in use, though it derives the forms *ilethi* and *ilaothi* and *ilēkois*, instead of "be propitious." The derivation of *ilaō* and its cognates here...

^A eventually becomes the verb *ilaskō*. Now, regarding the word "salvation," you must know that "Savior" (the noun of which, "salvation," is a cognate) is derived from things foreign and applied to our divine matters, just as is also the case with the title "king." For, since the Attics preferred a democratic regime, yet clearly knew that the royal form of command was better than the other types of government, they were wont to call Zeus "king," as if it were not worthy for a mortal man to be a king among them; and they deemed him also a "Savior," to whom they even assigned the title "crater" (mixing-bowl) at banquets. ^B St. John wrote "shone forth" as if regarding the sun, just as the most holy Theotokos is the heaven, from whom the Sun of righteousness shone forth. Or, to express it in other words, from her—as from a luminous cloud—such a saving illumination arrived, and our saving rain burst forth upon the earth. Therefore, he preferred this diction to those others—"thou didst shine," or "thou hast appeared," or "thou didst flash"—which are themselves indeed brilliant terms.

147. Furthermore, it must be noted here that the aforementioned cloud does not possess an etymology simply following any kind of nebula, such as one that is dark and shadowy, but rather one that is, so to speak, a "solar nebula," as though it were overshadowing within itself the Sun of truth and justice. The word "Master" is used in an admiring sense, since this Ruler has shone forth in such a way upon his servants, showing nothing that is harsh. The phrase "from the Virgin" suggests the verb ^C just as if you were "incarnate from the Virgin, shining in purity"; and thus, with the light of salvation, you have shone round about us who were lying in the darkness of sins. By the expression "through the chest of the whale," he signifies its belly, as it is permitted to speak in a motherly manner. By all means, such chests and bellies are to be thought of figuratively as Hades; from whence, having fled, we obtained the resurrection. And in a certain way he says: "Since thou didst shine forth like the sun from a virginal womb, O Master and Savior Christ, thou didst rescue us from the deadly belly of Hades, according to the ancient type once shown by the prophet Jonah." One must know, however, that he could have said "innards" instead of "chest," had he not been anticipated by another melody. Observe also how "snatched from corruption" is most elegantly and confidently spoken regarding the Savior Christ. For He who once snatched the spoils of the power that was against us, did not neglect to snatch Adam also from corruption; being content to be called a "thief," yet a most excellent one, He also taught us to snatch other saving things, and even time itself, which, as some wise man said, is ^D the most precious expenditure. It is known to those skilled in language that "to snatch" is a term specifically used of lions, leopards, and other similar beasts. This phrase, "the whole Adam," can be referred to his fall, so that "the fallen Adam" is understood as a whole—by his soul, on account of his having sinned, and by his body, on account of his being condemned to death; for which there was no deliverance except through the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.

148. Note also that the most holy Damascene [teaches that] our fallen nature was rebuilt

said, when the One who was prefigured by Jonah rose again, having suffered and been committed to the tomb and placed in the belly of the earth, Christ. But the present ode says that Adam, who had fallen and been snatched away by corruption, was saved when Christ shone forth from the Ever-Virgin. The melody most fittingly attributes the same good, there indeed to the God-entombed burial of Christ, as the seal of our salvation; but here, to the birth of Him who began to save the Adamic mass: in which matters it is the same to say that the human essence—that is, the nature, according to the Damascene—was rebuilt from the dust, and that the whole of Adam was snatched away from corruption, the heirmos drawing together also that which concerns Jonah into a certain notion similar to his, as one who is wise in divine matters is able to construct. ^B It seems, moreover, that the divine essence there, restored after the fall, signifies the earthly fall into Hades itself; but the fallen Adam, as has been said, indicates as a fall, as if into Hades, the belly of the sea-monster. And the sung "curse of the first mother" serves the "all-generated" [mass] both according to scripture and according to the meaning.

First Troparion of the Sixth Ode

149. The present strophe finds the origin of its meaning in the all-wise David, who, having prayed for a clean heart to be created in him by God, and a right spirit to be renewed in his inward parts, as we previously wrote, the poet, having commented upon this, and adding also theology to the festival sequence, prays thus in common: "O Almighty Word, would that You might renew in the inward parts of us Christians a spirit desirable and right, which we might possess eternally; so that, just as the holy Spirit is ever united with You, so may Your grace remain always with us until the consummation of the age, You not changing unless we should sin first, nor giving things that are spiritually temporary." Then, philosophizing theologically, he says that the holy Spirit is always joined with the Son and Word of God, as being proceeded from the Father—that is, in that He is produced and proceeds from the Father—as if by a mystical synonymy, both of these terms signifying the same thing. ^{C D}

150. But it is manifest that the Spirit is also always joined with the Son, and as the Father is always in Him, so also is the holy Spirit. Then, the hymnographer, briefly manifesting for us also the efficacy of the holy Spirit, and demonstrating that He is a consuming fire, says He is burning toward the odious matter of pollutions, and cleansing, that is to say, a purgative of all filth—which is to say, of every type, specifically that which is according to the mind—which is signified in the phrase "Cleanse us from every stain." By which stain and by which filth those who have been washed become pure in heart and thus become seers of God, and put on light, as a garment dear to God. It is to be noted, however, that in ancient copies there is found "of the mind" [instead of] "the cleansing" of the "all-generated" [mass].

^A And that the sense of the strophe bursts forth the same as the strophe a little way above in the fifth ode, where the Word of God was preparing for Himself a home in which the light of the Spirit dwelt. But, that I may speak more accurately, the affirmation posited there, the poet here has changed into a prayer, having made a petition that we might have the good thing which he had previously set forth philosophically in that second strophe and in its continuation.

151. It must be supposed, however, that [the word] *might dwell* (ἐγκατοικίζοιτο) was used there in the optative mood on account of the meter, in place of *dwells* (κατοικίζεται) and *inhabits*; [and that] the sacred poet, doubling the enthymeme, has led us to now pray directly in some way, and in that place to say: O supreme Potentate, after Thou hast prepared for Thyself an immaculate, apostolic home, renew in us the Holy Spirit. Nor would one speak inconveniently ^B if he were to say that the concept of the burning of odious stains and spiritual purgation is derived here from the preceding divine bath and the purification of this bath. But, skipping over the supposition that the said word was translated tropically from the fervent Spirit, it also depends on fiery tongues: and from this, [that] the Holy Spirit is a consuming fire. It is evident, however, that to be burned is altogether more awful than to be cleansed; and one must understand the burning to concern the hateful matter of stains, as in the case of base materials being melted in a smelting vessel by a violent fire. For every such material, being hateful to the pure, after its fusion and the burning away of that which defiles it, is loved and sought after; ^C which also he excellently undergoes who is tested and cleansed by the fire of the Spirit, and emerges purified by this removal of the stain, as happens with those things which are certainly cleansed by a fuller’s process or otherwise in any way. For such as these, any kind of burning is absent; and to these are similar the Davidic [types], who wish to be washed well, but not to taste of any fire.

152. We must observe here, however, lest some from among us, being able to cast off filth by cleansing alone, compel the poet to roll us upon coals of fire, so that the filth being thus burned away, we might be whitened and return to the Eucharist. For we have seen napkins woven from threads of amianthus material—which it is said the mountain rock of Carystus once produced—in which, when a deep stain had settled, it vanished more easily through the burning of fire than by any other cleaning. Assigned to this purification are those who, quickly changing from a pure life, not noticing, for a time altered, afterwards promptly convert if someone pours into them spiritual steadfastness from a furnace. ^D And thus let the sense of this strophe be constituted. Concerning the "upright Spirit," little, indeed, has already been written, but yet it has been written; now it will be sufficient to say altogether that the curved is opposed to the upright, and elsewhere even the tortuous. Such things, indeed, are not approved of even in spiritual matters that pertain to civil life, if we use good morals. But here the desirable [goal] of the festival

^A to the most upright Spirit, the demon is opposed; which, to speak in the manner of the Psalms, leads about those walking round about, and produces no good according to the truth of rectitude, but twists all things to our disadvantage, unless the upright Spirit, providing us with aid, should stand in the way. ^B By the visceral depths of the soul and the varied thoughts of God within it, a depth is signified, according to which meaning David commands those things which are within him to bless the name of the Lord; who, having cried out from such depths to the Lord, is heard. For every good of the soul ought not to be put forward superficially, but to be kept preciously in the deep chambers, like a treasure, to which, according to holy Scripture, the heart of each one is applied. That the wise poet among the outsiders said "deep chambers" [for] "inward parts," is known to those who are learned; who also wrote "faces" for "appearances"; likewise "stars" for "stars" [in the plural/singular usage], and "dreams" for "dreams." The word "defilement" (*molusma*), derived from "to defile" (*molunō*), is analogous to "to stain" (*miainō*) and "stain" (*miasma*), and "to sweeten" (*hēdunō*) and "sweetening" (*hēdusma*). And "eternally" (*aiōniōs*) must be adapted to "always" (*pantote*), so that through prayer it may be for us that the holy Spirit is eternally in us, who is always joined to the Almighty. And "that which cleanses" (*rhuptikon*) of "filth" (*rhupou*) is of an etymological kind, but it is derived from the common Attic language; such also are "to speak" (*legō*) and "speech" (*logon*), and "in sleep" (*hupnō*) and "sleep" (*hupnon*), and the like.

Second Troparion of the Sixth Ode

^C XVI. A desirable dignity for the apostles: To those in Sion awaiting thy presence, A sign, the Spirit of the Word begotten of the Father, The harsh chatter of the nations' Flattery, displaying most swiftly, as fire thou dost settle.

153. We wish in the present troparion to encounter a safe copy. For among those [copies] we have met, there is nothing worthy of blame to be brought forward. However, since we have written according to what we have found and as we were able, later when we encounter a correct edition, we shall then correct what is not right. We say, therefore, having taken cues from some pre-existing things, that the poet seems to be addressing the holy Spirit in this way: "O holy Spirit, sign of the Son of God begotten of the Father who has no beginning. For as the Son reveals the Father to us, so dost thou [reveal] the Son; O very desirable dignity for the apostles sitting in Sion and awaiting thy presence, as was promised to them; thou, as a fire-breathing God and therefore terrible, showing with respect to the heathens the seduction, the discourse, and the conversation—which is not spiritual but cruel—dost immediately and without any labor cast them down to the ground, or simply cause them to sit, and thus cause them to be silent and to be without motion, so that they no longer think the apostolic eloquence is drunkenness." Such indeed is the meaning we have gathered from the faulty copies, to speak briefly: "O holy Spirit, the heathen drivel thou didst quickly, as God, demonstrate and stop." If the adverb "fire-breathing" ^D

^A is, or if it is written otherwise to signify "showing," or if it signifies "establishing" (for establishing or settling ^B is a sacred expression, as in the case of a dedication or an enthronement, may God grant that we be illuminated from it—not that of the second person, nor does it signify simply sitting and idleness, but as has been shown a little before), it is a sacred expression.

154. It might perhaps seem good to understand the present strophe as well: "O holy Spirit, as has been said, indicated in three successive verses, you, showing as God to the holy apostles, that is, teachingly demonstrating what the heathen hiss, and what things the disciples of God theologize—and showing this through the fiery tongues and the violent wind—you establish the holy apostles, that is, you sanctify them, and thus you make them honorable, as if they were divine statues fit to shine in the temples of God, and thus to be revered; so that, according to this ^C meaning, providing or establishing would be a sacred expression, as has been written before: "And such indeed is this." But the word "dignity" (dignatio) used in the request is to be understood in a common sense; rather, it is called a "dignity" either because the apostles were worthy of the reception of the holy Spirit because a pure heart had been created in them, or because (out of past weakness they have been made worthy), and truly dignified and magnificent because of the inspiration of the holy Spirit in them. Moreover, they spoke with authority in philosophical discourse, as if they were completely filled with wisdom from that source. For if, when Pythagoras was saying vain things, the one who doubted, upon hearing from one of his disciples that "The Master has said it," ceased from questioning, how would he who listened to the spirit-filled disciples teaching such solemn, such lofty, such authority-filled things, and such things worthy of the holy Spirit, have stood against the teaching with rebellion and contradiction ^D?

155. This "dignity" was desirable to the apostles, or, as has been said before, "longed for." For "to long" (ἱμείρειν) and "to be longed for" (ἱμείρεσθαι) is "to desire" (ἐπιθυμεῖν), and "to reach for" (ὀρέγεσθαι), from which comes "the thing longed for" (ὀρεκτόν) and "desire" (ὄρεξις); or it is that which is especially given by God. For "to reach out" (ὀρέγειν) is also used in a sense like this, as in the phrase: "Reach out (Ὀρεξόν) to me a hand of help," that is, reach forth, give. From this comes the word "fathom" (ὀργυιά), accented on the penultimate, or according to the ancients, on the antepenultimate (ὀργυια), whence comes the "fathoming" (ὀργυιᾶσθαι) of the nautical cables. And from this, as has been said, the verb "to reach out" (ὀρέγειν) also gives rise to the word (ἔγχος), meaning a spear, not one striking at close quarters, but one cast by the stretching of the hand. The term "to the Sionites" is instead of "to the Jerusalemites," that is, by Sion. And for "remain" (μίμνουσιν) he could have said "safely remain," instead of "in Sion they await Thy presence," or "Your presence"; but the singer chose the more poetic word. For commonly we say "I remain" (μένω), but poetically "I abide" (μίμνω) via derivation, similarly to "I bring forth" (τέκω/τίκτω), "I have" (ἔχω/ἴσχω), and such like. And this composition of "the Father-begotten" is also dear to the sacred singer.

^A

156. Discourse ^B is indeed, in common parlance, very often unnecessary, and perhaps even an untimely talkativeness of certain idle pagan persons. For in times of old, those who were idle due to poverty, and having no serious work to attend to, would gather around the winter baths' kilns and around the furnaces of the smiths for the sake of warmth—that is, protection from the cold and heat—and, reclining and speaking of things agreeable to them, and thus vainly exhausting the tongue and wearing it down like those who are tongue-sore, they revealed the naming of the *lesche* (discourse). For such places were called *leschai*, perhaps from *legein* (to speak), or rather, from *lego* (I sit down, I recline, I sleep); hence *lexo*, *lexomai* (I shall sleep). Of this theme, the perfect is *lelecha*, from which comes not only *lechos* and *lektron* (a bed), and *gyne lecho* (a woman in childbirth), but also the very thing called *leche* (a couch), and by the addition of the 's', *lesche*. From this also comes *adoleschein* (to be garrulous), that is, to speak at length.

157. The terms *apenes* (rough/cruel) ^B and *o apenes*, and *to apenes*, not only signify that which is opposed to gentleness, according to which meaning we call tyrannical men *apeneis*, but also denote—among the Attics—that which is unseemly, as being far from *ainos* (praise/laud); for we cannot praise that which is not honorable. *Apenes lesche* (a rough discourse) of the pagans, therefore, is so called in both these senses. ^C But what sort of word is *poppysma* (a clucking/smacking sound)? It is onomatopoeic, plainly: having no etymology, but known by its effect to the hearers, that we, by tightening the lips, address infants or young animals in a friendly and more coaxing manner—not with an articulate voice, but with a sound that has no articulation; or anything else that cannot grasp articulate human speech. This is just like "cuckoo" when I say *kokky*, or *poppy*—from which is derived *poppyzo*—or *gry* (a bit), *gryzo* (to grunt), or *my*, *myzo* (to mutter/mumble). With such *poppysmata* he aptly and wittily likens the discourses of the pagans, because of their being pleasant in words alone, and, as if in a coaxing fashion, an enticement to external phrases. For such discourses, as they bring no soul-nourishing fruit, had their allurements otherwise, from fabulous inventions and certain such trifles, in which the common people, like animals enticed by hissing, take pleasure.

158. But the word *ōkista* (most swiftly) is most proper for the energy of the Spirit, ^D who works His own works without time; it is the superlative of *tachous* (swiftness), just as *ōky* (swift) is to *ōkista*. The word *deiknys* (showing) ought, as it relates to the movement of the Spirit, to have been *deiknyōn* (showing); but having been brought forward with *pyrpnōs* (fire-breathing) in the masculine gender, it is Atticized according to the soundness of the thought; for God, and truly the Holy Spirit, is also masculine, and therefore *deiknys* is fitting for Him. But *pyrpnōs* is a most lively paraphrase of "by violent breath and the tongues of fire," such as also is "the fire-breathing spiritual dew," and all such things. It should be known that if *pyrpnōs* lengthens the final syllable as an adverb, it must be syntactically constructed with *deiknys*; for thus, as has been said, the things of the Holy Spirit are shown in this His present feast.

Hirmos of the seventh ode

XVII. The melodist opposes this very ancient and imprudent history to those who are now keeping the feast in Zion, who also celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit today upon the apostles; he indeed casts off from the laudatory portion those crowds, but he establishes in that place those who, to speak properly, are spiritual. And the holy poet has the story from the arrogant setting up of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, and the manner of acting of its impious worshippers. He says that the symphonious melody of Nebuchadnezzar and the noise of those multiform instruments, of which many were not even known to the Greek race, were a signal that the golden statue, or the inanimate idol, should be worshipped: but this, indeed, was at that time when idolatry was worshipped publicly. But now, when He who is truly the Lord and God of gods is recognized, the grace of the Holy Spirit the Paraclete is not manifested in the sounding of trumpets, and drums, and psalteries, and symphonies, and sambucae, and such like things; but a sound extraordinary of a vehement wind and of a resounding fire, by which those gathered and meeting here were struck, did not disturb anyone, but—as ^C one might say, reverently and piously—it moves them, and inspires an august spiritual veneration, and resonates augustly because of the concord of the wind sounding from below with the heavenly melodies, teaching us not to respond to that old likeness with an inanimate and thus senseless sound, but confidently to say with a clear voice to Him who performs wonders, to the God who subsists in the Trinity: "O Trinity, equal in power and existing without beginning; you alone are in truth to be blessed"; and therefore we who are yours bless you alone, as not knowing any other God than you alone; so that the word *sebasmiazei* (it makes venerable) is an antithesis to the word *ethroese* (it made a noise), and especially to the expression *sebein to bretas* (to worship the statue); and perhaps, since it is permissible for rhetoricians in necessary circumstances to invent new terms, the melodist also did this now, having derived ^D *sebasmiazei* from the word *sebein*.

160. Observe also how skillfully this holy poet has inserted the aforementioned Chaldean history, adapted to the order of the seventh ode, and by placing it as a parallel to those things pertaining to the celebrated Holy Spirit, he has manifested much of his own dexterity. For, to the symphonious melody of those instruments that affect the senses, he has opposed the present spiritual symphony. For here there is not confusion of tongues, but union and, if I may so say, consensus. And to their inspiration and motion—for there was indeed something inspired in them—he has opposed the spiritual inspiration upon the apostles; organs of God himself are

^A the ones who hymn his praises. And to the then peoples, and tribes, and tongues, which are in this feast, he compares what is similar; but to that cry which violently strikes the air, he compares the mighty wind here; and to that veneration there of an inanimate idol worthy of being spoken ill of, and its adoration, he compares the knowledge and adoration of the true God who lives forever and is the dispenser of life. Let one also consider how, to that Chaldean fire which kept safe the blessed three youths who were representing the Holy Trinity—albeit wholly in one divinity, which the one who descended ^B for their salvation symbolically indicated—he has here set the fire, which saves indeed, while also making wise with the form of fiery tongues those who have knowledge of the Holy Trinity; for would it not, perhaps, consume in an ineffable manner of conscience and reason those who are not such, as has also been previously stated? And such is the skill of the wise sacred psalmist here, as far as we have been able to look into it.

In this stanza, the word "consonant" (symphoniacam) is used opportunely, and it is impossible to express it better; for therein note the word "good" and "consonant," and thus "harmonic," adapted to the bad deed which depended upon the will of the tyrant. For they truly are, just as abominable and detestable councils—such as was, according to the psalmist David, the "synagogue of the wicked," and that concerning which it is proverbial that Attagus ^C joined with Numenius—so too are the demonic symphonies, the worst of which was that which cried out: "Away with him, away with him, crucify him"; and that which, as if subject to him, affirmed that it had no king but Caesar.

161. But *erothēse* (it terrified) is a harsh word, suited to a terrifying thought; to others, however, it is elegant, because that melody possessed nothing sweet, but only terrified and struck with fear. But here it must be noted that it was not the consonant melody of the instruments, which is greatly soothing, that terrified those who were present, but the proclamation of the royal will; which proclamation, being taken together and *throēsan*—that is, according to another melody, *klonēsan* (it disturbed)—made the disturbance heard along with the instruments of terror. For in truth, it was not the melody that terrified, ^D but the proclamation. Perhaps also, because the drums, and harps, and cymbals, with their harsh sound, surpassed the delicate melody and were disturbing rather than soothing, on account of a part of them and of those things similar to them, he said of all the instruments the word *broein*. But *broein* comes from the word *throos* (tumult), *throus*, which signifies tumult. *Throein* can also mean simply to resound, and some even say to speak, not indeed in prose, but in a more poetic and tragic style. Organs are now, in a specific sense, musical instruments, not in the proper sense of the word, but more generally, on account of the desire for them on the part of those who are mostly quite lazy, and especially those accustomed to panegyrics; otherwise, however, "organs" and "tools" end up in one meaning: the former named from "work" (ergon), as being allotted to persons for work; the latter from *orego* (to extend), to which the hands of the workers reach or are extended.

^A 162. Regarding *sebas* (reverence), from which *sebazein* is derived, whence comes *sebasmos* and *sebasmiazein*, this is written in the first strophe of the first ode. He calls that statue golden, as from the more precious part, so that even there gold may exercise its tyranny, having hidden the other materials of the statue and having been called by it—for otherwise the composition of the idol was varied, although elsewhere the idols of the nations are only silver and gold. The adjective *apsychon* (soulless) is spoken for the confusion of those who worship such a simulacrum, whose honor is an august appearance; not only having no spirit in its mouth, to speak with David, but not even suggesting anything pious to the soul.

163. The word *bretas* comes indeed from *brotos*, that is, man, and signifies a mortal or human simulacrum, namely a statue; but it has two terminations, one in *-as*, as *geras* (old age), and *hydas* (water), and *oudas* (pavement); and another in *-os*, according to what was said: for as we say *geras*, from which comes ^B *gerotrophein* (to care for the aged), and in Sophocles *geroboskos* (looking after the aged), and also *hydos*, whose dative is *hudei* and *hudei*, as *teichei-teichei*; similarly also *edos, edeos-edous, edei-edei*; so also *bretos*, from which in the plural *brete* are called the idols of the gods. *Bretas* is a poetic word, and for prose rhetoricians; hence even the sweet comic poet, mocking this disyllabic word, said *bretetas* in three syllables. But if *bretas* is mocked, what then will happen to *keramblelon*? It is of similar signification, but dared to be said thus from *keras* (horn) and the preposition *ana* and *belos*, which is the threshold ^C of heaven, so that it is *keramblelon*, whose *keras*, that is, power, reaches to the heaven itself. To summarize these briefly: these are the polyonymies of the ancients: the *eikon* (image), and the *eidolon* (idol), and the *deikelon* (spectacle), and the *bretas*, and the *keramblelon*. Of these, *keramblelon* has been cast out and lies rejected; *bretas* and *deikelon* are sometimes carried around according to the necessity of the meter. Of the remaining two, the *eikon* is held in special honor in this: "In the image of God," and the like; while the *eidolon* is assigned to nations carried away by demons; for he says, "The idols of the nations are silver and gold."

164. On account of the grace of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, he calls today’s joyous dispensation and method, according to which the Holy Trinity is praised in hymns. See also that the melodist, being very luminous, here also calls the aforementioned grace of the Spirit "light-bearing" (phos-phoron), on account of the festive fire. The melodist would not have failed the correctness of the meter by saying *boan* (to shout) or *lalein* (to speak), but he preferred the more august word. For these are softer and sweeter on account of the sound of the *lambda*; but the emphasis of the word *boan* brings a dignity suitable to the subject. Moreover, just as with the word said concerning the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, he inserted "to *sebasmiazein* spiritually"; so that melody resounding, it is said in our regard ^D with dignity.

^A

165. The term *Isosthenes* (of equal strength) and *Anarchos* (without beginning), when understood as a vocative, an Attic speaker would use instead of *Isosthenes* and *Anarche*; for the Athenians identify the nominative and the vocative in pronunciation. And the phrase "Blessed is the Trinity" is in the same dialect, just as "the noble" (or *gennaios*), and similar terms; for what is common is "the blessed" (*eulogete*). So too, the *Trisagion* which stands at the head of sacred offices is uttered according to a vocative sense and, truly, a hortatory one, even if otherwise it is pronounced according to the nominative case. It signifies that just as power and its concomitants, and further, strength and dominion, are in this way also deemed appropriate to God—and for this reason he called the holy Trinity *isosthene* (of equal strength); for God is powerful, and a potentate, and strong, and mighty, and robust, and all things such as these, in an insurmountable degree—so too, it is proper to the chorus in the seventh ode to say "Blessed art Thou." Therefore, the melodist has marked it four times for Him here in his four stanzas—the *heirmos* and the three *troparia*—bringing it in like an *epode*, twice in the Attic manner, and twice more commonly. ^B

First Troparion of the Seventh Ode

18. Those who were ignorant of the prophetic voice, The foolish said it was drunkenness brought on by wine. Strange languages were heard as of apostles, But we, the pious, cry to Thee divinely: New-maker of the universe, blessed art Thou.

166. The peoples who had encountered the presence of the most holy Spirit at that time, and had not been moved by the inspiration of the God of knowledge, nor recognized His most divine power, nor perceived with deep, insightful understanding how, under God’s guidance, the apostles spoke His words in various tongues—harmoniously in the diversity of sounds, which the Holy Spirit was working in their tongues as if it were a dexterous plectrum—the melodist, therefore, brands such peoples with a mark as if not approving of them; he calls them foolish, as if they were possessed by irrationality, and unable to comprehend what and how great things God can do, and what He says and does through His servants. He also rebukes them because they said the apostles were drunk on wine, when their words were strange—that is, marvelously uttered—and sounded extraordinary because of the foreign language and, in this way, were heard as unrecognizable. But the aforementioned people were committing, or rather suffering, this foolishness, as they had been ignorant of the voice of the prophet Joel previously declared; and they were unaware that that strange shift of tongues indicated a change of Greek religion for the better, no longer to be said to come from Thrace, but from the Savior Christ, whom we Christians worship, and who, even before His holy passion, indicated the same mystery by a strange transformation—signifying a change in all things, and indeed the expulsion of the darkness of the world, which pertains to error, and the refulgence of the light of the orthodox faith. However, although he says those people were imprudent like that, they were not entirely impious. But we who have been set apart ^D

^A from them, as sensible and pious, cry out to you not simply, but divinely, "Blessed are you, O renovator of the universe," that is, of the world. For very appositely he calls the one who renewed a right spirit ^B in the bowels of the apostles for the benefit of the world, or to say it another way, the one who renewed the world, which had become ancient through iniquities, the renovator of the universe. For since it is right to say "new" and "novel," the renovator, and the one who has renewed, could be a "new-maker," and through him a "new-worker."

167. And let these things be laid down in no perfunctory way for the simpler folk; but the craftsman of the aforementioned melody might perhaps be able to hear wittily even here in a way that modifies [the text], that there is the old melodist, ^B as one might say, self-loving in beautiful things, who casts down to the ground simple and thus neglected expressions, and does not take them to himself at all; but choosing others that are composite, he adorns them and loves them much. For indeed, in what went before, when he had spoken of a "gold-wrought image," and, since the hearer might perhaps not have understood and been burdened, he triples what is dear to him, here calling it "the voice of Joel," and "wine-wrought drunkenness," and "speeches that were heard as strange," which was interpreted above. And who would be witty enough to discern that this melodist is a sort of lover of gain in his thoughts, ^C enjoying the composite ones more than those that are laden with much cargo? For to them there is more profit than to those that are light-footed, and a diction heaped up by composition is deemed by one who loves such things to be thicker, as it were, and richer than that which is uncompounded. Yet [in saying] they were ignorant of the word, he indicates that those people were indeed ignorant of the prophetic sayings. But it signifies otherwise perhaps also a different ignorance, that which came from oblivion, or from a defect of attention to the words of Joel; for the usage of the past time sub-indicates that they had been ignorant long since; and therefore those were truly imprudent who then were dissipating their mind, where it was necessary to gather what had been dissipated.

168. He spoke of "wine-wrought" drunkenness for the sake of distinction from another sort; since indeed someone is said to be drunk with anger when he is also said to be mad; and someone suffering the frenzy of love is drunk in this way. It is evident, moreover, that he who has performed great deeds is drunk with joy, ^D according to the saying: "Such a man is drunk with the magnitude of his deeds." And if someone should suggest a heavy sleep to one who is sleeping by means of a fermenting autumn-fruit, he makes him as it were drunk by that very thing; many have known this by experience. But that a preparation of barley, resembling wine, afflicts some of the common folk with drunkenness, no one is ignorant; and those semi-barbarians, at least in this, have received into use the calling of *ulobinas*: giving *ulas* to mean barley in a poetic sense, and *vinum* in Latin for wine; whence also the Latins call a certain stone *dibinum* (wine-colored), as being the color of wine. And the Apostate writes some heroic verses to the praise of this wine. Observe, moreover, how the proverbial cup of wisdom, which she was tempering for the truly sensible apostles with a high proclamation from above, of which the violent breath was also a symbol, and the infusion of the wine which she [poured] for the apostles...

the judges—who remained senseless and iniquitous, worthy of being utterly destroyed according to the Davidic pronouncement—deemed it drunkenness. For were they not such as those who have not given heed to the law that went forth from Sion, as has been read? He who knows this has an upright mind according to the writer of Proverbs, and in this way he lives for a long time, having a longevity of life added to him by the Lord of knowledge, who accepts him who walks in His law.

^B 169. It is to be noted also that the melodist did not say "senseless" simply of everyone, but of the unbelievers; just as he who interprets the energy of the Spirit at that time as having been reckoned as drunkenness to the unbelievers seems to suggest. And the melodist himself, bringing this in under an antithetical form, adding: "But we, the pious, cry to Thee," leaves it to us to understand the impious as those who are different from us, and senseless on account of their unbelief. And he himself could have said, "The unbelievers said there was a wine-wrought drunkenness." But he preferred to speak thus so that the insult might be more bitter, indicating that they were drunk worse than the unbelievers; for from drunkenness someone quickly recovers his senses. Not so, however, from unbelief, because of which, even if we are otherwise commanded not to call our brother a fool, yet since the unbeliever is not our brother, we might rightly call him both *raca*, and a fool, and senseless, and such like things. Further, it is to be noted that the word *oinoteukton* [wine-wrought] preserves the diphthong *eu* from the present tense *teuchō*, just as the word *teuchos* does; but other words sprung from such a root preserve either only the *u* from that [root], as *tykton* [wrought] (evil), and *eutykton* [well-wrought], and *tykizein* [to work] in the comic poet in the *Birds*, and *tychē* [fortune], and *tychanion* [a little event]; or only the *e*, as *technē* [art] and *tektōn* [builder], and by now also *tychō* [to hit/attain] and *teknon* [child].

170. But a similarity to the word "they were heard" [xenēkousthēsan] will be found in the following verses to the word "misheard" [patrakousthen]. But this must be inverted as [if it were] "of the apostles," so that it might be a trope of inversion; for the melodist says that the senseless ones were saying what they were saying, as the strange utterances of the apostles were heard, that is, when they were heard. But the "divine cry" [entheōs boan] has ^C a distinction from any other cry; for a divine cry is that which according to the holy Gospel is proclaimed with a loud voice and says things pleasing to God, as has been shown before. But the "divine cry" was something known even to the Greeks, which they used to call "to be divinely inspired" [entheazein] and "to revel" [bakkheuein]. Blessed, however, is the God in Trinity, most properly and alone, whom all His works bless and hymn; but to any other of all, such a saying does not fit so well, because there is no other Creator of the world except God alone. ^D

Second Troparion of the Seventh Ode

XIX. The seer of the voice of the most divine Joel rained down thunder, Saying: "Upon whom I shall pour out, like the Word,"

Commentary

171. The clarity of this troparion does not, indeed, shine forth—though it is otherwise accessible in its thought due to its uniformity and swiftness. For he sets forth briefly a single prophetic thought suggested by God regarding the descent of the Holy Spirit, saying that Joel, gazing as a prophet, having become inspired, "thundered," that is, he spoke clearly, meaning the divine voice of Him who, as has been said, is pre-eminently God and Father; ^B of Him who said and foretold this: "Men, upon whom I shall pour out of my Spirit, shall cry out together," or rather, with one voice they shall cry out according to divine knowledge, this very thing indeed: "You, O God, O trinity-bright essence, are blessed," as was written before. And this is indeed simpler. But if it is written according to certain copies: "They shall cry out to You," ^C such a reading will also be adapted by those who prefer it; though, I think, not easily. If, however, anyone wishing to change the aforementioned thought should construct it thus: "The prophet thundered the voice of the most divine-powerful Word," that is, of the Son who spoke, as it were, in articulate speech—this and that, after the manner of men—perhaps he too will find attention from somewhere.

172. Meanwhile, regarding the aforementioned structure of the troparion, see here also the heap of words, for the melodist does not wish to depart from long phrases, which he loves just as Lebanon loves long cedars ^D and some other wood loves tall oaks or great cypresses. He would prefer to be disemboweled than to loosen such heaped-up words and distribute them more simply; so, then, write, O best one, and saying everything you wish, do also what is salutary for us: I refer to the rich doxology of the Holy Trinity, whom the truly blessed God accepts.

But as for "light," even if it is placed as an equivalent to solar light, to many it seems to be light near to a ray. We say, therefore, that it is the light of lightning, and from this also comes "sound," regarding the Word that illuminates thoughts hidden as if in darkness, so that "to sound forth" might also be "to approach the light."

The aforementioned "thespis" (divine prophecy), being a divine voice interpreted, abounds with a semi-vowel just like "pheresbion" (life-bearing) and "thespesion" (divine) and such things. For the complete word is "thespis," on account of "falling from God" (hypo Theou pesthai), that is, being spoken more theologically. Similar also is the "thespesios logos" (divine word), a matter however otherwise "thespesion" (divine), as having "fallen" (peson) from God to us. And from such an etymology comes also the word "thespios" (divine) among the ancients, used in an oracle trisyllabically, meaning a divine youth. And "Thespis" is also a proper name, that tragic poet. ^A With a similar redundancy enjoys also "thesmos" (law), "themos" (law) being what it ought to be according to "themis" (justice), from whence also comes "ethesmose" (established by law).

173. But "he thundered" is stated solemnly. For it signifies not only that the prophet spoke clearly, as has been said, and distinctly, but also that he voiced the will of God that was rained down upon him from above; ^B which meaning...

however, belongs to tropical majesty. The prophetic mind would not have remained ^A lurking below to receive the divine thunder from above, but having itself drawn near to God, it heard what, when it was commanded not to conceal, it both proclaimed in other ways and handed down in writing. It is also to be understood that, just as the preceding strophe was skillfully articulated, so too is this one—though more sublimely; for the harmony spoken of there, he here called an outcry; and instead of "and he was troubled," he said "he thundered"; and what he called the melody of instruments, he spoke of as the voice of the most divine power; and through the expression "to serve" and "to revere," he signified "to speak oracle-wise," for it is the same thing to say "to speak an oracle" and "to speak a holy thing." Moreover, one who oversees a prophetic epithet applies it not only to Joel and Samuel, but also to all those like them, as being most god-seeing, and truly beholding Him who is and the things that are, and thus being contemplatives according to the truth. ^B

174. "Enthous," however, is used in place of "entheos." We have spoken of the "hosan-ei" (as if) for the sake of precision, for "entheos" is more majestic than "enthous." For "entheos" is he who has God within himself and either acts or speaks through Him. Something of this kind was, in olden times, the term used relative to the Bacchantes, whom someone called "entheous" women. Similar also was the usage regarding those filled with the spirit of Python, who gave oracles. A word derived from this same term also implies an exalted state: "to be enthused" (entheazein). But when "entheos" becomes "enthous" by contraction, it no longer has the same meaning, but rather, as by participation and derivation, it shares in the ^C state of one who is enthused. For "enthous" is one who is interpretive and filled with joy; and he seems, by reason of his rejoicing in the realities set before him, unable to be contained, whether he has something to praise or some other pleasant thing to perform; and the stated term signifies this through the pleasure of being "enthous." And the word derived from this, "enthousiazein" (to be enthusiastic), is not the same as "entheazein." This metric melodist, however, necessarily used it because of the continuity of the term "entheos." For "entheos" is a Greek word; for their gods, to speak in the Davidic manner, are demons; wherefore, they also called those possessed by demons "entheous." Good Christians, however, have adopted this term for the pleasure of God. ^D

175. The term "ekcheō" (I will pour out), taken from liquid, hints at holy baptism, through which every iniquity is wiped away and led off as if by a most holy, cleansing water, and is swept away—something for which David also intercedes. The melodist has already explained this through "dew," and "bath," and "lavation," and "the outpouring of rain," and other such terms. And the phrase "as a word" is placed here both for the completion of the verse and for the clarification of the preceding term, which was "of the speaker" (tou phēsantos); explaining this, he adds "as a word." For just as when Moses writes, "God said, 'Let this come to be'," he could, if he had wished, have said by way of interpretation, "God said, as if by human speech, 'Let these things come to be'," so too the melodist said "of the speaker," meaning "as a written word," saying it as if it were a word given from God to

^A a prophet's inspiration and revelation. And if it is written in the dative case ^B, the same meaning is preserved even so, that he might say: "God having spoken as if by a spoken word"—though it was noted above that it is also written in the genitive case.

Third Troparion of the Seventh Ode

176 Since the most holy Spirit descended upon the apostles at the third hour, therefore at that time we fulfill the most divine ceremony in the firm hope of the desirable coming of the Spirit. From that thought, and from the mystery symbolically expressed according to it, the present troparion is set forth. And indeed its meaning is clearly and succinctly verified. For he says that the third hour had the spiritual wonder, so that it might symbolically indicate the three persons of the holy Trinity, which the third hour foreshadowed. But today we do not celebrate in an enigma, nor merely hinting, but openly blessing the Son, the Father, and the Spirit, the holy Trinity, the one God. Such indeed is the proposed meaning, which the advancing discourse will necessarily make clearer. ^C But the spelling of the troparion, if it does not have from the beginning *trite* (third) with a grave accent on the penult by one *tau*, but *tritte* (third) with an acute accent on a double *tau*, it accords neither with the consonant melody of the *irmos* nor with the [textual placement], but rather with the voice of prophetic utterance; wherefore it prevails that it be written *trite* with a grave accent by one *tau*. But he who wishes to dispute may write and say *tritte* as well, as the voice dictates.

177 And the *eumoiresen* (it obtained good), whose Attic form, as was stated before, is without an augment, is here taken admittedly against common syntax. For no one speaking Greek would write *eumoiresen ten charin* (it obtained the grace), but rather *tes charitos* (of the grace); ^D and yet the melodist, constrained by the meter, instead of the trisyllable *charitos* took *charin*, taking *eumoiresen* simply for *elachen* (it obtained) and *eschen* (it had). Such a term does not contain that "fate" which is assigned by the Greeks, but rather that which is called a "portion"; wherefore *eumoiresen* is rightly interpreted as *elachen*. For *eumoirein* is the having of a good portion, that is, a share or lot; for these are synonyms. And the "third of the hours," that is, of the daytime, was so placed in the plural by the melodist's own pleasure; for he could have spoken in the nominative case *ora* (hour), so that it would be: "The third hour found and obtained that most holy grace of the Spirit," in order, he says, to hint to those who contemplate theologically, that is, to give an intimation as if it were a mirror-image, or a thought according to an introductory plan, that the three persons of the one God are to be worshipped in the simplicity of power, which is oneness of substance, as will be demonstrated. But this indeed [was] first then in Sion; but in our own day, there is a festal...

^A congregation, which occurs on one of the days, the Lord’s Day, to celebrate this prodigy ^B. We do not contemplate the Tri-hypostatic Godhead as in a representation or a mirror. But having grasped that three-hour enigma as a shadowing forth, we have understood it according to the purest, most accurate, and by that means most manifest truth; and deeming that we visibly behold Thee in three persons as one God, the Son, and the Father, and the Spirit, we say and cry aloud and chant to Thee: "Blessed art Thou."

178. And observe the phrase "in one of the days" as being in agreement with the "third hour," as it is written—unless one should [erroneously] join "of the days" ^C to the Lord’s Day, inasmuch as the festal Lord’s Day among us is itself of those successive days by which the week is composed. But having spoken of "the grace" with the definite article, he has signified in an exceptional way the grace of the Holy Spirit in the form of preeminence; the one who possesses this grace is filled with the better things, and thus has enough, even if he were to suffer a thousand tribulations, as God is in all ways visiting him; and this is signified by that which he learned from thence, when many things were wanting: "My grace is sufficient for thee." But "simplicity" here does not signify the common kind, according to which someone is said to be simple by nature, but the singular, incomposite, and unvaried nature of the holy Trinity’s authority. Furthermore, this "authority" in these contexts is not strictly termed [in reference] to power, as we are accustomed [to use it], but rather signifies the most eminent and supersubstantial essence, which is God; the prefix ^D—also now indicating an intensive superiority, as in the word *exogkotai* ("is puffed up" or "exalted"), and in the phrase "the exceedingly just man," and in similar cases, regarding which it has been written before. And "in one" refers to "the third" [hour], so that we may understand that while then the three hours signified the Tri-hypostatic [nature] of the Godhead, now among us, in one Lord’s Day, the simple and unified [character] of the said authority is demonstrated.

179. In this passage, however, "Son, Father, and Spirit, blessed art Thou," is to be understood in the Attic manner: "O Son, O Father, O Spirit." It must also be understood that the phrase "Blessed art Thou" is brought forward in the singular for the three, as if he had said, "Blessed are ye," for the manifestation of the unity of their substance; for such a form demonstrates one nature in three persons. And indeed, one must not be surprised if the Son is here placed before the Father on account of the sequence of the acrostich. For if we are accustomed, according to the Gospel, to say "Father," then "Son," and thirdly "Spirit," according to the text: "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," nevertheless, nothing prevents, according to the traditions of the Fathers, that the Son and the Holy Spirit be placed first in order, while the correct faith remains intact, because, as far as the holy Trinity is concerned, there is the same dignity in all things, and from these nominal anteriorities nothing invidious follows—which it would not behoove a Christian to suspect or to say, knowing well that such a passion of envy is far removed not only from God, but from every good man.

^A

Hirmus of the Eighth Ode

[180] This nexus, from the wonder of the children, is most regally and clearly linked ^B to the holy Trinity by the sequence of the eighth ode. Individually, it does not mention the holy Spirit who is being celebrated, but under the divine power of the Trinity, it includes Him also in the memory, saying that that ancient type—which according to another melodist once painted and prefigured the Mother of the Lord, but according to the epic poet of today’s festival, indicates also the Godhead from which is derived the aforementioned most divine “thrice-bright,” which is here “three-light”—is so that once again the melodist, shining with dear light, might celebrate divine things. That type, then, of the supreme divine power which later administered saving things to the world, loosed the bonds of the children (for they were not sent into the furnace unbound, but fettered), and bedewed the flame that wrapped them about. For "looses and bedews" are put in place of "loosed and bedewed" by the customary rule of rhetoricians. ^C Thus, very rapidly, the melodist, having shuddered at that miracle, adds asyndetically in an admiring fashion that those children praise Him first; for certainly not others then; but the created world in common—that is, all His works—also blesses God, whom those soul-destroying demons themselves confess to be such, as the holy Gospel hands down; so that all in the world sing in harmony with those children, as we have known, and partake in the fellowship of the hymn. And so, the present nexus of the eighth ode appears to contain nothing openly regarding the feast; yet it hints at it otherwise, as the festival loves to do, both through the word "bedews" and through the "light" which is contained in the thrice-bright Godhead; and through the miracle of the three holy children; ^D and through this, that in the fire symbolically prefiguring the later tongues of fire, those [children] also were made wise from above, and put on philosophy as it were fiery, singing also themselves in a fire-breathing manner—things which not even wise musicians would seize upon in songs; and through the aforementioned Trinitarian light, because the present feast also had a light-bearing fire, which manifested such tongues; and through the moist and thus fluid and flowing dew, by which we also grasp the Spirit that “whispers” of the seventh ode, that is: "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." If, however, we also interpret the word "whispers," as has been said, we will easily refer it to the vehement breath of this day, adorning such a word from the fact that it sub-indicates the present apostolic containment, and yet extends spiritually to those past things, when royal pipes and psalteries were blown. And thus these things are established.

the Word, ^A but also specifically in connection with the miracle concerning the holy children; and as the Maker of all, so that henceforward all who compose the entire creation are obliged to praise Him as also most benevolent; for thus is He in a superabundant way the common Savior and Creator. Now, the act of “loosing” bonds, also called “dissolving,” it is shown how it differs from “breaking” in the instance of the verse, “shattered the bonds of the belly.” For “breaking” is violent, whereas “loosing” is gentle, and all the more so in the present context of the sermon; for perhaps the furnace flame did not even simply “loose” the bonds of the holy children, for they were made of iron, but rather it resolved the metal back into its former state, not burning the children, but miraculously watering them with flame. And it is apt to surmise that, just as wax melts from the face of the fire, in such a way the bonds of those holy children flowed away in the fire, falling off without effort, just as if sandals were loosened for them from their feet. That “dissolving” differs from “loosing” is evident from this: from the reflexive “to be dissolved,” and from the natural usage of the word in other contexts, as in the phrase, “Every man is dissolved.” It is clear, moreover, that as a genus, “loosing” and “breaking” are opposites, but “loosing” simply is the genus. Hence, one might say that “breaking” is a “loosing” by necessity; but “loosing” is the genus, and “breaking” is not of necessity a “loosing,” nor is “loosing” the species. And the proof that the locution for the genus is “to loose” is the antithesis of “to bind” and “to loose.” For we did not receive “to bind” and “to break,” but “All things ^B whatsoever you shall loose on earth or bind, shall be loosed or bound in heaven.” Yet often, as polyonymous terms, “to loose” and “to break” are equated. For the veil “is broken” (rent), and the hangings of a city “are loosed.” Furthermore, the bonds of Hades “are broken,” and death “is dissolved” (destroyed) by the cross. There are, however, some “loosings” preceded by a bond to which it is not possible to adapt “breaking,” such as the phrase, “they were loosed from the way into rest”; and that, “a debt or a braid was loosed,” or “a captive being loosed,” or “oracles were being loosed.” And the one who said that nothing “will loose” (in the sense of profit) the ends, has no way of opposing “breaking” to this “loosing.” Riddles and questions are also “loosed” in this way; and by a similar logic, the bonds of feet; for one would hesitate to say ^C that they were “broken.” There appears to be a difference between corporeal “loosing” and “breaking,” inasmuch as things that cannot be “loosed” are “broken.” Bonds, however, have been transformed from the masculine gender to the neuter according to the ancients. For just as “the yoke” (ho zygos) becomes “the yoke” (to zygon) with an acute accent, and “the weight” (ho stathmos) becomes “the weight” (to stathmon), so also “the bond” (ho desmos) becomes “the bond” (to desmon), whence comes “the bonds” (ta desma).

182. But this, that it “waters the flame,” has been sufficiently set forth by the holy men of old; it is consistent, however, with the symbolic sense of the history of the three holy children, whom the air, sent in, as it were, as a life-giving element, did not consume; but, warming them in a life-giving way, it preserved only the light-bearing and luminous part of the flame, so that we might take it unto our mind and impress it upon ourselves; and we should not ^D further conceive of it as something caustic, consuming, and devouring, but should leave those traits to sensible fire. Therefore, it did not even say that as

^A a type of the Godhead, it dissolves bonds and bedews the flame, or something else of that sort, but rather "the thrice-radiant [nature] composed the word well here, as is dear to Himself; for radiance does not burn, but illuminates." It must be noted, however, in such matters, that if that type of the tri-radiant Godhead performed such miracles, how much more is the Godhead Itself, which is typified, capable of working miracles, since its type possesses such power? Since, however, that type belongs equally to the mystery of the incarnation in relation to the most august Virgin Mother, who indeed received the fire of the Godhead but was not consumed, we must also consider the prefigured holy Theotokos, such as she is for us and will be forever unto salvation, extinguishing the flames of the passions and dissolving every bond, and fetter, and the remaining ^B soul-destroying constriction.

183. "The whole of creation, which was fashioned, blesses the only Savior," and so forth; the interpretation of the statement, "Blessed is God," is not, clearly, by this one or that one, but by all of creation, that is to say, by all the works of the Lord, as the eighth ode sings; whose individual parts it arranges very quickly; among which are His priests and servants, and [His] familiar friends, the holy apostles, ministering to Him priest-like, and thus being liturgical spirits, known prophetically also to the great David, who perceives the angels of God as spirits, and the flame of fire as those ministering to Him. These things, indeed, the understanding mind may appropriately apply; for a premonition of these [things] exists in the musical choir of the holy children according to the eighth ode, and the lightnings and clouds, which they, while in the furnace, sang of, clearly foreseeing the symbolic breath and the flame-colored vision ^C of the tongues celebrated today, of which the clouds were a symbol—mothers of spirits in [their] season—and the flame-bearing lightnings.

184. These things pertain to the eighth ode; to which must be joined the light and darkness celebrated there; by which it is signified that the apostolic men are sometimes also obscured in a Mosaic manner, as the first ode of the canon taught, and shine forth again, as it itself has abundantly handed down. It is opportune for us to say here also that that which is ethereal and spiritual in the apostles is indicated by the elevation of the air: according to which, rising in a lofty flight like eagles, they ^D rested upon the aforementioned most august tabernacle of the Theotokos. The statement, "the only Savior," is indeed written very accurately: for as there is one God who is the God of gods, and one Lord who is the Lord of lords, so also is there one Savior, who is the Savior of saviors. The rest, indeed, are saviors from Him through participation, if it is only that they save. But he who handed down the command "not to trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation" [Ps. CXLV, 3] gives me the reasoning to say this. And that we have gathered this saving rose from the thorns of the Greeks has been written before. For the Attics were the first to signally inscribe Zeus as Savior.

185. "The All-Maker," by later [authors] indeed, from

^A universal confession, is a sacred expression: for only God is piously called the All-Maker among us. But the Greek authors, as has been shown before, held the same meaning for "all-maker"—that he is one who is very busy in matters where he ought not to be, and thus is a malefactor; one who does not devote himself to every human work laudably, but lays his hand where he ought not. It was for this that one of the most ancient sages was accused and punished, as though he were corrupting his students by reading to them [the line]: "No work is a reproach," not in the correct sense, as the accuser said, but [meaning] that no work is a reproach, or that no action can be a disgrace to the one who performs it. This statement seemed absurd, if it were to teach that sinful works have no reproach, and that one who performs everything—and is thus an "all-maker"—is praiseworthy. ^B Therefore, the "all-maker" was cast aside by those of that time as a worthless term. Later, however, when the work was interpreted as a good deed, and appropriated for what is praiseworthy and fitting for a man in public life—and the act of the worker, who acts well and vigorously for the good, was called "beneficent"—the All-Maker left us and ascended from the broad-earthy ground to Olympus, to be made one with God in name, and left the "all-maker" [concept] to revolve around us. So too, "Wonder-worker" used to be, at one time, [used for one] who deceives the sight with playful trickery, such as the myths celebrated about Socrates and other things that Origen ridiculed after refuting them; these, according to the one who said so, were wonders [only] to the foolish. Later, however, the "wonder-worker" ^C became a most divine title, God working wonders in him who possesses such grace thereafter.

186. The "benefactor" and good king—Ptolemy was that man—was judged worthy to receive [that] name because it is a divinely good thing to do good, if we remember that ancient king who said: "Today I have not reigned; for I have not done any good." And [we remember] another, not of that sort, about whom a certain wise man, being asked at the exit of the palace what the king was doing, said: "He is considering the poor," mocking the ruler as not being a benefactor. And in truth, a king sparing his treasures, and thus being a gold-guarding ant, would be like someone mining for gold, who should keep in mind the mice told of in history that love gold for no useful purpose. Thus, let every rich man who trusts in the earth and hides his wealth in walls consider whether he might not be properly buried—even if he himself buries things not worthy of concealment, but rather of distribution to his brothers. Let him also consider that at the same time he hid his money, God also constricted His mercy toward him, saying as it were: "Give, O rich man, and I will give; do good, and I will do good; and thus I will be to you not a giver and bestower of grace, but I shall give you the due and worthy recompense." See, therefore, that this is what it means to do good—which is to act well, or to do well—and that the distribution [of wealth] is uniquely and specifically appropriate [to God] by way of excellence because it is an imitation of God; to which the maxim-writer testifies, that the one who does good is an imitator of God.

187. Now as for "Creator," if the Maker of all and God consents to accept for Himself the title of "doing good,"

^A what is such a phrase to Him? And how is He who is the maker of the entire universe a creator? The ancients signify by "creator" one who busies himself with public affairs, who performs civil duties, one who is, so to speak, a man of the laboring multitude. And yet He who for our sake was called sin and a curse, and endured it, continues to endure it—just as the widow offering some small coins to Him as if to a poor man—so we too, naming Him according to a certain absolute goodness, from which, although it be partial and particular, he who transcends with his mind passes on to something more sublime. Thus also the Governor who directs the world, and the Modeller, who is supremely wise and an artisan, rejoices to be called. The word "all" demonstrates that nothing of the things which are in the world is either mortal or immortal without God; but ^B "creation" removes malice from the divine workmanship, for according to no interpretation of this sentence did He create or make sin. At the same time, it also shows that He alone is uncreated.

First Troparion of the Eighth Ode

188. We know that the Savior Christ promised the disciples in advance: "When the Paraclete comes, He will teach you all truth and will bring to your remembrance whatever I have said to you." We know also that there is nothing ^C with the Father which is not also with the Son; and that what He heard from the Father, He made known to the apostles. Composing such sentiments, therefore, the melodist says that Christ "prepares"—that is, He makes ready and brings about—the consubstantial and co-sovereign Holy Spirit, that is, the memorial and record of those saving words which, having heard from the Father, or as if receiving them from thence, just as He did from Himself and the Holy Spirit, He spoke to the apostles, delivering them as a teacher. The Holy Spirit, therefore, called them to memory according to the said promise, and remained with them, sitting blessed, that is, abiding and, as if after the Davidic dedication, ^D established in a stable and immutable place. But how did the Holy Spirit come upon the disciples for a "remembrance," in the likeness, one might say, of one reminding and suggesting a record? "In the vision of tongues of fire," that is, in the form of fiery tongues, or rather of flame. And this having happened, and from that day forth all beginning to teach and baptize the idolatrous nations, the creation, formerly alienated from You, O Christ, because of idolatrous error, having finally been vindicated to You, sings Your praise—that is, it praises You with melody; for "to sing" is not simply to praise, but, as has been demonstrated, to do so with song, according to the etymological meaning. 189. That he calls "memory" here a "reminder" is evident; for after instruction has preceded, then, as is likely, forgetfulness coming to pass, a "reminder" supervenes,

^A which [rremandit], being a sort of memory of that, is indeed called memory itself, but more properly a reminder. But what of

βροτοσσώων ἐπῶν (mortal-saving words)

190. It would indeed have been harmonious if he had said [λόγων] (of words) in accordance with the sequence of the [eirmos]. But because the aforementioned acrostich of the canon demands that the second verse of the troparion here should not begin from elsewhere, but from Alpha, the melodist, having taken the neuter plural [ἐπῶν] (words), adds: "[παρακουσθεὶς] (having overheard/listened along), he said," that is, the words. Now this [παρακουσθείς], being similar in pronunciation to [ξενηκούσθησαν] (they were heard as strange/foreign), was alluded to beforehand; and it is itself pleasing to the melodist. And the alpha is held as the antepenultimate because of the removal of the augment; this would certainly also happen to [ξενηκούσθησαν] in [ξενακουσθείς], if anyone were ever to say it. And [τεύχει] (creates/works) is chosen ^C as being more poetic; for otherwise the word [πέμπει] (sends) would not be ill-suited here, as has already been shown. But the language-flaming vision does not allow the intelligent hearer even to suspect, much less to think, that the Holy Spirit was changed into a violent spirit and into fiery tongues—that is, into fire—and came upon the disciples; but rather, it was seen thus by those who were able to look upon it. How thus? Corporally, as the saints say, which is in the guise of fire and in the guise of tongues; through which Wisdom itself manifested the most sapient eloquence to be given to the apostles, because it was not possible otherwise for spectators to perceive with carnal eyes the invisible light and fire of the Holy Spirit.

191. ^D Moreover, the vision here can, in addition to the sensible sight, signify a philosophical speculation, into which, as is likely, the wise penetrated in their spiritual matters; for it is certainly also a kind of theory to grasp how the fiery tongues enigmatically portend the apostolic tongues, speaking new things in foreign languages, and thus showing a renewal not of this or that island or region, but of the entire world, and that it is not from earth-born wisdom, but

^A from above, the things spoken now and the things to be spoken hereafter spiritually, are expressed by the men of God in tongues. This wise melodist might say that just as the viewed tongues in the form of fire did not appear without aerial respiration, so too the tongues of the apostles did not act without being moved by God through the Holy Spirit.

192. ^B But the sitting upon, as it were, thrones [of grace] designates the apostles of the Holy Spirit; for resting upon them as upon spirit-bearers, He makes them to be imitators of those most divine thrones around God, one of the supercelestial holy orders, as we have learned. And here also the word "sitting upon" is emphatic of the Holy Spirit entering into the apostles as into His own house, recently dedicated, as was said before; and remaining erect and firm, or, to speak more evangelically, making an abode with them, and sitting upon [each], resting firmly upon each one of them and destined in the end to sit upon this seat of the glory of His kingdom. If, however, it can be said here that the Holy Spirit was also proclaimed as sitting upon the apostles as if upon chariots, it should be considered that it is not "sitting upon," but "mounting" that fits such a thought, as in: "You mounted your apostles, O Lord," and so forth, as another melodist connects it.

193. ^C The word "blessed" is deliberately placed here to bring to mind this eighth ode; the precursor of which, "Bless the Lord," this and that, extends also to, "Bless, O spirits of the righteous," that is to say, those in whom the Holy Spirit delights; and "blessed" is placed sweetly after "sitting upon." For the Holy Spirit, sitting upon [them] wherever He pleases, does not weigh down like a worldly burden, but is blessed for His indwelling; since the yoke of the Holy Trinity is good, and its burden light. Therefore, the good Christian prays that the Holy Spirit may come to him and sit upon him, and he blesses Him as He rests, and praises Him exceedingly and exalts Him, knowing that he can thus be brought near to God. For the holy children, chanting that the Lord is blessed, and most laudable, and most exalted, were expressing what is, what was, and what will be forever. The "brought near" ^D creature, indeed, is expressed according to common dialect; for we make those whom we love our "near ones," and they are called our neighbors and intimates. In this sense there were found among the Persians "princes of the intimate word," as the geographer of Amaseia reports, and this, that is, the designation of "intimate word," is preserved even until now ecclesiastically.

194. "The alienated," however, is stated according to a scriptural [sense]; for Holy Scripture calls the impious "alien," and those who are not sound in their faith toward God. Such, then, are the "alien sons," whom we hear have limped from their paths, and those who have been alienated from the womb as sinners. But it is common to call strangers "alien" in other respects; yet to the precise meaning of the statement, he called the creature "alienated" in a pluperfect tense; having been brought near...

however, after the world-saving incarnation, it is made [the creature's own]. There will also be a time when it shall be called entirely ^A intimate with God. And by the grace of God such a time is, according to the melody, one [where] "all things bend the knee to the Paraclete." The singer could have said this otherwise, and the composer could have sung "it sings to you," but since it pleased him, he chose without fault to compose it in this way. Moreover, the word "creation" signifies with sharpness that the sun, and the moon, and the elements, and all other things, sing to the Lord according to the proclamation of the common melody of the eighth ode; for those too are parts of creation; so that from now on those who revere them as gods are witless and impious.

Second Troparion of the Eighth Ode.

^B 195. More simply and clearly, the singer, weaving a narrative discourse to the Savior Christ, says this very thing and this alone in the present strophe: that for our common salvation you sent the Holy Spirit to your apostles. He says, therefore, that "savingly," O manifest Savior, you came, that is, you released and sent light existing as self-shining and a giver of light, not having come as commanded in a servile way, but by your own authority; light proceeding from light, and this not dim owing to parsimony or some other passion—all of which are estranged from the divine nature—but [light] inebriating the apostles. You sent it, he says, not in such a way that no one of all people might perceive it, which you indeed do for your saints each time, but so that, having become known to the peoples, it might be testified to and be believed in ^C through the signs that followed. For, as a precious breath, that is, spirit, you released it to these same servants, the apostles, making it heard with a violent wind; and having done this, you distribute the intercessory Spirit both to the apostles and, evidently, to the whole world, as many as desire such a good with their whole heart, being your servants. So that the phrase "to your servants" is suitable to be applied in three ways: for "precious" is rightly said "to your servants," and "remaining" is said "to your servants" if it is distributed to them, and "intercessory" is said "to your servants," and it is distributed to them.

196. For an "intercessory" Spirit ^D is that which has been asked for, so that it might be given as a paraclete to us; for to "intercede" (λιπαρεῖν) is to supplicate; or the "permanent one," and as was said a little before, "sitting": for to "intercede" is also to wait upon and to persist—from the fact that it is very present (λίαν παρεῖναι). Whence also an "intercessory" (λιπαρὴς) prayer is a long-lasting, chronologically long, continuous [prayer]; it is inclined to "intercede," and contains neither the "intercessory" [meaning]. And thus the aforementioned troparion is disposed according to the previously titled concept. But if "you came" (ἧκας) is written as "you came" (ἧκες) with an *epsilon* according to some of the copies instead of "you went/came" (ἦλθες), it is not possible at all to understand the aforementioned troparion as having been spoken to the Son concerning the Holy Spirit according to the explanation, but [addressed] to the Spirit himself.

For the melodist says that the second text is that of "You have come." ^A [Addressing you] for salvation, O Holy Spirit, yourself as Lord, and what follows, "You came as some kind of breath filling the apostles," and "You distribute"—instead of "you distributed"—to them, a Spirit not other than yourself, but [one] from you, and from the Son, and from the Father, this spiritual grace poured out upon them, as has been written before. If, however, it is written in the optative mood, "may you distribute," it suits both interpretations equally.

197. But as to [the idea] that the Holy Spirit is self-mastering, the melodist has previously spoken. And in a strictly similar way ^B he is self-luminous: for it is not by being kindled from elsewhere that he shines; he does not only receive the light from elsewhere, but he also marvellously illuminates those who wish [it] with their whole heart. He has finely combined here "for salvation" with "as self-mastering," signifying from a psalm paraphrase that there are certain masters, or rather princes, in whom there is no salvation. Hence, one must not place trust in them. The Lord is therefore omnipotent, having power from himself, the master of all; a true emperor acting for salvation at once and powerfully from himself, doing what [God] alone does, [namely] God, the Holy Spirit, the Son, and the Father—to whom the [word] "exist" (τὸ ὑπάρχον) corresponds according to the sacred poet; which does not simply denote what [is], but what [has been] from the beginning and before the ages, for such is "exist" according to the more accurate [opinions] of the ancients. ^C They say, then, that "so-and-so has existed" of peace, or "exists" of war, which is also called "to rule" and "to initiate." So that even to say that "this particular thing exists so," is taken as equivalent to "it is"; yet it also denotes something more than that, and this sense is entirely obvious here. For he says that "existence," as was said, [is the] Spirit [having] come this very day to fill the disciples.

198. The [word] "you have come" (ἦκες) stems from the root "I come" (ἥκω), the third person of which is "he has come" (ἧκεν) for "he came" (ἦλθε). But as to "you have come" (ἦκας), which appears to be placed in the first elegy of the acrostic: the present [tense] is "I send" (ἵημι), from which come "I let go" (ἀφίημι) and "I release" (ἐφίημι); but it is agreed that this is not a perfect [tense], but an aorist, and from it has moved ^D the [aorist] "I sent" (ἠκάμην). Whence, as "[I] sent forward" (προηκάμην) for "I sent forth" (προέπεμψα) and "I gave forth" (προέδωκα), so also "I received" (προσηκάμην) for "I accepted" (προσεδεξάμην), the root of which is "I admit" (προσίημι). The phrase "filling" (ἐμφοροῦν), from which shortly after [we have] "prophetic mouth filled with spirit" (πνευματέμφορον), seems here to be a divine expression, according to the [term] "divinely inspired" (ἔνθεον). For he who is filled with the Holy Spirit is at once also divinely inspired, as [one] bearing within himself, or rather carrying, God who fills all things, and is himself truly "God-bearing" (θεοφόρον). Know, however, that the verb "to bear" (φορεῖν), whose use is frequent among many [people], creates different meanings with different prepositions. This is evident from the verb "to carry in" (εἰσφορεῖν), which signifies "to introduce" and "to import," and from the verb "to carry out" (ἐκφορεῖν) or "to cast out." Whence also "exorable mystery," and from "to carry together" (συμφορεῖν)—for "they carried together," we say, many accusations and trifles—and from the [verb]

^A (to disarrange, for they are scattered) the inward parts of an animal poured out from the belly. There are also others of this kind, in which are "to be carried up" (ἀνωφορεῖσθαι) and "to circumcarry" (περιφορεῖν), whence also "the circumcarried" (περιφόρητος). The primary form, long ago, was "to carry out" (ἐκφορεῖν) in the case of a cargo ship, to which "to carry in" (ἐμφορεῖν) is opposed. If, then, it is the same to say "to carry in" and "to fill," according to that [scripture], "He was filled with the Holy Spirit," or "he was carried in" (ἐνεφορήθη), and even the measure was capable of this; but the melodist wisely preferred "to carry in" (ἐμφοροῦν) rather than "to fill" (ἐμπιπλῶν).

^B 199. However, one must consider whether the diction, "Filling the apostles with a precious breath" (ἄημα τιμῆεν), has been drawn from that outward verse, "The wind blew amid the sail," that fellow being named and for that reason precious; and the melodist would thus be saying that He "carried in"—that is, He blew upon—meaning He filled, as a precious friend, a breath, just as some sailing-sails, namely the apostles, so that, being carried being filled-with-sail by this breath, they might sail around the ethnic seas; prophetically dedicating islands to God, and bringing to those who inhabit the solid earth, in the manner of trade, those things necessary for salvation. But "breath" (ἄημα) is as from "I blow" (ἄημι), wherefrom also the imperfect [is] "it blew" (Μήνα δ' ἄληκτον)—a notion of "it was breathing"—but the movement is according to "to place" (ἐτίθειν), "thou didst place," "he was placing." It is also a participle of "I blow" (ἄημι), "blowing" (ἀείς), "of the blowing" (ἀέντος), just as "placing" (τιθείς), "of the placing" (τιθέντος); its genitive plural [is] "of the blowing" (ἀέντων), as in, "The might of the winds ^C of the blowing (ἀέντων) humid [air]." Thence also, "the breeze" (ἀήτης), the wind. And as from "I blow" (ἄημι) comes "breath" (ἄημα), so from "I place" (τίθημι) [comes] "that which is placed" (ἐπίθημα—like the lid of a chest), and "votive offering" (ἀνάθημα), and "token" (σύνθημα).

^D 200. The aforementioned "breath" (ἄημα) is precious—that is to say, the violent rushing energy—because of the Holy Spirit, which that [breath] followed, as it were. It is not unreasonable for one who had heard somewhere of a "fragrant cloud"—as it were, incense—to surmise something of the kind, and thus "precious," and the present term, "of the air." But in other respects, [the term] "precious" conjoined with the servants might hold otherwise; for it was precious to the apostles, as will be said immediately, who alone had recognized the most divine wisdom in the symbol, and had distinguished the sound of the violent rushing energy—that is to say, of the violent [breath]—as being a message of the coming of the most holy Spirit. If, then, they did not tremble at such a spirit, but honored it, rejoicing—as is likely—what are we to think these faithful servants were, in their joy, concerning those things which they later performed mightily, having been filled with the Holy Spirit? And if they were already ordained as friends to the Master Christ, as He Himself arranged in the Gospel, they did not, however, cease to be by nature servants, but rather servants' sons.

201. It is to be known that from whence the "breath" (ἄημα) [comes], thence also [comes] the "wind" (ἄνεμος), being a certain ^A (αέμος) and by the addition of the "nu," "wind" (ἄνεμοσ); and that the use of "breath" (ἄημα) [applies to] him who spoke [the verse], "The wind blew amid the sail."

^A And that the melodist chose the term "breath" (πνοήν)—that is, "spirit" (πνεῦμα)—fearing the collision arising from homonymy, because he was about to say immediately "the pampered Spirit" (λελιπαρημένον πνεῦμα), [meaning] the spiritual, divine grace distributed to the holy apostles; and because he clearly honored the aforementioned violent wind here, calling it "noble" (τιμήεσσαν) in order to show that it was not spoken there in a sense of reproach; and that he called it a "noble breath" (τιμῆεν ἄημα) for the spiritual servants for the sake of precision of expression. For to the faithful servants of the Holy Spirit, it was admittedly a noble breath, though not to all those who were present. For those who judged the spiritual energy of the divinely inspired apostles to be drunkenness would not have honored as servants that breath with which the fire of the tongues was also mixed, ^B so that by the noble breath of the Holy Spirit, that which is cooling and life-giving from thence might be made manifest; by the fiery element, that which is apt to consume all matter and disposition of sin; and by the tongue-like form, the skill of teaching of those divinely inspired, when the Spirit, descending and resting upon the apostles, gives them wisdom.

202. Observe also that the melodist could have placed "to the servants" (τοῖς οἰκέταις) earlier in the [line], "imparting to the apostles," for he could have said "imparting to the servants." He arranged it here as was more fitting: having justified the apostles by the juxtaposition of the "splendor" and the "light," by way of reverence, and the servants by the honor of the "breath"; for the act of reverence is something servile, not apostolic. It is also clear that the expression "to the servants" (τοὺς οἰκέτας) looks toward the "Autodespotes" (the Master himself). ^C For the master of the servants is the Master, such as one might call them—whether slaves or free—for "servant" (οἰκέτης) and "domestic" (οἰκεύς) were used by the ancients for both. But the free servant seems to come to the same meaning as the "familiar." Regarding the word "pampered" (λελιπαρημένῳ), as has been said, it is understood as something remaining stably, and the testimony for this is: "And behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age" (Matt. XXVIII, 20). It should be known that the fifth verse of the troparion, which has been explained by us as closely as possible—in which lies the "pampered Spirit"—contains, as it were, a certain summary (ἐπινομίς), epitomizing the four-verse thought previously brought forward at length, both that according to "Thou didst send light" (ἧκες φῶς), ^D instead of "Thou didst send" (ἔπεμψας), and that according to "Thou didst send light" (ἧκες φῶς), instead of "Thou didst come" (ἦλθες). And the first reading, that according to "Thou didst send" (ἧκες), with the alpha, he shortens thus: that text said more verbosely, "Thou didst send, O Savior, such a Spirit to the apostles."

203. The final verse says the same meaning succinctly and tautologically, that you also immediately assign and distribute along with said light the, as was said, "pampered Holy Spirit"—as if to say that light and this Spirit are the same. And thus, indeed, the fifth verse folds the first reading, that in "Thou didst send" (ἧκες), into a very brief [statement]; and the other he manages thus succinctly: "Autodespotes" and

^A light, and light-imparting, and primordial—that is, pre-eternal—Thou hast come to the apostles just now. And this is the second broad concept in the four verses. But the fifth, together contracting that [previous content] and explaining it, says that Thou also distributest, that is, grantest, the Spirit the Paraclete, that is, Thyself and the most divine grace having issued from Thee. And not simply dost Thou distribute, but for the sake of abundance, with a certain addition of discourse: for such is the word "pro-distributest" (προσνέμεις). For the apostles were good even before this, but from this day and henceforth until the end they will be better and more wonderful, because of having been clothed with power from on high from the Sovereign and God Sabaoth, that is, the Lord of many powers. So that, regarding the theology contained in the four verses according to the double reading of "Thou didst come" (ἦκας) and "Thou didst send" (ἧκες), the fifth verse ^B possesses its own, specifically: the one which the poet’s mind reveals, being great and manifested in the expression.

Third Troparion of the Eighth Ode.

^C 204. This third strophe is varied, however, and itself holds more than that which was just spoken. For he says either that, "O Sovereign," which is to say "King Savior Christ," he sang, which is to say he spoke, as if from the expression "I sing, I shall sing," thy corporeal advent—the mouth of the prophets, which, as was said in the preceding strophe, was "Spirit-plenished." Or otherwise, the mouth of the Spirit-bearing prophets. And in like manner he sang of this same indwelling of Thine, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from Thy paternal bosom, not singing of itself, but working in those who prophesy and thus singing; and, as the holy Fathers say, speaking through the prophets the things [that are] universally and apostolically ecclesiastical. And the third verse here is explanatory of the first regarding the same concept, saying that not simply did the mouth of the prophets speak of the things concerning Thee, O all-ruling King, [when it was] then filled with the Holy Spirit—which is now symbolized by the rushing mighty wind, and on account of this called "spirit-bearing" or "Spirit-plenished"—but the Holy Spirit Himself adjusted the speech of that mouth, as if commanding each of the prophets: "Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it," and, "Open thy mouth, and thou shalt draw me [in]," just as He is about to do also in the disciples, of whom many also prophesy. And otherwise the strophe might say that, O Sovereign Savior, just as the prophetic mouth sang, that is, clearly foretold, Thee as about to be incarnate, so also [it sang] of the celebrated presence of Thy most holy Spirit.

205. But the fifth verse here, having thus—"a light of the incarnation to the faithful"—is coordinated with the second verse, assigned to "O Sovereign," and constructing the second meaning; concluding ^D indeed to the second verse, looking to this, and resuming the second concept.

^A It leads to the radiance, that is, the common light of the Incarnation and of the present feast; and by light I do not mean that which is according to the star, nor here that which is according to the fire of the tongues, but that of the grace by which the most holy Virgin heard, "Hail, full of grace." Having contemplated Christ the King as the sun, the poet brought forth the stated verse, extolling that ineffable birth from the Virgin, in that he did not only then, in time, work his wondrous mercy toward the world, but even now exercises mercy, illuminating us Christians, and will extend this good until the end. And such are the things contained in this fifth verse, which is more clearly explained thus: O Sovereign, as it is said, who elicit and send, or who have sent, your Holy Spirit, the radiance of your ineffable incarnation, illustrating and manifesting and revealing your incomprehensible incarnation; O Sovereign Christ, therefore, the prophets also celebrated your indwelling among us, but before them the Holy Spirit, breathing into them and suggesting, as if through divinely speaking mouths, things that are salutary for us.

206. Now, concerning this fifth verse considered thus, the fourth which precedes it, whose text is "O Uncreated-Co-creator-Co-throned of yours," there is no room for doubt that it greatly exalts the Holy Spirit, in that He shares the same things with the Father, being uncreated just as He, and a co-creator with Him, and co-throned, as has been confessed. Yet it would seem that the poet took pains to place here such a cluster of words, as pleases him, ^B establishing, as it were, a farewell to such love of his of this kind; for in the following verses he will not compose so conspicuously. For this kind of verse is, so to speak, neglected and inordinate, reinforced by only two acute accents, and thus disposed contrary to harmony; and these things pertain to the two preceding strophes and to the connection, ^C which were constituted with accents suitably from elsewhere. Such, indeed, are poems that are altogether like a table spread out, such as this one is among some: the false-pretentious-myth-fabrication.

207. Now, regarding the word ᾖσε (he sang), the acrostic necessarily procured it; yet one might say that the poet, out of love, holds fast to the most prophetic psalmist David, as to a most worthy portion, and even to the other prophets, as if he were singing in concert with them as well; and thus he envisions them, too, as lyricists because of David, who from above, invoking the Word who was in the beginning, in the passage "Incline the heavens and come down" (Ps. CXLIII, 5), foresaw Him also as the Son of Man evangelically, and said He was strengthened by the Father, and was seen by us as His chosen one, and His way was known among all nations, and His paths were observed on the earth, ^D that is to say. And regarding the Spirit, he spoke theologically in many places, as also in the fiftieth psalm, being himself also a seer according to Joel. But it must be known that "he sang" (ᾖσε) is not only equivalent to "he chanted" (ἔμελψεν), but also to "he said" (εἶπεν); for "he said" (εἶπεν) is derived from "to say" (ἔπω), from which also comes "verse" (ἔπος), and "declare" (ἔννεπε), which are themselves poetic words.

^A 208. We call them “spirit-bearers” (πνευματεμφόρους) and “spirit-filled” (πνευματοφόρους), as is evident from the phrase: “Now let us dance with the spirit-filled disciples.” Its analogy is with “sign-bearer” (σημειοφόρος) and “trophy-bearer” (τροπαιοφόρος). Regarding the first of these, the sacred analysis carries the idea of divinity, while the latter holds an external meaning, such as: “Trajan entered, bearing trophies upon his shoulders.” The mouth of the prophets, since it is a universal thing acting as an instrument of utterance, has been taken in the plural. And he says: “The spirit-bearing prophets spoke, O Savior, of your coming.” It must be known that the term “spirit-filled” (πνευματέμφορος) entered among the saints from external sources; for in Delphi, a subterranean spirit, creeping up through the oracular tripod upon which the Pythian prophetess sat, used to fill her, and thus, newly inspired, she would utter oracles.

^B 209. “And in a bodily manner” (σωματωδῶς) is used instead of “in a fleshly manner” (σαρκικῶς). For here one should not proceed by calculating the derivational sense of the word, as if it would mean something different to say “in a bodily manner” and “in a fleshly manner.” Rather, one must grant that the poet here yields to the necessity of the meter. Moreover, “O ruler” (ὦ μέδων) is a participle, yet it does not possess the force of a participle after the manner of “the lion of the lion” (ὁ λέων τοῦ λέοντος), and “the dragon,” and “the servant,” and “he who does not speak of him who does not speak,” and “he who comes well of him who came well.” Therefore, it retains the omega (ω) of the nominative in the vocative case. But if a proper name, Medon (Μέδων), is also found, it is of no concern to us in the present case. For as regards a man, Medon (Μέδων) is derived from “I deliberate” (μήδω), via the shortening of the eta (η) to epsilon (ε); since it is above all fitting that a king be a counselor and an advisor.

^C 210. “Indwelling” (ἐνδημία) does not signify one single people, as is the case with a worldly ruler, but rather the lawful peoples who comprise the world, of whom the all-ruler, God, is the ruler (μέδων). If we call the Christian people a “people” (δῆμον) over whom God reigns, there is nothing strange in this; for we do not thereby introduce a democracy by necessity—from which the supreme monarch and king is absent—but we signify a sovereign authority. If this is well preserved within us, we shall not be troubled by business under God the King, but shall be judged as most dear to Him. And thus, both kingdom and people are manifested in us toward blessedness, with our rational faculty ruling us in the best manner, because through the reception of the most sovereign holy Trinity, we also preserve the three praiseworthy powers: the royal, and through it that which consists in aristocracy, according to which the fraternal people are wisely directed toward the good. This is currently only sketched out, as is possible among those who were formerly called, according to Europe, Eneti, but now Veneti or Beneti, whose region is Venetia, commonly changed in usage to Benetia. Among them, the monarchical government is indeed preserved through the Doge, who is established above the others; the aristocratic through the consuls, who are chosen councilors; and the popular tribe is fulfilled by those who accompany and follow them. And they hold their inherited domain by this triple cable, woven into an unbreakable whole.

^A 211. This phrase "from the bosom of the Father" is, indeed, stated more abundantly, yet it is interpreted in a similar way; for it is equivalent to saying that the Spirit proceeds from the bosom of the Father. And whoever wishes to look more curiously into these bosoms of the Father, from which the Son goes forth to perfect accuracy, and the Spirit proceeds, shall touch them lightly and tenderly with hands laid upon them. For the Holy Spirit is said to have proceeded metaphorically from an ineffable bosom, just as the same Father, who is without beginning, poured forth the good Word from his own heart. We also venture to speak of the "bosom of the sea" in regard to Him, when we consider, as best we can, the immensity of the blessings, mercy, wisdom, and all such things that flow from Him, launching our human vessel into this boundless ocean.

212. Observe, moreover, that instead of "proceeding," he safely used the term "having come forth." Since, therefore, the term "having been cast forth" also comes to mean the same thing, it must be understood that just as the Father is said to make the Spirit "proceed," so He also "brings forth" and "casts forth." And in the fourth verse, where the manifest composition lying therein coalesces into one, the immutable final form was beautifully and skillfully cast out by means of the composition from the words "uncreated" and "co-worker," so that the reader might not, along with the awkward meter, struggle with his tongue against such a succession of immutable final syllables. The word *sethen* is poetic, just as its prototype *seo* is; both are taken to mean "yours." Similarly, from the pronoun *emou*, when dissolved, *emio* is formed, and thence *emethen*; and from *ou* comes *éo*, and *ethen* instead of "his." The word *hieis* comes from the word *hiemi* mentioned a little before, of which the imperfect is *hien*, and the participle *hieis, hientos*, which, when joined with the preposition *apo*, is called *apheis, aphientos*. And, according to the ancients, the act of "the sun sending forth a ray" is taken as if it were an archer's act, like that of a bolt or an arrow; for they used to jokingly liken to archery the way it radiates from above onto the earth. Whence they also allegorically called it *iēion* in four syllables. And for the Incarnation and the "becoming man," it is not possible to find a more vivid and proper expression regarding the economy of the salvation of the world.

Ode nine, Hirmos

213. In the preceding odes, the venerable lyric poet whom we are treating was accustomed to intersperse thoughts and stories from the most ancient sacred and principal songs, accompanying them according to the strophes set forth. But this ninth ode, dedicated to the most august Theotokos, he filled, as was permitted, with thoughts pertaining to her. And indeed, this connection celebrates her purely and specifically, in customary sequence. But the strophe that follows...

is straightforwardly Trinitarian from the beginning; this, therefore, does not harmonize with the other canons, in which the Trinitarian ones among the Theotokia precede.

[314.] The thought here forms the hirmos of such a nature: "Hail, O Queen, ^A maiden-mother glory," which is, by periphrasis, "mother and virgin," but otherwise, "the glory of mothers and of virgins." Of the former, because she gave birth to the God who was born without pain and without suffering, through the absence of birth-pangs and the sufferings that flow from them; for even without pleasure she conceived the same God, and without carnal desire—qualities that are not observed in any other mothers. And thus, she who gave birth beyond nature is the glory of mothers, who bring forth children in sorrows and are dragged along by the rest of the emotional suffering that naturally accompanies such women. But she is the glory of virgins because she preferred and set ^B before maternal boasting that which is virginal. For that first, seedless ear of grain and the untilled earth, the one that nourished it, are admired far more than those that follow the natural sequence of generation. And this earth, untrodden, untouched, and utterly uncultivated—even if, by virtue, it was well-disposed to receive God—and the ear of life [springing] from it, through which the heavenly bread appeared and was given to us, remains living and life-giving; there is no glory that they cannot surpass.

[315.] Moreover, she is the glory of mothers and of virgins, this same mother-virgin, who is exceptionally an ever-virgin and worthy of the name "maiden," provided that they possess sound minds and, measuring themselves ^C as much as possible according to her, comport themselves accordingly: the former, remembering that they were counted worthy to be mothers and have attained to this beautiful and good thing and name; the latter, having obtained the treasure of virginity which God, seized by love for her, made his own, acquiring therefrom a wondrous glory for themselves. Hail, therefore, O Queen, the glory of the women we have mentioned. And why "hail"? Was this not long ago the joyful greeting of Gabriel? Because you have ascended above all praise on account of the excellence of your virtue, according to which you have surpassed the heavenly orders. For every human mouth ^D that is "nimble"—that is, flexible and well-spoken—and not simply that, but "eloquent"—that is, rhetorical—is not able to worthily celebrate you; for this is beyond the master of rhetoric. For since every mind reels at thinking of your childbearing, how could the mouth be eloquent concerning it? Therefore, being unable to speak at length, we cry out only, "Glory to you," not merely for the discharge of a duty, which we know to be feigned in many instances, but with appropriate longing.

[316.] It must be known that to call a mouth "well-spoken" is meant literally; but to call it "nimble" is not meant literally, but is derived from the part of the tongue that moves when we speak "nimble," and the mouth is also mobile.

^A “Nimble-tongued” is what is said. ^B A “nimble-tongued” language [or mouth] is one that is symmetrically disposed, using the term “nimble” by way of ellipsis; for the one [not nimble] would require a lever to be moved, or is tongue-tied or otherwise obstructed. But a mouth can be called “nimble-tongued,” and what is uttered clearly and distinctly, and, so to speak, “well-turned” in the way it turns the tongue easily and moves the lips harmoniously. And such a thing comes from the *dinos* [whirl], which is the *toros* [or *tornos*, lathing-tool], from which also come the verb *toreuein* (to carve/shape) and *toreia* (ornamental carving), which is also called *cavatura* among the Latins, which carvers execute. As for the *dinos*, which among the ancients signifies also the celestial rotation, the derivation is *dinē*, spoken of the lifting of waters, such as are many that occur through repulse both in the sea and in rivers; and from such a *dīnē* come also the “silver-eddying” rivers.

217. ^B But “well-spoken” is thought of more simply and commonly; yet it is better to conceive of such a mouth as Christian and speaking well as an orthodox one. For such persons sing to the Mother of God, even if they cannot do this according to her dignity; not, however, those who indeed are well-versed and eloquent, but do not rightly know the one God in Trinity and the descent of the most beloved Son among us, and the birth from a virgin which is fitting for Him. And conformable to the syncopation of *mētrouein* [to be a mother] is that which looks to *“she brought forth from the womb,”* as was said, [referring to] the unlettered. The word *melpein* [to sing/celebrate] is here constructed with the accusative because it is taken for *hymnein* [to hymn], and thus to praise. And the word “worthily” is placed before it for the sake of safety. For who does not sing the praises of the Mother of God in song? ^C Yet even if we all strive to do this, we cannot attain to what is fitting for her dignity, although we celebrate her more worthily than other saints, because it is worthy and just that it be done so. But to say the same thing otherwise and more briefly, many indeed strive, and all are eager to celebrate the most praised and most blessed one; but to attain to that which is worthy, no one is able, nor will be able.

218. ^C But *iliggiān* [to be giddy/dizzy] does not signify a desire for the *iliggos* [giddiness/vertigo] after the analogy of *mathētiān* [to be nauseous/sicken] and *turanniān* [to play the tyrant] and the like, but as it is a bodily passion, it is otherwise not [properly] applied to the soul and to the mind and to the intellect; but that *iliggos* is a bodily passion, it would not be possible to doubt; ^D supervening for the most part upon those who are frequently turned—whence also it has its name, for *iliggos* comes from *eileisthai* [being rolled/turned]—and upon those who look down from a high and precipitous place into a great depth; to whom even the knees are shaken by fear, not only when the sight is actually happening, but even when, after the experience, they call to mind that height and that depth. And by necessity *iliggiān* is placed here, just as in the following strophe *udein* [to sing] is used instead of *hymnein* [to hymn]; because the beginnings of such verses, by the force of the acrostic, require, one the iota, the other the ypsilon.

^A 219. It must be known that other wise men, cleverly and—to state the whole matter—didactically indicating to their students that bodily vertigo arises from the swirling of fluid—now as if stagnating about the head, now as if surging toward an irruption—did not indeed write down the aforementioned swirlings of the waters, but handed them down otherwise, without writing, interpreting the term for vertigo (vortices) in the common tongue as feminine, to indicate that such a vertigo is akin to some such swirling. And no one, provided he is not seeking to speak vulgarly, would use such a word in haste. However, a certain wise man, not long ago—to whom we too were once students—joking at the time about a certain tasteless orator who had spoken of "Pericles the Thunderbolt-bearer" ^B in writing because of the thunderbolt which, having fallen into his house, revealed a thousand suits of armor, for which reason he was accused of aspiring to tyranny—joked, by way of this kind of vertigo, at the "Thunderbolt-bearer." This man was sailing back through the Byzantine strait, intending to bathe if he could find sweet, warm waters; and when he saw near the shores swirling vortices, such as those that spin around by the thousands in such places, pointing with his finger so as to turn his auditors toward that spinning motion of the water, he said: "If such a one were present here, he would say that this water is suffering from vertigo." But let this be inserted into this ode as a sort of seasoning for a panegyrical thought, ^C by way of an affectionate indulgence in God. For even those who celebrate divine things in most solemn thoughts, when weariness has overtaken them so as to cause them to kneel for a little while, thus consoling their labor by having diverse songs interspersed—of which not a few the dignified stage has stolen away—rising up again, they resume their original zeal, just as is set before us here.

220. But "the whole mind is seized with vertigo to conceive Thy birth" might not unreasonably be said to include even the spirits who stand about God, whom even the ineffable incarnation of the Savior Christ is handed down as concealing; for not even they are able to peer into the depth of the mystery. God, who was entirely hidden from them ^D from the beginning, revealed Himself to them; He who also uncovered the eyes of the progenitor, prophet, and singer who asked for it, so that he might meditate upon His wonders. It must be known, moreover, that the singer does not say that no mind can conceive of the birth of the Savior, but that it is seized with vertigo at the thought of it. For vertigo does not of necessity take away from a human being the power to think. But even if we were to grant such power to vertigo over us, such as to make the human mind completely inactive toward conceiving the birth according to the Savior Christ, yet even so, he who says that the aforementioned birth beyond nature is not at all to be conceived would not be speaking truly; for the holy Fathers discussed it in great detail, and especially in that they set forth its cause—which is for our salvation.

^A If, however, those who examine that most paradoxical manner in which [He was born] of an undefiled and seedless Virgin refuse to search out the "how" to the end, this is not ignorance or a lack of intellect, but the aforementioned vertigo, which the interpreters call a "dizziness of the eyes." For those who have learned and know better than we do that even in the generation of a simple human being, it is not the moist seminal matter that creates the fetus—at first unformed, according to the great David, and later well-articulated, promising the ultimate man—but rather, according to their way of speaking, an intellectual and invisible seminal logos that brings the formation of the embryo to completion. And having delved yet more mystically and divinely, how could they not be said to have applied themselves to the manner of the divine incarnation, being moved by God Himself and initiated into divine things, and so having become wise beyond human measure? ^B Here, however, one must contemplate more realistically how every mind suffers vertigo in trying to understand the ineffable birth of the Son of God from the Virgin; and it is meant to be grasped beforehand that the word "vertigo" is used because of this rolling, and a certain kind of vortex and rotation. After this, it must be noted that the human mind, after it has turned and, as it were, revolved within itself, and has studied many long things and sought many things anxiously, whether perhaps from this rotation it might be able to discover the same thing or something similar, [then], having returned to an exact understanding and comprehension that nothing such has ever been or ever will be, undergoes from this an intellectual vertigo and a prudent stupor. ^C And thus checked by such a study, it desists from the investigation and glorifies the omnipotent Son and her who gave birth to Him beyond all expectation.

222. But "we glorify with love" is what the melodist wrote down, as if it were something extraordinary. For those who glorify God and his most holy Mother and his saints with their whole heart do so out of a certain wondrous astonishment, immediately crying out "Glory" according to custom. But undoubtedly, astonishment and love are not the same thing, nor does that desire for the things by which the astonishment is caused necessarily accompany everyone who is astonished. For many, having been astonished alone, have stopped there, desiring nothing from it, and sometimes even holding it in great hatred. But we, he says, O most high Queen, glorify you with love, as though love conquered the astonishment and took its place; or rather, that both remain with us together, existing in the same way with us and having harmony: for we are caught by both desire and astonishment. ^D Therefore we glorify you with love. In this, the causal [particle] *whence* is used, so that the meaning of the fifth verse should be: Since all eloquence is overcome by you, most august Theotokos, and every mind labors with vertigo while thinking of your birth-giving, therefore we glorify you, not by being verbose and so attempting things beyond our power, but by uttering this very "Glory to you," or some other venerable [phrase], or at least this angelic salutation: "Ave," or "Hail," as we sing.

First Troparion of the Ninth Ode

^A It is fitting to sing of the life-bestowing maiden; For she alone in her depths concealed the Word, The healer of the sickly nature of mortals, Who, now seated on the right-hand thrones Of the Father, has sent the grace of the Spirit.

^B 223. Regarding the all-praised Theotokos, this troparion also inclines, and as was said in the remarks on the *heirmos*, it determines that it is proper to hymn her as the one who alone out of all generations was filled with God and beloved by Him; and not in a manner of virtuous conduct, or like the most venerable and most holy Simeon, but as one who truly received Him in her womb, that is, who bore Him. For "it is fitting"—that is, it is proper (since no other of the meanings of *eoiken* is applicable here)—"to sing," or rather to chant and hymn, as was written before, the "life-bestowing maiden," that is, the Virgin-Mother, as will be said shortly. For "she alone concealed," that is, she hid in the depths—which the poet calls "vortices" (or *dinas*), as the guide of the interpretation says—her entrails, the Word who is strictly such, the hypostatic one, the one sitting with the Father, the one who heals—that is, treats—and cures the nature of men, both the one that had become sick and the one that is sick, and will never cease to be sick, until, after doing away with the sinful cachexia, it is received and He takes up a new habitation.

^C 224. Here note that, as in the phrase "she alone in her depths concealed the Word," he did not clearly signify that he was speaking of the Word as the Son of God, he added, for the sake of clarity, that He heals us who are sick, as a physician of souls and bodies. But since men are healed by divine words in other ways as well, for this reason, for the sake of greater and more transparent clarity, he adds these things: "Who," that is, the said Word, "is now established on the right-hand thrones," which is to say, on the thrones of the majesty of the Father, according to the [Scripture], "He sat down at the right hand of God," and has sent the grace of the Spirit, the feast of which we celebrate today. And that is the universal benefit of the tropical meaning. As for the diction, the word "to hymn" (*hymnein*) would have been more common, to keep the acrostic intact, but the melodic accent on the penultimate syllable of the word "Xaire," "Anassa," moved the word "to hymn" and substituted "to sing" (*hudein*) in its place; which the ancients say is derived from the word "to chant" (*aeidein*) according to a certain Doric dialect.

^D 225. The "life-bestowing maiden," thus would one compose the one who, as was said, is the Virgin-Mother: the part about giving birth belongs to the mother; while that of the maiden is identical to the virgin. In any case, she who gave birth while remaining such a maiden signifies the Virgin-Mother. Now, that sweet Greek poet knows this as an epithet of the earth, which is so called either because it generates *zeas*—so that it is "life-bestowing earth" as if from a part of the *zeai* (or "all-seeds"), from which the word "pan-spermia" is derived—or otherwise, as one which produces things necessary for life. It is written, however, in that poet, with the small *o* in the final syllable of his "life-bestowing" (*physizoon*).

^A 226. Now, the "life-bestowing" sleep, that Lordly sleep which is set down in the song of the most blessed melodist Mark, demands great wonder. I believe it has no equal in the whole world, nor any other word to compare with it, or capable of being set against it in the balance to match the success of the divine, the pleasant, the sweet, and the divinely inspired. To me, certainly, as I recall that "life-bestowing" sleep now, there comes a sense of relaxing and, as it were, sleeping, captivated by delight; and I felt my breast pushing to leap forth from my chest, so as to be with that lordly Mark, either by drawing him to us, or at least by remaining with him. Let that "life-bestowing" sleep lie there, and the body laid [in rest], to which the thought of it clings, already sufficiently cared for by those who are, if I may so say, desirous of life according to this, and therefore lovers of beauty, but immediately also men devoid of true refinement.

227. Now, a maiden (*kore*) generally is any virgin, or [the word comes] from *koro* [to adorn], for such a girl is naturally prone to the care of adornment, as he who rebukes the man wearing gold in this passage shows: "He came to war wearing gold like a maiden." Or, it may be understood as "pure," from *koro* ["I purify"], from which comes *neokoros* [temple-attendant], he who purifies the temple; and the same person is also called *sekokoros* [shrine-sweeper] for the same reason. ^B From another perspective, such a girl is also spoken of in relation to that which is called the "pupil" of the eye, which is most dear to us. For every virgin is a "maiden" (*kore*), beloved both to those who begat her and to those who act as her suitors; and she is judged worthy of custody, just as to us the maiden is kept in a chamber, as this pupil is within the eyelids. These, frequently closing and opening, properly protect the pupils by their rising and falling against the snares of external bodies, which are formidable, whether striking or otherwise causing harm when they are introduced. Thus the chamber also keeps the virgin pupils within doors that close them off, so that they are difficult to behold. Therefore, someone has marvelously sung of the betrothed of the most holy maiden, the ^C holy Joseph, with both vividness and sweetness, to guard the virgin as the pupil of the eye.

^D 228. But this—"for alone inside [she] hid the Word"—could be understood as if for "she alone," but rather for "secluded from a spouse," or man; so that according to this: "only begotten Father of the only begotten Son," as was written before, this also may be adjusted here: "only mother of the only begotten Son." As for this: if anyone does not write according to the aforementioned ancient interpretation in the feminine gender, but rather as being the same as "viscera" or "intestines" (*in-dinoisin*), it is poetic in the Ionic style, just as before it was "in tongues" (*glossesin*), or "tongues," and further down "in pillows" (*klismoisin*).

^A A neuter of this gender is *endinon*, genitive *endinou*. Some have said *endina* are the intestines, as if "inward fibers" (*endon inas*), because of their fibrous nature; but the more accurate render this simply as the entrails, which include the belly, the stomach, and the womb. The usage of this word is found in the Greek poet who is wise, in the passage: "Whoever, shooting, touches the *endinon*," that is to say, whoever, shooting an arrow, touches the internal organs, driving the spear as far as that.

^B 229. "He had hidden" (*kekryphei*) is written in Attic style with one augment, as if one were to say "he had struck" (*tetyphei*); the common, complete form is *ekekryphei*, just as *etetyphei*. But if from such a form comes *kekryphalos*, which is a female ornament, it has nothing to do with the present matter. "To heal" (*althainein*) is said to mean "to cure," from which comes *panalthes*—that is, a good medication; it is derived from *allesthai* (to leap). For the body of the sick falls away as it wastes, but the bodies of the healthy leap, as if being increased and lifted up by a life-giving, natural spirit. Therefore, the ancient sages, as has been said before, elegantly assume that *physis* (nature) is derived from *physan* (to blow/inflate). That *althainein* is also called *althesthai*, whence comes the plant *althaia* and even a proper name, is shown by the one who wrote: "a healing hand" (*althetos de cheir*). It must be noted now that the Lord heals mortal nature in other ways, but especially when it hastens to be healed, since that is the most perfect medicine for it.

^C 230. It should be known that by saying the Virgin had hidden the Word "in the *dinoisiin*," he interprets here what he means by "the Word." It is not to be said that this is the common word pronounced by us, or any other similar to it, just as in the passage, "Renew a right spirit within me," it is not understood as some common spirit, nor that spermatic spirit of generation which the natural scientists have conceived, but the supersubstantial Word of God the Father; whose task it is to heal our sick nature, and to heal in a way that is natural to him. And that way is natural to him: as he hears, so he heals; he hears, that is, he is named the Word. Therefore, by his Word he also heals, just as the man had confidence who said: "Speak the word, and the sick man shall be healed," and just as the paralytic experienced it, and as, upon being called, Lazarus arose. The Savior heals, being the physician common to all, not just to these or those, but to the whole of human nature. Relating to this: "As he hears, so he heals"; one must consider the text: "As I hear, I judge," and so forth. I, being just, judge justly; and my judgment is just. It is evident that this "healing the nature of mortals" was said in order to distinguish him from those who heal only partially.

^D 231. Concerning the divine right hand, the saints have philosophized sufficiently; from them we also hold that the right is indeed dear, according to the Gospel, and conversely that the left—whence someone who is left-handed is even mockingly called *eparisteros*. But whether the right is more acceptable can be supported by the usage of the ancients: "He was struck on the right side," that is, on the vital parts of the body; and that saying: "The right sides are indeed laborious!" And if one must here also speak of that hand

^A which is merciful, whose work the left hand does not know, one must not only say what has already been aptly and symbolically spoken by another sage, that "with both hands do mercy and exhaust your riches: for your left hand shall not know what your right hand does," but also this: let alms be given only by the right hand—that industrious, manly hand, which symbolically expresses the divine operation, honored by nature itself, as the wise naturalists observe, naturally disposed to work conveniently, and—what is more vivid—that hand which is well-approved for receiving. As for the left, allow it to omit those things which pertain to alms, for which there is need of diligence, great haste, agitation or contention, and—to speak all things opportunely—of dexterity; of which the left is deprived, though it is born to be a right hand itself, yet perhaps tardy in thriving in this good, so as to make a man ambidextrous. For the sluggish left hand grows dull and hinders the right from the good, both in other actions in which it does not nimbly flourish, and in the act of alms, which it desires to make shine with pomp and Pharisaical ostentation.

232. ^B Altogether, the left was held by the ancients as not for a good purpose; and what is there to say of how they considered left-hand things as ill-omened? To touch a left hand with a hand was an abomination, but the right was loved most of all. In contracts, just as in oaths, they would confidently join right hand with right; and to this day, faithful men extend their right hands to one another. And nature, acting well, which also assigned the function of writing to the right hand, is accustomed to honor few left hands with such a good. A good thing for merchant ships is a right-leaning side, and the proverb chooses this for those who wish to be saved. Great also is the honor of dexterity, and that the wise set the eastern parts of the world as right. If, however, it is necessary to exalt the right hand with praises, look to me at the change of the right hand of the Most High, and at the man of the right hand of God, whom He established for Himself in kingly power, and at the right hand of the Lord, which is glorified in power, which wounded the enemies, and which, in the abundance of His glory, crushed the adversaries.

233. ^D But if we shall also consider those who have stood against the right hand of the Lord, from whom the great David prays to be guarded, and if we place them on the left, as the sequence demands, who would choose to be on the left, or to praise such a left-handed order and constitution? The apostolic catch will itself also confirm that there is no fruit on the left, since the apostles, when they had cast the net from the right side at the Lord's command, were filled with a copious catch and much wonder. But if the left hand, adorned, painted, and covered in white lead with good words—by which the left [αριστερά] was named from the "best" [αρίστου], and from the particle "eu-" was called "well-named" [εὐώνυμος]—is extolled to the sun, one must reflect upon the grape of gall, and the cluster of bitterness, and the whitened sepulcher, and bitter-sweet tastes, and chasms surrounded by flowers; such-

- ^Alike comparisons must be made to the auspicious or the left-hand sense, and to that which proceeds from the sinister. I hesitate, indeed, to present other expressions whose name is sweet but the reality bitter, and whose program is life, but the interior is death; among which is that which, according to common custom, is called by many the mercy of God—those who, because of the wrath of God through hail and such like things, call it the mercy of God, for the sake of euphemism. Moreover, human necks also know a certain moisture that exacerbates pains according to a certain passion, which they call "sweet." I know indeed that the Solomonic wisdom brings forth good things, but some are those great things in the right hand, while others are different ones in the left. Wishing, however, not to examine this head any longer, I end here the inquiry friendly to the right hand, and return to the following melodies of the festival.

^B 234. Now I say that the *klismos*, which we called a throne, is interpreted more properly as an *anaklintron* (reclining couch), which comes from *anaklinein* (to recline). If, however, the *klismos* coming from *klino* (to incline) is pronounced with an *s*, it must be understood that in the same way, from *moluno* (to defile) comes *molusmos* (defilement). Note, however, that the melodist, having chosen at the beginning of the troparion more poetically to say *dein* [i.e., *humnein*], judged it necessary to sprinkle other poetic expressions within it also; therefore, he introduced such a venerable name, "the life-producing," and "the inner," and "to flourish." See also the *klismous*; he himself knowing well how it is possible to handle melodies so that they fulfill common things with common terms, and those that are not such with what is appropriate to them.

235. ^C *Idrumenos* (seated/established) is here used instead of simply "sitting," and the term is transferred from our condition to God; having been applied by Him just as all other things of ours have been applied to Him, so that from this we might also be morally instructed to appropriate to ourselves His things through imitation and piety, just as He makes ours His own. But to speak more accurately, if the sacred term is used elsewhere as an "establishing," as has been shown, it is here especially such with an emphasis upon the Son of God. The adverb *nun* (now) must not be allowed to be ordered with "is established," but must be drawn over to *pepomphen* (has sent), so that the meaning is: "Now the Savior Christ has sent the grace of the Spirit," not acting in separation, but sitting with the Father. And truly, now that we are celebrating the feast, the grace having been sent, He has always also previously sent the same grace to those worthy of it; nor will He ever cease in the future to act in such a way, so that it may correspond to such a divine gift, "now and always, and unto the ages."

236. The term *pepomphen* has a double character of the indicative perfect, namely the active and the middle; active indeed through the *phi* [in *pepomphen*], which is from the *pempto* [and] *pempsomai*. For if, they say, the future is formed through the *psi*, the perfect [is formed] through the *phi*; but the middle through the short *o*, which the middle perfect holds in the penultimate [syllable], having a disyllabic future with a penultimate *e*; for if, they say, in a disyllabic future the letter *e* is found, the middle perfect turns it into an *o*; such as *spero* [I shall sow], *espora* [I have sown]; according...

to these two rules of the indicative perfects, since there are two derived from *pempo* [I send], of which the first and active is *pepempha* by means of *e*, and the middle is *pepompha* by means of *o*; therefore the middle perfect ^A *pepompha* has the character of both, that of the active by means of *phi*, and that of the middle by means of omicron. Such also is *keklopha* [I have stolen] from the present *klepto*, of which there are also two perfects by nature, the active *keklopha* and the middle *keklopa*; the active having the *phi*, and the middle the omicron; and the same is exactly the case with *tetrophen* [I have turned]. In another conjugation of verbs there is also the Ionic *eikos* and the Attic *eoiken* [it befits], and *lelogche* [I have obtained], and *enenohe* [I have brought]. It is possible to say in another way that such middle perfects are, as it were, between the strictly active and the middle in their pronunciation. Now the grace (*charis*) of the Spirit is derived from *chairein* [to rejoice] and from the *chara* [joy] in which those who are spiritual rejoice, having the object of their desire, and for this reason they are deemed worthy by God according to the Gospel to hear, "Rejoice"; for as they say *kithara* [cithara] and *kitharis* [cithar-player], so also *chara* [joy] and *charis* [grace].

Troparium 2 of the ninth ode

257. The present troparion is a mixture of theology and a remembrance of the Trinitarian hymn, in which it ends morally, having begun from the most exalted. For he says that as many as the God-streamed grace has breathed upon, so as to shine and flash and be changed with an alien—that is, a strange—change, most decorous, we glorify, and we surely owe it to glorify the wise triple-glanced substance, the Trinity, clearly, knowing it to be indivisible in the sense that it cannot be cut through at all so that the persons are separated from one another; but rather that the three persons of the one Deity be believed, understood, and taught as into one alone. In these words, "we glorify," it can also be thought of as an exhortation; but if it does not lengthen the penultimate syllable, this belongs to Ionic indifference. But concerning the substance that is truly indivisible in three persons, and the meaning of what was said about it, one must reflect on what the great Saint ^D said: that at the same time one cuts, one must reunite the atoms—that is, not those that are cut by a divisive cutting—such as we have spoken of, by which the Deity or substance would appear to be tripartite—and thus the meaning of such a troparion is correctly disposed.

258. Yet it is even better to consider: the hymnist here sets forth a venerable self-praise, concealing it methodically through communion. For in speaking reverently of those who glorify the holy Trinity, he of necessity includes himself in the commonality, as one who has melodiously and magnificently hymned it and thus glorified it. He says, therefore, that as many of us as the grace of the Holy Spirit has breathed upon, they, by all means, shining with such grace and strangely changed, and knowing the equipotent nature of the holy Trinity, that is to say...

as demonstrated in the ^A third ode’s *heirmos*; which holy Trinity is not simply substance, nor simply triple-radiant, but according to a certain triple-arrangement of epithets, a wise triple-radiant substance; we, therefore, being thus shining and wise in divine matters, rightly also glorify it.

And well indeed, by apostolic method, does this divine melodist boast in the Lord, trusting that he speaks the truth; and indeed he speaks the truth by the grace of God. And one must not be perplexed as to how the melodist was satisfied, having called the holy Trinity, which is above every substance, a substance; but one must consider that even if he did not explicitly call it supersubstantial, he has nevertheless safely indicated the same concept in another way; for a wise triple-radiant substance is the only, most holy, and supreme-mentioned Trinity.

^B 239. Observe also the word "breathed," how it is more venerable than "appeared" and "shone" and all such terms, and more appropriate to the celebrated Holy Spirit; whose grace, flowing from the figure of humidity, he spoke of as being from God, like a rain showering down from above for the refreshment of the faithful, and washing them with holy baptism and other divine purifications, and irrigating divine furrows, and increasing spiritual seeds, and flooding away sins; and in a word, according to prophetic language, shed abroad for the good of souls worthy of such a Spirit. By such arguments, divine grace is spoken of metaphorically as being shed from above, and like a rain flowing and running down, and now also as breathing spiritually humid air, if one must speak in such archaic terms, so that the melodist appropriately said "breathed" in relation to the God-flowing grace. And in another way, to dignify the same thing: ^C just as "the crawling thing" crawls toward something, and "the footed thing" walks, and "the winged thing" spreads its wings, and "the swimmer" swims somewhere, thus, by all means, an aerial breath also breathes; this is natural, but it acts symbolically, as no one can deny, in portraying the Holy Spirit, who has his name from "breathing" and from the breath derived from him.

240. And by "breath" here, I do not mean the earthly kind, which many winds breathe around us, nor that which rises like smoky steam and is thus dry; but that which comes from on high and is by nature moist and liquid; for such a breath now serves the melodist tropically, so that he may philosophize theologically thereby. Therefore, even when he could have said "as many as He breathed" or "He expressed the God-flowing grace"—for from the earth things "grow" and "well up," even if in a general sense these are the same things—he preferred "God-flowing grace," so that from "breathed" and from "God-flowing," ^D he might derive, as from a spirit-formed, high, and liquid cloud, both a notion of lightning, which is represented in the faithful who shine spiritually, and the concept of a radiance in the shining disciples, which is common to the flashing lightning and to the rain-bearing humidity that washes and whitens and makes them thus shine. And let such consideration be placed on the majesty of "he breathed" and what follows; for there he paraphrased the thoughts which he had previously sung of in such metaphors, being thus skilled in varying metaphors and...

^A in those phrases whereby the identity of the thoughts is altered.

241. One must also know that "grace" is a fluid term; and in a way it is fluid and of itself solitary, even when spoken separately, without the adjective "God-poured," and that it is in a way fluid; since from "to pour" comes "to rejoice," whence also "grace" is derived, which is cognate with "joy." For joy and grace are a certain effusion, just as confusion is their opposite. Therefore also a certain parable aptly seeks out the cause of tears for this thought: whether flowing forth from supreme pleasure or from affliction, they bring in the sponge as a simile, which, holding moisture, is on one hand spread out to a full, spontaneous release of that which is poured out without squeezing, and on the other hand is compressed due to need. So also the soul, either dilated in joy, and thus spread open, gives forth a tear, or when afflicted—which is the same as to say ^B pressed; for it is evident that affliction and pressure are the same—is squeezed. It should be known that of the ancients who joined grace to divine expressions, the more daring ones even deified it and brought it into a Trinity, fashioning three graces with reason, and imposing august names upon them. But the most august thing about it is that no one, neither of the other wise men nor of the holy Fathers, disdained such an expression toward God, but all judged that it was well-suited to Him; therefore it is not possible to say "grace," or "grace-named," or "highly-favored," or anything else of the sort, and altogether discard what has been spoken. Therefore also the *charisios*—whether a cake, or a man, ^C or something similar—was dignified by such an expression; and the wise John, finding it beautiful, multiplied it, as was fitting, by sprinkling upon it the melodious veil as if with a flowery ornament.

242. With greater generosity, however, he placed in the works—to call them such—radiant words, like pearls, being as they are more appropriate and more fitting to the Holy Trinity, for the beauty of the variegated texture; I mean the words of light, and of splendor, and of radiance, and those derived from them, besides the words for torch, and fire, and lightning, and luster, ^D and other analogous terms of splendor; so that from this the spiritual psalmody might be, for the loud-voiced melodist, almost entirely resplendent with this sonic melody. And because of such things, the expansion of the canon is to be reckoned to him as a jewel-case: not only sprinkled with precious stones in the thoughts concerning sweet grace, but also flashing most brightly, as was said, with radiant pearls.

243. The dignity of grace is also linked to this, that worship in spirit and in truth is said to be worship in spirit and in grace; and that the canonical apostolic signs are marked by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit; and that he who boasts in the Lord is content to say that he does these things by the grace of God; and that it comes to the same thing to say the gift of God and grace; and that it is said to pertain to salvation to proclaim the grace and mercy and philanthropy of God; and that...

^A one who is within this and a participant is most delightful; but one who has fallen away from this good seems to be nothing of the sort; just as a thankless and most ungrateful meal or word; and that which is most ungrateful, that is to say, most offensive and altogether disagreeable, and especially the accursed ingrate. That the poet also loved to strike the lyre with other lofty diction with persistent speech—useful and lofty, even if not according to the aforementioned expressions—the scope of the canon reveals its grace and the things from the light and those related to it to those who peruse it.

^B 244. But because we have examined this grace with such proper measure, and having prayed to God not to deprive us of it, we also say that the terms "shining, flashing, transformed," brought forth without conjunction, are expressed swiftly and sweetly; and both "to shine" and "to flash" are completely adapted to spiritual luminosity. Of these, the one is by nature desirable, but the other is not so; hence a lamp is pleasant because of its sweet light; but lightning is fearful as it is fiery—which we also realize regarding God, if we are indeed wise; and, while considering God to be fearful and, as it were, such that one would not find anyone to oppose His just wrath, yet at the same time understanding Him to be most philanthropic, let us guard ourselves so as not to sin openly and thus irrationally in the inheritance of a demon, or, if we have sinned, to turn back quickly, having been transformed by that beautiful transformation, which the poet here mentions, drawing it from those things pertaining to the feast.

^C 245. For it is possible for us to understand that the illumination of the mind, and the lightning, and the seemly and external transformation, which this wise poet proclaims, and testifies to us as worshippers of the Holy Trinity, he beheld first in the disciples. For what is sinister or unpropitious or inconsistent with the feast, that such grace should be sent from above to the heralds of God, so that with the head shining with fiery tongues and from thence with splendors, the faces of the disciples might also shine with light, and thus be enriched by a divine transformation? For no one could say that it is fitting for the air there to shine, while in the presence of God the apostles were in darkness, so that their faces resembled night, pale from fear and the contraction of the soul, while blood tinged with beauty reddens them. Was the countenance of Moses not once fittingly glorified by God, and were the disciples not worthy to shine with such splendor, ^D and to obtain by equal right the good such as those three elect disciples experienced on Tabor, whom this present apostolic assembly also embraces, rejoicing entirely that the good which was formerly granted to them specifically before the passion—that ineffable light—now all partake of in common, fraternally, through the Holy Spirit, as He has distributed it?

246. Therefore it is possible to understand and to say correctly that as they were shining, so also they were flashing because they were made to shine and flash from God, and being touched by fiery tongues as if touching the tongue of each, and thus sweet

^A flame of knowledge, they would have sung what was fitting, even if the surrounding pagans misunderstood them; and in some way, like those holy youths in the midst of the flame who were blessing and praising God and astonishing the surrounding idolatrous people, they too were disposed. It is therefore not unlikely, nor is it a matter of doubt, that the apostles were most resplendent in appearance when the illumination of the Spirit from above came upon them in the form of fire, in order that they might have light that was also personal alongside the inward light; and these three lights might shine upon them: that from the fiery tongues, and that according to the soul; and a third, which made their face shine to the glory of the holy Trinity.

^B 247. If this is so, one can also cleverly reconcile the "strange mutation" [ὀθνείαν ἀλλοίωσιν] with such radiance and lightning, and say that here the holy melodist mocks an old mutation of appearance among the Greeks, which used to befall a heroic person, concerning whom the line was composed: "You seem to me, stranger, another, different from before." For a hero is said at times to have been changed anew in the rest of his body and his face; and that mutation of his was "strange," and not in the least becoming, but showing him to be most hideous: for a wrinkle enveloped him, and his skin was parched like wood, and his eyes were dimmed, as if this mutation were not even worse.

248. Here, however, the melodist might say that because the right hand of God was changing the apostles, they were so changed that this flashing splendor was "strange" to them as it was to any other person, yet most becoming, being gentle and ^C drawing toward itself those gazing upon it. For they were not struck down, as upon Tabor, by light flashing more brilliantly than the sun like lightning; but just as the fire of the tongues at that time did not wish to burn, so neither did the light from thence blind those beholding it—for these things were made for good on this feast, and not to harm either the disciples or anyone else. And thus, having brought the apostles to mind as an example, the wise melodist John wishes to incline that splendor toward us spiritually, while we worship the holy Trinity rightly.

249. This stated "strange" mutation [ἀλλοίωσιν ὀθνείαν], the melodist called it, that is "foreign," as was said, and "extraordinary," by the mode which is called among the ancients "metaleptic," that is, by way of metalepsis—not that which is used by prose rhetoricians, but that which is in use among poets. Thus: let a word requiring interpretation for the sake of clarity be set down; and let it be interpreted by a word that is homonymous, or at the very least, as it were, having two ^D meanings differing from one another, of which one indeed is most proper, as it appears, to bring clarity to the subject word; but the other is forcibly dragged toward that interpretation, with the listener being compelled to transfer his mind from the natural

interpretation to the other, which stands alongside it by way of homonymy, and to adapt this to the interpretation of the word at hand. ^A For example, let the word needing interpretation be "glene" in the phrase "Go, evil glene," and it must be interpreted by "kore." Now, since "kore" is the pupil of the eye, but "kore" is also, by homonymy, a young woman according to a different meaning, he who applied the first "kore," that which pertains to the eye, to "glene," so as to say "Go, evil sight," that is, "O man not worthy to be seen," interpreted it appropriately, or rather, naturally. But he who transferred, that is, changed, the vision and said by way of metalepsis "Go, evil girl," that is, "O womanish and most cowardly man," did not indeed interpret well; but he appears to be forcibly compelled, as if by a petition, that since you said "kore" for "glene," and "kore" is also "girl," condescend to interpret also [the phrase] "Go, evil glene," instead of "perish, O woman-man, because of cowardice." ^B By some such reasoning, the melodist, having inscribed upon his soul to call the transformation from the Holy Spirit "strange" (xene), perhaps taking this from the [verse] "To me, friend, a stranger you appeared, or before," and knowing that "xene" is said not only of that which is strange to the sight and extraordinary—which truly fits here—but also of the "othneia," that is, alien, he was required by necessity by the metrical acrostich to not say "xenizousan," but "othneian" out of necessity, because the "xene" transformation denoted the "othneian" just as it did the extraordinary.

^C 250. And therefore he does this against his will; well knowing how to distort that which follows from the things proposed; but casting it forth like a riddle before well-disposed critics; in such a way that sometimes, by necessity, in the dithyrambic treatment of poetry, having changed the word close to the interpretation for one further off, for the sake of wonder and elegance; for which we have learned also in other places of extraordinary vocal utterances; so that "othneia" is now a transformation which is strange or extraordinary, said in a poetic, metalepsis-style manner granted to epic poets. And yet, to explain in another way this new form, it seems that this, as has been said, "othneia" or strange mutation, was brought forth according to a certain concept—sophistic, indeed, and not sound, but appearing to be syllogistic—such as this: "the othneion" signifies "stranger"; but "stranger" is that which is extraordinary: therefore "the othneion" is the extraordinary: and hence [comes] the transformation "othneia," the extraordinary. ^D So also: "glene" is "kore"; "kore" is a certain delicate woman, and therefore "glene" is "korion."

251. Now that these things have been said sufficiently, if anyone here calls "othneian" the transformation that is "alien" from the upright [nature], he will not easily and without trouble secure attention for himself from anywhere. For how could the present mutation and transformation in the Holy Spirit from malice and sin, which are against nature, into sinlessness and virtue, which are according to nature, be "alien"—whether according to the common meaning of the aforementioned word, according to which one calls "othneion" something "alien," that is, not one's own, or whether [he calls] the "othneion"

^A according to the Scriptural usage in which those who are "alien/aliophuloi" are called "allotriooi" (aliens); for neither is the change from evil to good alien to us, nor does it alienate from God those who are changed by it; so that "othneia" (foreign/strange)—that is to say "xene" (alien), as "allotria"—is not really an epithet of such a change; and thus it is difficult to interpret "othneian" as "allotrian" (alien).

^B 252. If, however, one were to say that the saints at that time were changed by a "spiritual foreign change" (xene alloiosei) and an "othneia," that is, an alien change, up to that time—meaning that from which they had previously been estranged and alienated—this is indeed a somewhat forced expression, yet it will be accepted by benevolent listeners. Now "o othneios" is the masculine form, from which "e othneia" is derived, as the word "nothos" (base-born): from which, just as "Kadmos" gives "Kadmeios," so "nothos" gives "notheios," and by the transposition of a letter, "othneios"; and perhaps this is what has caused the confusion here also concerning the change to "othneia." For since "nothos" is strictly a son who is not genuine and legitimate to the one who fathered him, but the word had already come to be used for things that are simply foreign and thus "alien," thence "o othneios" and its derivatives were set in motion; the deviation from that strict definition has also dragged with it the concepts in which such words were scattered, and most excellently so in a poetic arrangement.

253. Furthermore, one must praise the melodist because, having a ^C necessity in the third verse of the passage already discussed to place the beginning from an omicron short vowel, he found such a word in metrical necessity. One must consider, however, whether it might be better to write "othneion alloiosin" from the Attic nominative "ho othneios"; for to say "ten othneian" is not usual in common iambics, as it departs from the grammatical rule of the spondee in the second foot on account of the length of the final syllable of "he othneia." For just as we extend "tes theias" from "tou theiou" into a common form, so we do with "ten othneian" from "tou othneiou." But if perhaps the melodist, having ^D remembered his [own verse] "In the long-meter fifth [ode] I sing a long hymn," scanned the present iambic with an eye to that one, we do not contradict it as if it were a fault; rather, we remind [the reader] that this holy John has done something similar also in the [expression] "sealing with the fervor of the Spirit." For the initial vowel of "sphragizein" (to seal) is lengthened, as is that of "sphragidos" (of the seal), so that there is no room for a man of letters to doubt it. That those who write in a heroic style often shorten many such feminine nouns ending in alpha from genitives that are long-terminated is something that cannot be steadily gainsaid by anyone experienced. As for his having used "euprepestaten" instead of "kalen," the melodist spoke well there, too; for if, according to someone, "a change is the beautiful work of the right hand of the Most High," then it truly would be most becoming (euprepestate); and this is explanatory of the fact that "ten othneian" should not be understood as "alien," but as "extraordinary"; for such a change, one might say, indicates here an intensification of the preposition. It is, however, more common and thus better known to be the "euprepestate"; and it is not unknown that "euprepeia" and the related terms signify a certain beauty and propriety, and [refer to] what is becoming, and what is appropriate. And it arises from the

^A *periepein* [to treat or attend to], for such things as are good are treated [with care].

254. Note also that the melodist has, in the present troparion, summarized in a way the whole wonder of the recent feast. For "it breathed" [was blown] refers to the violent wind; and the God-bestowed grace refers to "poured out" [ἐπιχέω]; here, the preposition indicates intensity, as another melodist seems to interpret it when he says, "You have poured out richly"; having poured out from the Spirit, as Joel says; and otherwise, "having poured out" into the boundless. And "shining, flashing" is a summary of the ignition that was mingled with and illuminating the breath; by which the tongues were at that time called "fire-like," or those fires were "tongue-shaped." And "transformed" summarizes the apostolic change into something more divine than before; and "strange" calls to mind the speaking in foreign tongues; and "most becoming" leads the chanter not to think of this "strange" [tongue] as alien; for that [tongue] is becoming. And "wise substance" is a mention of the apostles being made wise at that time; and "equally powerful" is already foreknown in [the phrase] "equally powerful spirit." And so it has been previously shown also concerning "wise three-rayed substance," and how it is called both "three-rayed" and "triple-radiant." And the, as mentioned, "indivisible substance," having "equally powerful" placed beside it, indicates also ^B the exceeding strength of the holy Trinity; for the three-rayed substance that is indivisibly divided is altogether all-powerful, as the greatest principle that is never divided upon itself and is thus indefatigable. And "knowing" signifies not a simple kind of knowledge, but a most divine and most truthful, or rather, scientific knowledge, as has been pointed out elsewhere, as is clear also from "knowing that it is the Lord."

255. It puts us who chant to shame if, when we confess that we know the most holy Trinitarian substance, such as we have sung about in the whole of the present canon, we then grieve the Holy Spirit by thinking alien thoughts, and, knowing God to be wise and One who shares wisdom with us because of His goodness, we render ourselves unwise and senseless and foolish, as if ungrateful for the good; or rather, as those who are knowledgeable but neglectful, to whom there is not even one grace, nor do we even glorify ^C God, being so base, and honoring and approaching with our lips, but in our heart being far removed from Him; and on account of this, are we separated from that three-rayed or otherwise three-radiant substance, [as has been written], and are relegated to the detestable eternal darkness, of which I myself am one, I who have just come through so much light, but am entirely dark and prone to the punishments that follow. But do not allow me, Lord, do not allow me, but [only] the one who does not trust in You, to fall away from You.

I have finished, friend, the work as you ordered; and may it appear pleasing, so that I may receive as a sufficient reward your holy prayers; may God, who is blessed unto the ages, fulfill them. Amen. ^D

AT THE END OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. EUTHYMIUS, METROPOLITAN OF NEOPATRA. NOTICE.

(Tafel, *De Thessalonica ejusque agro*, p. 392.)

That Euthymius and Eustathius fostered a friendship through the exchange of many letters, we learn from the Monody edited below; besides our own oration, this is most attested by two letters given to him by Eustathius. Other monuments of this friendship seem to have perished. Euthymius was, like Eustathius, educated in letters in Constantinople, and later raised to the metropolitan throne of Neopatra, after the middle, I believe, of the twelfth century. I conjecture that he was somewhat older than Eustathius from what Michael Le Quien brings forward about him in *Oriens Christianus*, vol. II, pp. 125, 126, where he sets out the metropolis of Ne Patrae, and at the same time deals with our Euthymius and the traces of his writings. When he died, I have not yet discovered. I should think, however, that this happened in the final years of the twelfth century, shortly after his Eustathius, whom we see he honored with a funeral oration.

His see was Thessalian, Nova Patrae; who its founders were is not known. In Turkish it is now called Patradschik (cf. Melet. geogr. ed. Gaz. vol. II, p. 438). In the judgment of Leake (*Travels in Northern Greece*, vol. II, pp. 19-23), Neopatra corresponds to the metropolis of the Aenianes, by the name Hypata, at the roots of Mount Oeta, near the upper Spercheus river (Hellada). Among Greek writers of the Middle Ages it also occurs under the simple name of Patrae; it was indeed of great importance even then. Regarding the city of Hypata, besides Leake, consult also Mannert, *Geographia*, vol. VII, p. ; although both learned men omitted the memorable passage of Heliodorus (*Aethiop.* II, 54, ed. Bipont.): "The Aenianes... are the most noble part of Thessaly, and strictly Greek, from Hellen the son of Deucalion; [the land] for the most part extending to the Maliac Gulf, boasting the metropolis Hypata, named—as they themselves wish—from dominating and ruling over others; but as it seems to others, because it is situated beneath Mount Oeta." To me, *Hypata* seems simply to signify a mountain or hill, as does *Kolōnos* and other names of cities and districts. The city has a sufficiently elevated position, between Oeta and the Spercheus.

MONODY OF THE MOST WISE LORD EUTHYMII, READ AT THE TOMB OF THE MOST HOLY LORD OF THESSALONICA, EUSTATHIUS, SOME DAYS AFTER HIS DEATH.

^A 1. Me forsan mirabitur quis, modo loquentem the friend lying there, and to close even my lips, and to breathe out my whole spirit. But why...

LAUDATIO FUNEBRIS EUSTATHII.

But what then shall I suffer? I longed to see him who longed for me, and we were beguiled by daily hopes: he indeed hoping to receive his brother and to show splendid hospitality, and I to be embraced by my beloved friend and to perform for him the offices of friendship. But alas! The swift-flying and rapid course of death has anticipated us. And he who was so longed for lies out of sight, speechless; and I stand around this grave, which I do not know how I have the heart to look upon. For I did not come to a tomb, nor to a matter for mourning, but to a garden of Graces, to a joyful feast. And so, may this paper compensate for me for the living conversation, which has been darkened more by the soot of sorrow than by ordinary ink. I speak, indeed, but not as one enjoys conversing with a brother, so as to receive a response from him. My voice will only echo against the tomb and excite groans in those standing around. And if it should please me to go again to my brother’s home, I shall not see my brother coming to meet me, nor will he open the doors for me; but I stood long, crying out and knocking at the door, and no one heard. ^B

2. But, O most divine and most wise of high priests, is it because you are holding a book in your hand, nourishing your mind from it, that you did not attend to the sound? Or is it because you were writing things that might restore peace to the flock, or were scrutinizing and unfolding obscure lives as if they were most secret, or were weaving encomia for emperors, or inscribing letters to friends (for these were always your concern, your constant anxiety), that you have locked your door against me, so that your work might not be disturbed? But in this you treat me unjustly, me who ran to you in vain—I whom you longed to see, for whom you prepared table and bed, and not only did you open the doors to those being received, but you even opened the tiny window of your soul itself. But you also do injustice to this, your own city, in that you do not heed the sorrows of those altogether distraught, which she pours forth by your coffin, all night and all day. As for me, I pity her, stripped of such adornment and having suffered such a tragedy. Just so have I often pitied a ship deprived of its helmsman, just so an army bereft of its commander; and I have wept at the head being severed from a body beautiful and graceful. ^C

3. Truly, now if ever, the city of the Thessalonians has been made captive, and beyond war and the incursion of Barbarians, she has been stripped of her most precious treasures. It seems to me that even the Myroblyte ^D among the martyrs, by checking the flood of his stream for a little while, has signified the calamity of his own city. The second river that waters the city, whose stream of words even the cataracts of the Nile yield to, has ceased to flow, and that great roar has grown silent. And now, those who yesterday were drinking the stream in deep gulps, and being sweetened by the honeyed flow, are today parched and scorched, being baked by the fire of thirst. They will thirst, I think, and a very great part of the inhabited world will, as many as have tasted the streams of our blessed one; both those who delighted in his golden tongue close at hand, and those who perceived his echo from afar. For he was not less worthy than the thunder of his sermons

^A so that it might race from end to end, making those who dared to contradict him fearful, casting down their hands in alarm, and shrinking before the thunderbolt. Nor was his voice dimmer than lightning, so that it might appear everywhere at once and strike as many as did not taste the wisdom of what they heard; so that I would not fear applying to this brilliant light and true disciple of Christ that which was spoken of the apostles: *Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world* (Ps. 18:5). For he was not, in truth, running through the earth, nor traversing the cities, nor moving from one to the other as the Lord commanded; nor did a winged reputation carry him everywhere. Yet Thessalonica had him writing, and the other cities, in which some students of letters, polished in humanity, invited his sermons to themselves, which were truly winged, quickly migrating to those who called them. Therefore, this city is filled with the writings of our blessed one, and the queen of cities is also filled, from whence he plucked his discourses. And if you go to others, you will find no participant in letters who is ignorant of the Muse of Eustathius. I have with me many bundles of his letters, loaded with much wisdom and branding all wickedness with ignominy; by which I know ^B often that I have extinguished my own seething anger and cast off the immoderation of sorrow. And his little letter appeared to me entirely as that of a master. For it was not written merely as a testimony of love, but it also branded the wicked with infamy and admired the good. He attacked more vehemently those who lacerate the cities and rend the churches of God; but he also bewailed the world as lying in wickedness, inasmuch as it was lost and defiled by our iniquities. ^C

4. Truly this magnificent pontiff was so adorned with the gift of eloquence and wisdom that all lovers of the Muses and lovers of rhetoric alike were held fast by his tongue, and they did not need to place wax in their ears like those sailing past the Sirens, lest they remain in their melodies. Yet they wished, even after hearing him, to die away, and to die together with that very sweetness. For who among all men has such elegance of character, goodness of manner, and a will intent on the good as this man, a dear treasure and an object of veneration? For to one person belongs one praiseworthy gift, but he who excels in two is, among us, the best and most admirable. But for the great Eustathius, all the best things came together at once, perfecting a flourishing paradise, heavy-laden and burdened with all forms of virtues, abounding with ripe fruits, bearing also the tree of knowledge, excluding only the woman and the serpent. O new and strange paradise, in which envy ^D was missing, and there was no whispering, nor deceit, nor nakedness! Nor was the fruit of knowledge forbidden, but many fed upon it and were satisfied, at the command of the gardener, and they were not barred from the tree of life. But how could I, cut asunder by grief, explain the other graces of this garden? O heavenly mind! O most brave heart!

^A O greatness of wisdom! O sweetness of lips, even down to a mere greeting! O hands, beautiful in their outstretchings towards God, with which you propitiated the Lord for the people, and beautiful also in drawing forth the fountain of mercy for the needy! O all things, good both in themselves and in relation to one another; and like some lyre or lute, well tuned to a single harmony! O sweet converse and gentle, mild look! And if there is any point where he was perhaps a little too sharp with some, yet here the authority of this wonderful man defends itself, and the supposed charge is subsumed into his achievements. For it was not necessary for him, entrusted as he was with this staff, to use a rod for the overthrow of adversaries; ^B by word and look alone he could strike down the disordered, and without effort put straight the one who was slipping. This, moreover, is what Christ also did regarding those who were acting improperly around the Temple. The scourge was not needed there, as it was in that other instance, to be completely unfeeling and unrebukeful, which would even be harmful to those under his rule, and not at all commendable to those in authority. For otherwise, that high priest of old, who was outside the law, might have remained uncondemned, had he not ever so slightly rebuked his sinning sons. O height of humility amidst such a multitude of virtues, which usually entail arrogance! For neither wisdom, nor an excellent intellect, nor ^C a life consonant with the philosopher, nor anything else of his accomplishments, cast him down into the pit of pride. Nor did the height of his dignity, nor his glorious throne, nor the things that accompany those who are allotted great positions, cause him to be haughty. But he was high in his works, yet humble in his mind, and great within, insomuch that one would be struck with wonder upon observing him and would compare him to the trees of Lebanon; yet outwardly he was small and insignificant, such that he might mislead and incite passers-by to contempt. For he had no retinue of guards, and he was never followed by companions or sycophants. ^D Only the light and lamp that customarily went before him illuminated this great man among the high priests, serving as a teacher of the brilliance dwelling within, and a herald of the light of his works. But if he loved wealth, or if he piled up heaps of money, he demands the testimony of you, among whom he always lived and associated. What then? Did he fill his hands with gains? What then? Did he delight in gifts and presents, to the point that he would sometimes even dispense spiritual things to those who wished it, and defile his hands with unlawful gains? And who is so mendacious and insolent as to dare to speak such a word, and to cast filth upon purity, and call light darkness, and call a lamp a pebble? For his hands were always smooth and pure, along with his Jacob-like desire, and he could not bear to extend them in duplicity so that the truth might be hidden. For by nature he loathed fraud and turned away from deceit. And if anyone was ever discovered by him rejoicing in such things, he became an enemy to him, and he hated him with a perfect hatred. For he walked in the innocence of his heart in the midst of his house, nor from his youth was he delighted by circumlocutions and evasions, nor did he knock at the doors of the rich any more than those of the learned. But as if honoring the truth that he shared with God as an elder, he hated those who practiced lying and pursued those who secretly slandered and murmured against their neighbors.

^B 5. O what should I first lament of you, divine brother? And what should I weep for second? Your gravity and philosophy, or your sociability and love of your fellow man? The restraint of your tongue, or its sweetness and grace? Your archiepiscopal dignity, or your public prominence? For having gathered all these together, you tempered and harmonized them well with one another, all those things that truly adorn a man, and you were perfected into a composition that flowers and colors of every kind artfully fashion. O what great graces! O what great beauty, and what great virtues! O man truly blessed even before the end, and after the end lamented because of the loss, but celebrated because of the virtues! O glorious youth! O venerable old age! For the city of letters, Constantinople, held him in his youth, and all the youth devoted to letters were around him; and his room was a temple of the Muses, a kind of other Academy, and Porch, and Peripatetic walking-ground. Those to whom he dispensed grammar and meters and poetry—endowed with such knowledge of them that he was in no way surpassed by those who had invented them—and those to whom he sharpened the tongue, providing rhetorical explanation, these he trained in other lessons and disciplines according to their needs. Whence he had wide renown, lying on the lips of all. Having moved beyond his youth and having ascended to the height of the archiepiscopate, what need is there to say more? The Bishop of Thessalonica was proclaimed by all to be unique ^C among bishops, unique among the wise. And now, the whole choir of learned men laments him, having departed this life, and more than these, his wise disciples; the order of bishops also laments, stripped of its ornament and its glory, and more than these, I, his contemporary and companion in upbringing and fellow-student in studies, who spent all the time of my youth dwelling in the same house with him; and to sum everything up in one, we were both confirmed and conjoined into one soul.

6. These are the libations, divine and most dear head to me, that we offer you as you lie here. These are the offerings of the tongue of a friend who cherished you, which you once loved to hear speaking, but now, burning with grief, you do not pity; nor do you send down to us, as we are scorched by the fire of sorrow, a dewy drop from the patriarchal bosom in which you are carried. Receive these, therefore, from us, a few words, composed with breathless spirit. For how could someone sitting on a horse exercise the pen? And how could one suffering in his head, ^D and heavy with years, worthily lament a friend snatched away by death? We too will one day be consigned to the earth, and many friends will stand about us, but no voice will be like yours to celebrate us, and this, indeed, is a second misfortune added to the first calamity.