Author: Roger Pearse

A gorgeous votive relief to Cybele and Attis in Venice

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Yesterday the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Venezia posted a gorgeous image on their twitter feed of a votive relief in their collection (inventory number 158).  It depicts Cybele (left) and Attis, with two women, mother and daughter, entering the shrine through doors.

Museo Archeo Venezia. Votive relief to Cybele and Attis, 2nd century BC, Giovanni Grimani collection, on display in Room 8. Inv. 158.

Just look at that, and admire.

The origins of the piece are unknown, as it was acquired by a Venetian nobleman in the 16th century.  I don’t know what the dates offered – 3rd or 2nd century BC – are based on.

I looked this item up in the Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque (CCCA) volume, where it is in vol. 7, pp.44-45.  The entry is as follows:

Greyish-white marble relief (H. 0.57, W. 0.80, D. 0.06) from unknown provenance. Venice, Archaeological Museum, Inv. no 118, formerly in the Grimani collection.

Zoega, Bassor. II, 73 arbitrarily supposes that Smyrna or Magnesia ad Sipylum is the place of origin; G. Valentinelli, Catalogo dei marmi scolpiti del Museo archeologico della Marciana di Venezia, Venice 1863, no 233 and Pl. L; M. Collignon, Monuments grecs I, 1881, 11ff and Pl. 2; A. v. Salis in JdI XXVIII, 1913, 10 and fig. 6; C. Anti, Il Regio Museo archeologico nel Palazzo Reale di Venezia, Rome 1930, 104 ff and fig.17; F. Matz in AA 1932, 279; Schuchhardt in Die Antike XII, 1936, 103ff and Pl. 7; Kähler, Pergamon, 75f and 73 n. 70; Bruna Forlati Tamaro, Il Museo archeologico del Palazzo Reale di Venezia, Rome 1953, 21 no 17 and fig. on p. 62, who mentions “Asia Minor” as the origin and dates the monument to the second century B.C.; Lullies, Plastik, Pl. 230; Linfert in AA LXXXI, 1966, 496ff and fig. 2; Vermaseren, Legend Attis,2 3 and Pl. XII, 1.

At the left side of the relief Cybele, wearing polos, veil, four tresses of hair and a long garment, is solemnly standing in her temple, facing the entrance. She is holding a long sceptre in her right hand and a tympanum in her other hand. At her feet a seated lion. In front of her is Attis in oriental dress leaning with his left hand on the pedum, the point of which is resting on a mound of rocky soil. One door of the entrance is open and a mother and daughter are entering. The mother is holding an unidentifiable object in her left hand (bird or fruit?) and raising her left hand in adoration. The daughter is carrying a plate with both hands.

Date: middle of the third century B.C. (Lullies) ; second century B.C. (Tamaro).

The abbreviations used in the bibliography can be found in the full volume.  A “pedum” is a shepherd’s staff with a curled end.  Giovanni Grimani donated his family collection of artworks, obtained in Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean, to the republic of Venice in 1587.

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Attis: The Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque (CCCA) volumes online and other stuff

Posted on by Roger Pearse

As well as his big index of Mithras monuments and inscriptions, Maarten Vermaseren also compiled a collection of monuments and inscriptions for Cybele and Attis.  He probably found that he had to do this while working on Mithras, simply because the two are often confused.  Indeed I’ve often seen Attis statues identified online as Mithras.  It’s the hat, I think.  But depictions of Attis always show curly hair peeking out under the hat, and an effeminate expression, a huge contrast to the stern cosmic resoluteness of Mithras.

I discovered that the 7 volumes of the Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque volumes are online at Archive.org, with the exception of volume 2.  Archive.org does list a “volume 2” but it is in fact  volume 7.  However the volume 2 may be found elsewhere online.

Here’s what’s accessible.

  1. 1. Asia Minor — v. 2. Graecia atque Insulae — v. 3. Italia–Latium — v. 4. Italia–Aliae provinciae — v. 5. Aegyptus, Africa, Hispania, Gallia et Britannia — v. 6. Germania, Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Macedonia, Thracia, Moesia, Dacia, Regnum, Bospori, Colchis, Scythia et Sarmatia — v. 7. Musea et collectiones privatae

The other item to mention is a collection of literary mentions of Attis.  It’s not complete in any way, but I think it covers the main sources for the cult myth.  I compiled it ages ago – quite possibly nearly 20 years ago – on a private wiki space, but never finished it or made it publicly available.

It’s now online here:  https://tertullian.org/rpearse/attis/attis_literary_testimonies.htm

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Lucian, Attis, and the “tragodopodagra” and a supposed “resurrection” of Attis

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Recently online I expressed the opinion that no version of the myth of the god Attis states that he was resurrected, until 350 AD when the story appears in Firmicus Maternus.  Prior to that date, the myth is that he was not.

Not everyone reading this may recall the myth of Attis.  Here is a less-than-serious summary of the myth, as found online, and reflecting the myth as we find it in Pausanias:

Attis was a shepherd-lad.  He was also the boyfriend of the scary Phrygian goddess Cybele.  One day he went off and shagged a nymph; and his missus found out (as they do).  In a rage, she cursed him with madness (as they do).  While “under the influence,” therefore, Attis sat down and chopped off his willy with the edge of a potsherd (as you do).  Then he died of sepsis, as you do in a pre-antibiotic era.

Then his missus calmed down.  No more Saturday nights at the disco.  So, she went to Father Zeus and asked him to bring Attis back from the dead.

Zeus, no mean shagger himself, disapproved of this “infidelity means castration” meme.  Not having that in his mythology.  So he refused.  The most he would do is to preserve the body of Attis eternally.

The reaction of Cybele is not recorded.

This remark of mine led some strange person to message me with a jeer and a screen grab from some unknown forum:

I found a very defintive proof that this boomer is wrong, too bad he blocked me. he says Attis cult never mentioned resurrection until christian syncretism around 350 but we have primary sources from the second century that mention it. In Lucian’s TRAGODOPODAGRA

My first reaction – possibly yours also – was to wonder what on earth the “Tragodopodagra” might be.  But long experience with online trolls tells me never to let such a claim go past unexamined.

The work is indeed a humorous work of Lucian, known usually as the Podagra.  I learn that the manuscripts also call it the Tragopodagra, or Tragodopodagra.[1]https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/illiclasstud.43.2.0488/ref]  “Podagra” means “Gout” – that nasty cramping feeling in the legs that 18th century gentlemen got from drinking a couple of bottles of port a day.  The work appears with English translation in volume 8 of the Loeb Classical Library edition, LCL 432, accessible on Archive.org here.

The work does indeed refer at one point to Attis, among its other classical references.  Let us hope that this erudition consoled the poet in his discomfort.  Page 327:

CHORUS

On * Dindymus, Cybebe’s mount,
Phrygians raise their frenzied cries
To tender Attis as his due.
To the note of Phrygian horn
Along the slopes of Tmolus high
Lydians shout their revelling song,
And Corybants on tambourines
Madly drum with Cretan beat…

But the loud howls of the Galli, the castrated priests of Cybele, are as nothing to the cries of the sufferer from gout.

Needless to say the work has no other mention of Attis, and certainly none of resurrection.

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  1. [1]↩

Life of John Damascene by John, Patriarch of Jerusalem (BHG 884) – Part 3

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The scene is the slave-market in Damascus, after a raid into the west.  Some of the captives taken by the Saracens are being sold, the rest are to be killed as worthless.  Among them, the dignified figure of the captive Italian monk Cosmas has drawn the attention of the father of John Damascene, who is still a child at that time.

    *    *    *    *

9.  Cosmas explains his grief to John’s father. [1]

But John’s father, standing not far away and so seeing the man in tears, came up, to console him in his distress, and said, “Why, O man of God, do you weep over the loss of this world, having long ago renounced and become dead to it as I see from your manner of dress?”

Then the monk replied, “I do not lament the loss of this life; for I, as you have said, am dead to the world.  But what does trouble me is that I have sought after all human wisdom, and laid down a general education[2] as a foundation. I have exercised my tongue in rhetoric; I have cultivated my reasoning through the methods and demonstrations of dialectic; I pursued [the study of] moral philosophy, as much of it as [Aristotle the] Stagirite, and as much as [Chrysippus] the disciple of Ariston, have handed down; I have examined carefully everything concerning natural philosophy, as far as humanly possible; I have learned the principles of arithmetic; I have mastered geometry to the highest degree; I have formally completed the disciplines of musical harmony and proportion[3]; and I did not pass over anything concerning movement of the heavens and the turning of the stars, so  that, from the greatness and beauty of these created things, in accordance with my knowledge of them, I might possess a proportionate understanding of the Creator. For the one who has acquired a clearer knowledge of created things understands more clearly and regards with greater wonder the One who created them.  From there, I advanced into the mysteries of theology, which the sons of the Greeks have handed down, and which our own theologians have most accurately elucidated.

So I am filled with these sciences, but I have not yet been able to impart[4] to anyone else the benefit from them, nor to produce a disciple through philosophy in the manner of a father producing a son.[5]  For just as most people want natural children to continue their family line, similarly those who have studied philosophy want, through teaching and initiation, to produce disciples[6] so that the golden line of philosophers may continue among the living for all time; and those who are the cause of this marvellous birth [of a disciple] inherit an immortal renown.  Moreover it is a characteristic of goodness to share with others the good things that one has in abundance.  Indeed anyone who is not like this, nor wishes to be, is not live in what is good, but in what is evil, as being full of pride and envy concerning those things which he does not want to share with others if he has received something good.  Therefore, even what he seems to have is taken away from him, just as with that servant who did not deposit the talent with the bankers.[7]  But I have chosen the good portion,[8] and I was very much inclined to become a sharer with others of the wisdom given to me.  But since I did not attain what I desired, that I might be counted among those faithful servants who doubled their talents through their dealings with others,[9] and I did not produce a disciple through philosophy, I am, as some might say, childless and miserable, as you see: my face is downcast and I am deeply distressed.”

    *    *    *    *

Onward.

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  1. [1]Heading by me.↩
  2. [2]ἐγκύκλιος, with παιδεία implicit: see LSJ: https://logeion.uchicago.edu/ἐγκύκλιος ↩
  3. [3]I had difficulty here.  “ἁρμολογίας δὲ μουσικῆς καὶ ἀναλογίας εὐτάκτους σεμνοπρεπῶς κατώρθωκα.” “εὐτάκτους” is the accusative plural, so must be the object of the verb.  A verb εὐτάκτέω is in LSJ, “to be orderly, behave well; reduce to order;” εὐτάκτημα: “act of orderly behaviour”, “well-ordered”.    Lequien’s Latin, “Musices concentus proportionesque probe satis sum assequutus” paraphrases.↩
  4. [4]Or “ready to impart.”↩
  5. [5]Lit. “nor to beget, through philosophy, a disciple in the manner of a father.”  But we really can’t use “beget” these days.↩
  6. [6]Lit. “father a child.”↩
  7. [7]Matt. 25:27.↩
  8. [8]Luke 10:42.↩
  9. [9]Matt. 25:14-30.↩

Life of John Damascene by John, Patriarch of Jerusalem (BHG 884) – Part 2

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Let’s have the next four chapters of the “Jerusalem Vita” of John Damascene.  John is still a child living in Damascus under Arab rule.

    *    *    *    *

5.  John’s ancestors were religious.

His ancestors were pious, and they alone preserved the flower of piety and the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ in the middle of thorns. For they alone preserved the name of Christian, as a bright and inalienable inheritance that could not be taken away, not faltering in the orthodox faith after the descendants of Hagar took control of the city. As a result their principles made them notable among the impious, so much so that even their enemies respected this. Or rather, just as God glorified Daniel among the Assyrians, because of the piety that he showed, and Joseph in Egypt, appointing as stewards and rulers over foreign and hostile lands those who had been taken captive, so here too he appointed the ancestors of John as stewards over public affairs even among the Saracens.[1] So here again the pious captives ruled over those impious ones who had taken them captive.

O, the great and wondrous works of God, and His marvellous and extraordinary deeds! Nothing is higher than virtue, nothing is more honourable or more sublime than piety. For like a banner raised on a hill, or rather like a lamp in the night, or a seed in Israel, or a spark in the ashes, so too the family of John was left in Damascus, to bring forth this bright torch, which would shine out to every corner [of the world]. Such were the ancestors of the man whom we are praising.

6.  His father was devoted to virtue.

His father, coming from such a good background, was eager to surpass his parents in piety and other virtues, and to demonstrate even greater love for God.  For it was necessary that such an illustrious man, destined to reach the highest point of virtue, should have a parent more distinguished than those before him, so that, as from a sequential progression, the rise to greatness would occur in an orderly fashion, as if the affairs concerning this great and illustrious one were arranged from above by divine providence, just as happened in the case of John the Baptist.[2]  For since he [John the Baptist] was destined to shine forth as greater than the prophets before him and to perform a sacrament more exalted than any priestly office—the baptism of my Lord—divine providence ordained that he would not come from an ordinary lineage but from a priestly family, and that his father would be a prophet.  Thus, in this case, too, John’s father was appointed by providence to be especially pious and philanthropic.  For he was an administrator of public affairs throughout the entire country, having been appointed because of his outstanding virtue and his distinguished way of life, and in this he used to spend his wealth abundantly; not on revelry, drunkenness, or frittering it away, but rather he used all of whatever he had in gold and other movable wealth to ransom Christians who were being taken into captivity.  As for his immovable possessions—of which he had a great deal in Judea and Palestine—he gave them for the relief and livelihood of those Christians whom he had freed who chose to live on those lands.  The others he allowed to go as free men wherever they wished.  Such was the philanthropic virtue of the man.  For he lived with wealth as though he had nothing, and so he was making offerings to God both by night and by day.

7.  John is born and baptized.

Acting like this, he received a reward, not for hospitality like Abraham, but a wondrous offspring (ὁ τόκος also means a return on investment, interest) for his love of humanity; if not from a promise, certainly from divine foreknowledge and predestination.  For God foresaw what sort of man John would become, and predestined him to be born of this man as a reward to him for the love of humanity that he showed habitually towards those who had exchanged their freedom for dreadful captivity.  Thus this glorious child was born to him, and while his [the child’s] body was still delicate, his father made him into a son of light, by rebirth through the spiritual mother (i.e. baptism in the church), accomplishing a deed which was not easy at that time, and which most people would not easily dare to do in the midst of those pagans.  Then the father’s concern for the child was not for him to learn to ride, nor to wield a spear skillfully, nor to shoot an arrow from a bow with precision, or to fight with wild animals and change natural gentleness into savage cruelty, as often happens with many who are troubled in spirit, and rush about wildly and recklessly.  For this reason, John’s father did not seek out some mountain-dwelling Chiron[3] to nourish his pupil on deer marrow, but rather a man trained in every field of learning was sought out, having knowledge of every kind of discourse, and pouring out good teaching from the soul’s heart, so that he might also raise his own son with such nourishing food and seasonings; and God fulfilled the man’s holy desire, and the one who was seeking found the one sought.  And the manner of the finding of the one who was sought is as follows.

8.  Cosmas the Elder was taken captive and brought to Damascus.  He was a priest and a monk.

The barbarians from Damascus made a raid by sea, as they often did, and they plundered many Christians, and going down to the sea in their ships, they took a large number of captives, and brought them into the city.  They offered some to those buying, and drew their swords to kill the others.[4]  Also captured with them was a man dressed as a monk, originating from Italy, dignified in appearance, more dignified in soul, and named Cosmas.   A certain solemnity on his face shone forth, revealing his settled disposition.  Those being led to slaughter were falling at his feet: they entreated him to make God merciful to them, and to pray that they might find forgiveness for their sins from the merciful One.  Therefore the barbarians, seeing the supplication of those about to die, which they addressed to that dignified one, approached, and inquired of the man what his standing in the world might be, and what sort of prominence he held among the Christians.  But he answered, saying, “I possess no other rank in the world but that of priestly ordination.”  Indeed I am an unworthy, solitary nobody, and practising philosophy; not only the God-loving philosophy we practice, but also that [philosophy] which the sages outside [the faith] established.  But after he said these things, his eyes were filled with tears.

    *    *    *    *

That’s it for now.  On with the next four!  There are 40 chapters in all, so this may take a while!

Update: 17 March 2025, chapter 5 revised again against the Greek.

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  1. [1]There is a significant textual variant at this point in the Volk edition, which is incorporated into the text. In translation it reads: “…so, in this way also, the Lord, who is glorified, in turn glorified the pious grandparents of John, who had remained faithful to God and had not been corrupted along with the others into a crooked bow, and He appointed them as stewards of public affairs among the Saracens.”↩
  2. [2]A deeply nasty sentence.↩
  3. [3]The mythical teacher of Achilles.↩
  4. [4]Lampe gives this meaning from this passage for οὓς δὲ μαχαίρας εἷλκον ποιήσασθαι ἀνάλωμα.↩

From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

My apologies for the lack of posting.  I have some minor health problems which seem to have got worse over the last couple of months, and are beginning to prevent me doing much at all.  I will post as and when I can.  I’ve seen quite a number of interesting items to post about, but I don’t have the energy to pursue them at the moment.

I’m still working on the “Jerusalem Life” of John Damascene.  I’ve been having some interesting experiences using ChatGPT to parse the grammar and syntax of each sentence of the Greek in turn.  Mostly positive experiences, but sometimes infuriating!   I hope to write about this at some point.  Over the last week I have translated chapters 5-7, and I’ll post another chunk once I’ve done chapter 8.

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Life of John Damascene by John, Patriarch of Jerusalem (BHG 884) – Part 1

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A couple of weeks ago, I made a translation of the first four chapters of BHG 884, the Life of John Damascene.  This text is attributed in the manuscripts, and also in the text printed in the Patrologia Graeca 94, cols. 429-490, to a certain “John, Patriarch of Jerusalem.”  Apparently this is John VII (964-966); but a case has been made that it should instead be attributed to the patriarch John III of Antioch (996-1021), also referenced in some manuscripts.[1] The text is apparently known as the “Jerusalem Vita” because other hagiographical Lives exist.

The text was first printed by Michel Lequien in 1712, with a parallel modern Latin translation.  This is the text reprinted in the PG, and the PG text  is that included in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG 5273.1).

Initially I began by translating the early modern Latin translation, but then I gained access to the Greek, and reworked it somewhat.  Curiously I found that the Latin is sometimes less easy to follow than the Greek.

The chapter division is that of Lequien, found in the Greek and his Latin translation.  The chapter numbering in Lequien is confused, and also in the PG (but not in the same way!)  I will deal with this when I come to it.  But the truth is that there are 40 chapters.  The chapter headings below are not in the Greek, and appear to have been created by Lequien.  They’re useful, so I have included them.

    *    *    *    *    *    *

1. The deeds of the saints should be passed down to future generations, especially those of the doctors of the church.

It has become customary among men, as a mark of honour, to make godly likenesses of those who have kept the image of God [in their souls] pure and uncorrupted, whole and in its original integrity, or even of those who restored it, after it had been often tarnished and defiled.  Indeed, those who are eager to show their reverence more ambitiously, and whose generosity, along with their wealth, is magnificent, employ superior and splendid materials, and engrave upon them their likenesses, thinking that thereby they show greater honour to the saints.

If then, they hasten to make glorious the outward likeness of the saints, then isn’t it wrong to leave the story of their deeds in a neglected and unfitting state?  Certainly it is.  We must excuse those who are unlearned, being what they are, for improvising the story recounting the deeds of those who were pleasing to Christ; but it is inexcusable for those who have dedicated themselves to the study of eloquence if they neglect the lives of the saints, [and leave them] written in a haphazard way; especially for the kind of men [the saints] for whom vigilance in words was breath and life itself, and who, through discourse, purified both their minds from ignorance and forgetfulness, and their souls from passionate impulses.  Through such men the world around us has been adorned, and every mind has been illuminated; and not only do [their works] possess the elegance of external wisdom, but also they send forth the abundant light of the Holy Spirit.

2.  John Damascene must be considered among the foremost doctors of the church.  He flourished when the heresy of the iconoclasts emerged.  Leo the Isaurian was the author of the heresy.

One of these men, and among the most important, is the celebrated John, whose surname is clearly derived from his homeland, the city of Damascus.  For he was not a minor star in the firmament of the church, but rather a very great and most brilliant one; not only shining in [one] night when heresy was spread everywhere, but also dispelling false doctrine every night through the illumination of his writings. For darkness was indeed spread everywhere over the whole world, obscuring the bright images of the venerable icons, and it was a profound gloom; but the one who was spreading it and making it happen was not just some common man, able to spread evil over only a part of the world, but rather that man holding in his hand, so to speak, the ends of the earth, he who wielded authority over the Roman empire.  From then on he acted aggressively, raging in every direction, and destroying the venerable images with great violence, and those who venerated them.  This man, a lion [Leo] by name, and by nature, devoured some of them, while others of the orthodox he scattered with his roaring into various places, and drove them to hide in underground refuges.  Indeed many chose to dwell among lions and dragons rather than associate with him and his servants: but others, out of fear, fled to the farthest ends of the earth, for when “the lion roars, who will not be afraid?”; and they fled from him as from the presence of a snake.

3.  The name “John” in Hebrew signifies the grace of God.  The Life of St. John of Damascus originally written in Arabic.

This man, named after grace, and filled with spiritual grace, was boiling with anger, but only against the snake, so that his [feelings of] anger turned into the pursuit of goodness and courage. He did not flee from Thrace, where he then resided, to the Sarmatians. He did not hurry away from Byzantium to the Pillars of Hercules. He did not withdraw from the palaces into the wilderness because of the roaring of the lion. Rather, when he was living first in Damascus, then later in Palestine, and leading the ascetic life in a deserted place, he fought against Leo most courageously. And from such a great distance this three-time champion of mine pierced his heart, as if with a three-pronged spear, with words forged in the fire of the Holy Spirit, and tempered in the living water. However our discourse will expand on these matters in their proper place with more elegance.

So then, should we neglect the life of this man, just because it is hastily written in an unpolished manner, or worse, in Arabic language and script?  Certainly not. Therefore we must now explain from what kind of noble root this most flourishing shoot has grown, and what kind of country is proud to have produced him.

4.  Damascus.

This city is none other than Damascus. For just as, in regard to Paul, it takes great pride in the heaven-traversing[2] one, whom it was the first to see after he renounced impiety, and saw him transformed from a Christ-hater to a Christ-lover, in the same way, in regard to this man [John] also, it is rightly and deservedly proud. For he did not come from somewhere else, nor was he converted from another religion to the true faith, but because it [Damascus] brought him forth from its own roots and gave birth to him, more in regard to piety than bodily existence, and nurtured him with words[teaching], it boasts greatly in its own offspring. For this reason it takes pride in him, and rejoices in him, more than over the other splendid things which distinguish it, even if you mention the mildness of the climate, and the many streams of fresh, clear water by which it is irrigated. It is not the abundance of noble fruits that gives so much glory and renown to this city, but rather that this beautiful and noble tree grew up here, reared beside the channels of the water, and giving back the fruits of the Spirit in due time, the fruits of which are always fresh among us, lovely to look at, sweet to taste, and those who touch and taste them are delighted, and indeed are also nourished and strengthened, and brought to a higher level, leading them to perfection in the Spirit. In this way has the city of Damascus been made more glorious by this, its offspring, than by all the other good and delightful things with which it has been enriched. It was this [city] indeed that produced this man.

    *    *    *    *    *    *

I hope to do some more in due course.

Update 11, 12, 13, 15 March 2025: Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 revised to be closer to the Greek.

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  1. [1]Vassa Kontouma, “John III of Antioch (996–1021) and the Life of John of Damascus (BHG 884)” in: V. Kontouma, John of Damascus: New Studies on his Life and Works. Ashgate (2015). ISBN 9781409446378.↩
  2. [2]The Greek word here is οὐρανοδρόμος; which is quoted in Lampe p.978 from this passage.↩

From My Diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m afraid that I am easily distracted.  I still need to write another post on the Sacra Parallela of John Damascene (d. 745).  But while looking at Lequien’s 1712 edition, I found at the start of volume 1, on p.i-xxiv, a “Vita”: a hagiographical “Life” of John Damascene.  This was ascribed to a certain “John, Patriarch of Jerusalem.”  The Vita is listed in the Bibliographica Hagiographica Graeca – the big index created by the Bollandists of all the hagiographical texts – where its number is BHG 884.  This text is reprinted in PG 94, cols. 429-490, and in the Acta Sanctorum  for May, vol. 2, 723-730.

There does not seem to be any translation into a modern language.  However Lequien printed the Life with parallel Latin translation.  This is fortunate, for the Greek text in Lequien is somewhat abbreviated and hard to read, at least by me.  And these days we have quite decent Latin translation, from Google Translate, and also, less accurate but more readable, from ChatGPT.

Out of curiosity, I scanned the Latin text and ran it through ChatGPT 4.  The result was rather amazing – a terribly readable and useful output.

Encouraged by this, I tried to discover whether an electronic Greek text was in the Thesaurus Linguae Graeca collection.  It has; but finding it in the “canon” was really quite difficult.  At least, as someone who rarely uses the TLG, I found it difficult.  There are three different “Lives” in the TLG, together given the index number TLG 5273, and the title is “Vitae Sancti Joannis Damasceni”.  It’s the “vitAE” rather than “vitA” that gets you.  Our text is TLG 5273.2.

Unfortunately this text is not in the elderly CDROM versions that circulate online.  However a kind correspondent sent me the electronic Greek, and I fed this into ChatGPT as well.  This also produced a fairly readable output.

Let’s compare them.  First the translation of the Latin:

I. [The deeds of holy men should be passed down to future generations, especially those of the Doctors of the Church.]

It has become customary among men to honour with representations the image of God in those who have kept it pure from all stain and blemish. Whether they preserved it in its original integrity and grace, or, when it was tarnished and defiled, they restored it, a divine likeness is made for them as a mark of honour. Indeed, those who desire to be seen as lovers of a more exalted reverence, often spare no expense in this endeavour; their generous hands, inclined toward magnificence, employ superior materials in which they engrave their images, thinking that they thereby show greater honour to the holy men.

So, if they display such splendour and grandeur in depicting the forms of these saints, should we leave the words recounting their deeds in a rough and ornament-less style? By no means! The less polished writers are worthy of pardon when, according to the capacity they possess, they narrate in a simple style the deeds of those who pleased Christ. But for those who have dedicated themselves to the pursuit of eloquence, it will not be forgiven if they compile hastily assembled accounts of the lives of the saints—especially of those men whose very spirit and life was devoted to learning, who laboured to free both the mind from ignorance and forgetfulness and the soul from all disorderly passions. These men, who have brought honour to the world and whose books have enlightened the minds of all, did not simply adorn themselves with the external elegance of worldly wisdom, but poured forth abundantly the light of the Holy Spirit.

Now the Greek:

1. To those who have preserved the image unsullied and uncorrupted, well-ordered, and in good condition as from the beginning—or even to those who have often let it be scattered or stained but have restored it—people customarily give honor to the divine forms of these individuals. And those who show their reverence more zealously, and whose hand, along with their wealth, is more magnificent and splendid, use more radiant and noble materials and imprint their forms upon them, believing they thereby dedicate greater honor to the saints.

If, then, they are so eager to adorn their outward form, how could they be expected to neglect and leave in a crude state the words concerning the history of their deeds? Certainly not. For the rougher people, as they are, are excused for simply recounting the deeds of those who were pleasing to Christ; but for those who take study of words seriously, it is not excusable to neglect the lives of saints, recording them hastily and carelessly—especially of men whose very breath and life is to be vigilant in words, and who, by means of words, have purified their minds from ignorance and forgetfulness and their souls from all passionate impulses.

And from those by whom the earthly realm has been adorned, and every mind illuminated, the words upon which they labored not only possess the grace of worldly wisdom but also abundantly emit the light of the Paraclete [Holy Spirit].

There’s no question as to which is more readable.  You have to struggle with the output from the Greek, and mentally retranslate it, merely to understand what is being said.  It probably does reflect the wordiness of the Byzantine text, to be fair. But it’s not very usable.

Likewise Lequien’s Latin translator probably paraphrased and simplified.  He wrote so that people with little Greek could understand the text.  They might not have great Latin either!  Best keep it simple.

I started to work on a translation myself, taking account of both of these and the original Greek and Latin.  But then I found that the ChatGPT output is not reliable, in either version.  Additional words and clauses appear, with no justification in the original, and  going some way beyond the acceptable for paraphrase.  I was tempted just to post both outputs, with a cautionary note, and move on.  But I have resisted doing this.

What I am doing now is to produce a translation from the Latin version, therefore.  It’s not ideal.  But it’s going to be more useful than struggling through 40 chapters of the Greek, which I would anyway have to paraphrase in order that anybody could understand it.

Oh well.  The Sacra Parallela will have to wait.

The start of the autumn term has brought a rash of emails, many of them asking me to do something for somebody.  I try to be sympathetic to such people, many of whom plainly have been thrown in the deep end of a subject about which they do not know even the basics.  But of course I am also wary of the email which reads “please mistuh can you do my homework for me huh” or similar.  There is also the type of researcher for a TV programme who writes and wants you to do the research – which they are paid to do – for them.  The unwary are flattered.  But after a while, you get wise to the scam.

Recently I had one lady write to me asking me to research the background to a medieval quote.  My first thought was “why me?”  But I was lying on the sofa with my smartphone in hand when it arrived.  A simple google search revealed that the very volume that she wanted to find was online, a couple of clicks away.  A second google search revealed the Latin text, and that the quotation in question was from Solinus, the 3rd century pagan medical writer.  It took all of five minutes, and she could perfectly well have done this herself and answered her own question, in the time that it took her to write to a perfect stranger with his own life to lead on the other side of the world.  I confess that I felt very impatient with this.  Indeed I found that she had written to me six times in two years with similar requests.  This time, her request was in vain.

There are those who contribute to the internet, as I do, and spend their days uploading, researching, publishing, purely for the love of it.  There are also those people in this world who, on seeing someone being generous, see only a mug, and an opportunity to help themselves.  I am reminded of the story of a monastery of Benedictine monks in England who decided to serve free steak dinners to any who came.  Their intended guests were the homeless.  But it was not long before men in expensive cars started to drive down all the way from Birmingham in order to get a free lunch at someone else’s expense.  Likewise other religious houses in England have found that there is a certain constituency of vagrants who see them as prey for free board and lodging.

Indeed while writing these words, my phone rang, and woman with a thick Indian accent spoke, telling me that she was from a mobile phone company, in order to offer me a discount for being such a good customer.  “No, you aren’t,” I replied, somewhat curtly, for I have had this scam before.  “No, I suppose I’m not,” came the response in a sad voice.

It can be a sad world, if we let it.  But actually it’s a jolly good world for the most part, and we are extremely fortunate and blessed, all of us, beyond our deserts.  Let’s remember it!

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The “Sacra Parallela” of John Damascene

Posted on by Roger Pearse

In 1712, Michel Lequien printed the complete works of John Damascene (d. ca. 749) in two volumes (download from here and here), together with a Latin translation.  This edition was reprinted by Migne in the Patrologia Graeca, vols 95 and 96.  Among the genuine works, he printed in volume 2 a text which he called the “Sacra Parallela” or “Sacred Parallels”, with an appendix of more material from a codex Rupefulcaldina.  (In my previous posts we discussed the pseudo-Josephus text, which appears in this edition as the final portion of the material.)

The text is an anthology of extracts from earlier writers; what is called, in academic jargon, a “florilegium”.  As the literary culture of antiquity faded, the Byzantines, who were trying to preserve it, found that one of the most effective ways was to compile anthologies.  A great number exist.  Many which survive are compiled from still earlier anthologies.

So what we actually have is a bunch of Greek manuscripts, held in various manuscript repositories.  Each manuscript contains extracts.  Some manuscripts are copies of others.

The “Sacra Parallela” is one such florilegium.  Lequien printed it from one Vatican manuscript, the “Florilegium Vaticanum”, and the appendix came from a “Florilegium Rupefulcaldinum.”

A collection of extracts needs an index, so that the reader can find whatever subject he is looking for.  So the “Sacra Parallela” starts with a short prologue, followed by an index, and then the body of the text.  The index itself may be copied from one anthology to another, and modified (often inaccurately), so may tell us something about the chain of transmission.

Here’s the start of the index in Lequien’s edition, vol.2, p.281:

The work is divided into sections. Each section is called a “stoicheion” (“element”), corresponding to a letter of the Greek alphabet.  So here we see “Alpha”.

Each letter is divided into “titles” – subjects, basically.  Letter A is divided into 51 titles, for instance.  The first of these, title 1, is “On the eternity of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, and that there is only one God over all.”  Title 2 is “That God cannot be avoided…”.  Title 4: “On the love and fear of God…”.  Title 6: “About angels…”  And so on.

Here’s the start of the body text, at the end of the index, on p.297:

Here we see stoicheion/letter “Alpha”.  We start with title 1, “On the eternity of the holy and consubstantial Trinity…,”  and continue with a bunch of bible quotations, which Lequien helpfully printed in Italics.  After a page and a half of these, we get the first extract, which is from Basil, followed by three extracts from Gregory Nazianzen.

The extract author is given in the margin.  For Gregory Nazianzen the Greek says only: “of the theologian” (i.e. Gregory Nazianzen).  I suspect this is exactly what is found in the manuscript margin, rather than by Lequien: marginal author identification.

After letter Omega, there is a list of authors referenced on p.730.  I don’t know if this is an addition by Lequien rather than something in the manuscript.

That concludes my overview of what is usually meant when we refer to the “Sacra Parallela”.  I’ll look at the prologue next.

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1,000 British Library Manuscripts now back online!

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Today I learned that the British Library has made 1,000 manuscripts available online again.  They are here.  Scroll past the pretty-pretty stuff, and a very workable list appears, on three pages, in order of collection/fond.  Each row is a link, with shelfmark, date, and a quick summary of contents.  Most are Latin, but there are papyri on page 3.  There are no downloads (“as yet”).  But it is a huge relief to see these appear.

It looks rather as if the images mostly (all?) come from manuscripts that were made available to other institutions, and thereby preserved off-site.  If so, that ought to give BL management pause for thought as to the wisdom of only holding digital images in one place.

Funnily enough the list format, although obviously knocked up quickly, is far more usable to a researcher than anything we had on the old site.  I do hope that it is retained, possibly divided into collections, as with the Wiglaf index to the Vatican manuscripts.  Most manuscript repository sites are a pig to navigate.

Looking good.

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