Gregory of Nazianzus, In Praise of the Maccabees 1

the tyrant, lest he be softened, and we be deprived of our salvation. A banquet is set before us; let us not be left out. It is good for brothers to live together, and feast together, and bear arms together; but it is better to face danger together for the sake of virtue. If it were possible, we would have fought with our bodies for our ancestral laws; this death too is among those worthy of praise. But since this is not the time for that, let us offer up our very bodies. For what? Even if we do not die now, shall we not die in any case? Shall we not render to our birth the things that are owed? Let us make necessity an honor; let us contrive our dissolution; let us make what is common our own; let us purchase life with death. Let none of us, therefore, be a lover of his own soul, nor cowardly. Let the tyrant, having encountered us, despair also of the others. He will set the order of the dangers, but we shall put an end to those who are persecuted; let us not differ in this, in the boiling heat of our zeal. And the first will be a path for the others, and the last a seal of the contest. But let this be fixed in all of us alike, to be crowned with our whole house, and that the persecutor should take no portion of us, so that he might boast in one as in all, swelling with wickedness. Let us show ourselves brothers to one another, both in birth and in our passing; and let us all, as one, face danger, and each in place of all. Eleazar, receive us; mother, follow; Jerusalem, bury your own dead magnificently, if anything is left for the tombs. Recount our deeds, and show to those who come after, and to your lovers the pious band of many men from a single womb.” 35.925

VIII. So they, having both said and done these things, 35.925 and having whetted one another like boars’ tusks in the order of their age and with equality of zeal, persevered. A pleasure and a wonder to their kinsmen; a fear and an astonishment to their persecutors, who, having campaigned against the whole nation, were so defeated by the unanimity of seven brothers contending for piety, that they no longer had any good hopes even concerning the others. But the noble mother, and truly the virtue of those so many and such as these, the great and magnanimous nursling of the Law, was for a time mingled with joy and fear, and on the borderline of two emotions; joy, because of their courage and the things being seen; fear, because of the future and the excessiveness of the torments; and like a bird over her young, with a snake creeping near, or some other plotter, she flew around, chirped about, implored, contended with them, what did she not say? what did she not do of the things that anoint for victory? She snatched up the drops of blood, she received the torn pieces of their limbs, she did reverence to their remains; one she gathered up, another she gave over, another she prepared. She cried out to all. “Well done, O children, well done, my champions, well done, almost incorporeal in your bodies, well done, defenders of the Law, and of my grey hairs, and of the city that nurtured you and leads you on to this point of virtue. A little longer, and we have conquered. The torturers have grown weary, this alone I fear. A little longer, and I shall be blessed among mothers, and you blessed among the young. But do you long for your mother? I will not leave you, this I promise you; I am not so much a hater of my children.” IX. But when she saw that they were perfected, and she had security from their completion, raising her head very cheerfully, like some Olympic victor, with a lofty spirit, and stretching out her hands, with a great and clear voice: “I thank You,” she says, “Holy Father, and you, O Law, our instructor, and you our father and champion of your children, Eleazar, that you have received the fruit of my birth-pangs, and that I have become a mother more sacred than all mothers. I have left nothing for the world, I have 35.928 handed over everything to God, my treasure, my hopes that would care for my old age, How magnificently I have been honored! How exceedingly I have been cared for in my old age! I have received my rearing-fees, O children. I saw you contending for virtue, I beheld you all as crowned victors. As benefactors I see the torturers; I almost even confess thanks to the tyrant for the order, because me

τύραννος, μή τι μαλακισθῇ, καὶ ζημιωθῶμεν τὴν σωτηρίαν. Πανδαισία πρόκει ται· μὴ ἀπολειφθῶμεν. Καλὸν μὲν καὶ συνοικοῦντες ἀλλήλοις ἀδελφοὶ, καὶ συμποσιάζοντες, καὶ συνασπί ζοντες· κάλλιον δὲ ὑπὲρ ἀρετῆς συγκινδυνεύοντες. Εἰ μὲν οἷόν τε ἦν, καὶ τοῖς σώμασιν ἂν ἠγωνισάμεθα ὑπὲρ τῶν πατρίων· ἔστι καὶ οὗτος τῶν ἐπαινετῶν ὁ θάνατος. Ἐπεὶ δὲ οὐ τούτου καιρὸς, αὐτὰ τὰ σώματα εἰσενέγκωμεν. Τί γάρ; Κἂν μὴ νῦν ἀποθάνω μεν, οὐ τεθνηξόμεθα πάντως; οὐ τῇ γενέσει τὰ ὀφει λόμενα λειτουργήσομεν; Ποιήσωμεν τὴν ἀνάγκην φιλοτιμίαν· σοφισώμεθα τὴν διάλυσιν· τὸ κοινὸν ἴδιον ποιησώμεθα· θανάτῳ ζωὴν ὠνησώμεθα. Μή τις οὖν ἡμῶν ἔστω φιλόψυχος, μηδὲ ἄτολμος. Ἀπογνώτω καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὁ τύραννος, ἡμῖν ἐντυχών. Τοῖς μὲν κινδύνοις τὴν τάξιν αὐτὸς ἐπιθήσει, ἡμεῖς δὲ ἐπιθή σομεν τέλος τοῖς διωκομένοις· μηδὲν περὶ τούτου διαφερώμεθα τῇ ζέσει τῆς προθυμίας. Καὶ ὁ πρῶτος ἔσται τοῖς ἄλλοις ὁδὸς, καὶ ὁ τελευταῖος σφραγὶς ἀθλήσεως. Ἡμῖν δὲ τοῦτο ἐμπεπήχθω πᾶσιν ὁμοίως, πανοικεσίᾳ στεφανωθῆναι, καὶ μή τινα λαβεῖν μερίδα ἐξ ἡμῶν τὸν διώκτην, ἵν' ὡς πᾶσιν ἐγκαυχήσηται τῷ ἑνὶ, φλεγμαίνων τῇ πονηρίᾳ. Φανῶμεν ἀλλήλων ἀδελφοὶ, καὶ τῇ γενέσει, καὶ τῇ μεταστάσει· καὶ πάν τες, ὡς εἷς, κινδυνεύσωμεν, καὶ ἀντὶ πάντων ἕκαστος. Ἐλεάζαρ, ὑπόδεξαι· μῆτερ, ἐπακο λούθησον· Ἱερουσαλὴμ, θάψον τοὺς ἑαυτῆς νεκροὺς μεγαλοπρεπῶς, ἄν τι τοῖς τάφοις ὑπολειφθῇ. ∆ιηγοῦ τὰ ἡμέτερα, καὶ τοῖς ὕστερον δείκνυ, καὶ τοῖς σοῖς ἐρασταῖς τὸ τῆς μιᾶς γαστρὸς εὐσεβὲς πολυάνδριον.» 35.925

Ηʹ. Οἱ μὲν δὴ ταῦτα καὶ εἰπόντες, καὶ πράξαντες, 35.925 καὶ ὡς συῶν ὀδόντες ἀλλήλους θήξαντες ἐν τάξει τῆς ἡλικίας, καὶ ἰσότητι τῆς προθυμίας διεκαρτέρουν. Ἡδονὴ καὶ θαῦμα τοῖς ὁμοφύλοις· φόβος καὶ κατά πληξις τοῖς διώκουσιν, οἳ κατὰ παντὸς τοῦ ἔθνους στρατεύσαντες, ἀδελφῶν ἑπτὰ συμψυχίας ὑπὲρ εὐσε βείας ἀγωνιζομένων, τοσοῦτον ἡττήθησαν, ὥστε μηδὲ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἔχειν ἔτι χρηστὰς τὰς ἐλπίδας. Ἡ δὲ γενναία μήτηρ, καὶ ὄντως ἐκείνων τῶν τοσού των καὶ τοιούτων τὴν ἀρετὴν, τὸ μέγα τοῦ νόμου θρέμμα καὶ μεγαλόψυχον, τέως μὲν χαρᾷ καὶ φόβῳ σύμμικτος ἦν, καὶ δύο παθῶν ἐν μεταιχμίῳ· χαρᾷ, διὰ τὴν ἀνδρείαν καὶ τὰ ὁρώμενα· φόβῳ, διὰ τὸ μέλλον, καὶ τὴν ὑπερβολὴν τῶν κολάσεων· καὶ ὡς νεοσσοὺς ὄρνις, ὄφεως προσερπύζοντος, ἤ τινος ἄλλου τῶν ἐπιβούλων, περιίπτατο, περιέτρυζεν, ἠντι βόλει, συνηγωνίζετο, τί μὲν οὐ λέγουσα; τί δὲ οὐ πράττουσα τῶν πρὸς νίκην ἐπαλειφόντων; Ἥρπαζε τὰς ῥανίδας τοῦ αἵματος, ὑπεδέχετο τὰ λακίσματα τῶν μελῶν, προσεκύνει τὰ λείψανα· τὸν μὲν συν έλεγε, τὸν δὲ παρεδίδου, τὸν δὲ παρεσκεύαζεν. Ἐπ εφώνει πᾶσιν. «Εὖγε, ὦ παῖδες, εὖγε, ἀριστεῖς ἐμοὶ, εὖγε, ἀσώματοι σχεδὸν ἐν σώμασιν, εὖγε, προστάται τοῦ Νόμου, καὶ τῆς ἐμῆς πολιᾶς, καὶ τῆς θρεψαμένης ὑμᾶς πόλεως, καὶ εἰς τόδε ἀρετῆς προαγού σης. Ἔτι μικρὸν, καὶ νενικήκαμεν. Κεκμήκασιν οἱ βασανισταὶ, τοῦτο φοβοῦμαι μόνον. Ἔτι μικρὸν, καὶ μακαρία μὲν ἐν μητράσιν ἐγὼ, μακάριοι δὲ ὑμεῖς ἐν νέοις. Ἀλλὰ ποθεῖτε τὴν μητέρα; Οὐκ ἀπολείψο μαι ὑμῶν, τοῦτο ὑμῖν ὑπισχνοῦμαι· οὐχ οὕτως ἐγὼ μισότεκνος.» Θʹ. Ἐπεὶ δὲ τελειωθέντας εἶδεν, καὶ τὸ ἀσφα λὲς εἶχεν ἐκ τῆς συμπληρώσεως, διάρασα τὴν κεφαλὴν μάλα φαιδρῶς, ὥσπερ τις Ὀλυμπιονίκης, ἐν ὑψηλῷ τῷ φρονήματι, καὶ τὰς χεῖρας ἐκτείνασα, μεγάλῃ καὶ λαμπρᾷ τῇ φωνῇ· «Εὐχαριστῶ σοι, φησὶ, Πάτερ ἅγιε, καὶ σοὶ, παιδευτὰ νόμε, καὶ σοὶ πάτερ ἡμῶν καὶ προαγωνιστὰ τῶν τέκνων τῶν σῶν Ἐλεάζαρ, ὅτι τὸν τῶν ἐμῶν ὠδίνων καρπὸν παρ εδέξασθε, καὶ ὅτι μήτηρ ἐγενόμην πασῶν μητέρων ἱερωτέρα. Οὐδὲν ὑπελιπόμην κόσμῳ, πάντα Θεῷ 35.928 παραδέδωκα, τὸν ἐμὸν θησαυρὸν, τὰς ἐμὰς γηροκό μους ἐλπίδας, Ὡς μεγαλοπρεπῶς τετίμημαι! ὡς ὑπερβαλλόντως γεγηροκόμημαι! Ἀπέχω τὰ τροφεῖα, ὦ παῖδες. Εἶδον ὑπὲρ ἀρετῆς ἀγωνιζομένους ὑμᾶς, πάντας στεφανίτας ἐθεασάμην. Ὡς εὐεργέτας ὁρῶ τοὺς βασανιστάς· μικροῦ καὶ τῷ τυράννῳ χάρι τας ὁμολογῶ τῆς τάξεως, ὅτι με