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and the young men in turn the young women. And you, thrice-blessed brides, have rejoiced and have rejoiced with the august Doukaina 353 and beautiful sister of the beautiful bridegrooms, whose every other quality you emulate, apart from her untimely widowhood.

At this all the subject people rejoice, or to be more truthful, we rejoice; for it is the part of ungrateful servants not to rejoice with their rejoicing masters, nor to make their joy one's own, as indeed also the opposite; but turn away from us ill-omened things, Christ the king. If you have any feeling, you too share in the joy, bridal-chamber and bridal-canopy. Let no one here be sullen, no one downcast, let all smile, let all rejoice, let all exult together at the proceedings. I surpass your weddings, O myth, even if we grant that the mythical tales are true; for you join to Peleus Thetis the daughter of the old man of the sea, but I join daughters to the sons of the most glorious kings; and you adorn the bride in a rocky cave, but I in the very palaces; and you have Aphrodite and Hera and Athena at your feast, but I have entire empresses, more royal than Hera, more modest than Athena, and more beautiful than Aphrodite; and you bring in Strife, ostensibly uninvited, and throw the apple into their midst, that apple which was the cause of the whole Iliad, and you disturb the drinking-party and overturn the seats, as the saying goes, and you arm the banqueters against each other, but I receive even Strife at the banquet and do not insult the face of the feast, this Strife not the blameworthy nor the malicious, but she whom one who has understanding would praise; so our affairs are much more august than the myths, even if it were not a myth, and more glorious. Who then is so envious and unloving of the good as not to rejoice at the present circumstances, and to pray for better things for the masters of the ceremony, as I do? And I almost leap at the matter and I skip and in this part I imitate the prophet son of Jesse, 355 from whom I also borrow opportunely for you this psalm, divine Porphyrogenneta, having the one part already, but praying for the other; for I see you as a mother rejoicing over her children, and I would add also a father rejoicing with her, my lord and caesar; and I pray to see the sons of your sons and their sons again to the third and fourth generation. And to you, O beautiful bridegrooms, what better thing could one pray for than to live happily, and to be named fathers of such children as your own parents were named, and having been blessed with the name of father, not to lose the appellation of sons, but always to be called fathers and named sons, and to leave behind in life deeds worthy of ancestral virtue and to reach a deep and sleek old age? Farewell.

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καὶ οἱ νέοι ἔμπαλιν τὰς νεάνιδας. Καὶ ὑμεῖς δὲ τρισευτυχεῖς γεγήθατε νύμφαι καὶ τῇ σεμνότητι ∆ουκαίνῃ 353 καὶ καλῇ τῶν καλῶν νυμφίων ἀδελφῇ συγγεγήθατε, ἧς καὶ τἄλλα πάντα ζηλοῦτε, τῆς ἀώρου δίχα χηρείας.

Ἐπὶ τούτοις ἀγαλλιῶ τὸ σύμπαν ὑπήκοον ἢ τὸ ἀληθέστερόν γε ἀγαλλιώμεθα· δούλων γὰρ ἀγνωμόνων μὴ συγχαίρειν χαίρουσι τοῖς δεσπόταις, μηδὲ σφῶν ἑαυτῶν τὸ ἐκείνων γῆθος ποιεῖν, ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ τὸ ἐναντίον· ἀλλ' ἀποτρέποις ἀφ' ἡμῶν τὰ κακόφημα, Χριστὲ βασιλεῦ. Εἴ τις αἴσθησις, καὶ σὺ τῆς χαρᾶς κοινώνει, θάλαμε καὶ παστάς. Μηδεὶς ἐνταῦθα σκυθρωπός, μηδεὶς κατηφής, πάντα μειδιάτω, πάντα χαιρέτω, πάντα συνεπαγαλλέσθω τοῖς τελουμένοις. Νικῶ σου, μῦθε, τοὺς γάμους, κἂν δῶμεν ἀληθεύειν τὰ μυθούμενα· σὺ μὲν γὰρ Πηλεῖ συνάπτεις θυγατέρα Θέτιν ἁλίοιο γέροντος, ἐγὼ δὲ παισὶ βασιλέων ἐπιδοξοτάτων ἀρχηγῶν θυγατέρας· καὶ σὺ μὲν ἐν ἄντρῳ πετρήεντι, ἐγὼ δ' ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀνακτόροις νυμφοστολῶ· καὶ σὺ μὲν Ἀφροδίτην συμποσιάζεις καὶ Ἥραν καὶ Ἀθηνᾶν, ἐγὼ δὲ ὅλας δεσποίνας, Ἥρας μὲν βασιλικωτέρας, σωφρονεστέρας δὲ Ἀθηνᾶς καὶ Ἀφροδίτης ὡραιοτέρας· καὶ σὺ μὲν τὴν Ἔριν εἰσάγεις δῆθεν αὐτόκλητον καὶ τὸ μῆλον ἐν μέσῳ ῥίπτεις, μῆλον ἐκεῖνο τῆς ὅλης Ἰλιάδος τὴν ἀφορμήν, καὶ ταράττεις τὸν πότον καὶ ἀνακυμβαλιάζεις τοὺς δίφρους, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ λεγόμενον, καὶ κατ' ἀλλήλων ὁπλίζεις τοὺς δαιτυμόνας, ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ τὴν Ἔριν εἰς τὸ δεῖπνον παραλαμβάνω καὶ τῆς ἑορτῆς οὐ καθυβρίζω τὸ πρόσωπον, Ἔριν ταύτην οὐ τὴν μωμητὴν οὐδὲ τὴν κακόχαρτον, ἀλλ' ἥν κεν ἐπαινήσειε νοήσας· οὕτω σεμνότερα πολλῷ τῶν μύθων τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς, κἂν μὴ μῦθος ἦν, καὶ ἐπιδοξότερα. Τίς οὖν φθονερὸς οὕτω καὶ ἀνέραστος τοῦ καλοῦ ὡς μὴ χαίρειν μὲν ἐπὶ τοῖς παροῦσιν, ἐπεύχεσθαι δὲ τοῖς τελετάρχαις τὰ λῴονα ὡς ἔγωγε; Καὶ ἅλλομαι μικροῦ ἐπὶ τῷ πράγματι καὶ σκιρτῶ καὶ τὸν τοῦ Ἰεσσαὶ 355 προφήτην τοῦτο τὸ μέρος ἀπομιμοῦμαι, οὗ καὶ τοῦτο ἐπικαίρως ἐπί σοι δανείζομαι τὸ ψαλμῴδημα, θεσπεσία πορφυρογέννητε, τὸ μὲν ἔχων ἤδη, τὸ δ' ἐπευχόμενος· μητέρα μὲν γὰρ ἐπὶ τέκνοις εὐφραινομένην ὁρῶ σε, προσθείην δὲ καὶ πατέρα συνευφραινόμενον τὸν ἐμὸν δεσπότην καὶ καίσαρα· ἰδεῖν δὲ υἱοὺς τῶν υἱῶν κἀκείνων αὖθις υἱοὺς μέχρι τρίτης καὶ τετάρτης εὔχομαι γενεᾶς. Ὑμῖν δέ, ὦ καλοὶ νυμφίοι, τί ἄν τις εὔξαιτο λώϊον ἢ ζῆσαι μὲν εὐτυχῶς, τοιούτων δὲ πατράσι τέκνων ὀνομασθῆναι ὁποίων οἱ τεκόντες ὑμᾶς ὠνομάσθησαν, τὸ μέντοι πατρικὸν εὐτυχήσασιν ὄνομα, μὴ καὶ τὴν τῶν υἱῶν ἀπολέσαι προσηγορίαν, ἀλλ' ἀεὶ καὶ πατράσι καλεῖσθαι καὶ υἱοῖς ὀνομάζεσθαι ἔργα τε ὑπολιπέσθαι τῷ βίῳ τῆς προγονικῆς ἀρετῆς ἄξια καὶ ἐς βαθεῖαν ἐλάσαι καὶ λιπαρὰν πολιάν; Χαίρετε.