Gregory of Nazianzus, Epigrams

Tell us truly, if you love the assemblies. -“What then is more pleasant?” -In place of what? - “Virtue; for many would become better here, if virtue were honored.” -This you say well; but drunkenness and being servants of the belly to others; and the dissipation of athletes is foreign. 8.168 Do not lie, that athletes are praisers of the belly; these are the laws of your throats, o good sirs; But for the honor of the martyrs I know one thing: to drive out the hubris of the soul and to consume fat with tears. 8.169 I call to witness, athletes and martyrs: the lovers of the belly have made your honors an outrage. You do not seek a fragrant table nor cooks; but they offer belches as a prize instead of virtue. 8.170 Thrice-dead ones, first you have mixed the bodies of the impure with athletes, and the tombs have priests around them; secondly, you have unlawfully sacked some tombs, while you yourselves have similar monuments, and others you have sold off, often even three times each; and thirdly, you sacrilegiously rob the Martyrs, whom you love. You have come, you springs of Sodom. 8.171 Children of Christians, hear this. Is the tomb nothing? How then do you heap up your own magnificent ones? But this is an honor for all, not to lay hostile hands on the tombs of others. But if, because the dead does not know what is here, this is unjudged, I am persuaded, if you bear the outrage of a dead father. 8.172 Tomb-destroyers, gluttons, you who live by belching, broad-backed ones, how long will you honor the Martyrs with the tombs of others, revering what is not lawful? Restrain your throats, and then I will believe that you bring favor to the Martyrs. 8.173 The honor for Martyrs is always to die to this life, mindful of the great heavenly blood; but tombs are for the dead. He who raises up altars for us with stones of others, may he not even obtain a tomb. 8.174 Martyrs, you have poured out your blood as a great libation to God 8.174 and indeed from God you have worthy gifts, altars, hymns, peoples, the reverence of souls. But flee from the tombs, you gravediggers, obeying the Martyrs. 8.175 They used to feast for demons, as many as before were concerned to bring favor to demons, not pure festivities. For this we Christians found a solution; for our own athletes we established spiritual assemblies. But now some fear holds me; listen, you revel-lovers; you are deserting to the demonic types. 8.176 Let a man no longer drive a stout plow over the land, let him not sail the sea, let him not hold a fierce spear; but carrying a spade and a wild temper in his heart, let him go to the tombs of his fathers, longing for gold, whenever someone my very beautiful tomb too shall have dug up for the sake of reckless gain. 8.177 These are the seven wonders of the world: a wall, a statue, gardens, pyramids, a temple, a statue, a tomb; I was the eighth, a huge tomb here, high-built, running far from these crags, and first among the dead to be sung of, the insatiable work of your, manslayer, maddened hand. 8.178 There was a time when I was an unshaken tomb, a far-seen rock, rising high above the mountain's peak; but now a beast dwelling here has shaken me for the sake of gold; thus was I shaken in a neighbor's hands. 8.179 The plunderer of so great a tomb, around which on all sides runs a crown of four-foot stones, it was fitting to place him at once in the monument itself and close up the chasms again upon the impious one. 8.180 I have seen a sinful deed, a gaping tomb, as I journeyed; these are the works of treacherous gold. If you have the gold, you have found evil; but if you went away from there empty, you contrived an empty impiety. 8.181 However many times I passed by the life of mortals, I was not, it seems, to escape the destructive hands of a neighbor, who, though I was steep, cast me to the ground with pitiless temper, fearing neither God nor the sanctity of the dead. 8.182 Flee, all of you, the evil-doing avenger of tombs; look, what a great lookout he has easily broken down. He did not break it down easily. But withdraw far away; thus we would appease the dead. 8.183 Alas, what an evil I now foresee at hand for both the tomb-diggers and the neighbors of the high-running monument that has been destroyed. But justice knows the enemy; it is our part to weep for the dead. 8.184 The tomb of Mausolus is huge, but honored by the Carians; no tomb-destroying hand is there; I am very prominent among the Cappadocians, but you have seen what things I have suffered. Write on a stele 'killer of the dead'. 8.185

εἴπατε ἡμὶν ἀληθῶς, εἰ φίλον ὑμῖν αἱ σύνοδοι. -«Τί μὲν οὖν ἥδιον;» -Ἀντὶ τίνος; - «Τῆς ἀρετῆς· πολλοὶ γὰρ ἀμείνους ὧδε γένοιντ' ἄν, εἰ τιμῷτ' ἀρετή.» -Τοῦτο μὲν εὖ λέγετε· ἡ δὲ μέθη τό τε γαστρὸς ὑπάρχειν τοὺς θεραπευτὰς ἄλλοις· ἀθλοφόρων δ' ἔκλυσις ἀλλοτρία. 8.168 Μὴ ψεύδεσθ', ὅτι γαστρὸς ἐπαινέται εἰσὶν ἀθληταί· λαιμῶν οἵδε νόμοι, ὠγαθοί, ὑμετέρων· Μάρτυσι δ' εἰς τιμὴν ἓν ἐπίσταμαι· ὕβριν ἐλαύνειν ψυχῆς καὶ δαπανᾶν δάκρυσι τὴν πιμελήν. 8.169 Μαρτύρομ', ἀθλοφόροι καὶ μάρτυρες· ὕβριν ἔθηκαν τιμὰς ὑμετέρας οἱ φιλογαστορίδαι. οὐ ζητεῖτε τράπεζαν ἐύπνοον οὐδὲ μαγείρους· οἱ δ' ἐρυγὰς παρέχουσ' ἀντ' ἀρετῆς τὸ γέρας. 8.170 Τρισθανέες, πρῶτον μὲν ἐμίξατε σώματ' ἀνάγνων ἀθλοφόροις, τύμβοι δὲ θυηπόλον ἀμφὶς ἔχουσι· δεύτερον αὖτε τάφους τοὺς μὲν διεπέρσατ' ἀθέσμως αὐτοὶ σήματ' ἔχοντες ὁμοίια, τοὺς δ' ἀπέδοσθε, πολλάκι καὶ τρὶς ἕκαστον· ὃ δὲ τρίτον, ἱεροσυλεῖς Μάρτυρας, οἷς φιλέεις. Σοδομίτιδες ἵξατε πηγαί. 8.171 Παῖδες χριστιανῶν, τόδ' ἀκούσατε. οὐδὲν ὁ τύμβος; πῶς οὖν ὑμετέρους χώννυτ' ἀριπρεπέας; ἀλλ' ἔστιν καὶ πᾶσι γέρας τόδε, μηδὲ τάφοισιν βάλλειν ἀλλοτρίοις δυσμενέας παλάμας. εἰ δ', ὅτι μὴ νέκυς οἶδε τὰ ἐνθάδε, τοῦτ' ἀδίκαστον, πείθομαι, ἢν σὺ φέρῃς πατρὸς ὕβριν φθιμένου. 8.172 Τυμβολέται, γάστρωνες, ἐρευγόβιοι, πλατύνωτοι, μέχρι τίνος τύμβοις Μάρτυρας ἀλλοτρίοις τιμᾶτ', εὐσεβέοντες ἃ μὴ θέμις; ἴσχετε λαιμούς, καὶ τότε πιστεύσω Μάρτυσιν ἦρα φέρειν. 8.173 Τιμὴ Μάρτυσίν ἐστιν ἀεὶ θνῄσκειν βιότητι αἵματος οὐρανίου μνωομένους μεγάλου· τύμβοι δὲ φθιμένοις. ὃς βήματα δ' ἡμὶν ἐγείρει ἀλλοτρίοισι λίθοις, μηδὲ τάφοιο τύχοι. 8.174 Μάρτυρες, αἷμα Θεῷ μεγάλην ἐσπείσατε λοιβὴν 8.174 καὶ μέντοι θεόθεν ἄξια δῶρ' ἔχετε, βήμαθ', ὕμνους, λαούς, ψυχῶν σέβας. ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τύμβων φεύγετε, νεκροκόμοι, Μάρτυσι πειθόμενοι. 8.175 ∆αίμοσιν εἰλαπίναζον, ὅσοις τὸ πάροιθε μεμήλει δαίμοσιν ἦρα φέρειν, οὐ καθαρὰς θαλίας. τούτου χριστιανοὶ λύσιν εὕρομεν· ἀθλοφόροισι στησάμεθ' ἡμετέροις πνευματικὰς συνόδους. νῦν δέ τι τάρβος ἔχει με· ἀκούσατε, οἱ φιλόκωμοι· πρὸς τοὺς δαιμονικοὺς αὐτομολεῖτε τύπους. 8.176 Μηκέτι πηκτὸν ἄροτρον ἀνὴρ ἐπὶ γαῖαν ἐλαύνοι, μὴ πέλαγος πλώοι, μὴ δόρυ θοῦρον ἔχοι· ἀλλὰ φέρων σκαπάνην τε καὶ ἄγριον ἐν φρεσὶ θυμὸν ἐς τύμβους πατέρων χρυσὸν ἴοι ποθέων, ὁππότε καὶ τοῦτόν τις ἐμὸν περικαλλέα τύμβον σκάψεν ἀτασθαλέων εἵνεκα κερδοσύνης. 8.177 Ἑπτὰ βίοιο πέλει τάδε θαύματα· τεῖχος, ἄγαλμα, κῆποι, πυραμίδες, νηός, ἄγαλμα, τάφος· ὄγδοον ἔσκον ἔγωγε πελώριος ἐνθάδε τύμβος, ὑψιπαγής, σκοπέλων τῶνδ' ἀποτῆλε θέων, πρῶτος δ' ἐν φθιμένοισιν ἀοίδιμος, ἔργον ἄπληστον τῆς σῆς, ἀνδροφόνε, μαινομένης παλάμης. 8.178 Ἦν ὅτε ἦν ἀτίνακτος ἐγὼ τάφος, οὔρεος ἄκρην πουλὺς ὑπερτέλλων τηλεφανὴς σκόπελος· νῦν δέ με θὴρ ἐτίναξεν ἐφέστιος εἵνεκα χρυσοῦ· ὧδε δ' ἐτινάχθην γείτονος ἐν παλάμαις. 8.179 Τὸν τύμβοιο τόσου ληίστορα, ὃν πέρι πάντῃ λάων τετραπέδων ἀμφιθέει στέφανος, ἄξιον αὐτίκ' ἔην αὐτῷ ἐνὶ σήματι θέντας αὖθις ἐπικλεῖσαι χάσματα δυσσεβέι. 8.180 Ἔργον ἀλιτρὸν ὄπωπα, κεχηνότα τύμβον, ὁδεύων· χρυσοῦ ταῦτα πέλει ἔργματα τοῦ δολίου. εἰ μὲν χρυσὸν ἔχεις, εὗρες κακόν· εἰ δ' ἄρα κεινὸς ἔνθεν ἔβης, κενεὴν μήσαο δυσσεβίην. 8.181 Ὁσσάτιον παράμειψα βροτῶν βίον, οὐδ' ἄρ' ἔμελλον ἐκφυγέειν παλάμας γείτονος οὐλομένας, ὅς με καὶ αἰπὺν ἐόντα χαμαὶ βάλε νηλέι θυμῷ οὔτε Θεὸν δείσας οὐθ' ὁσίην φθιμένων. 8.182 Τὸν τύμβων κακοεργὸν ἀλάστορα φεύγετε πάντες· ἠνίδ', ὅσην σκοπιὴν ῥήξατο ῥηιδίως. οὐ μὲν ῥηιδίως ἐρρήξατο. ἀλλ' ἀποτῆλε χάζεσθε· φθιμένους ὧδ' ἂν ἀρεσσάμεθα. 8.183 Αἰαῖ, ὥς τι κακὸν προτιόσσομαι ἐγγύθεν ἤδη τοῖσί τε τυμβορύχοις τοῖς τε περικτιόσιν σήματος ὑψιθέοντος ὀλωλότος. ἀλλὰ τὸν ἐχθρὸν οἶδε δίκη· δακρύειν δ' ἡμέτερον φθιμένους. 8.184 Μαυσώλου τάφος ἐστὶ πελώριος, ἀλλὰ Κάρεσσι τίμιος· οὔτις ἐκεῖ τυμβολέτις παλάμη· Καππαδόκεσσιν ἔγωγε μέγ' ἔξοχος, ἀλλὰ δέδορκας, οἷα πάθον. στήλῃ γράψατε νεκροφόνον. 8.185