but along the columns of the portico, here and there, they set up in a row a single-wicked lamp, one after another distinctly; and it travels the whole length of the far-journeying church; and they placed under each a silver vessel, just like a scale-pan, in the middle of which sit bowls of bright-shining oil. But no single base, level throughout, runs along the whole, but you will notice many ups and downs with splendors, waving like a belly; and from a much-twisted chain they flash step by step along airy paths. So too the Hyades shine their twofold gleam, inscribed on the brow of the half-cut bull. But one might also see silver ships; and they carry a light-bringing cargo of merchandise; and hanging they sail through the bright air instead of the sea and they do not tremble at the South Wind and the late-setting Boötes. And down to the deep foundation of the base you will notice delicate beams running through the middle of a two-horned iron, upon which the temple-tending phalanx of brightness is distributed, bound to straight-running rules that are reddened. But these things are about the base, where the delicate columns have established their foundations, and others are high above the heads of the walls, proceeding along long paths. Indeed, not even the flat surfaces of the deep-chested roof were left dark in vain; but around a projecting stone, having lit unwedded lamps on a well-turned rim, a man, an initiate, has bound them with bronze posts. And as when someone attending to his own princess, a maiden girl, winds a graceful necklace around her neck, bound with gold, flashing with the fire-gleaming brightness of a lamp, so my scepter-bearer has fitted to every rim circle-bearing lights, fellow travelers everywhere with the base. There is also on the silver columns, high above the capital, a narrow path for torch-bearing travelers to run upon, near to the light, gleaming with bright clusters; for one might call those trees either like mountain-nurtured cones or like soft-haired cypresses. They are sharp-headed, and wider circles run around them little by little, until you come to the last rim, which winds about the trunk; and in these, a fire-sown flower has blossomed. And instead of a root, you might see silver bowls fixed underneath the torch-haired trees. Indeed, in the middle of the delicate, ambrosial grove, the form of the cross kindles a light that brings brightness to mortals, pierced with the bright-eyed fastenings of nails. And myriad other lights of varied form the palace confines within, high-hung on much-bent chains; and some are kindled in the porticoes, others in the middle, others towards the rising and the evening star, others on the roofs, flashing a poured-out flame of fire; and the shining night, laughing at the day, is herself also rosy-ankled. And some man, watching the crown and the dance-array, gladdens his pain-soothed heart at the light-bearing trees, while another, seeing the fire-coiled vessel, is charmed, another the single-frontleted lamp, another, a symbol of heavenly Christ, delights his care-forgetting mind. And as when through the cloudless air, wayfaring men, seeing stars leaping up from here and there, one looks off to sweet Hesperus, another lets his spirit wander to Taurus, and one rejoices in Boötes, another casts his eye upon Orion and the dry track of the Wain; and the ether, bespangled with many stars, has opened up pathways and persuaded the night to smile; so in the halls of the fair-choired house one person is charmed by one thing, another by another, by the ray of light-bearing splendor. For all, the fair weather of gladness is spread out, having driven away the black-veiled mist of the soul; a sacred gleam shines upon all, when even the sailor himself, commanding with sea-faring rudders (whether, leaving the inhospitable swells of the raging Pontus, he winds around the wandering elbows of opposite cliffs, having great nightly terror on the bending paths, or whether after the Aegean by the Hellespontine water he steers his ship straight against the flowing eddy, receiving on his forestays the mass of a Libyan squall,) not looking at Helice, not the sweet light of the Cynosurian bear, does he guide his life-bearing vessel with the rudder, but looking upon the God-fearing lamp of your church, the guide of his bold cargo-ship, not by nocturnal gleams alone (for this the shores of Proteus in Pharos also provide at the foot of the Libyan land) but also by the bounteous aids of the living God. Remain for me, O scepter-bearer, for many years upon

δ' αἰθούσης παρὰ κίονας ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα μουνοφανῆ λαμπτῆρα διακριδὸν ἄλλον ἀπ' ἄλλου ἑξείης ἀνέθηκαν· ὅλον δ' ἐπὶ μῆκος ὁδεύει τηλεπόρου νηοῖο· κύτος δ' ὑπέθηκαν ἑκάστωι ἀργύρεον, πλάστιγγι πανείκελον, ὧι ἐνὶ μέσσωι εὐφαέος κρητῆρες ἐφεδρήσσουσιν ἐλαίου. οὐ μὴν ἰσοτενής τις ὅλοις μία πέζα καθέρπει, πολλὰ δ' ἄναντα κάταντα σὺν ἀγλαΐηισι νοήσεις νήδυμα κυμαίνοντα· πολυστρέπτου δ' ἀπὸ σειρῆς ἠερίαις βαθμηδὸν ἐπαστράπτουσι κελεύθοις. οὕτω καὶ δικόρυμβον Ὑὰς σελάγισμα φαείνει, ἡμιτόμου ταύροιο καταγραφθεῖσα μετώποις. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀργυρέας τις ἴδοι νέας· ἐμπορίης δὲ φόρτον ἀερτάζουσι φαεσφόρον· ἐκκρεμέες δὲ εὐφαέος πλώουσι κατ' ἠέρος ἀντὶ θαλάσσης οὐδὲ νότον τρομέουσι καὶ ὀψεδύοντα Βοώτην. ἐς δὲ βαθὺ κρηπῖδος ἐδέθλιον ἁβρὰ νοήσεις δούρατα δικραίροιο μέσον τροχάοντα σιδήρου, ὧν ἔπι νηοπόλοιο φάλαγξ διανείσσεται αἴγλης ἰθυπόροις κανόνεσσιν ἐρευθομένοισι δεθεῖσα. ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν περὶ πέζαν, ὅπηι καὶ πυθμένας ἁβραὶ κίονες ἱδρύσαντο, τὰ δ' ὑψόθεν εἰσὶ καρήνων τοίχων μηκεδανῆισι παραστείχοντα κελεύθοις. Ναὶ μὴν οὐδ' ἀσέλαστα μάτην ἐλέλειπτο καρήνου ταρσὰ βαθυστέρνοιο· περὶ προβλῆτι δὲ πέτρωι ἄζυγας εὐδίνητον ἐς ἄντυγα λαμπάδας ἅψας χαλκείοις σταλίκεσσιν ἀνὴρ ἐνεδήσατο μύστης. ὡς δ' ὅτε παρθενικήν τις ἑὴν βασιληΐδα κούρην ἀμφιέπων χαρίεντα κατ' αὐχένος ὅρμον ἑλίξηι χρυσοδέτου στράπτοντα πυραυγέϊ λυχνίδος αἴγληι, οὕτω ἐμὸς σκηπτοῦχος ἐπήραρεν ἄντυγι πάσηι φάεα κυκλοφόρητα, συνέμπορα πάντοθι πέζης. Ἔστι καὶ ἀργυρέαις ἐπὶ κίοσιν, ὑψόθι κόρσης, στεινὴ πυρσοφόροισιν ἐπίδρομος οἶμος ὁδίταις, πλησιφαής, φαιδροῖσιν ἀποστίλβουσα κορύμβοις· κεῖνα γὰρ ἢ κώνοισιν ὀριτρεφέεσσιν ὁμοῖα δένδρεά τις καλέσειεν ἢ ἁβροκόμοις κυπαρίσσοις. εἰσὶ μὲν ὀξυκάρηνα, περιτροχάουσι δὲ κύκλοι εὐρύτεροι κατὰ βαιόν, ἕως ἐπὶ λοίσθιον ἔλθηις ἄντυγος, ἣ περὶ πρέμνον ἑλίσσεται· ἐν δέ νυ κείνοις ἄνθος ἀνεβλάστησε πυρισπόρον. ἀντὶ δὲ ῥίζης ἀργυρέους κρητῆρας ἴδοις ὑπένερθε παγέντας δένδρεσι πυρσοκόμοισι. μέσον γε μὲν ἄλσεος ἁβροῦ ἀμβροσίου σταυροῖο τύπος φαεσίμβροτον αἴθει φέγγος, ἐϋγλήνοισι πεπαρμένον ἅμμασιν ἥλων. Μυρία δ' αἰολόμορφον ἀνάκτορον ἐντὸς ἐέργει ἄλλα πολυγνάμπτοισι μετάρσια φάεα σειραῖς· καὶ τὰ μὲν αἰθούσηισιν ἀναίθεται, ἄλλα δὲ μέσσωι, ἄλλα δὲ πρὸς φαέθοντα καὶ ἕσπερον, ἄλλα καρήνοις, ἔκχυτον ἀστράπτοντα πυρὸς φλόγα· νὺξ δὲ φαεινὴ ἠμάτιον γελόωσα ῥοδόσφυρός ἐστι καὶ αὐτή. καί τις ἀνὴρ στεφάνοιο χοροστασίης τε δοκεύων δένδρεα φεγγήεντα λιπαλγέα θυμὸν ἰαίνει, ὃς δὲ πυρισπείρητον ἐπακτρίδα, θέλγεται ἄλλος εἰσορόων λαμπτῆρα μονάμπυκα, σύμβολον ἄλλος οὐρανίου Χριστοῖο νόον λαθικηδέα τέρπει. ὡς δ' ὅταν ἀννεφέλοιο δι' ἠέρος ἄνδρες ὁδῖται ἀστέρας ἄλλοθεν ἄλλον ἀναθρώσκοντας ἰδόντες ὃς μὲν ἀποσκοπέει γλυκὺν Ἕσπερον, ὃς δ' ἐπὶ Ταύρωι θυμὸν ἀποπλάζει, γάνυται δέ τις ἀμφὶ Βοώτην, ἄλλος ἐπ' Ὠρίωνα καὶ ἄβροχον ὁλκὸν Ἁμάξης ὄμμα φέρει· πολλοῖς δὲ πεπασμένος ἀστράσιν αἰθὴρ ἀτραπιτοὺς ὤϊξεν, ἔπεισε δὲ νύκτα γελάσσαι· οὕτω καλλιχόροιο κατ' ἔνδια θέλγεται οἴκου ἀγλαΐης ἀκτῖνι φεραυγέος ἄλλος ἐπ' ἄλληι. πᾶσι μὲν εὐφροσύνης ἀναπέπταται εὔδιος αἴθρη ψυχαίην ἐλάσασα μελαγκρήδεμνον ὁμίχλην· πάντας ἐπαυγάζει σέλας ἱερόν, εὖτε καὶ αὐτὸς ναυτίλος οἰήκεσσι θαλασσοπόροισι κελεύων (εἴτε λιπὼν ἄξεινα μεμηνότος οἴδματα Πόντου πλαγκτοὺς ἀντιπόρων σκοπιῶν ἀγκῶνας ἑλίσσει, ἐννύχιον μέγα τάρβος ἔχων γναμπτῆισι κελεύθοις, εἴτε μετ' Αἰγαίωνα παρ' Ἑλλησπόντιον ὕδωρ νῆα κατιθύνηισι ῥοώδεος ἀντία δίνης, δεχνύμενος προτόνοισι Λιβυστίδος ὄγκον ἀέλλης,) οὐχ Ἐλίκην, οὐχ ἡδὺ φάος Κυνοσουρίδος ἄρκτου εἰσορόων οἴηκι φερέσβιον ὁλκάδα πάλλει, ἀλλὰ τεοῦ νηοῖο θεουδέα λαμπάδα λεύσσων, φορτίδος εὐτόλμοιο προηγέτιν, οὐχ ὑπὸ μούνοις φέγγεσιν ἐννυχίοισι (τὸ γὰρ καὶ Πρωτέος ἀκταὶ ἐν Φαρίηι τεύχουσι Λιβυστίδος ἐς πόδα γαίης) ἀλλὰ καὶ εὐδώροισι θεοῦ ζώοντος ἀρωγαῖς. Μίμνε μοι, ὦ σκηπτοῦχε, πολυχρονίους ἐπὶ