Georges Pisides, The Story of Heraclius

Heraclias

taking a branch, saved the remnants of his life. Where now is Apelles, where is the eloquent Demosthenes, so that the one, giving body to your labors,

you passed through the deserts as cities, unless by coming through the conceptual Gate itself you were shown to be an unerring traveler? O you who now

to kick away the beast-like monster of disorder, lest somehow the stabled disorder of the wits, having turned from the well-trodden path, should take

to drag down those undermining, but the mountains are walls to the enemies, holding the keys of the blocked road. And I wished, although a slow writer

Heraclias

1 Let every choir of the stars rejoice, showing the star-worshipper fallen and ignorant of his own fall; for creation, being avenged, could not endure it, even if the Creator, having been treated impiously, bore it. Now let the moon shine as a full moon, with Chosroes ceasing, guaranteeing that the Persians will no longer deify creation. And now the thrice-great pole of the sun, having washed itself in the purification of the murders, cries out, speaks to you of the slaughter of Chosroes, having escaped profane suspicions of God. Leap for joy, O ether; the ruling Persocrat, the fire-worshipper Chosroes, has been darkened. Again a Persian furnace, and a second flame is cooled with dew <for> the second Daniel, but although it is by nature upward-moving, it is poured down upon them and pursues and burns those who kindled the wicked flame; again the mouth of savage lions has been shut up through you in the Persian land; again Chosroes behaves impiously in his drunkenness and deifies fire and fancies himself a god, until along with him the fire also, boiling over, was destroyed together with the one who deified it; again he behaves drunkenly and disturbs creation, and rivals the former Xerxes, and wishes on the one hand to turn the sea to stone with corpses, and on the other to make the land surge with gore; and he plays the giant and wishes to be a tyrant and represents Belshazzar before all, defiling the sacred things with the pollution of drunkenness, until against him a God-sent finger, using your right hand as its pen, pronounced the sentence of a black pebble. The rains of blood now cease, the stream of ever-flowing murders flees, the earth is not troubled with violent graves, the sea is not stained by the pouring of gore; the tear of the captives does not flow, the plaiting of the noose is now idle, no one, having emptied out soot with vinegar, is forced to make his nostril a mouth; the trees are not weighed down with loads of dead, the footless, the handless does not weigh down the neck; the compositions of each of the limbs are complete; no one, in an exchange of reciprocal misfortune, lends his hand as a substitute for his feet; but heaven, earth, fire, water, air, clouds and the whole cosmos of things above and things below applaud with us the plans of God, as one has fallen and all are saved. Now Chosroes has known the fire-gleaming Morning Star to be gloomy, and he says there are not<n> seven wanderers, but all the stars; now having fallen into Tartarus he sees them all as necessarily dark Evening Stars and, having missed the hope placed in them whom he honored while living, he reviles them, having been buried. Where now is the nonsense of the ever-erring magi? Where are the plans of the rites among the stars? Who was casting the horoscope of the fallen Chosroes? He surely seemed to have fallen under the star of Cronus; for the murderer was slain by the assaults of his child. O Homer, do not deign in any way to thoughtlessly call the former Heracles a god; for what common good of life was benefited by a slain boar or a strangled lion? Wonder rather at the one among men, the savior of the world, rightly Heracles. This one went down to the gates of Hades, he throttled the rage of the all-devouring dog, he raised up Alcestis, the inhabited world, he slew the blood-guilty dragon, he brought down the Hydra, a myriad-necked harm, he cleansed out the formerly filthy life, he strangled the world-destroying lion, and now Heracles has come forth in deed, having taken the golden apples, all the cities. The fount of the lightless evening has passed away, the light has appeared and the darkness has been divided; and a second life is now being created, and another world and a newer creation. And now the Noah of the new inhabited world found an ark in his own heart, and having placed all nature within, he sent it forth into armed ranks, guarded <at> the time of the flood of Chosroes; for, so to speak, almost all flesh had been corrupted by the poured-out sin of the whole race, until a neglected olive

Heraclias

̔Ηρακλειάς

1 Ἀγαλλιάσθω πᾶς χορὸς τῶν ἀστέρων τὸν ἀστρόδουλον δεικνύων πεπτωκότα καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ πτῶσιν ἠγνοηκότα· οὐκ ἔστεγεν γὰρ ἡ κτίσις τιμωμένη κἂν δυσσεβηθεὶς ὁ Κτίσας ἠνείχετο. νῦν πανσέληνος ἡ σελήνη λαμπέτω τοῦ Χοσρόου λήγοντος ἐγγυωμένη Πέρσας τὸ λοιπὸν μὴ θεουργεῖν τὴν κτίσιν. καὶ νῦν ὁ τρισμέγιστος ἡλίου πόλος, λούσας ἑαυτὸν τῇ καθάρσει τῶν φόνων, βοᾷ, λαλεῖ σοι τὴν σφαγὴν τοῦ Χοσρόου, θεοῦ βεβήλους ἐκφυγὼν ὑποψίας. σκίρτησον αἰθήρ· ὁ κρατῶν Περσοκράτης ὁ πυρσολάτρης ἐζοφώθη Χοσρόης. πάλιν κάμινος Περσικὴ καὶ δευτέρα δροσίζεται φλὸξ <τῷ> ∆ανιὴλ τῷ δευτέρῳ, ἀνωφερὴς δὲ καίπερ οὖσα τὴν φύσιν χεῖται κατ' αὐτῶν καὶ διώκει καὶ φλέγει τοὺς τὴν πονηρὰν ἐκπυρώσαντας φλόγα· πάλιν λεόντων ἠγριωμένων στόμα εἰς γῆν δι' ὑμῶν Περσικὴν ἀνεφράγη· πάλιν παροινεῖ δυσσεβῶς ὁ Χοσρόης καὶ πῦρ θεουργεῖ καὶ θεὸς φαντάζεται, ἕως σὺν αὐτῷ καὶ τὸ πῦρ ὑπερβράσαν σὺν τῷ θεουργήσαντι συγκατεφθάρη· πάλιν παροινεῖ καὶ μεταίρει τὴν κτίσιν Ξέρξῃ τε τῷ πρὶν ἀντερίζει καὶ θέλει πῇ μὲν πετρῶσαι τὸν βυθὸν τοῖς λειψάνοις, πῇ δ' αὖ γε τὴν γῆν κυματῶσαι τοῖς λύθροις· γιγαντιᾷ δὲ καὶ τυραννῆσαι θέλει καὶ τὸν πρὸ πάντων εἰκονίζει Βαλτάσαρ χραίνων τὰ θεῖα τῷ μολυσμῷ τῆς μέθης, ἕως κατ' αὐτοῦ δάκτυλος θεηγόρος τῇ δεξιᾷ σου χρώμενος χειρογράφῳ ψήφου μελαίνης ἐξεφώνησε κρίσιν. λήγουσι λοιπὸν αἱ βροχαὶ τῶν αἱμάτων, φεύγει τὸ ῥεῦμα τῶν ἀειρρύτων φόνων, ἡ γῆ βιαίοις οὐκ ἐνοχλεῖται τάφοις, θάλαττα λύθρων οὐ μιαίνεται χύσει· τῶν αἰχμαλώτων οὐ βρύει τὸ δάκρυον, ἀργεῖ τὸ λοιπὸν ἡ πλοκὴ τῆς ἀγχόνης, οὐδεὶς μετ' ὄξους ἐκκενώσας αἰθάλην τὴν ῥῖνα ποιεῖν ἐκβιάζεται στόμα· τὰ δένδρα νεκροῖς οὐ βαρεῖται φορτίοις, ἄπους, ἄχειρος οὐ βαρεῖ τὸν αὐχένα· πλήρεις ἑκάστῳ τῶν μελῶν αἱ συνθέσεις· οὐδεὶς ἀμοιβὴν συμφορᾶς ἀντιστρόφου τὴν χεῖρα κιχρᾷ τῶν ποδῶν ἀντεργάτιν· ἀλλ' οὐρανὸς γῆ πῦρ ὕδωρ ἀὴρ νέφη καὶ πᾶς ὁ κόσμος τῶν ἄνω καὶ τῶν κάτω κροτεῖ σὺν ἡμῖν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὰ σκέμματα ἑνὸς πεσόντος καὶ σεσωσμένων ὅλων. νῦν τὸν πυραυγῆ Χοσρόης Ἑωσφόρον ἔγνω ζοφώδη, καὶ πλάνητας οὐκ ἔχει<ν> τοὺς ἑπτά φησιν, ἀλλ' ὅλους τοὺς ἀστέρας· νῦν πάντας αὐτοὺς ἐμπεσὼν τῷ Ταρτάρῳ βλέπει σκοτεινοὺς ἐξ ἀνάγκης Ἑσπέρους καὶ τῆς ἐπ' αὐτοῖς ἀστοχήσας ἐλπίδος οὓς ζῶν ἐτίμα, δυσσεβεῖ τεθαμμένος. ποῦ νῦν ὁ λῆρος τῶν ἀεισφαλῶν μάγων; ποῦ τῶν ἐν ἄστροις ὀργίων τὰ σκέμματα; ποῖος πεσόντα Χοσρόην ὡροσκόπει; πάντως ἔδοξεν ἐμπεσεῖν τῷ τοῦ Κρόνου· τέκνου γὰρ ὁρμαῖς ὁ σφαγεὺς ἀνῃρέθη. Ὅμηρε, τὸν πρὶν μηδαμῶς Ἡρακλέα θεὸν προσειπεῖν ἀξιώσῃς ἀσκόπως· τί γὰρ τὸ κοινὸν ὠφέλησε τοῦ βίου κάπρος φονευθεὶς ἢ λέων πεπνιγμένος; θαύμαζε μᾶλλον ὡς ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἕνα τὸν κοσμορύστην εὐλόγως Ἡρακλέα. κατῆλθεν οὗτος ἄχρι τῆς Ἅιδου θύρας, τὴν λύτταν ἦγξε τοῦ κυνὸς τοῦ παμφάγου, Ἄλκηστιν ἐξήγειρε τὴν οἰκουμένην, ἀνεῖλε τὸν δράκοντα τὸν μιαιφόνον καθεῖλεν ὕδραν μυριαύχενον βλάβην, ῥυπῶντα τὸν πρὶν ἐξεκόπρωσεν βίον, ἔπνιξε τὸν λέοντα τὸν κοσμοφθόρον, καὶ νῦν προῆλθεν Ἡρακλῆς τῷ πράγματι λαβὼν τὰ χρυσᾶ μῆλα, τὰς πόλεις ὅλας. παρῆλθε πηγὴ τῆς ἀφεγγοῦς ἑσπέρας, τὸ φῶς ὑπέστη καὶ διέστη τὸ σκότος· καὶ δεύτερος νῦν κοσμοποιεῖται βίος καὶ κόσμος ἄλλος καὶ νεωτέρα κτίσις. καὶ νῦν ὁ Νῶε τῆς νέας οἰκουμένης κιβωτὸν εὗρε τὴν ἑαυτοῦ καρδίαν, καὶ πᾶσαν ἔνδον ἐντεθεικὼς τὴν φύσιν ἀφῆκεν αὐτὴν εἰς ἔνοπλα τάγματα <ἐπὶ> τῷ κατακλυσμῷ Χοσρόου φρουρουμένην· σχεδὸν γὰρ εἰπεῖν πᾶσα σὰρξ διεφθάρη ἐκ τῆς χυθείσης παγγενοῦς ἁμαρτίας, ἕως ἐλαίας ἠμελημένης