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Christus patiens

Of our father among the saints, Gregory the Theologian, a dramatic hypothesis in the manner of Euripides containing the incarnation for our sake of our savior Jesus Christ and his world-saving passion.

passion.

Since you, having piously heard poems, now wish to hear pious things poetically, listen willingly. Now in the manner of Euripides I shall tell of the world-saving passion, from which you will learn very many mystical words, as from the mouth of the mother-virgin maiden, and of the disciple beloved by the Master. For my speech will now present her first, lamenting in a motherly way at the time of the passion, and groaning over the cause of fate from the very beginning, as one who truly appeared as the cause of her being called the mother of the Word and of now seeing him suffering unjustly. For had we not erred through inattention, we would not have been condemned to death from the beginning, and had we not been corrupted by the serpent's guile, nor had corruption entered by the beast's deceit, and had we undergone our fate by a just judgment. So that evil might not remain incorruptible, it would not have been for the life-giving Master, God the Word, to be made mortal and to suffer death, making incorrupt what was corrupted in his goodness, and giving life to the race of mortals. But with the Word himself remaining unemptied, she would not have appeared as the mother of the Master, and seeing him now suffering unjustly, she, being distressed, would not have cried out lamenting. The characters of my drama, then, are these: the all-holy mother, the virgin disciple, the maidens who are with the mother of the Master.

{THEOTOKOS} Would that the serpent had not crept in the meadow, nor the crooked-counselling dragon lurked in these glens! For then the creature of the rib, the unhappy mother of our race, being deceived, would not have dared to dare an all-daring deed, her spirit struck with desire for the plant, persuaded she would attain divinity therefrom. Nor, having persuaded her husband to eat of the fruit that was not at all profitable for them, would she have been banished from the all-blessed meadow, condemned to ruin and a grievous death, nor would she have heard she would be a mother of children from a troubled bed, giving birth in toil and beset by pangs, nor would he in sweat have inhabited this destructive land with his wife and children of the final curse, which she was destined to bear with sorrows and groans, and to send forth successions in life, and thence to find excellent reconciliations. Nor would the whole race of men have perished and somehow persuaded the Mighty One, in his goodness, to heal, to come down to earth, to be made mortal in a new way and to endure suffering. Nor would I have been born a virgin mother and now heard that my Son—heavenly, earthly, pure in his origins—was being dragged to judgment, and shuddered to see him thus outraged, bearing, alas, a terrible flame without torches, which furiously agitates me and shakes my heart and passes through my heart like a great sword, as the old man Simeon truly cried, foreseeing all with far-seeing eyes. Truly the greatest salvation comes about when a wife is not at odds with her husband, agreeing with him in all things as is right, nor silently heeds the persuasion of another, but is of one mind with her true husband. But now all is hostile and the vital parts are sick, since she betrayed her husband and the glory of their rule. For old hubris is wont to beget new; from tears, tears are poured down, for which there is neither measure nor number; for evil comes to contend with evil. Wherefore our sovereign nature, dishonored, groans, weeping for commingled misfortunes and the successions of unbearable toils, wasting all of time in tears, since she perceived she was wronged by the enemy and by the harm of her own first-suffering mother and of her father who bent his ear to the mother, of whom we all upon the earth are the offspring. She cries out upon oaths, she calls upon right hands, the greatest pledge, and calls God to witness; for the wretched one has learned from her misfortunes,

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Christus patiens

Τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Γρηγορίου τοῦ θεολόγου ὑπόθεσις δραματικὴ κατ' Εὐριπίδην περιέχουσα τὴν δι' ἡμᾶς γενομένην σάρκωσιν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ κοσμοσωτήριον

πάθος.

Ἐπείδ' ἀκούσας εὐσεβῶς ποιημάτων ποιητικῶς νῦν εὐσεβῆ κλύειν θέλεις, πρόφρων ἄκουε· νῦν τε κατ' Εὐριπίδην τὸ κοσμοσωτήριον ἐξερῶ πάθος, ὅθεν μαθήσῃ πλεῖστα μυστικῶν λόγων, ὡς ἐκ στόματος μητροπαρθένου κόρης, μύστου πεφιλμένου τε τῷ ∆ιδασκάλῳ. Πρώτην γὰρ αὐτὴν νῦν παραστήσει λόγος μητροπρεπῶς θρηνοῦσαν ἐν καιρῷ πάθους, πότμου τε τὴν πρόφασιν ἀρχῆς ἀπ' ἄκρης στένουσαν, ὡς φανεῖσαν ὄντως αἰτίαν τοῦ μητέρ' αὐτὴν τοῦ Λόγου χρηματίσαι καὶ νῦν ἰδεῖν πάσχοντα τοῦτον ἀδίκως· εἰ μὴ γὰρ ἐσφάλημεν ἀπροσεξίᾳ, οὐκ ἂν κατεκρίθημεν ἀρχῆθεν μόρον, κἂν μὴ διεφθάρημεν ἑρπετοῦ δόλῳ, μηδ' ἡ φθορά τ' εἰσῆλθε θηρὸς ἀπάτῃ, καὶ πότμον ὑπέστημεν ἐνδίκῳ κρίσει. Ὡς μὴ τὸ κακὸν ἀδιάφθορον μένῃ, οὐκ ἦν βροτωθῆναί τε καὶ τλῆσαι μόρον τὸν ζωοποιὸν ∆εσπότην, Θεὸν Λόγον, ἀφθαρτίσαντα τὸ φθαρὲν φιλαγάθως, καὶ ζωοποιήσαντα τὸ βροτῶν γένος· μένοντος αὐτοῦ δ' ἀκενώτου τοῦ Λόγου, ἥδ' οὐκ ἂν ἐκπέφηνε μήτηρ ∆εσπότου, καὶ τόνδε νῦν ὁρῶσα πάσχοντ' ἀδίκως, θρηνοῦσ' ἀνηλάλαζε τετρυχωμένη. Πρόσωπα γοῦν δράματός εἰσί μοι τάδε· μήτηρ πάναγνος, παρθένος μύστης, κόραι αἱ συμπαροῦσαι μητρὶ τῇ τοῦ ∆εσπότου.

{ΘΕΟΤΟΚΟΣ} Εἴθ' ὤφελ' ἐν λειμῶνι μηδ' ἕρπειν ὄφις, μηδ' ἐν νάπαισι τοῦδ' ὑφεδρεύειν δράκων ἀγκυλομήτης· οὐ γὰρ ἂν πλευρᾶς φύμα, μήτηρ γένους δύστηνος ἠπατημένη τόλμημα τολμᾶν παντότολμον ἀνέτλη, ἔρνους ἔρωτι θυμὸν ἐκπεπληγμένη, θεώσεως πεισθεῖσα τυχεῖν αὐτόθεν· οὐδ' ἂν φαγεῖν πείσασα καρποῦ τὸν πόσιν τοῦ μηδὲ συμφέροντος αὐτίκα σφίσι, λειμῶνος ἐξῴκιστο τοῦ πανολβίου, λύμην κατακριθεῖσα καὶ λυγρὸν μόρον, μήτηρ τέκνων τ' ἤκουσεν ἐκ δυσκοιτίας μογοστοκοῦσ' ὠδῖσί τ' ἐμπαρειμένη, ἱδρῶτ' ἂν ᾤκει τήνδε γῆν ὀλεθρίαν σὺν ἀνδρὶ καὶ τέκνοισιν ἀρᾶς ὑστάτης, ἅπερ τεκεῖν ὥριστο λύπαις καὶ στόνοις, διαδοχάς τε παραπέμπειν τῷ βίῳ, διαλλαγάς τ' ἐντεῦθεν εὑρεῖν ἐξόχους· οὐδ' ἂν γένος τ' ὄλωλεν ἀνθρώπων ἅπαν καὶ τὸν ∆υνατὸν ἀλθανεῖν ἔπεισέ πως ἀγαθότητι δαπέδῳ κατιέναι καινῶς βροτωθῆναί τε καὶ τλῆσαι πάθος· οὐδ' ἂν ἐγὼ πέφυκα μήτηρ παρθένος καὶ νῦν ἔκλυον Υἱὸν ἕλκεσθαι κρίσει οὐράνιον, γήϊνον, ἀκραιφνῆ γοναῖς, ἰδεῖν τ' ἔφριττον τόνδε καθυβρισμένον, ἄτερ δαλῶν φέρουσα, φεῦ, δεινὴν φλόγα, ἣ σφόδρα μαιμάσσει με καὶ δονεῖ κέαρ καὶ καρδίαν δίεισιν ὡς ῥόπτρον μέγα, ὡς νητρεκῶς ἤϋσε Συμεὼν γέρων, τηλεσκόποις ὄμμασι πάντως προβλέπων. Ἦ που μεγίστη γίνεται σωτηρία, ὅταν γυνὴ πρὸς ἄνδρα μὴ διχοστατῇ, τὰ πάντα συμφέρουσα τῷδ' ὥσπερ θέμις, μηδὲ πρὸς ἄλλου πάρφασιν σῖγα κλύῃ, ἀλλ' ἔστι συμφρονοῦσα γνησίῳ πόσει. Νῦν δ' ἐχθρὰ πάντα καὶ νοσεῖ τὰ καίρια, αὐτῆς προδούσης ἄνδρα καὶ κράτους κλέος. Φιλεῖ γὰρ ὕβρις ἡ πάλαι τίκτειν νέαν· ἐκ δακρύων δάκρυα καταλείβεται, ὧν οὔτε μέτρον οὔτ' ἀριθμός ἐστί τις· κακῷ κακὸν γὰρ εἰς ἅμιλλαν ἔρχεται. Ὅθεν πότνια φύσις ἠτιμωμένη στένει κλάουσα συμφορὰς πεφυρμένας διαδοχάς τε τῶν ἀφερτάτων πόνων, τὸν πάντα συντήκουσα δακρύοις χρόνον, ἐπεὶ πρὸς ἐχθροῦ ᾔσθετ' ἠδικημένη καὶ μητρὸς αὐτῆς πρωτοπήμονος βλάβῃ πατρός θ' ὑποκλίναντος οὖας μητέρι, ὧν πάντες ἐσμὲν οἱ κατὰ χθόν' ἔκγονοι. Βοᾷ μὲν ὅρκους, ἀνακαλεῖ δεξιάς, πίστιν μεγίστην, καὶ Θεὸν μαρτύρεται· ἔγνω γὰρ ἡ τάλαινα συμφορῶν ὕπο,