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Oratio consolatoria in Pulcheriam

A CONSOLATORY ORATION ON PULCHERIA BY GREGORY, BISHOP OF NYSSA

I do not know how I shall use my speech; for I see that the subject is twofold and sad in either case, so that it is not easy for my speech to proceed without tears, whichever of the two I choose. The present season of the year, as was announced to us yesterday by our shepherd, contains the memory of the sad events that once befell the neighboring city through the earthquake. Who could recount these things without tears? But this great and illustrious fair city, set before all that is under the sun, has suffered another earthquake and has been stripped of no small ornament, having been suddenly deprived of the luminary that shone in her as an addition to the imperial good fame, and for this reason she shares the somber grief of the sovereigns. And what is said you surely do not ignore, you who fill this assembly, seeing this very place in which we are gathered, and the dejection in this place. I do not know, then, to which earthquake I should turn my speech, to the one now or the one that happened long ago. Or is it well to stand before the overwhelming sorrow and to soothe the city's own pain, applying some remedy of reasoning? For even if not all who share in this misfortune are present in the assembly, perhaps through those present the speech will be spread also to those who are not present. For those physicians are wise who by their art stand 9.462 against the greater of pains, postponing the treatment of the less painful ones. And just as those skilled in these things say, if two pains should befall one body at the same time, the sensation is only of the greater one, the lesser pain being stolen away by the excess of the prevailing anguish, so also do I see in the present case; for our new and personal grief is more dominant than those things that grieve us through memory. For how could one not suffer at what has happened? Who is so unfeeling in soul?

Who is so iron in nature as to receive what has happened without pain? You have surely come to know this young dove, nurtured in the royal nest, who was just now getting her wings with brilliant plumage, and who surpassed her age in graces, how, having left the nest, she is gone, how she has flown away from our eyes, how envy has suddenly snatched her from our hands, whether one should call her a dove, or a newly blossomed flower, which had not yet shone forth completely from its calyx, but part of it was already shining, and the rest was hoped to shine, and yet even in its small and incomplete state it shone exceedingly; how it was suddenly extinguished in its calyx, and before it reached its prime and fully opened its flower upwards, it collapsed upon itself and became dust, which no one plucked nor made into a crown, but nature labored in vain; of which the goodness was in our hopes, but envy, falling slantwise like a sword, has cut off our hope. It was truly an earthquake, brothers, what has happened, an earthquake no more humane than other terrible calamities; for it did not destroy the lifeless beauty of buildings, nor did it cast to the ground colorful paintings or the exquisite sights of stone, but this earthquake, falling suddenly, destroyed the very structure of nature, brilliant in beauty, flashing 9.463 with graces. I have seen the lofty shoot, the high-tressed palm tree (I mean the imperial power) which, with its imperial virtues as with branches, stands above the whole inhabited world and embraces all things; I have seen it, though master of all else, bent by nature and bowed down at the loss of its flower. I have seen also the noble vine-branch

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Oratio consolatoria in Pulcheriam

ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΝΥΣΣΗΣ ΕΙΣ ΠΟΥΛΧΕΡΙΑΝ ΠΑΡΑΜΥΘΗΤΙΚΟΣ ΛΟΓΟΣ

Οὐκ οἶδα ὅπως τῷ λόγῳ χρήσομαι· διπλῆν τε γὰρ ὁρῶ τὴν ὑπόθεσιν καὶ

σκυθρωπὴν καθ' ἑκάτερον, ὡς μὴ ῥᾴδιον ἔξω δακρύων τὸν λόγον ἐλθεῖν, ὁτιοῦν ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων ἑλόμενον. ἡ παροῦσα τοῦ ἔτους περίοδος, καθὼς ἡμῖν χθὲς τοῦτο παρὰ τοῦ ποιμένος ἐπήγγελται, σκυθρωπῶν πραγμάτων τῶν τῇ γείτονι πόλει ποτὲ διὰ τοῦ σεισμοῦ συμπεπτωκότων περιέχει τὴν μνήμην. ἃ τίς ἂν ἀδακρυτὶ διεξέλθοι; ἡ δὲ μεγάλη καὶ περιφανὴς αὕτη καὶ τῆς ὑφ' ἥλιον πάσης προτε ταγμένη καλλίπολις ἄλλον σεισμὸν ὑπέστη καὶ οὐ μικρὸν ἀπεσυλήθη κόσμον, τοῦ ἐν αὐτῇ λάμψαντος φωστῆρος εἰς προσθήκην τῆς βασιλικῆς εὐκληρίας ἀθρόως ἀφαιρεθεῖσα καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τῇ κατηφείᾳ τῶν βασιλέων συσκυθρωπάζουσα. τὸ δὲ λεγόμενον οὐκ ἀγνοεῖτε πάντως οἱ πληροῦντες τὸν σύλλογον ὁρῶντες αὐτόν τε τὸν τόπον τοῦτον, ἐν ᾧ συνειλέγ μεθα, καὶ τὴν ἐν τῷ τόπῳ κατήφειαν. οὐκ οἶδα τοίνυν πρὸς ποῖον σεισμὸν τρέψω τὸν λόγον, πρὸς τὸν νῦν ἢ τὸν πάλαι γενόμενον. ἢ καλῶς ἔχει πρὸς τὸ ὑπερβάλλον τοῦ πάθους στῆναι καὶ καταπραῧναι τῆς πόλεως τὴν ἰδίαν ἀλγηδόνα λογισμοῖς τισι καταφαρμάσσοντα; εἰ γὰρ καὶ μὴ πάντες οἱ τοῦ κακοῦ συμμετέχοντες τῷ συλλόγῳ πάρεισιν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τῶν παρόντων ἴσως καὶ εἰς τοὺς μὴ παρόντας ὁ λόγος διαδοθήσεται. καὶ γὰρ καὶ τῶν ἰατρῶν ἐκεῖνοι σοφοὶ οἱ πρὸς τὸ πλεονάζον τῶν ἀλγηδόνων διὰ τῆς τέχνης ἱστά 9.462 μενοι, τῶν δὲ ἧττον ὀδυνηρῶν τὴν θεραπείαν ὑπερτιθέμενοι. ὥσπερ δέ φασιν οἱ περὶ ταῦτα δεινοί, εἰ δύο κατὰ ταὐτὸν ἑνὶ σώματι πόνοι συμπέσοιεν, μόνου τοῦ ὑπερβάλλοντος τὴν αἴσθησιν γίνεσθαι, ἐν τῷ πλεονάζοντι τῆς ἐπικρατούσης ἀλγηδόνος ἐκκλεπτομένης τῆς ἥττονος, οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος βλέπω· τὸ γὰρ νέον τε καὶ ἡμέτερον ἄλγημα τῶν διὰ τῆς μνήμης ἀλγυνόντων ἡμᾶς ἐστιν ἐπικρατέστερον. πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἄν τις ἐπὶ τοῖς συμβεβηκόσι πάθοι; τίς οὕτως ἀπαθὴς τὴν ψυχήν;

Τίς οὕτω τὸν τρόπον σιδήρεος, ὡς ἀναλγητὶ τὸ συμβὰν δέξασθαι; ἔγνωτε πάντως τὴν νέαν ταύτην περιστερὰν τὴν ἐντρεφομένην τῇ βασιλικῇ καλιᾷ, τὴν ἄρτι μὲν πτερουμένην ἐν λαμπρῷ τῷ πτερῷ, ὑπερβᾶσαν δὲ τὴν ἡλικίαν ταῖς χάρισιν ὅπως ἀφεῖσα τὴν καλιὰν οἴχεται, ὅπως ἔξω τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἡμῶν ἀπέπτη, ὅπως αὐτὴν ἀθρόως ὁ φθόνος τῶν χειρῶν ἡμῶν ἀφήρπασεν, εἴτε περιστερὰν χρὴ λέγειν ταύτην, εἴτε νεοθαλὲς ἄνθος, ὃ οὔπω μὲν ὅλον τῶν καλύκων ἐξέλαμψεν, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν ἔλαμπεν ἤδη, τὸ δὲ λάμψειν ἠλπίζετο καὶ ὅμως ἐν τῷ μικρῷ τε καὶ ἀτελεῖ ὑπερέλαμπεν· ὅπως ἀθρόως ἐναπέσβη τῇ κάλυκι καὶ πρὶν εἰς ἀκμὴν προελθεῖν καὶ ὅλον ἄνω διαπετάσαι τὸ ἄνθος, αὐτὸ περὶ ἑαυτὸ κατερρύη καὶ κόνις ἐγένετο, ὃ οὔτε ἐδρέψατό τις οὔτε ἐστεφανώσατο, ἀλλὰ μάτην ἡ φύσις ἐπόνησεν· οὗ τὸ μὲν ἀγαθὸν ἐν ἐλπίσιν ἦν, ὁ δὲ φθόνος ξίφους δίκην πλάγιος ἐμπεσὼν τὴν ἐλπίδα διέκοψεν. σεισμός τις ἦν ἄντικρυς, ἀδελφοί, τὸ γενόμενον, σεισμὸς οὐδὲν τῶν χαλεπῶν συμπτωμάτων φιλανθρωπότερος· οὐ γὰρ ἄψυχον οἰκοδομη μάτων κάλλος διελυμήνατο, οὐδὲ εὐανθεῖς γραφὰς ἢ λίθων περικαλλῆ θεάματα εἰς γῆν κατέβαλεν, ἀλλ' αὐτῆς τῆς φύσεως τὸ οἰκοδόμημα λαμπρὸν τῷ κάλλει, ὑπεραστράπτον 9.463 ταῖς χάρισιν, ἀθρόως προσπεσὼν ὁ σεισμὸς οὗτος διέλυσεν. εἶδον ἐγὼ καὶ τὸ ὑψηλὸν ἔρνος, τὸν ὑψίκομον φοίνικα (τὸ βασιλικόν φημι κράτος) τὸν ταῖς βασιλικαῖς ἀρεταῖς οἷόν τισι κλάδοις πάσης ὑπερανεστῶτα τῆς οἰκουμένης καὶ πάντα διαλαμβάνοντα· εἶδον αὐτὸν τῶν μὲν ἄλλων κρατοῦντα, τῇ δὲ φύσει καμπτόμενον καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἀποβολὴν τοῦ ἄνθους ἐπικλινόμενον. εἶδον καὶ τὴν εὐγενῆ κληματίδα