George of Pisidia, in a sequence of eight epigrams, describes a chapel of *Mary (Mother of Christ S00033), newly built or renovated by the Patriarch Sergius (610-638), within the patriarchate of Constantinople. Written in Greek in Constantinople, in 610/638.
E08595
Literary - Poems
George of Pisidia
Georgii Pisidae carmina inedita XXXVII–XLIV
XXXVII Sternbach (86 Tartaglia)
Γεωργίου τοῦ Πισίδου Εἰς τὰ εὐκτήρια τῆς δεσποίνης ἡμῶν Θεοτόκου ἐν τῷ πατριαρχείῳ.
Τὸν οὐρανὸν σκόπησον ἐν μικρῷ τόπῳ,
οὐ πρὸς τὸ κάλλος τῶν ὁρωμένων βλέπων,
ἀλλὰ πρὸς αὐτὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν μητέρα,
τὴν ὡς ἀληθῶς οὐρανὸν καλουμένην.
‘George of Pisidia’s On the Chapel of our Lady the Theotokos in the Patriarchate
Behold heaven in a small place,
not looking at the beauty of what is seen,
but at the Mother of God herself
she who is so truthfully called heaven.'
XXXVIII Sternbach (87 Tartaglia)
ἄλλοι.
Καὶ μικρὸς ἀστὴρ δεικνύει τὸν ἥλιον
στίλβει τε λάμπων καὶ καλεῖται φωσφόρος·
καὶ τοῦτον, ὦ δέσποινα καὶ θεηδόχε,
τὸν μικρὸν οἶκον ὡς ἑωσφόρον δέχου.
'Others.
Even a small star signifies the sun
it glitters as it shines and is called bringer of light;
this too, o Lady and receiver of God,
receive this small house as bringer of dawn.'
XXXIX Sternbach (88 Tartaglia)
ἄλλοι.
Ἡ σὴ μέν, ὦ δέσποινα, φαιδρότης ὅλη
ὡς μητρός, ὡς θυγατρὸς ἔνδοθεν μένει·
ἐκτὸς δὲ κόσμον τὸν σὸν οἶκον προσδέχου,
ὃν ἀντὶ πάντων προσφέρει σοι Σέργιος.
'Others.
Your own brilliance, Lady, that of mother,
that of daughter, remains altogether within;
but as external ornament receive your house,
which Sergius offers to you on behalf of all.'
XL Sternbach (89 Tartaglia)
ἄλλοι.
καὶ πῶς ὁ νυμφὼν τῆς ἀνύμφου παρθένου
μετῆλθεν εἰς γῆν οὐρανοὺς ὑποτρέχων;
πάντως πάρεστι μυστικῶς τῷ νυμφίῳ,
ἀεὶ δι᾿αὐτὴν πλησιάζει τοῖς κάτω.
'Others.
And how did the bridechamber of the unwedded virgin
come down to earth, while coursing beneath the heavens?
Assuredly she is present mystically with her bridegroom
and ever, because of her, does he draw near to those below.'
XLI Sternbach (90 Tartaglia)
ἄλλοι.
Σπήλαιον ἄλλο καὶ φάτνην θεηδόχον,
καὶ Βηθλεὲμ καὶ φαῦσιν ἀστέρος νέου
κτίζει τὸν οἶκον Σέργιος τῆς Παρθένου
εἰς λύτρον, εἰς κάθαρσιν, εἰς ζῶσαν χάριν.
'Others.
As another cave and God-receiving manger,
and Bethlehem and illumination of a new star,
Sergius founds the house of the Virgin
for a ransom, a purification, a living grace.'
XLII Sternbach (91 Tartaglia)
ἄλλοι.
Ἰδὼν τὸ κάλλος τῶν τριῶν σου κτισμάτων
οὕτως ἀνέπτην ἐκπλαγεὶς τὴν καρδίαν,
ὡς Παῦλος εἰς τρεῖς οὐρανοὺς ἀφιγμένος.
'Others.
Seeing the beauty of your three creations
with heart astounded I flew upwards just
as did Paul, arrived at the three heavens.'
XLIII Sternbach (92 Tartaglia)
ἄλλοι.
Τῶν εὐαγῶν σου κτισμάτων ἡ λαμπρότης
πείθει, διδάσκει, προτρέπει, βιάζεται
καὶ τοὺς φιλύπνους ἐκτελεῖν ἀγρυπνίας.
'Others.
The brilliance of your holy creations
persuades, teaches, exhorts, constrains
even sleep-lovers to achieve wakefulness.'
XLIV Sternbach (93 Tartaglia)
ἄλλοι ἡρωικοί.
Τρισσατίοις σελάεσσιν ἕνα σπινθῆρα τυπώσας
τρισσοφαοῦς θεότητος ἕνα σπινθῆρα διδάσκεις.
'Others, in hexameters.
By shaping one spark with threefold radiance,
you teach that there is one spark of the Godhead of threefold light.'
Text: Sternbach 1892, 54–55.
Translation: Mary Whitby
Cult building - dependent (chapel, baptistery, etc.)
Non Liturgical ActivityConstruction of cult buildings
Renovation and embellishment of cult buildings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Source
George of Pisidia (or George Pisides; PLRE IIIA, Georgius Pisides 54) was among the foremost literary figures of the reign of Heraclius I (r. 610–641). A member of the clergy of Saint Sophia and a personal friend of the Patriarch Sergius I (patriarch 610–638), he composed poems that celebrate the emperor and patriarch, while others reflect on religious topics. He also wrote a prose panegyric of St Anastasius the Persian.Leo Sternbach published (Wiener Studien 13 (1891), 1–62, and Wiener Studien 14 (1892), 51–68) a previously unknown group of poems by George, found in the manuscript Paris Suppl. Gr. 690 - an anthology of poems by Byzantine writers, together with a few prose texts towards the end. This is the oldest extant manuscript containing George’s poetry, dated to the late eleventh or twelfth century.
The first seven of the epigrams presented here are in iambic trimeters (nos. XXXVII–XLIII), with a concluding couplet (XLIV) in hexameters.
The word epigram literally means an inscription. Although most Greek epigrams were in prose, the word came to be specifically connected to those written in verse, and eventually to include poetic texts that were not necessarily inscribed. From the earliest period of Greek literature, epigrams were mostly sepulchral or dedicatory: they either memorialised the dead or marked the dedication of an object to a god.
Discussion
Little is otherwise known of this chapel. Sergius may have built it: the fifth poem (XLI.3) declares that he 'founded' it (κτίζει); but this term can be used for restoration or renovation. Whether a new build or a substantial renovation, these epigrams further attest the growing cult of the Virgin in Constantinople in the early 7th century. The 10th-century Synaxarion of Constantinople records that it housed the head of St Aberkios (Syn. CP. 184.1.3–4).Bibliography
Editions:Sternbach, L. ‘Georgii Pisidae carmina inedita, pars II’, Wiener Studien 14 (1892), 54–55.
Tartaglia, L., Carmi di Giorgio di Pisidia (Classici Greci; Turin: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinense, 1998), 86–93 (pp. 492–495), with Italian translation.
Further reading on Paris Suppl. Gr. 690 and the epigrams of George:
Lauxtermann, M.D., Byzantine poetry from Pisides to Geometres. Texts and contexts, 2 vols., vol. 1 (Wiener byzantinischen Studien, Band XXIV/1; Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2003), Appendix VI and Appendix VII, 329–337.
Further reading:
Janin, R., La Géographie ecclésiastique de l’empire byzantine I.3: Les églises et les monastères de la ville de Constantinople (2nd ed.; Paris, 1969), 217.
Whitby, Mary, 'The patriarch Sergius and the Theotokos', Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 70 (2020), 403–425, at 414–419.
Mary Whitby
02/07/2025
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00033 | Mary, Mother of Christ | Certain |
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