Historical poems

The surviving poetic heritage of St. Gregory the Theologian includes 408 poems, most of which belong to the last period of his life (383-389). Saint Gregory wrote in an archaic language, used traditional meters for ancient Greek poetry, based on the alternation of long and short syllables (hexameter, elegiac distich, iambic, iambic trimeter and pentameter), and often imitated Homer, Euripides and other ancient poets. Poems by St. Gregory the Theologian are devoted to various aspects of Christian life, they reflect most of the theological themes discussed in other works of the saint. Corpus of poetic works of St. Gregory is divided into “Theological Poems”, “Historical Poems”, “Epitaphs”, “Inscriptions”. The cycle “Historical Poems” (107 poems) contains sections “About myself” (99) and “About others” (8). In the poem “About His Poems” by St. Gregory explains the reasons that prompted him to take up poetry. Firstly, he wanted to contrast his poems with the works of classical poets, whose careless reading sometimes brought bad results, he wanted to give a pleasant and at the same time useful reading, “sweetening with art the bitterness of the commandments, because even a stretched bowstring requires some loosening.” Secondly, he did not want pagans and heretics to have the advantage of elegant speech and boast of their education. In particular, St. Gregory wanted to paralyze with his poems the harmful influence of the poems of Apollinaris. Thirdly, exhausted by illness and burdened by his loneliness, St. Gregory found joy in composing poetry. In the historical poems of St. Gregory the Theologian tells the circumstances of his own life and vividly characterizes his contemporaries and the general course of events, talks about his hermit life, about the struggle with temptations, turns to God with prayers or lamentations about the disasters befalling him. *The title of the work in Latin is Carmina historica. Contents Section I. About myself 1. Poems about myself 2. Oaths of Gregory 3. On the good journey from Constantinople 4. To myself 5. To the church people of the Church of Anastasia 6. To him 7. Congratulations to the unfriendly 8. To the envious 9. To the same 10. To the priests of Constantinople and to Constantinople itself 11. A poem in which Saint Gregory recounts his life 12. About himself and about the bishops 13. To the bishops 14. About himself and against envious people 15. On his return from the city of Constantine 16. Dream 17. About differences in life and against false priests 18. To envious people 19. Complaints about one’s suffering 20. The prayer of a sick person to Christ 21. Against the Evil One 22. Prayerful poem 23. For one’s removal 24. Morning prayer 25. Evening prayer 26. Prayer to Christ the next morning 27. Gregory’s lament for himself 28. Elegiac poem 29. For patience 30. To oneself 31. The desire for death 32. About the vanity and unfaithfulness of life and about the common end for all 33. To Christ 34. To silence during Lent 35. Other 36. Other 37. Other 38. A song to Christ after silence on Easter 39. About one’s own verses 40. To envious people 41. Maxim 42. Lamentation 43. To oneself 44. To hypocritical monks 45. Lamentation 46. On the flesh 47. Reproaches to the unreasonable aspirations of the soul 48. On the one who died for the world 49. Crying and prayer to Christ 50. Against the devil during illness 51. Crying for one’s soul 52. Crying 53. Another cry 54. On the evil one 55. Turning away from the devil and calling to Christ 55. Against him 56. Against him 57. Against him 58. Against him 59. Against him 61. Crying 62. Prayer to Christ 63. Crying to Christ 64. Another [crying] to Christ 65. Crying 66. Another to Christ 67. About oneself 68. About oneself 69. Prayer to Christ 70. Another 71. Prayer in illness 72. For the outcome 73. Song of propitiation 74. To Christ 75. Lament to Christ 76. Another lament 78. To one’s soul 79. To one’s soul 80. To oneself 81. To one’s soul 82. To her 83. About warfare from demons 84. Lament 85. Exhortation [to oneself], about turning to God 86. Instruction to to oneself 87. About longing for God 88. To one’s soul 89. To illness 90. To one’s own and one’s parents’ death 91. To the common tomb of one’s family 92. Epitaph to oneself and a brief retelling of one’s own life 93. Others to oneself 95. Others 96. Others 97. Others 98. Others 99. Others Section II. About others 1. Epistle of exhortation to Hellenius 2. Julian 3. To Vitalian from his sons 4. From Nikobulus the son to his father 5. From Nikovulus the father to his son 6. Advice to Olympias 7. To Nemesius 8. To Seleucus