Gregory of Nazianzus
Autobiographical Poems

Greek text and facing-page translation of a selection of Gregory of Nazianzus's poems.

Gregory of Nazianzus (Author), Carolinne White (Edited by)

9780521472814, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 December 1996

216 pages
22.4 x 14.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.417 kg

The autobiographical poems of Gregory of Nazianzus, fourth-century Father of the Greek church, are remarkable not only for a highly individual picture of the Byzantine world but also for moments that are intimate, passionate, and moving. The book contains Greek text and facing English translation of a selection from his one hundred or so surviving poems. Gregory is best known for the five orations he gave in Constantinople but, De Vita Sua apart, his poems can only be read in a nineteenth-century Greek edition and have never before been translated into English. The selected poems highlight Gregory's spiritual outlook and also his poetics; Gregory shows his expertise in a variety of metres and literary dialects, deriving from his knowledge of classical Greek literature. The substantial introduction provides biographical information against which to set the poems, focusing particularly on the years which Gregory spent in Constantinople.

Introduction
1. To his own verses (II.1.39)
2. Concerning his own life (II.1.11)
3. Complaint concerning his own calamities (II.1.19)
4. On silence at the time of fasting (II.1.34)
Epitaph and synopsis of his life (II.1.92).

Subject Areas: Poetry by individual poets [DCF]