Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams

Type 7032
(formerly typ/4941)

Ὦ πάντων ἐπέκεινα - τί γὰρ θέμις ἄλλο σε μέλπειν;
πῶς λόγος ὑμνήσει σε; - σὺ γὰρ λόγῳ οὐδενὶ ῥητός,
μοῦνος ἐὼν ἄφραστος, ἐπεὶ τέκες ὅσσα λαλεῖται.
Πῶς νόος ἀθρήσει σε; - σὺ γὰρ νόῳ οὐδενὶ ληπτός,
μοῦνος ἐὼν ἄγνωστος, ἐπεὶ τέκες ὅσσα νοεῖται.
Πάντα σε καὶ λαλέοντα καὶ οὐ λαλέοντα λιγαίνει,
πάντα σε καὶ νοέοντα καὶ οὐ νοέοντα γεραίρει.
Ξυνοὶ γάρ τε πόθοι, ξυναὶ δ᾿ ὠδῖνες ἁπάντων
ἀμφὶ σέ. Σοὶ δὲ τὰ πάντα προσεύχεται, εἰς σὲ δὲ πάντα
σύνθεμα σὸν νοέοντα λαλεῖ σιγώμενον ὕμνον.
Σοὶ ἐνὶ πάντα μένει· σεῦ δ᾿ ἀθρόα πάντα θοάζει,
καὶ πάντων τέλος ἐσσὶ καὶ εἷς καὶ πάντα ὑπάρχεις,
οὐχ᾿ ἓν ἐὼν, οὐ πάντα. Πολύλλογε, πῶς σε καλέσσω,
τὸν μόνον ἀκλήϊστον; Ὑπερφανέας δὲ καλύπτρας
τίς νόος οὐρανίδης εἰσδύσσεται; Ἵλαος εἴης,
ὦ πάντων ἐπέκεινα - τί γὰρ θέμις ἄλλο σε μέλπειν;
Title(s) Ὕμνος εἰς θεόν
Text source C. Macé 2023, The ‘Hymn to What Is Beyond Everything’ Attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite and Gregory of Nazianzus, Byzantion, 93, 193-221: 220
Text status Text completely known
Editorial status Critical text
Genre(s) Text-related epigram
Metre(s) Dactylic hexameter
Subject(s) Hymnography
Tag(s)
Critical Notes The edition by Macé (2023: 220) - the text source for this Type - systematically follows the readings of the Dionysian branch (β-branch), which she believes to be the original one. We here present the variants from the Gregorian branch (α-branch).

3-4 these verses are inverted in the α-branch
8-10 these verses are omitted in the α-branch, except for one, now lost manuscript (text edited by Löwenklau)
11 σεῦ ] σοί Vat. gr. 1347, Pavia Aldini 80 (supra-linear variant for σεῦ), Migne, Jahn, Rosán
Translation(s)
  • Oh you who are above everything, how else can I rightfully sing of you?
    How shall a word praise you? You cannot be expressed by any word,
    as you alone are ineffable, because you brought forth everything that is spoken.
    How shall a mind consider you? You cannot be grasped by any mind,
    as you alone are incomprehensible, because you brought forth everything that is thought.
    All that speaks and does not speak sings in praise of you,
    All that understands and does not understand worships you.
    Common are the desires, common the birth pains of all
    Around you: to you everything prays, for you everything
    That knows your composition sings its silent song.
    In you everything remains, from you everything collected rushes forth.
    You are the completion of all, you are both one and all,
    While being neither one nor all. You of many words, how should I call you?
    You, the only one without name. Into the transcendently radiant veils
    Which heavenly mind will enter? May you be kind,
    Oh you who are above everything, how else can I rightfully sing of you?
    Language
    English
    Source(s)
    S. De Groot 2021, Readers' Perspectives on Early Christian Texts. Book Epigrams in the Byzantine Manuscripts of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Gent: 175-176
  • You are above all things and what other way can we rightly sing of you?
    How can words sing your praise when no word can speak of you?
    How can the mind consider you when no mind can ever grasp you?
    You alone are unutterable from the time you created all things that can be spoken of.
    You alone are unknowable from the time you created all things that can be known.
    All things cry out about you, those which speak, and those which cannot speak,
    all things honour you, those which think, and those which cannot think.
    For there is one longing, one groaning, that all things have for you.
    All things pray to you that comprehend your plan and offer you a silent hymn.
    In you, the One, all things abide and all things endlessly run to you
    who are the end of all. And you are the One, and All, and none of them -
    being not one thing, not all things. You who bear all names, how shall I name you,
    who cannot be named? What heavenly mind can penetrate those veils above the clouds?
    Be merciful
    you who are greater than all things, for what other way can we rightly sing of you?
    Language
    English
    Source(s)
    J. McGuckin, 1986, Saint Gregory Nazianzen: Selected Poems, Oxford: 7
Comment This poem occurs both in manuscripts in which the poem is transmitted among the poetry of Gregory of Nazianzus (α-branch) and in manuscript containing the Corpus Dionysiacum (β-branch). In one manuscript, it is transmitted in a manuscript with works by Proclus and Porphyry. Although the hymn wasn't originally composed as a book epigram, it functions as such in some manuscripts of Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite. For an overview of all manuscripts that transmit this poem, see Macé (2023: 197-204).

The hymn was traditionally ascribed to Gregory of Nazianzus as carmen I.1.29. However, from the 19th century onwards, doubts arose about the authorship. Proclus and Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite have been named as possible authors (Sicherl 1988: 66-83). Macé (2023: ) attributes the poem to none of them, but to an anonymous author, either a late antique Neoplatonist or a Byzantine author who wanted to praise Pseudo-Dionysios.

The epigram also occurs in the 16th-century manuscript Sinai gr. 320 (ff. 93v-94r).
Bibliography

Primary

Secondary
Number of verses 16
Occurrence(s)
Acknowledgements
Contributor(s)
Cristina Cocola, Sien De Groot, Anne-Sophie Rouckhout

The credits system has been implemented in 2019. Credits from before the new system was in use might be incomplete.
Identification Vassis ICB 2005, 890: "Greg. Nazianzenus*, Hymnus ad Deum"
Permalink https://www.dbbe.ugent.be/types/7032
Last modified: 2024-10-04.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.