190 Part Two: Epigrams in Context
the priest and Himself the victim”. The epigram describes a picture of the Last
Supper and centres on the meaning of the liturgical celebration of the Eucha-
rist. By His redemptive death on the Cross, by sacrificing Himself for the sake
of fallen mankind, God has renewed the convenant with humanity. That is
why the venerable Jewish custom of slaughtering lambs at Passover is no
longer necessary. For Christ is the lamb of the new convenant. And Christ is
also the high priest offering the self-sacrificing sacrifice to God. When He broke
the bread -His body- and poured the wine -His blood- at the Last Supper, only
a few days before He died on the Cross, the old became new again and bloody
Passover turned into bloodless Easter. The famous king-priest Melchisedech is
the Old Testament prefiguration of the Eucharist (no. 66): “Melchisedech, king
and priest, when you offer bread and wine, what are you? A symbol of truth”.
The water of Baptism and the blood of Redemption are the two fluids of
salvation that streamed from the body of Christ when He was dying on the
Cross. The poet wants us to take part in this divine mystery. He wants us to
look at the pictures and discover their inner meaning, as he did when he was
converted to Christianity. When he was baptized with the water, he was saved
by the blood of Christ. Once a pagan, he now participates in the Eucharist that
brings salvation. Can we share his vision with him? Are we willing to be
converted to the majestic truth that he has discovered? He speaks to us in his
epigrams. He addresses us directly. He asks us if we can see the light as he did.
These epigrams are without parallel in Byzantine poetry. Since later Byz-
antine poets address an audience of believers, there is no need to use the
medium of poetry as a vehicle of missionary activities. There is no one left to
be converted. True enough, there is no shortage of heretics, which is why so
many Byzantine poems serve as dogmatic weapons directed against religious
opponents, but that is not the same thing. Here we have an attempt to address
the non-believers, whereas later Byzantine poetry lashes out against heterodox
believers. The circle rapidly closes after c. 600. The “outsider” disappears from
sight. And theological disputes become self-centred, addressing only the inner
circle of believers. The main difference between the culture of Late Antiquity
and that of medieval Byzantium, wherever precisely one would like to draw
the line, is the definition of the “outsider”. In Late Antiquity the cultural
boundaries between “us” and the “others” are not yet clearly outlined, so that
frequent contacts across the lines, interchange of ideas and crossovers from one
side to another are still possible. The Byzantine world, however, is safely
entrenched behind its own culturally and intellectually sterile demarcation
lines of “ours” and “not ours”.