244 Part Two: Epigrams in Context
awake or asleep”^7. It is also a concept that recurs in many gnomic epigrams
inscribed on the walls of cemeteries and other sites where monks were buried.
It is for this reason that I suspect that the Xeropotamou marble slab was
originally found in or near a monastic graveyard, either in Constantinople or
somewhere else. The peacock was often represented in Byzantine funerary art,
not only as a purely decorative element but also as a symbol of the life
hereafter, for it conjured up images of luxurious, paradisiacal gardens, majestic
splendour and heavenly beatitude^8. In fact, the figure of the peacock and the
inscription in Xeropotamou express exactly the same ideas, the former in solid
marble and the latter in simple words. By remembering each day that his body
is mortal and that the shadows of death are closing in, the true monk learns to
disregard transient matters and to place his faith in things above, which will
ultimately secure him a place in heaven, in the garden of Eden.
As stated above, there is ample evidence that it was common for monastic
burial sites to have verse inscriptions bearing out the message of “memento
mori”. Theodore of Stoudios, for instance, writes in epigram no. 105e: “Let this
site, an enclosure of tombs, remind you of your own destiny, O friend”. In no.
109, “on a grave-yard” (in a monastery founded by a certain Leo), he tells us
at the end: “For every good man, if he keeps death in mind, escapes from
darkness and shall see the light”. And in no. 110, “on the same”, where he says
that the insatiable Tomb devours all mortals to the bone, leaving nothing but
the deeds that will be judged by God Almighty, he warns at the ending:
“Therefore, O man, take heed of what awaits you”. In the narthex of Dervish
Akin in Selime (s. XI), where monks are buried, there is a long, still unedited
inscription in prose, but obviously based on dodecasyllabic patterns, such as t5
m1thn tr6ceiß, 4nqrzpe, ™n t/ b5ùº ̧ligöbiöß ™stin Ö kösmoß oÏtoß (“Why do you
run in vain, O man, in this life? This world is of short duration”)^9. In the Kale
Kilisesi (s. X–XI) as well as the Eöri Tax Kilisesi (921–944), both in Cappado-
cia, we find the same gnomic verse inscription in the narthex, which served as
burial site. The text can also be found on a marble slab (s. IX–XI) in Panion
in Eastern Thrace. These three verse inscriptions offer many divergent read-
ings which makes it impossible to reconstruct the “original” text. This is
typical of gnomic epigrams. Since gnomic epigrams are meant to be learnt by
heart and since all humans, including the Byzantines, are apt to make mistakes
in the process of memorizing, subtle changes and variants unavoidably creep
into the texts. The inscription in Panion begins as follows: mhdeòß tyólo7tz t!
(^7) PG 88: 793–801 (chapter 6) and 633.
(^8) See A. WEYL CARR, in: ODB, s.v. Peacocks.
(^9) See Y. ÖTÜKEN, in: Suut Kemal Yetkin’e Armaöan. Ankara 1984, 293–316, plate 16, and
N. THIERRY, in: EJórösynon. \Aói6rzma stñn Manölh Catfhd1kh. Athens 1991–1992,
vol. II, 584, n. 14.