Byzantine Poetry from Pisites to Geometers

Gnomic Epigrams 265

gnomes, prosodic and unprosodic, by Georgides, which we find in his gnomol-
ogy.
The monastic epigrams appear to address an audience of beginners, neo-
phytes making their first tottering steps on the spiritual ladder which leads to
heaven, young monks eager to ascend but prone to fall. Everyday problems are
tackled. Petty vices are treated with great verve and portrayed in the darkest
of colours. Do not eat too much. Do not drink too much. Do not talk too much.
Pride is bad. Gossip is bad. Envy is bad. Taking oaths is bad. Sex is bad. And
so on and so forth. In a paraenetic poem attributed to John Nesteutes monks
are even warned not to cough in front of others, not to enter a cell without first
knocking on the door and not to yawn ostentatiously^63. What these down-to-
earth instructions teach us is that, despite the lofty theories about the ideal life
in Christ put forward in Byzantine monastic treatises, most monks will have
had little talent for the rigorous regime of the St. Anthonies and a healthy
appetite for the pleasures of life they had forsworn on entering the monas-
tery^64. Let me quote a few examples from the corpus of monastic epigrams:

OÉnoy koresqeòß kaò troó0n ämetr5aß

oJk Ìn krat8søß 9don0n kakoscölzn (G 799).

“When you’re sated with wine and too much food, you’ll not be able to
resist frivolous desires”.

Plhr0n äpa7stzß tën seayto ̄ gast6ra

Œlaß par6xeiß œatro¦ß äeò ó1goiß (G 888).

“By stuffing your stomach without ever stopping you’ll just feed the
doctors who are always hungry”.

\Iñß s5dhron dapan) kaq\ 9m6ran

kaò mnhs5kakon 9 ponhr5a pl6on (G 529)^65.

“Rust eats into iron day after day; but not as much as malice eats up the
spiteful”

\Anër órönimoß oJk Çcei polloáß lögoyߺ

tñ g2r lale¦n periss2 t‰ß ägroik5aß (G 141).

(^63) Ed. PITRA 1864–68: II, 235–236.
(^64) See also the five gnomic epigrams by Eustathios of Ikonion (late eleventh century) in
Laur. LXX 20: ed. BANDINI 1763–70: II, 679–680 and COUGNY 1890: IV, no. 116 [the first
of these epigrams is also found in a manuscript of the Little Catechesis by Theodore of
Stoudios, Marc. II 60 (a. 1586), fol. 240].
(^65) Cf. Antisthenes as quoted by Laert. Diog. VI 5: Ôsper Üpñ to ̄ œo ̄ tñ s5dhron, oŒtzß Çlege
toáß óqoneroáß Üpñ to ̄ œd5oy Èqoyß katesq5esqai.