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Greek Mysteries in the Confession of St. Cyprian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Martin P. Nilsson
Martin P. Nilsson
Affiliation:
Lund University
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Extract

Precisely a hundred years ago Preller called attention to a curious passage in the Confession of St. Cyprian describing certain Greek mysteries and printed the text adding a few brief notes. This Cyprian was a famous magician who was converted to Christianity, the prototype of Dr. Faust, and is often confused with his namesake, the bishop of Carthage. His legend became very popular, there are Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, and Arabic versions, and it has been much discussed. The Confession, so called because in it Cyprian speaks in his own words, was originally independent and later, but before Eudocia's metaphrasis, was inserted between the first book, the Conversion, and the third book, the Martyrdom, of the Greek version. The Empress Eudocia who married Theodosius II in A.D. 421 put the legend into verse, presumably in her old age; she included the Confession, which also was known to Gregory Nazianzen who in A.D. 379 delivered a sermon on St. Cyprian.4 This is valuable because it determines the time in which the Confession was composed, somewhat before A.D. 379. Thus it is roughly contemporary with the Neoplatonic circle of the Emperor Julian and was written at a time when paganism was still a living reality, a fact which adds to the importance of the passage.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , July 1947 , pp. 167 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1947

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References

1 Preller, L., Beiträge zur Religionsgeschichte des Altertums, Philologus, I, 1846. p. 349 ffGoogle Scholar.

2 Zahn, Th., Cyprian von Antiochien, 1882Google Scholar, is fundamental. Bibliography in Festugière, A. J., La révélation d'Hermès Trismegiste, I, 1944, p. 369 ffGoogle Scholar. The paper which Festugiere was not able to consult, Ryssel, V., Der Urtext der Cypriansage, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, CX, 1903, p. 273 ff.Google Scholar, contains translations of Syriac and Arabic texts.

3 Eudociae Augustae etc. carminum graecorum reliquiae, ed. A. Ludwich, 1897; Migne, Patrologia graeca, vol. 85, p. 846 ff.

4 Orat. XXIV, 8–12 in Migne, Patrologia, vol. 65, p. 1169 ff.

5 The text is printed by Preller 1. c. and in Acta Sanctorum, Septemb. vol. VII, 1760, p. 222 ff.; p. 204 ff. in the edition of 1867 which I have used; for textual criticism see the footnotes of Festugière, I. c. p. 38 f. In the section describing the mysteries on Mt. Olympus I take over the translation of Nock, Cyprian, of Antioch, , Journal of Theological Studies, XXVIII, 1927, p. 411 ffGoogle Scholar.

6 I add the corresponding verse of Eudocia's metaphrasis, because it follows the original pretty closely and shows how she understood its words. Eudocia, II, v. 19, Δηοῖ δᾷδας ἀνῆψα, Κόρης δʼ ἀργεννὸν ὑπέστην πένθος.

7 Eudocia, II, V. 24, ἔνθα τινῶν ἔπεων ἦχον καὶ δοῦπον ἄκουον, λεῦσα πόας πρέμνους τε ὅσον θαμβῆσα ὀπωπήν.

8 Eudocia, II, v. 53, ἦν δὲ Τιθωνιάδος ἔροτις λευχείμονος Ἠοῦς. Eudocia read Ἠοῦς instead of Ἤρας, but this cannot be right.

9 Eudocia, II, V. 59, ἐν Σπάρτη ἔσιδον βρέτας ὄβριμον ὄϕρα δαείην ὑλομενῆ, πολύμορϕον ἄγαν ϕύσιν ἠδὲ μεταλλάξ, ψήϕονς τε γραϕίδας τε χαρακτῆρας δέ τι κόσμου γραιώδεις μὐθονς τε κτλ. Here Eudocia has put in something of her own.

10 Eudocia, II, V. 67, κληδόνας ἀιζηῶν τοί κεν τὰ ἔπειθʼ ὀρόωσι.

11 Eudocia, II, V. 71, ὄγκους αὶματόεντας ὄσοι μέλεα χραίνουσίν, εὖτε δὲ μνρμήκων βρὠμη κατὰ ἄψεα βαἰνει.

12 Eudocia, II, V. 80, εἴως ἠπιδανοῦς ἀπάτης καὶ αἰσυλοεργῶν. Sense doubtful, see Festugière, l. c. p. 39, n. 3.

13 Translated by Festugière l. c. p. 56 f.; idem., Revue biblique, XLVIII, 1939, p. 45 ff.; Cumont, Revue philologique, XLII, 1918, p. 85 f.; Reitzenstein, Hellenistische Mysterienreligionen, 3rd ed., p. 127 f.; Diller s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa.

14 Hippolyt, refutatio haereseon, VI, 9–18.

15 Plutarch, quaest. graecae, 12, p. 293 C, and de def. orac, p. 418 A; briefly Strabo, VIII, p. 422.

16 My Griechische Feste, p. 150 ff.; W. R. Halliday, The Greek Questions of Plutarch, p. 67 f.

17 This expression Aristophanes, Lysistrata, v. 758 f.; Photius and Hesych s. v. from Phylarchus.

18 The scene is figured on a vase, see Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie, I, p. 1307.

19 Nock's translation seems to be doubtful. ϕαντάζειν can hardly signify ‘to work miracles,’ the common significance is ‘to make visible,’ present to the eye or to the mind. Eudocia's metaphrasis is: II, v. 25, ὅσον θαμβῆσαι ὀπωπήν.

20 Pap. gr. mag., XII, l. 238, and IV, l. 545 f. resp.

21 Eudocia, II, v. 28, αὕτως δʼ ἤματα πολλά, τά πέρ τινες ἔνδον ἀνιγροὶ ϕαντασίην τεύχοντες ἀπηνέες ἀντιπάλαμνοι, (τεύχουσι corr. Ludwich).

22 Here I cannot enter upon this topic, it will be expounded in the second volume of my Geschichte der griechischen Religion.

23 Lucian, de saltatione, 79.

24 Philostratus, vita Apollonii, IV, 21.

25 Dittenberger, Sylloge inscriptionum graecarum, 3rd ed., 1109, 1. 121 f. as compared with l. 65 f.; cf. the mystic interpretation of the hymn to Attis sung in the theatre, Hippolyt, refutatio haereseon, V, 9.

26 See Festugière, l. c. p. 39 n. 1.

27 Plin., Nat. hist., VII, 191; Virg., Georg., I, v. 7 f. et 147 f.; it is a commonplace and there are proverbs referring to the custom. The instances are collected by T. Segerstedt, Ekguden i Dodona, Lund universitets Årsskrift, N.F., Afd. I, Vol. I, No. 1, 1906, p. 32 f.

28 Paus, II, 38, 2.

29 Paus., II, 36, 2 and 17, 4 resp.; Schol. Theocr., XV v. 64.

30 See my Griech. Feste, p. 44 f.; more positive is A. B. Cook, Zeus, III, p. 1043 f.

31 Paus., II, 17, 1.

32 Libanius, XIV, 5, p. 426 Reiske.

33 Plato, Cratylus, p. 404 C.

34 Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, XXIII, 1925, p. 180.

35 A. B. Cook, Zeus, I, p. 25 f.

36 Aeschylus in the Dnaides, fr. 195 Nauck 2nd ed.; cf. my Geschichte der griechischen Religion, I, p. 431 f.

37 Euripides in Chrysippos, fr. 839 Nauck 2nd ed.

38 Paus., III, 16, 7.

39 Paus., III, 16, 11.