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The Eyes Infected by Evil: Basil of Caesarea's Homily, On Envy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Vasiliki Limberis
Vasiliki Limberis
Affiliation:
Temple University
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Extract

Basil wrote the homily On Envy around 364, after he was ordained a presbyter by Eusebius of Caesarea. He probably intended it as a Lenten sermon for his congregation in Caesarea, which was largely composed of catechumens. The homily has received very little attention from scholars, although, along with nine other homilies, it has been classified as one of the moral treatises, rather than as an exegetic or panegyric work. Most recent scholarship has deemed it an authentic homily of Basil's. One can readily see why On Envy has been overlooked by historical theologians: the treatise is didactically straightforward, theologically and philosophically unsophisticated, and in no way combats Arian opponents. There are, how-ever, other reasons to find On Envy of interest. The treatise documents Basil's attempt to confront a mode of behavior that implicitly questions the church's authority. Simply stated, On Envy is Basil's direct effort to wrest control over the evil eye for the church. What is significant about the homily is that it demonstrates how Basil continued to work within the indigenous code of Mediterranean social behavior that was dominated by honor, shame, revenge, and envy. Thus what Basil offered his congregation as a solution to the grave problem of envy is really a recasting of the pursuit of virtue, so common to Christian Neoplatonists, into the Mediterranean social code. Virtue is rewarded by the most valued possession: honor.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 84 , Issue 2 , April 1991 , pp. 163 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1991

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References

1 Fedwick, Paul J., The Church and the Charisma of Leadership in Basil of Caesarea (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1979) 140.Google Scholar

2 NPNF 8. lv.

3 , Fedwick, The Church and the Charisma; and Jean , Bernardi, La predication des Peres cappadociens. Le predicateur et son auditoire (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1968) 59.Google Scholar

4 Basil documents this behavior in his Commentary on Isaiah and Homily on Psalm 45: (“Is the child sick? You look around everywhere for a spell or else you place useless charms around the innocent child's neck. Finally with no hope you run to a doctor and to drugs, since you have already neglected the saving power. And if your sleep disturbs you, you run to a dream reader. And if you are frightened by an enemy, you consider a protector from among men.”) (Homily on Psalm 45, PG 29.417 ; , Fedwick [The Church and the Charisma, 148]Google Scholar dates this commentary to 375 CE); the Commentary on Isaiah catalogues dream readers, divining rods, oracle-readers and fortune-tellers, seances, worshiping idols of stone, wood, copper and gold, and reciting the words of the Gospel like incantations (PG 30. 499, 500, 501). This work is considered by Fedwick and others to be spurious, although Fedwick (The Church and the Charisma, 154) says, “This is certainly the work of a Cappadocian of the fourth century.”

5 PG 31.372 (38) øøονο λαþ παøοσ ονσοþιωτεþν σüσαισ ανøþωπων εüøνεται.

6 PG 31. 373 (41) ”.

7 PG 31. 373 (45) εν τω βαøει κατεσει τνν σπøοüα οντωσ ο øøονοσ øιλιασ εατιν αþþωστνüα.

8 PG 31. 380 (52) ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν ισιον εøπ τ øιτον νοøνüα, οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα.

9 PG 31. 381 (57).

10 PG 31. 373 (43); 380 (53); 373 (44). ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν ισιον εøπ τ øιτον νοøνüα, οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα.

11 PG 31. 373 (44) ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν ισιον εøπ τ øιτον νοøνüα, οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα.

12 PG 31. 380 (57) ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν ισιον εøπ τ øιτον νοøνüα, οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα.

13 PG 31. 381 (58) εν τω βαøει κατεσει τνν σπøοüα οντωσ ο øøονοσ øιλιασ εατιν αþþωστνüα

14 PG 31. 373 (45) εν τω βαøει κατεσει τνν σπøοüα.

15 PG 31. 373-76 (45) εν τω βαøει κατεσει τνν σπøοüα οντωσ ο øøονοσ øιλιασ εατιν αþþωστνüα.

16 PG 31. 376 (45).

17 PG 31. 385 (74).

18 PG 31. 377 (48) εοτιν αþþωøτνüα ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν ισιον εøπ τ øιτον νοøνüα, οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ εοτιν αþþωøτνüαεν.

19 PG 31. 376 (46).

20 In fact the biblical text relates twice that an “evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul” (1 Sam 18:10; 19:9).

21 1 Samuel 24.

22 PG 31. 376 (48) εοτιν αþþωøτνüα ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν.

23 PG 31. 377 (48) εοτιν αþþωøτνüα ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν;

24 PG 31. 377 (48).

25 PG 31. 377 (49).

26 PG 31. 376 (45).

27 Ibid.

28 Paul (Rom 1:29-30) also included rivalry, treachery, and malevolence.

29 PG 31. 377 (49) ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν ισιον εøπ τ øιτον νοøνüα, οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα.

30 PG 31. 380 (55-56);

31 Pitt-Rivers, Julian, “Honour and Social Status,” 19–77Google Scholar ; Peristiany, Jean G., “Honour and Shame in a Cypriot Highland Village,” 171–90Google Scholar ; Campbell, John K., “Honour and the Devil,” 139–70Google Scholar ; all in Peristiany, Jean G., ed., Honour and Shame. The Values of Mediterranean Society (1966; reprinted Chicago: Midway Press, 1974)Google Scholar.

32 David D. Gilmore, “The Shame of Dishonor,” in idem, ed., Honor and Shame and the Unity of the Mediterranean (Washington, DC: American Anthropological Association, 1987) 3.

33 Stanley Brandes, “Reflections on Honor and Shame in the Mediterranean,” in , Gilmore, Honor and Shame, 131Google Scholar.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 , Campbell, “Honour and the Devil,” 142–43Google Scholar ; see also Schneider, Jane, “Of Vigilance and Virgins: Honor, Shame, and Access to Resources in Mediterranean Society,” Ethnology 10 (1971) 1–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 , Campbell, “Honour and the Devil,” 144.Google Scholar

38 Ibid., 50; and David D. Gilmore, “Honor, Honesty, Shame: Male Status in Contemporary Andalusia,” in , Gilmore, Honor and Shame, 90–103Google Scholar . “Propriety” conveys the positive connotation to the word “shame” in Greek and in other languages of the Mediterranean region.

39 , Gilmore, “The Shame of Dishonor,” 4.Google Scholar

40 See Pitt-Rivers and Peristiany discussed in , Gilmore, “The Shame of Dishonor,” 5Google Scholar ; and Michael Herzfeld, “As in Your Own House,” in , Gilmore, Honor and Shame, 86–87Google Scholar.

41 , Gilmore, “The Shame of Dishonor,” 5.Google Scholar

42 , Brandes, “Reflections,” 132.Google Scholar

43 , Campbell, “Honour and the Devil,” 157.Google Scholar

43 Ibid.

45 Ibid., 165.

46 Davis, John, People of the Mediterranean (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977)Google Scholar

47 Ibid., 77-78.

48 Ensslin, W., “The Reforms of Diocletian,” CAH 12. 401.Google Scholar

49 Ibid., 12. 396.

50 Ibid., 12. 404.

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53 , Ennslin, “Reforms,” 12. 402.Google Scholar

54 “Epilogue,” 12. 708-9. See also , Bury, History, 2. 58.Google Scholar

55 PG 31. 373 (42) ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν ισιον εøπ τ øιτον νοøνüα, οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα.

56 PG 31. 373 (44); see n. 11.

57 PG 31. 377 (50) οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν ισιον εøπ τ øιτον νοøνüα.

58 Eccl 4:4 in the LXX reads, οτι αντο σνλοσ ανλοσ οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα.

59 PG 31. 380 (51-52).

60 Ibid., and see nn. 57, 11.

61 PG 31. 373 (42-43).

62 PG 31. 373 (43)

63 Ibid., οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ εοτινσ

64 Ibid., σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλια;

65 PG 31. 381 (58-59).

66 It must be noted that Basil gives no evidence in the treatise for the presence of honor connected to gender.

67 PG 31. 373 (41) σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα ο øøονοσ.

68 PG 31. 380 (53-55).

69 Ibid.

70 The more than one hundred references to the evil eye in these authors' works are cited in Walcot, Peter, Envy and the Greeks: A Study of Human Behavior (Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1978) 107–15Google Scholar.

71 Ibid., 79.

72 , PlutarchQuaestiones Convivales 5.7. 681Google Scholar in , PlutarchMoralia (LCL; 16 vols.; trans. Clement, Paul A.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969) 8. 425Google Scholar.

73 Ibid., 8. 429.

74 Ibid.

75 Ibid.; LCL, 8. 431, σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüαν Cf. Basil (PG 31. 380 [54]).

76 Heliodorus Aethiopica 4.5.5.

77 Papyrus Abinnaeus 35, 28-29; as quoted in , Walcot, Envy, 86Google Scholar.

78 Russell, James, “The Evil Eye in Early Byzantine Society,” Jahrbuch der osterreichischen Byzantinistik 32 (1982) 539–50.Google Scholar

79 Ibid., 540-42, but for the difficulty of dating the Solomon types see also Bonner, Campbell, Studies in Magical Amulets Chiefly Greco-Egyptian (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1950) 211, 214-15, 221Google Scholar : “Whether the simpler Solomon type was used by Christians or not, there is no doubt that a great number of Christian amulets were derived from it” (p. 211).

80 Vikan, Gary, “Art, Medicine, and Magic in Early Byzantium,” DOP 38 (1984) 80Google Scholar , who quotes McCown, Chester Charlton, ed., The Testament of Solomon (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1922) 94Google Scholar.

81 T. Sol. 4.2, as quoted in , Russell, “The Evil Eye,” 542Google Scholar.

82 , Vikan, “Art,” 79.Google Scholar

83 , Russell, “The Evil Eye,” 540, figs. 1, 2.Google Scholar

84 Ibid., 540, 541, fig. 5.

85 Ibid., 541.

86 Ibid.

87 Ibid. Many of the amulets of the “much-suffering eye” have been found in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine and are documented in Bonner. , Bonner (Studies, 99)Google Scholar says, “The Evil Eye is only as a reverse type, the obverse being regularly a figure on horseback marked as saintly or divine by a halo. These Syrian bronzes seem to date from about the third century down into Byzantine times.”

88 , Russell, “The Evil Eye,” 544.Google Scholar

89 Ibid., 544-45.

90 Brown, Peter, “Sorcery, Demons, and the Rise of Christianity from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages,” in Douglas, Mary, ed., Witchcraft, Confessions, and Accusations (London: Tavistock, 1970) 28.Google Scholar

91 Ibid.

92 Ibid.

93 PG 31. 380 (55-56); see nn. 30 and 68.

94 PG 31. 381 (63) σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα

95 PG 31. 381 (63) σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα

96 PG 31. 384 (63) εν τω βαøει κατεσει τνν σπøοüα οντωσ ο øøονοσ øιλιασ εατιν αþþωστνüα

97 PG 31. 384 (68) an; ο øøονοσ øιλιασ εατιν αþþωστνüα σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα

98 PG 31. 384 (68-69) σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα

99 PG 31. 384 (69).

100 PG 31. 384 (71) σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα

101 PG 31. (69) σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα σ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα

102 PG 31. 384 (71-72)

103 See Greer, Rowan A., The Fear of Freedom (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1989) 81–87Google Scholar ; Rist, John M., Plotinus: The Road to Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967) 156–57Google Scholar.

104 PG 31.385 (72) ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν ισιον εøπ τ øιτον νοøνüα, οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ εοτιν αþþωøτνüα.

105 Ibid., ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν ισιον εøπ τ øιτον νοøνüα, οüτωσ Ο sονοσ øιλιασ

106 Ibid.

107 Ibid.

108 Williams, I. P. Sheldon, “The Greek Christian Platonist Tradition from the Cappadocians to Maximus and Eriugina,” in Armstrong, Arthur H., ed., Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967) 438.Google Scholar

109 Basil Hexaemeron 1.5 (NPNF 8. 54).

110 Seen. 101.

111 Basil Hexaemeron 6.1 (NPNF 8. 82).

112 , Williams, “The Greek Christian,” 427.Google Scholar

113 Ibid., 435.

114 Ibid. 426.

115 , Greer, Fear, 166.Google Scholar

116 , Williams, “The Greek Christian,” 428.Google Scholar

117 Basil Hexaemeron 9.4 (NPNF 8. 103).

118 , Greer, Fear, 169.Google Scholar

119 See n. 98.

120 , Williams, “The Greek Christian,” 427.Google Scholar

121 PG 31. 384 (71) and 385 (72); the same root is used in both instances: ωøπεþ ν εþναιβν ισιον εøπ τ øιτον νοøνüα.

122 Basil Hexaemeron 6.11 (NPNF 8. 89).