Rhetoric and style in Gregory's letters
the letters: a general introduction Rhetoric and style in Gregory's letters Gregory was a professional rhetorician for eight years, and rhetoric marks his style in every way. Of course, when we say 'rhetoric', we must eschew any hint of a pejorative sense as in 'mere rhetoric'. It means a highly trained ability to express oneself skilfully in words by one whose mind is well stocked not only with elegant examples of word-play but also with the highest representatives of Hellenic culture, pre-eminently philosophy, but also the sciences of the day.
At its best it enables the practitioner to express the sincerest and most transparent sentiments in an eloquent and persuasive manner.
Traditional Hellenic culture and a thoughtful, enquiring and impassioned Christian faith cohabited in Gregory to a remarkable degree, making for his complex and versatile personality. The art of rhetoric became second nature to Gregory and is always in evidence in his writing, even in such impromptu cries of the heart as letter 22.
The relative restraint in its use that was characteristic of Basil was not true of Gregory.
The intention here is to give the reader in English a sufficient overview of Gregory's style to enhance the appreciation of his letters.6 We begin our survey by noting aspects of his vocabulary, and then a few of his most characteristic rhetorical figures.
Gregory constantly sought out variety, nuance and texture, and hence the vocabulary of his letters, as in his other works is rich, dense and supple, not to mention at times obscure. Examples of some of his most characteristic features are as follows:
• The use of 'compound-compound' words, i.e. words with double and occasionally even triple qualifying prefixes, most frequently with the prefix sune.g. énep¤mikton (15.1), prosanapaÊousa (2.6), •jelãfrunaw (20.18, not found in lexicon), sunepespãsato (25.13), §panaklÆteon 4.4, kayuperke¤mena
(25.14), sunepinoe›tai (35.4c) prokataugasy°nta, (35.4c), parempt≈wevw, (35.4i), §panaklçsyai (35.5c), ÍperanabebhkÒtvn (35.5h), diejagÒmenon
(35.7a), sunupolambãnein 33.7d.
6 Technical studies of Gregory's style begin with L. Méridier, L'influence de la seconde sophistique sur l'oeuvre de Grégoire de Nysse (Rennes, 1906). Owen, E. C. E., 'St Gregory of Nysa: Grammar, Vocabulary and Style', Journal of Theological Studies 26
(1925), 64–71, dealing with the Contra Eunomium, may be usefully consulted; see now the magisterial C. Klock, Untersuchungen zu Stil and Rhythmus bei Gregor von Nyssa. Ein beitrag zum Rhetorikverständnis der griechischen Väter (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1987). For a more extended treatment of style in the letters, see especially Maraval, Lettres, 'Le lettré', 43–50.
the letters: a general introduction
• nealogism and hapax: Gregory is not only versatile but inventive with words, often making them up by means of prefixes, especially sun-.
Lampe's Patristic Lexicon often cites his works for instances of hapax (attested once). Examples are summetevropore›n (3.2), éntep›rai (7.1), toÁw yaumatopoioËntaw (9.1), ≤mifan«w (12.1), dusgr¤piston (26.1), sumpared°jato
(33.4j).
• He has a fund of rare and poetic words, pro#pãrjasa (1.35), katakirnçtai (33.5d), neoyal∞ (12.1) Dorian dialect, kataprodidÒnai (33.1d.).
Of the figures of rhetoric perhaps the most recognizable in Gregory is redundancy, that is, needless overstatement for the sake of effect.
The same idea is repeated in alternative ways not strictly required for the sense. To give a few examples: 'The gifts that nature bestows on the place as it adorns the land with unstudied grace' 20.5; 'why is it only then, when the night has advanced to its further limit and the nocturnal increase admits no more addition . . .' 4.1; that the illumined life should reach its maximum extent as it grows through increments of the good, 4.7, 'things plural and numerically diverse'
35.2a.
Gregory tends to an elaborate periodic style. Consider the introduction of letter 18 for example, or the single sentence of intricate argument in 3.24 which occupies 18 lines in Maraval, or the lengthy rhetorical question of 4.4 which covers 14 lines in Maraval, and the long complicated sentence at 7.4 expressed somewhat obscurely.
He is always attuned to the oral quality of his language in what was after all very much an oral culture. His written treatises and letters were usually destined not for private sight reading but to be read out loud (declaimed?) and often shared in company, as he himself describes if in letters 13 and 15. Accordingly he made much use of devices of resonance. He often repeats the same word in different forms with slightly altered meanings (paronomasia, parechesis). An example is the play on words which fills the entire brief note which is letter 23: fe¤domai poll«n lÒgvn, §peidØ fe¤domai t«n s«n kamãtvn . . . ßjei tª Faid¤mƒ. Some other very obvious examples are: khrussom°nhw . . . khrÊssousi . . . khrussomenƒ 3.9; ÑVw kalå t«n kal«n . . . toË prototÊpou kãllouw 18.1. The use can actually be very effective in a theological context: mÒnow monogen«w §k toË égennÆtou f≈tow 35.4e.
Devices of court-room pleading add vividness. There is, for example, the rhetorical question and prosopopoiia (invoking the person concerned) in 2.2: 'let him ask himself why something that neither renders us blessed nor directs us to the Kingdom should be made
the letters: a general introduction an object of our zeal?' Compare also the series of forensic questions as in a Stoic diatribe, in 3.23–24.
Touches of irony and humour also add a vivid quality. The droll irony of 1.12 where he speaks of Helladius' admitting him to the 'inner shrine' might even verge on sarcastic. Such irony fills the letter. More pleasant and more familiar with Gregory is irony used with a gentle humour, in 15.3, for example, when he speaks of 'stirring the boldness of youth with the eagerness of old age', or when in 25.16 Mammon is personified as having a grudge against Gregory for his poverty. In 27.1–2, he even parodies the pretensions of rhetoricians, when he jests in reply to Stagirius's light mockery about the 'secret sanctuary' of Plato, and in 27.4 when he compares the number of rafters to the number of soldiers at Thermopylae.
Gregory shared the keenness of contemporary orators for antithesis and parallelism in all their varieties. Of course, the very nature of classical Greek language seems almost scored for antithesis, but it was a feature especially cultivated in the late 4th century 'sophistic'. Excellent examples of antithesis occur in letter 2, in 2.18, when he says Scripture teaches us to 'quit the body to be with the Lord (2 Cor
5.8) rather than quit Cappadocia to be in Palestine', and in letter 2.20: with 'according to the analogy of faith, not according to their absence in Jerusalem'. In 18.9 he observes that his enemies are
'retentive of what they have learned and inventive of what they have not learned'. An excellent example of parallelism, including resonant word repetition occurs at 2.7: 'Where the ear is contaminated, and the eye is contaminated, how is the heart not also contaminated?'
A sharp form of antithesis is paradox, which in its most distilled form, oxymoron, really came into its own when dealing with aspects of the Christian faith, as when Gregory tries to express the realization of the Incarnation in 35.4n as 'a new and strange kind of conjoined separation and separated conjunction.'
Another very distinctive feature of Gregory's style is his use of hyperbole or exaggeration. An excellent specimen occurs in letter
20, where he grandiloquently extols Vanota as putting into the shade all the descriptions of renowned beauties in classical literature.
In using Scriptural texts, Gregory is more allusive and less given to express citation than is Basil, e.g. in the following 24.5: 'when we learnt of 'the Son' we were taught the power shining forth from the first cause to uphold all things (cf. Heb 1.3);' the Scriptural text is understood implicitly and its significance is conveyed without necessarily using the exact terms.
the letters: a general introduction
Gregory's skill in imagery is a very important aspect of his style.
Under this heading I include generally simile, metaphor and ecphrasis or word-pictures. His whole mind is geared to analogy, and indeed it is one of his great gifts as a theologian to be able to suggest the most abstruse concepts by way of similes and metaphors. Sometimes he was very apposite, at other times he could be unrestrained and over elaborate. Some of his similes and metaphors are as follows:
• 2.1 craftsman using a ruler = using the Gospel sayings as a guide of life.
• 3.6–7 the variegated scales of the serpent a figure of the versatility of evil.
• 3.14 simile of the sun's ray illumining the dark = God's illuming our darkness with the true light.
• 3.15 art of medicine = the curative power of divinity in our human nature.
• 4.1 winter solstice and the 'turning' of the light = the increase of the true Light.
• 10.1 The first signs of Spring, = consolation from a friend amidst affliction.
• 12.3 The congealing of ice in winter = the behaviour of locals in their inventiveness for evil.
• 17.4–5 leaks from conduits = secessionists from the church, bishop = administrator of the irrigation canals.
• 17.19–20 ship's pilot = bishop, ships = churches.
• 17.21 metal-worker = bishop.
• 18.7 battlefield manoeuvres = his opponents' methods.
• 19.1–3 portrait-painting = verbal descriptions of persons.
• 19.10 thirsty traveller at noon = himself seeking Macrina.
• 20.8 flare from a great beacon-tower = beauty of a country villa.
• 22.1–2 Jonah in the belly of the whale = his detention at Sebasteia.
• 28.1 erotic language in a double transposition: thorns of roses = lover's jabs = caustic comments from a friend.
Gregory's powers of vivid description are seen most clearly in his use of ecphrasis, those vivid evocations of scenes from nature and human activity that add such interest and colour to his narrative.
Some instances are:
• 1.12, the ambiguities and emotional tensions of a profoundly uncomfortable human encounter; the whole letter is a remarkable description of his visit to Helladius in the mountains.