Letter 57 (372-375)
THE FATHERS SPEAK
[AaxavllCPOP0<;], like other lands are auriferous; you feed on meadow· greens, but wheat is for you a mythical blessedness and bread is, as they say, angelic bread, hoped for and not assured. So, kindly send us more of your vegetables; otherwise, we will threaten you with keeping our wheat, and then we shall see if it is true that the cicadas feed on dew only.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO THEKLA,
LETTER 57 (372-375)
In the course of last season, a severe frost raged in our parts, and damaged the "eyes" [~A.e<pcxp(6ac:] which were ready to burst open in our vinyards. Instead they dried up, and dry and empty are our drinking cups, Now, what prompts us to lament over the sterility of our orchards on the tragic mode? ]t is my wish that you become a vine in bloom, according to Solomon's Song of Songs [2: 131, or a trellis laden with fruit; not that you should bring forth grapes, but that you would press the juice of the grapes for those who are thirsty. And who are those thirsty people? The laborers who work at the wall around our church. I have none of our mountain wine to refresh them. I have no other recourse but to your right hand full of grapes; may this fountain overflow toward us! If you hurry, you will relieve many parched throats, and I shall be the first to eXUlt, as I come begging in Attic fashion!