Did Gregory of Nyssa Author Diatribes? The Case of "De mortuis"
Abstract
In the article, I have advanced the thesis that De mortuis by Gregory of Nyssa is a diatribe which is why it differs from his other writings on resurrection, namely De anima et resurrectione and De opificio hominis. Actually, it is not only different from them, but contains contradictions in itself as a customary rhetorical argumentation in utramque partem. De mortuis is a masterpiece of philosophical speech, focused on morality; its goal is to convince the audience to change their habits of grieving, rather than to provide ontological explanations. As its possible addressee, I have identified three milieus, out of which I am inclined to point at Antioch as the most probable place of its delivery.
Keywords:
Gregory of Nyssa, Diatribe, Cynicism, Resurrection, Patristic philosophy, Antioch on the OrontesSupporting Agencies:
Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Poland entitled “National Programme for the Development of the Humanities”, project number NPRH/U22/SN/507048/2021/11References
Diogenes Laërtius, Vitae philosophorum, ed. T. Dorandi, Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Cambridge 2013.
Gregorius Nyssenus, Contra fatum, ed. J.A. McDonough, GNO 3/2, Leiden – New York – København – Köln 1987, p. 29-63.
Gregorius Nyssenus, De anima et resurrectione, ed. A. Spira, GNO 3/3, Leiden – Boston 2014.
Gregorius Nyssenus, De infantibus preamature abreptis, ed. H. Hörner, GNO 3/2, Leiden – New York – København – Köln 1987, p. 65-97.
Gregorius Nyssenus, De mortuis, ed. G. Heil, GNO 9, Leiden 1967, p. 28-68; Gregorio di Nissa, Discorso sui difunti, ed. G. Lozza, Torino 1991; Gregory of Nyssa, A Discourse on the Dead, tr. B.E. Daley, in: Greogry of Nyssa, On Death and Eternal Life, Yonkers 2022, p. 2-36.
Gregorius Nyssenus, De opificio hominis, PG 44, 124-256.
Gregorius Nyssenus, De professione christiana, ed. W. Jaeger, GNO 8/1, Leiden 1963, p. 129-142.
Gregorius Nyssenus, Epistulae, ed. G. Pasquali, GNO 8/2, Leiden 1959; Grégoire de Nysse, Lettres, ed. et tr. P. Maraval, SCh 363, Paris 1990; Gregorio di Nissa, Epistole, tr. R. Crisculo, Napoli 1981; Gregory of Nyssa, Letters, tr. A. Silvas, Leiden – Boston 2007.
Gregorius Nyssenus, In Canticum Canticorum, ed. H. Langerbeck, GNO 6, Leiden 1960.
Gregorius Nyssenus, Oratio catechetica, E. Mühlenberg, GNO 3 /4, Leiden – New York – Köln 1996.
Gregorius Nyssenus, In sanctum Pascha vulgo in Christi resurrectionem oratio III, ed. E. Gebhardt, GNO 9, Leiden 1967, p. 245-270.
Gregorius Nyssenus, Vita sanctae Macrinae, ed. V. Woods Callahan, GNO 8/1, Leiden 1963, p. 370-414.
Joannes Chrysostomus, Homiliae de statuis ad populum Antiochenum habitae, PG 49, 15-220.
Lucianus Samosatenus, Dialogi deorum, ed. M.D. Macleod, Lucian, v. 7, Cambridge 1961, p. 240-352.
Lucianus Samosatenus, Menippus sive necyomantia, ed. A.M. Harmon, Lucian, v. 4, Cambridge 1925, p. 72-108.
Lucianus Samosatenus, Revivescentes sive piscator, ed. A.M. Harmon, Lucian, v. 3, Cambridge 1921, p. 2-80.
Plutarchus, Consolatio ad Apollonium, ed. F.C. Babbitt, Plutarch’s moralia, v. 2, Cambridge 1928, p. 108-210.
Alexandre M., Le De mortuis de Grégoire de Nysse, in: Studia Patristica, v. 1/1: Papers presented to the Second International Conference on Patristic Studies held at Christ Church, Oxford, 1955, ed. F.L. Cross, Berlin 1970, p. 35-43.
Bartelink G.J.M., Adoption et rejet des topiques profanes chez les panegyristes et biographes chrétiens de langue grecque, “Siculorum Gymnasium NS” 39 (1986) p. 25-40.
Boersma H., Embodiment and virtue in Gregory of Nyssa, Oxford 2013.
Daley B.E., ‘A Hope for Worms.’ Early Christian Hope, w: Resurrection: Theological and Scientific Assessments, ed. T. Peters – R.J. Russell – M. Welker, Grand Rapids 2002, p. 136-164.
Daley B.E., The Ripening of Salvation: Hope for Resurrection in the Early Church, “Communio. International Catholic Review” 17 (1990) p. 27-49.
Daniélou J., La chronologie des oeuvres de Grégoire de Nysse, in: Studia Patristica, v. 7: Papers presented to the Fourth International Conference on Patristic Studies held at Christ Church, Oxford, 1963, ed. F.L. Cross, Berlin 1966, p. 159-169.
Daniélou J., L’être et le temps chez Grégoire de Nysse, Leiden 1970.
Daniélou J., Le quatriéme siècle. Grégoire de Nysse et son milieu, Paris 1975.
Daniélou J., La résurrection des corps chez Grégoire de Nysse, “Vigiliae Christianae” 7/3 (1953) p. 154-170.
De Blasi A., (Im)pious Sisterhood: Maximus the Cynic’s Dangerous Liaisons. A new conjecture on Greg. Naz. carm. II 1, 41, Contra Maximum, “Studia Philologica Valentina” 26 (2024) p. 161-183.
Dennis T.J., Gregory of Nyssa on the Resurrection of the Body, in: The Easter Sermons of Gregory of Nyssa. A Translation and Commentary, ed. A. Spira – C. Klock, Philadelphia 1981, p. 55-80.
Dorival G., Cyniques et Chrétiens au temps des Pères grecs, in: Valeurs dans le stoïcisme. Du Portique à nos jours. Mélanges en l’honneur de M. le Doyen Spanneut, Lille 1993, p. 57-88.
Drobner H., Die Beredsamkeit Gregors von Nyssa im Urteil der Neuzeit, in: Studia Patristica, v. 18/3: Papers presented at the Ninth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 1983. Second Century, Tertullian to Nicaea in the West, Clement and Origen, Cappadocian Fathers, ed. E.A. Livingstone, Oxford – New York 1982, p. 1084-1094.
Dudley D.R., A History of Cynicism, London 1937.
Fatti F., Eustazio di Sebaste, Eustazio filosofo: un ipotesi sul destinatario di Bas. ep. 1 e sull’identità di Eunap. VS VI, 5, 1‑6; 5; 8, 3‑9, in: Church, Society and Monasticism. Acts of the International Symposium, Rome, May 31-June 3, 2006, ed. E. López-Tello García – B. Selene Zorzi, Sankt Ottilien 2009, p. 443-473.
Fatti F., Nei panni del vescovo. Gregorio, Basilio e il filosofo Eustazio, in: Le trasformazioni delle elites in età tardoantica. Atti del Convegno Intemazionale (Perugia, 15-16 marzo 2004), ed. R. Lizzi Testa, Roma 2006, p. 177-238.
Giangrande L., The Use of Spoudaiogeloion in Greek and Roman Literature, The Hague – Paris 1972.
Grant R.M., Athenagoras or Pseudo-Athenagoras, “Harvard Theological Review” 47/2 (1954) p. 121-129.
Gregg R.C., Consolation Philosophy. Greek and Christian Paideia in Basil and the Two Gregories, Cambridge 1975.
Hahn J., Die Olympischen Spiele von Antiochia: Zu den Wandlungen eines Agons im spätantiken Imperium, in: Der gymnische Agon in der Spätantike, ed. A. Gutsfeld – S. Lehmann, Gutenberg 2013, p. 75-92.
Kelly J.N.D., Early Christian Doctrines, London 1968.
Klock C., Gregors Osterpredigten in ihrer literarhistorischen Tradition, in: The Easter Sermons of Gregory of Nyssa. Translation and Commentary. Proceedings of the Fourth International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa, Cambridge, England: 11-15 September, 1978, ed. A. Spira – C. Klock, Cambridge 1981, p. 319-354.
Klock C., Untersuchungen zu Stil und Rhythmus bei Gregor von Nyssa, Frankfurt am Main 1987.
Lauxtermann M.D., Byzantine poetry from Pisides to Geometres: texts and contexts, v. 2, Wien 2019.
Lozza G., Il De mortuis di Gregorio Nisseno fra retorica e filosofia, “Acme” 39 (1986) p. 41-48.
Lozza G., Introduzione, in: Gregorio di Nissa, Discorso sui difunti, ed. G. Lozza, Torino 1991, p. 5-31.
Ludlow M., Gregory of Nyssa and the Body: Do Recent Readings ignore a Development in his Thought?, in: Studia Patristica, v. 41: Papers presented at the Fourteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2003. Orientalia, Clement, Origen, Athanasius, The Cappadocians, Chrysostom, ed. F. Young – M. Edwards – P. Parvis, Leuven – Paris – Dudley 2006, p. 369-374.
Mann F., Gregor, rhetor et pastor: Interpretation des Proömiums der Schrift Gregors von Nyssa “De infantibus praemature abreptis”, “Vigiliae Christianae” 31/2 (1977) p. 126-147.
Meissner H., Rhetorik und Theologie: der Dialog Gregors von Nyssa De anima et resurrectione, Frankfurt am Main 1991.
Moles J.L., Diatribe, in: Oxford Classical Dictionary https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.2146 (accessed: 03.03.2025).
The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World, ed. J. Roberts, Oxford 2016.
Owen E., St Gregory of Nyssa. Grammar, Vocabulary, and Style, “Journal of Theological Studies” 26 (1924) p. 64-71.
Peroli E., Platonismo e l’antropologia filosofica di Gregorio di Nissa, Milano 1993.
Pizzolato L.F., La “consolatio” cristiana per la morte nel sec. IV. Riflessioni metodologiche e tematiche, “Civiltà classica e cristiana” 6 (1985) p. 441-474.
Przyszychowska M., Apokatastasis and Eternal Hell, in: Studia Patristica, v. 101: Gregory of Nyssa’s Mystical Eschatology, ed. G. Maspero – M. Brugarolas – I. Vigorelli, Leuven – Paris – Bristol 2021, p. 215-222.
Przyszychowska M., Did Eustathius the Philosopher Become Eustathius of Sebastea? A Contribution to Federico Fatti’s Hypothesis, “Vox Patrum” 91 (2024) p. 541-562.
Przyszychowska M., Enkomiony ku czci Szczepana. Wstęp, in: Grzegorz z Nyssy, Enkomiony ku czci męczenników, tr. M. Przyszychowska, ed. M. Przyszychowska – E. Wipszycka, Fundamenta 5, Kraków – Warszawa 2025, p. 17-39.
Przyszychowska M., Is the human body part of the image of God according to Gregory of Nyssa?, in: Imago Dei. Forscher aus dem Osten und Westen Europas an den Quellen des gemeinsamen Glaubens. Studientagung L’viv, 12.-14. September 2019 “Imago Dei”, ed. T. Hainthaler – F. Mali – G. Emmenegger – A. Morozov, Innsbruck 2021, p. 271-283.
Przyszychowska M., Macrina the Younger as a Substitute for Eustathius the Philosopher/Eustathius of Sebastea, Warsaw 2022.
Schenkeveld D.M., Philosophical Prose, in: Handbook of Classical Rhetoric in the Hellenistic Period (330 B.C.-A.D.400), ed. S.E. Porter, Boston – Leiden 2001, p. 195-264.
Stępień T., The Sin of Embodiment in Platonic Tradition, w: Inherited sin? Erbsünde? Forscher aus dem Osten und Westen Europas an den Quellen des gemeinsamen Glaubens. Studientagung Wien, 15.-19. September 2021, ed. T. Hainthaler – F. Mali – G. Emmenegger – A. Morozov, Innsbruck 2024, p. 73-84.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Papers published in Vox Patrum are covered by the Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) licence. Authors and users can use published works licensed under the CC-BY-ND since 2018. For earlier publications, copyrights are available under fair use rights in accordance with the Act of February 4, 1994 on copyrights and related rights.
