Prudentius' Hymns for Hours and Seasons

Liber Cathemerinon

Nicholas Richardson

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781138202474
• eBook ISBN: 9781317500568
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia antigua

Combining faithfulness to the Latin with sensitivity to Prudentius' poetic qualities, Nicholas Richardson offers a precise yet creative verse translation of a major work by one of the most important Christian Latin poets of late antiquity. Prudentius' Hymns for Hours and Seasons also provides readers with a wealth of supporting material which sets the life and output of this poet in its historical, religious and literary context, outlines manuscript and editorial details, discusses metrics and Latinity, and also gives a sense of the individual hymns of the Cathemerinon.

Richardson's fresh translation allows readers unfamiliar with Latin to understand and interpret the poems, as well as offering those who know Latin a translation that keeps very close to the original text. Detailed notes at the end of the book illuminate both the literary and the religious aspects of each hymn. This commentary, along with the introduction and translated text, provides students and scholars alike with a comprehensive volume on one of the key works of later Latin poetry.

Notes

Cath. 1

Modelled on the first of Ambrose’s hymns, Aeterne rerum conditor (‘Eternal maker of the world’), this hymn is also composed for the time of cock-crow. Like Prudentius’ second hymn, and also the last two, it uses the simple Ambrosian meter (iambic dimeter). It echoes several of the main themes of Aeterne rerum, but expands these into a longer and more elaborate form. In the opening part (stanzas 1–12), the voice of the cock is seen as an allegorical figure of Christ, arousing men from the night of sin and death. In the central section (st. 13–16), a brief narrative tells of Peter’s denial of Christ and his penitence after the cock crowed, and this theme modulates into that of Christ’s resurrection from the dead at the same hour of cock-crow (st. 17–18). In the final part (st. 19–25), the call to wakefulness and prayer is equated with the need to cast away worldly ambitions, and a final invocation to Christ to ‘pour into our souls new light’. As elsewhere in these hymns, Christ is seen as Himself the author of light and new life. Cf. Assendelft, 21–3, 59–91 and Walsh, 403–7.

Stanzas 1, 2, 21 and 25 were adopted as an Office hymn, still used for Lauds on Thursdays. The usual chapter reading for this and other weekday Lauds is a good commentary on both this and the second hymn: ‘the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day’ (Rom. 13:12–13, together with the whole context of verses 11–14; cf. on st. 2.1–4).

St. 1.1–4 Cf. Ambrose H. 1.5–6:

The herald of the day sounds forth,

unsleeping, through the depths of night

(translation by Walsh)

In Ambrose, the cock heralds the new day and its labours, whereas Prudentius immediately makes the comparison with Christ, calling us to life.

1.3–4 Cf. Jn 11:11, of Christ raising Lazarus from death, ‘I go to awake him out of sleep’ (vado ut a somno excitem eum). So in 1.3 Christ is ‘the wakener of our souls’ (excitator mentium).

2 Sleep is here equated with laziness and sin, rather than refreshing rest, and contrasted with the state of vigilance required of the Christian. Cf. 1 Pet. 5:8 ‘Be sober, be watchful’, Mk 13:35 ‘Watch therefore – for you do not know when the master of the house will come’, Rom. 13:11–13 ‘Besides this, you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep’ and 1 Thess. 5:4–8.

3 This stanza probably continues Christ’s speech. Lines 3–4 may well refer to prayer during the night. Labor (toil) is used of nocturnal prayer by Jerome (Epistulae 107.9), and John Cassian (Institutes, PL 49, 145). Cf. st. 6.3 and 20.4, where labor, laborare may again have this meaning, with Assendelft, 63–4, and Walsh ad loc. If this is correct, it could suggest the context of a religious community of some kind.

4 ‘That voice’ is ambiguous, as it could refer back to Christ’s speech, but what follows makes it the dawn chorus of the birds, and the two are equated in line 4. Cf. Virgil Aen. 8.455–6 ‘Evander from his humble home the fostering light arouses, and the morning songs of birds beneath the roof’.

6 Light, both physical and spiritual, brings the virtue of hope to the weary soul.

7 Sleep and death are closely associated in classical literature from Homer onwards, and in Christian thought death is seen as a form of sleep. Cf. Jn 11:11–13, of Lazarus, 1 Cor. 15:18, etc. But here sleep is a type (forma) of death of the soul through sin, which threatens to overwhelm us (st. 9).

8.1–2 ‘from the roof of heaven above’ (ab alto culmine) echoes 4.2 ‘beneath our very roof’ (sub ipso culmine), of the birds.

10.1–12.4 A new theme is introduced, of the demons (daemones) which roam the world in darkness, agents of sin (st. 14), but are put to flight by the crowing cock. Cf. Ambrose H. 1.11–12 ‘By him the vagrant demons’ band does quit the paths where they deal harm’, Augustine Sermones 103 ‘these demons seek to seduce our souls, but at sunrise they flee’ and, similarly, Hamlet I.1.157–64, of the ghost, ‘It faded on the crowing of the cock’.

12 Lines 1 and 3 and also 2 and 4 end in rhyme: praescii... spei... liberi... dei. Rhyme only occurs occasionally in Prudentius and the poetry of his period. It could be a natural product of the more general tendency to balance, as in earlier classical verse.

13.1–16.4 Jesus’ warning to Peter that he would deny Him is recorded in all four Gospels: Mt. 26:34, Mk 14:30, Lk. 22:34, Jn

13:38. The theme of his denial echoes Ambrose H. 1.15–24. In Prudentius’ hymn, Christ reveals to Peter the meaning (vis) of the cock crowing, i.e. that sin is the result of the darkness in which men were before Christ’s salvation (st. 14), and the cock-crow leads to Peter’s repentance, after which he is freed from his state of sin (st. 15–16). Peter is thus a model for all men. Cf. Ambrose H. 1.15–16 ‘The Church’s Rock himself washed clean his sin at the crowing’ and 21 ‘when the cock crows, hope returns’.

15.3–4 In this version, Peter’s denial is a ‘slip of the tongue’ (16.1), and his mind and heart are still innocent. Prudentius is following the interpretation of Hilary of Poitiers, which absolves Peter from intentional falsehood, as against that of Ambrose, who is more severe. Cf. Charlet (1983), 104–6, Assendelft, 77–80.

16.3–4 Peter’s understanding of the cock-crow (cf. 13.1–2) leads to his new state of grace.

17.1–18.4 The association of cock-crow with salvation leads naturally to the motif of Christ’s resurrection and return from hell at this time of day, Christ Himself being the Light of the world. The cock is a symbol of resurrection on Christian sarcophagi and in epitaphs. Cf. Charlet (1983), 148.

19.1–21.4 Prudentius returns to the opening themes (cf. 2.1–4), with the exhortation that we should cease from sin, and that our soul should ‘stand and be watchful’. The soul’s task (20.4) is, above all, earnest prayer, associated with tears of penitence and with sobriety (flentes, precantes, sobrii). The traditional regime of tears, prayers and fasting is prescribed in the Old Testament, and taken up by the Fathers. Cf., for example, Joel 2:12–13: ‘“Yet even now,” says the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”’

19.1–4 and 21.4 Cf. Ambrose H. 4.21–2 ‘Let not our minds succumb to sleep, but let our faults embrace that sleep’ (Dormire mentem ne sinas,/ dormire culpa noverit).

22.1–25.4 In this closing section, our state of sleep and our ‘empty dreams’ are equated with worldly ambitions for fame, prosperity and pleasure. The coming of Christ, who is the Truth (23.4), dispels all of these vanities, as the evil demons flee at daybreak (10.1–12.4).

Cf. Prudentius’ preface, where he laments that his past life was spent on worldly ambitions and turns instead to celebrating God in song, as his life draws to its close (see Introduction at sections I and IV).

25 As often, the hymn closes with a prayer, that Christ should free us from darkness and ‘pour into our souls new light’. Cf. the ending of Ambrose H. 1.25–32 ‘Jesus, look upon those who stumble … Do you, Light, shine upon our hearts, and scatter the sleep of our minds: your name let our voice first resound, and may we fulfil our vows to you’.

25.1 Tu, Christe, somnum dissice (‘Do Thou, O Christ, disperse our sleep’) echoes Ambrose H. 1.30 mentisque somnum discute (‘And scatter the sleep of our minds’).

Cath. 2

This hymn is designed for the time of sunrise, the hour of the morning Office. Like the first, it is in the Ambrosian iambic dimeter and it is related to Ambrose’s second hymn, Splendor paternae gloriae (‘Radiance of the Father’s glory’), which was appointed by St Aurelian, Archbishop of Arles (546–51), to be sung at Matins, between dawn and sunrise. In both hymns, as in the first ones of Ambrose and Prudentius, the symbolism of light is pervasive and the opening of C. 2 picks up the ending of C. 1, Christ’s coming being the dawn of the new day of salvation, and Christ Himself the ‘King... of orient star’ (C. 2.67 ).

The hymn has three main sections. In stanzas 1–18 the light of day is contrasted with darkness, day as the time for sober work, night for crime and folly. This leads into a contrast between secular pursuits and the Christian’s chief occupations, prayer and song, and an invocation to Christ to purify His followers from sin. A short narrative section (st. 19–23) describes Jacob’s struggle at night with an angel, his wounding at dawn, and the symbolism of this story (see notes on st. 19–21 and 22). In the final stanzas (24–28) this symbolism is applied to the Christian, with a prayer to live in purity throughout the day, since Christ is the all-seeing judge of our deeds and thoughts. Cf. also Assendelft, 23–4, 92–125 and Walsh, 408–12.

Parts of this hymn were later used to make two Office hymns for Lauds: the first one consisting of lines 1–8, 48–49, 52, 57, 59–60 and 67–8, and the second of lines 25, 93–4, 96 and 97–108, with adaptations. Each makes up four stanzas, plus a doxology. Cf. Walpole, 119–23.

St. 1 The opening is dramatic: the powers of darkness are addressed, and ordered to disappear before the radiance of Christ’s presence.

2.1–4.4 As the sun tears open the cloak of night enveloping the earth, so the darkness in our souls is dispelled by the coming of God’s kingdom.

2.2 ‘struck by the arrow of the sun’ (percussa solis spiculo): cf. Lucretius 1.146–8 ‘This terror of the mind and darkness is not to be dispersed by the sun’s rays, nor the bright shafts of day’ (lucida tela diei).

2.3 ‘now colour to the world returns’ (rebusque iam color redit): cf. Virgil Aen. 6.27 ‘And black night removed the colour from the world’ (et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem).

3.1–4.4 There may be an allusion here to the Last Judgment. Cf. 1 Cor. 4:5:

Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every man will receive his commendation from God.

Cf. also Rom. 2:16. But the general tenor of the hymn is concerned with the need to work out one’s salvation now, in the present. Cf. for example Rom. 13:11–13 (quoted above, on C. 1.2.1–4). A variant reading in 3.4, pallescit (‘grows pale’), instead of the future pallescet (‘will grow pale’), would tie the reference to the present time, but this fits less well with mox (‘soon’) in 3.1.

5.1–6.4 The thief and adulterer are given as examples of nocturnal criminals, as in Ambrose, De Cain et Abel 2.8.26 ‘The robber avoids the day, as if it were a witness to his crime, the adulterer avoids the light, as if feeling ashamed of its awareness of his guilt’. Cf. also Job 24:13–17 ‘there are those who rebel against the light … [with examples of the murderer, adulterer and thief] … for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness’. In Patristic texts, the thief and adulterer are both sometimes identified with the devil: Cf. Assendelft, 98 and 100.

7 ‘Behold, the fiery sun appears!’ (Sol ecce surgit igneus): the word order in the Latin is more dramatic, with Sol as the first word, suggesting also the effect of Christ’s risen presence.

7.2 ‘Then shame, remorse, contrition come’ (piget, pudescit, paenitet): th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• The hymns
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index