189 Conceptual metaphors of travel and stability discourse community to which the hagiographers belonged, and discourses beyond their own cultural circle, reflecting a long tradition of this kind of metaphorical thinking.643 An example of the politeia is a journey metaphor, is found in a passage in the Life of Elias: ‘the divine Elias was especially also a doctor of souls, if there was any other, driving back, by means of his counsel, many who were travelling wrongly’.644 Here the metaphor does not refer to the virtuous life of the saint but to the (unvirtuous) conduct of others. What follows after the metaphor is the advice Elias gave to his visitors to change their life and, subsequently, the comment that whenever people went to the saint they would be changed towards good. The hagiographer thus explicitly explains the meaning of the metaphor in these subsequent phrases. That is, by means of his counsel, Elias leads people back on the right track after they have ‘travelled wrongly’. The ‘right road’, i.e. the virtuous politeia that Elias advises, is essentially an ascetic lifestyle (which the hagiographer obviously presents Elias as embodying). According to the narrative, Elias advised people that they should not concern themselves much about their body, especially sensory delight, but rather focus completely on God.645 The hagiographer of the Life of Elias thus makes use of the same metaphorical discourse as Ignatius in the Life of Gregory, equating politeia to a journey and presenting the saint as following the ‘right road/politeia’. The metaphorical thinking that virtuous conduct is a road leading to heaven is further reflected in the other two Lives. For example, in the Life of Euthymius we find the phrase ‘[Euthymius] prepared his feet to run without obstacle into the house of the Lord and into the courts of our God’.646 Before the metaphor of running unhindered to heaven, Euthymius’ (virtuous) way of life is described: he lived in humility in imitation of Christ, transcended passions, fasted, checked his senses and prayed.647 In other words, the linguistic metaphorical expression suggests that Euthymius’ virtuous politeia is how he ‘prepared his feet’ so he could go unhindered to heaven, whenever his time came. 643 This concurs with findings of studies in CMT, that show that conceptual metaphors reflect language use of a discourse community, rather than individual language use (see discussion above, p. 177). For the long tradition of the life is a journey metaphor, see e.g., Mantova (2023). 644 Italics by the present author; Ἦν δὲ καὶ διαφερόντως ὁ θεσπέσιος Ἠλίας ψυχῶν ἰατρός, εἰ καί τις ἄλλος, πολλοὺς ἀνακόπτων τῇ παραινέσει κακῶς ὁδεύοντας; Life of Elias the Younger 31, lines 610-612. 645 My translation of the full passage: ‘The divine Elias was especially also a doctor of souls, if there was any other, driving back, by means of his counsel, many who were travelling wrongly, persuading [them] not to excite the flesh against the spirit, not to offer to the body as much as it wants, but as much as it needs, to curb the eye, to protect the ear, to bar smell, to refrain from speech, to repress touch, to chastise passion, to not move away from measure, to completely long for God, to consider prayer a weapon and fasting fortification, to avoid arrogance, to love humility, not to examine the deeds of others, to think about the things above, to seek for the things above, according to the holy Apostle, neither to show off good things, nor to show only [good] works, but to have for them also the nobility of deliberate choice and faithful thought. While he taught these things and more to those who visited him, he sent them away not as he had received them, but as different from others, having made a good change’. Life of Elias the Younger 31, lines 610-625. 646 Translation by Talbot in Alexakis (2016); καὶ πόδας ἑτοιμάσαι, ὥστε τρέχειν ἀνεμποδίστως εἰς τὸν οἶκον κυρίου καὶ εἰς τὰς αὐλὰς τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν; Life of Euthymius the Younger 11.2. 647 Ἐντεῦθεν αὐτῷ διὰ τῆς ἀτιμοτέρας ἀγωγῆς καὶ χριστομιμήτου ταπεινώσεως τὸ παθῶν ὑψηλοτέρῳ γενέσθαι ἀξίως προσεγένετο, ἐξορίσαι τε ἀκηδίαν καὶ γαστρὸς μανίας κρατῆσαι, γλῶσσάν τε χαλιναγωγῆσαι καὶ ἀκοὴν ἀποκαθᾶραι, χεῖρας ἁγνίσαι, ὥστε ὁσίως ἐν προσευχαῖς αἴρεσθαι χωρὶς ὀργῆς καὶ διαλογισμῶν; Life of Euthymius the Younger 11.2. 4
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