190 Chapter 4 These similarities in metaphorical language use aside, we may observe a variation of the life is a journey metaphor in the Life of Elias compared to the Life of Gregory. In the Life of Elias, the hagiographer does not only present politeia as a journey, but represents the saint and his disciple Daniel also as a road themselves. In chapter 2 we find the phrase ‘for it is truly a wonderful and saving road, leading those who take it unswervingly to heaven, the life of that great ascetic’ and in chapter 30 we find ‘for many they [Elias and Daniel] became a road of salvation, turning them from evil towards virtue’.648 These metaphorical expressions emphasise Elias and his disciple Daniel as examples – others should follow them/the road in order to reach salvation. Simultaneously, the expressions compare Elias and Daniel directly with Christ, according to John 14:6 (‘Jesus answered, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’).649 This subtle difference in metaphorical language use may reflect a slightly different strategy of the author to promote the sainthood of Elias, i.e. by placing more emphasis on the relation between Elias and Christ and on his life as an example. Nonetheless, the hagiographer still draws from the same life/politeia is a journey conceptual metaphor also found in the Life of Gregory. 4.4 Immobility, stability and virtue Metaphors of mobility aside, the Life of Gregory also includes metaphors of immobility. I listed the metaphors found in the Life in appendix 9. They all use immobility as source domain, drawing from the language of remaining in the same place, or the same position and posture of objects and bodies. I identified the following conceptual metaphors: behavioural stability is a rock, withstanding temptations is immobility, a persevering person is a stone, immobile object (and a virtuous exemplary person is an upright stone monument), persisting and correct is immobile and straight. These metaphors all express the general conceptual metaphor inner stability is immobility.650 Inner stability here refers to stability of character, beliefs and perseverance. The inner stability is immobility metaphor moreover reflects an overarching conceptual metaphor already identified in CMT research: persistence is remaining erect.651 Inner stability is immobility is dependent on this metaphor and so are others. For example, CMT research identified the conceptual 648 Ἔστι γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς θαυμαστή τις ὁδὸς καὶ σωτήριος, πρὸς οὐρανὸν ἀνάγουσα τοὺς ἀκλινῶς αὐτὴν αἱρουμένους, ὁ τοῦ μεγάλου τούτου βίος ἀσκητοῦ: Life of Elias the Younger 2; and καὶ πολλοῖς ἐγένοντο σωτηρίας ὁδός, ἀπὸ κακίας τούτους εἰς ἀρετὴν ἐπιστρέφοντες: Life of Elias the Younger 30. 649 John 14:6 (NIV); λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς, Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή· οὐδεὶς ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸν πατέρα εἰ μὴ δι’ ἐμοῦ. Edition: Aland et al. (1968). 650 This conceptual metaphor has not been identified as such in the scholarly literature and is therefore introduced here by the present author. 651 This metaphor, according to some metaphor scholars, is a ‘primary metaphor’: a metaphor which reflects a close correspondence in bodily experience between one domain and another. In the words of Gibbs: ‘the existence of things in the world that persist is correlated to a significant, positive degree with things that are capable of remaining upright. […] these correlations in our experiences are not perfect, yet they are strong enough in a positive direction to help serve as the concrete foundation in structuring certain abstract concepts’. A primary metaphor, including persistence is remaining erect, gives rise to various more complex conceptual metaphors. Gibbs (2017a), p. 323.
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