193 Conceptual metaphors of travel and stability narrative context.660 The conceptual metaphor inner stability is immobility was an ancient one, but still alive in the medieval period. The fact that the hagiographer used other (nonbiblical) linguistic metaphorical expressions manifesting inner stability is immobility indicates that the conceptual metaphor was still part of the metaphorical thinking of ninthcentury language users. Ignatius used mostly the same vocabulary of the psalm in the Septuagint, but it is not an exact citation.661 Most relevant for the present discussion, the hagiographer added the words ἀσφαλοῦς βιοτῆς (a steadfast way of life) to the psalm verse, thus specifying that the metaphor of the rock relates to the perseverance of a virtuous way of life (a nuance that is absent from the psalm). The resulting linguistic metaphorical expression πέτραν ἀσφαλοῦς βιοτῆς (a rock of a steadfast/immovable way of life) maps the immobile quality of a rock onto lifestyle. Remaining in the same place is thus equated with behavioural stability (behavioural stability is a rock). Additionally, the hagiographer added the phrase τὰ κατὰ θεὸν καὶ διὰ θεόν (according to God and through God) to the psalm verse. The hagiographer thus uses the language of the psalm, but alters it slightly to steer the interpretation of the psalm to fit his narrative context.662 Several other linguistic metaphorical expressions further illustrate which aspects of the source domain are mapped unto the target domain. In the expression ‘as to not be shaken by the forcibly coming reflux of temptations’ several metaphors are at play.663 The expression ‘forcibly coming reflux’ likens temptations to a body of water (ἡ παλίρροια) which, under influence of the tides, rhythmically comes forward and retreats again. This metaphorical expression mirrors various episodes in the Life of Gregory in which demons come and go and in which they attack and retreat again after they are (temporarily) defeated.664 The earlier part of the expression, ‘as to not be shaken’, continues to draw upon the same source domain: the stormy reflux is capable to shake or move a person – presumably when that person is standing in the water or at the shore. The fact that the verb σαλεύω is used signals the continuation of the water-metaphor as the verb is often used in the contexts of ships being tossed by the sea during a storm.665 Because the saint 660 That a monastic audience would have known and recognised the reference to the psalm may be expected, as reciting the psalter in its entirety (generally in the course of a week) formed the core of monastic prayer and liturgy. See Parpulov (2010). 661 Most notably Ignatius changed the psalm from a first person to a third person perspective (with God as subject), omitted some words, added others, and sometimes used slightly different words and grammatical forms (compare the psalm in the Septuagint, rendered in footnote 659 and Life of Gregory 70, lines 6-9). 662 For a discussion of how the Old Testament, including the psalms, played a role in the shaping of the monastic self-image from the fourth until the twelfth centuries, in which the monastic life was seen as a ‘reenactment of biblical modes of life’, see Krueger (2010), pp. 217–219. 663 ὡς μὴ ταῖς ἐπερχομέναις τῶν πειρασμῶν παλιῤῥοίαις σαλεύεσθαι; Life of Gregory 70, lines 1-2. 664 E.g., episodes in the cave (Life of Gregory 6-10); or in the tower in Syracuse (Life of Gregory 27-33). 665 See entry σαλεύω, II, in The Online Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek-English Lexicon (LSJ); the only instance of the corresponding noun σάλος, tossing motion, esp. the ‘rolling swell of the sea’ (LSJ), in the Life of Gregory is used in just the same context: τὸν σάλον τῶν κυμάτων, the tossing motion of waves. Like σαλεύω in paragraph 70, σάλος in paragraph 28 implies the dangers of the sea: the fragment tells about ‘those who escaped the tossing of the waves’, meaning those marine travellers who arrive at the port of Syracuse alive. 4
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