78 Chapter 2 Table 1: Hesychia in Photius’ Lexicon Referring to persons Referring to surroundings Referring to a state of the body Referring to character or mind ἀγλωττία, ἀκή - no sound, silent ἀτρεμία, ἀτρέμα, ἠρεμία, ἠρέμα - no movement, still, physical rest πραϋπάθεια, πραότης – gentleness, mildness πράως, ἠρέμα, ἀτρέμα – mildly, gently ἠρεμία - quietude of the mind ἀγλωττία, ἀκή - no sound, silence ἀτρεμία, ἀτρέμα, ἠρεμία - no movement, still 2.2.3 An activity or a state of being? hesychia as a verb The impression of the semantic network that can be grasped from Photius’ Lexicon is that hesychia is a specific state: a state in which a human can be or which describes one’s surroundings (silence, non-movement, gentleness of temper, calmness of the mind). A verb cognate of hesychia (ἡσυχάζω) also occurs in the selected saints’ Lives. This leads to the question if, in addition to the meaning of hesychia as a certain state, hesychia also refers to an activity. A few examples from the Life of Gregory of Decapolis will show that there are multiple semantic nuances in the layers of meaning of hesychia. As will become apparent from the following discussion, the narrative context is necessary to uncover these nuances.263 This means that for establishing the potential nuances and layers of meaning of the term, one would have to analyse every single instance in its narrative context. Here a few examples will suffice to show a variety of different connotations, ranging from a bodily state of being, reference to exterior circumstance and hesychia as an activity. It should also be acknowledged that in many instances it is hard, if not impossible, to establish all the (intended) layers of meaning. The examples given below are chosen because, firstly, they allow for some conclusions on the layers of meaning of the term, and secondly, they show the range of semantic nuances of the term. The following will discuss three instances of the verb ἡσυχάζω in the Life of Gregory of Decapolis, all three of which illustrate a (slightly) different meaning. In addition, an instance of the noun from the same Life illustrates an active meaning of the word. In the Life of Gregory of Decapolis the verb ἡσυχάζω is used three times, and in all three instances it signifies slightly different things. In chapter 17 of the Life the verb seems to mean ‘rest’ in the sense of pausing or halting at a stop while travelling: in the passage the saint is travelling in Asia Minor, but the arrival of winter prevents him from travelling 263 According to the maximalist view of semantics, processing the meaning of a word works in the minds of language users (and of receivers, i.e. the audience). This also means that it is possible for a learner of the language, such as modern scholars, to access these meanings from the (narrative) contexts in which it is used. As modern scholars we do miss out on a large part of being able to grasp the language and all the potential semantic nuances of a single term, as we miss the knowledge of the contexts in which the word was used in spoken language, and are not living in the same cultural context in which the language was used. We might therefore still run the risk of missing meanings or not understanding them completely as the ninth-century audience would have understood them, or as how the author intended to use it.
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