FIGURATIVE EXPRESSION – A RULE OF ILISTIKI – IN THE COLLECTION OF GREGORY THE THEOLOGIAN’S LITURGICAL SERMONS AND THE CORPUS AREOPAGITICUS TRANSLATED BY EPHREM MTSIRE

Abstract

The collection of Gregory the Theologian’s Liturgical Sermons and the Corpus Areopagiticus, the two most significant works of late antiquity, are translated into Georgian by a famous Georgian scholar of the Black Mountain (the Antioch region), Ephrem Mtsire in the last decade of the 11th century. Both collections also contain Ephrem’s translations of Byzantine commentaries which are placed in the margins of the manuscripts. The Commentaries on Gregory the Theologian’s sermons are composed by the 10th century Byzantine scholar Basilius Minimus; the Commentaries of the Corpus Areopagiticus belong to the 6th century author John Scythopolis. In contrast to the highly literal translations of the main texts, Ephrem translated the Commentaries in a free manner. Selecting of such a translation method for rendering the Commentaries into Georgian was conditioned by the expositional character of these texts. Certain adaptations – additions and omissions – as well as some linguistic changes were required to preserve the expositional function of the Commentaries.
The aim of our article is to discuss a figurative expression – კანონი ილისტიკისაჲ (a rule of ilistiki) – attested in the Ephrem’s translation of the Commentaries of Basilius Minimus and John of Scythopolis, which must have been included in these texts by Ephrem.
Based on the analysis of various sources it has been revealed, that a lexical unit ilistiki means a plumb – a ball of a heavy object attached to the end of a rope for determining the vertical on an upright surface. It is carried over from Greek to Georgian by means of transliteration of a Greek word ἰλλάς – a rope and a Greek suffix -ιστικ-. The Rule of ilistiki is the figurative expression and means a true, well-established rule.
Today, when Ephrem’s literary heritage is not fully studied, it is difficult to say whether he took this figurative expression from any medieval work he translated, or he borrowed it from some other source.
We cannot say precisely what was the function of this figurative expression in the Commentaries of Basilus Minimus and John of Scythopolis. It depends on how well-known, popular this expression was among the readers for whom Ephrem was translating these texts. If this was a well-known expression in that epoch, then it would have had an explanatory function in these texts. If it was a rare expression, the content of which could only be recognized by a small circle of literate readers, then it would have had employed by Ephrem as a rhetorical ornament with an artistic function in the texts.