Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/273

 IX] GREEK CHRISTIAN POETRY 255 Footprints of Christ, Heavenly way, Word everlasting, Time unbounded, Eternal light, Font of mercy. Doer of good, Holy life, God of those who sing praises, Christ Jesus, Heavenly milk Of the sweet breasts Of the bride of grace. « « « • Let us sing together. Let us sing simply The mighty child, (We) the choir of peace. The Christ-begotten, The sober folk. Let us sing a psalm To the God of peace. ^ If we disregard the lyric passages of the New Testa- ment, this hymn is perhaps the earliest outpour in verse of the Christian soul that has come down to us. The second of these compositions is the work of Methodius (martyred in 311, probably at Tyre). In his didactic and partly allegorical work, the Sympo- sitim of the Ten Virgins^ modelled — afar off — on Plato^s Sympoaiurriy each virgin talks lengthily in praise of virginity. Their views and sentiments, how- ever, are at the end fused into feeling in a genuine 1 The translation a literal, line for line, bat does not attempt to reproduce the metre.