Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/98

 80 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. flict. While still a pagan, lie wrote a hymn referring to the time of his stay in Constantinople: "To all Thy temples, Lord, built for Thy holy rites, I went, and falling headlong as a suppliant bathed the pave- ment with my tears. That my journey might not be in vain, I prayed to all the gods. Thy ministers, who rule the fertile plain of Thrace, and those who on the opposite continent protect the lands of Chalcedon, whom Thou hast crowned vdth angelic rays. Thy holy servants. They, the blessed ones, helped me in my prayers ; they helped me to bear the burden of many troubles." These " temples " were Christian churches ; ^ and this hymn shows how the syncretistic religious philosophy of Synesius could embrace the Christian cult. The hymn indicates that yearning for inner divine aid and comfort, which no pagan cult could more than tantalize. In the troubles of his life, Synesius' mood gradually becomes Christian. As a pagan, he had prayed fruitlessly for freedom from cares ; next he begins to feel their pertinency to the soul's progress ; and at last the Incarnation, that great stumbling-block to pagan thoughts of the divine dig- nity, presents itself as the dearest comfort to his much-tried soul. The hymn marking his adoption of Christianity is addressed to Christ as the son of the Holy Virgin. Christ's attributes are described in nearly the same terms as those which characterize the " Son " in Synesius' Neo-platonic hymns. A hymn on the Descent into Hell shows some of the pagan ideas which mingled with Synesius' acceptance of Christianity: "Thou wentest down to Tartarus, 1 There were no heathen temples iu Constantinople.