Athanasius’ Life of Antony : Style, Rhetoric, and Prose Rhythm

: Athanasius’ Life of Antony has been researched intensively by modern scholars, but one crucial facet of this text—its style—has yet to receive any focused treatment, an oversight which has resulted in an underappreciation, and uninformed negative assessments, of its overall stylistic merits. This article demonstrates that the Life in fact abounds in the kind of rhetorical ornamentation and accentual rhythm that are hallmarks of artistic late Greek prose, and these findings in turn shed new light on Athanasius’ virtuosity as a prose stylist.

• A thanasius' Life of Antony,1 which the embattled bishop of Alexandria composed during his third exile (356-62),2 has the distinction of being the very first specimen of monastic hagiography on record.3Even before the close of the fourth century it was well on its way to becoming a "classic" of early Christian literature, earning along the way high praise from the likes of Gregory of Nazianzus4 and John Chrysostom,5 and enjoying wide diffusion in the Latin-speaking West due to two Latin translations independently produced within a decade of the release of the Greek Life.6 ✉ ac@colorado.edu.✍ I am grateful to the journal's two anonymous referees for their attentive reading and helpful suggestions.
The Life captivates scholars today perhaps just as much as it did pious readers in antiquity, though for very different reasons.But for all the scholarly attention that it has garnered over the past century and a half,7 one crucial aspect of this text-its style-has yet to receive any systematic or sustained treatment.Such neglect has resulted in a general unawareness or underappreciation of its overall stylistic merits and, worse still, it occasionally has led to unflattering and ultimately misguided assessments of the quality of its prose.To take one example, Ewa Wipszycka critiques "the shortcomings of Athanasius's style of writing" in the Life and alleges that "his rhetorical and literary skills left much to be desired.He was certainly not one of the best stylists."8Timothy Barnes, referring to Athanasius' works more generally, alleges that he "did not compose and order his works according to contemporary rhetorical theory" and that he did not "employ traditional rhetorical methods."9Both scholars fail to substantiate their sweeping verdicts with any concrete specifics, and in fact a close inspection of the Life of Antony reveals that these judgments are unjustified.
Athanasius' learned contemporaries assessed stylistic excellence in literature (and oratory) according to certain objective criteria, such as the prevalence and strategic deployment of both traditional rhetorical figures and rhythmic clausulae.In this article I evaluate the artistic quality of his prose in the Life on the basis of these criteria and demonstrate that he displays some of the same stylistic pretensions that are associated with the literary aesthetic of the Second Sophistic.10For the sake of organizational clarity I taxonomize and analyze the data for the rhetorical devices according to the following categories: Sound (paronomasia, parechesis), Repetition (anaphora, antistrophe, kuklos), Redundancy (periphrasis, pleonasm), Parallelism (perfect parison, homoioteleuton, antithesis, chiasmus), Imagery (comparison, metaphor, ekphrasis), and Other Figures of Rhetoric (diaporesis, hyperbaton, paradox).11I then examine Athanasius' prose rhythm and conclude by exploring the implications of this study's findings.
8 Wipszycka 2018, 40. 9 Barnes 1993, 11. 10 The term "Second Sophistic" may designate such things as a discrete historical period encompassing roughly the first three centuries AD (Swain 1996, 1) and a literary and cultural phenomenon within this period (see Anderson 1993; cf. the essays in Borg 2004); on problems of definition, see further Whitmarsh 2005, chap. 1.In my usage of the phrase "Second Sophistic" I am referencing the prevailing rhetorical tastes and trends that characterized Greek literature during the first three centuries AD but that continued to exercise a profound influence on patristic authors into the fourth century.On the stylistic aesthetic of the Second Sophistic, see Schmid 1964.11 I follow the same methodology deployed in comparable stylistic treatments which exist for numerous other early Christian authors.These include the following titles which are cited throughout this article: Méridier 1906;Guignet 1911;Ameringer 1921;Campbell 1922;Gallay 1923;Parsons 1923;Barry 1924;Adams 1927;Way 1927;Stein 1928;Burns 1930;Dunn 1931;Buttell 1933;Halliwell 1939;Hritzu 1939;Maat 1944;Oroz 1955;Ruether 1969;Lawless 1997.For an exploratory essay proposing Rhetorical Devices in the Life of Antony Alliteration, the recurrence of the same letter or letters in at least two words that are positioned closely enough so that the sound effect is not obscured, comes in three distinguishable varieties: initial-sequent (words with the same initial letter(s) immediately follow one another), initial-interior (the initial letter of one or more words is the same as that in the interior of a word immediately preceding or following), and initial-interrupted (one or more words implanted within an alliterative sequence interrupt its continuity).Alliteration was used for artistic effect by classical Greek and Latin poets and prose authors as well as by classically trained patristic authors and orators.12Athanasius, who in keeping with Greco-Roman literary custom certainly intended his work to be read aloud,13 shares their tremendous delight in this device.The alliterative sequences in the Life include everything from simpler combinations of two or three words to more complex ones comprising up to six words in which Athanasius overtly plays to the acoustic sensibilities of his audience.For instance, in 13.6 he does so, and simultaneously strengthens his point about Antony's spiritual reinvigoration, through sixfold initial-sequent π-alliteration punctuated by one instance of initial-interior π-alliteration: πολλὴν αὐτῷ τῶν πόνων ἀνάπαυλαν παρεῖχε καὶ πλείονα προθυμίαν παρεσκεύαζεν.Athanasius employs alliteration not only for the sake of his audience's auricular stimulation but also (especially in the presence of other rhetorical figures) to support some broader rhetorical goal.For example, when he is confronted by Antony, the devil complains: Τί μέμφονταί με μάτην οἱ μοναχοὶ καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι πάντες χριστιανοί; Τί με καταρῶνται καθ' ὥραν; ("Why do the monks and all other Christians censure me for no reason?Why do they constantly curse me?") (41.2).Here the rhetorical flourish of the devil's words-the fivefold μ-alliteration (initial-sequent and initial-interior) in the first sentence, the anaphoric Τί…Τί, and the chiastic μέμφονταί με…με καταρῶνταιsymbolize his proverbially smooth-tongued cunning.14criteria for evaluating the style of late Greek prose texts, see Ševčenko 1981; cf.Dover 1997, 1-12 (concerning classical Greek texts).
Paronomasia (adnominatio), a favorite sound device among literarily self-conscious Greek and Latin authors,15 is a type of pun involving the concurrence of words of the same root which are similar in sound but dissimilar in meaning.Of the two types of paronomasia that appear in the Life, words with the same root but a different or added prefix (Type I) and words with the same root but different derivatives (Type II), Athanasius has an overwhelming preference for the latter.Although the position of the corresponding words in the sentence(s) is in principle unimportant for this device, he tends to place them in close proximity to each other for an improved tonal effect: Type I:  20 Campbell 1922, 35;Parsons 1923, 233;Burns 1930, 17;Hritzu 1939, 22-23. 21 On the importance of this device in Athenian oratory, see López Eire 2000.Its usage in select patristic literature is noted by e.g.Campbell 1922, 35-36;Barry 1924, 53-56;Halliwell 1939, 19-20;Hritzu 1939, 23-24; in these patristic studies the figure is termed anastrophe, though it is more conventionally known as anadiplosis (see Lausberg 1960, § 619), and I have followed this prevailing custom.
Second Sophistic rhetoric was preoccupied with the formation of symmetrical periods by means of the so-called Gorgianic35 figures of parallelism: perfect parison, homoioteleuton, antithesis, and chiasmus.All of these figures are prominent throughout the Life, and indeed Athanasius' stylistic sensibilities become especially apparent through his construction of well-balanced sentences, often by allying these devices with one another (or with other rhetorical figures) as well as by extending the syntactical parallelism to parallelism of ideas in the corresponding cola.
Perfect parison occurs when two or more consecutive phrases, clauses, or sentences share the same or a strikingly similar internal structure.One palmary example in the Life is at 9.7, where Athanasius describes the phantasmal beasts that threaten Antony: Ὁ λέων ἔβρυχε θέλων ἐπελθεῖν, ὁ ταῦρος ἐδόκει κερατίζειν, ὁ ὄφις ἕρπων οὐκ ἔφθανε, καὶ ὁ λύκος ὁρμῶν ἐπείχετο ("The lion roared, poised to attack; the bull seemed to gore him; the snake slithered but did not reach him; the wolf rushed at him but was held back").Despite its relative brevity, this sentence lands a hefty rhetorical punch with its quick succession of compact, action-packed clauses: perfect parison gives them a collective balance, and asyndeton (with the exception of a sole καί) and the imperfect tense (ἔβρυχε, ἐδόκει, ἔφθανε, ἐπείχετο) convey vividness and rapidity.
A similarly brief but device-rich sequence is in 11.3, where Antony wonders aloud about how a large silver dish could have found its way into a remote part of the desert: Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ ὁδὸς αὕτη τετριμμένη, οὐκ ἔστιν ἴχνος ὁδευσάντων ὧδέ τινων ("The road itself is not well travelled, nor is there a trace of anyone journeying this way").This bicolon crescens is balanced by perfect parison and marked by anaphora (οὐκ ἔστιν…οὐκ ἔστιν), asyndeton, and paronomasia (ὁδός-ὁδευσάντων), all with the cumulative effect of throwing into relief Antony's puzzlement.
During his debate with some philosophers Antony touts Christianity's triumph over an obsolescent paganism, and at one point he asks: Ποῦ νῦν ὑμῶν ἐστι τὰ μαντεῖα; ποῦ αἱ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ἐπαοιδίαι; ποῦ τῶν μάγων αἱ φαντασίαι; ("Where are your oracles now?Where are the Egyptians' incantations?Where are the sorcerers' illusions?")(79.1).36This taunt is stylistically rich and effective due to its framing as a threefold rhetorical question, the anaphoric ποῦ,37 overall economy of expression which is facilitated by asyndeton, and the tight-knit syntactic parallelism imposed by perfect parison.
Homoioteleuton consists in the similarity of sound at the conclusions of sequent cola.It is, then, a form of symmetry whose charm lies in end-rhyme.Although some ancient rhetoricians cautioned against its use (or over-use) in certain contexts,38 it was a favorite stylistic conceit during the Second Sophistic and is a pronounced feature of the prose of patristic authors such as Hilary of Poitiers, Basil, Jerome, Augustine, and Zeno of Verona.39In the Life Athanasius deploys it strategically, one example being in 93.6, where he comments on saints' reluctant celebrity: Κἂν γὰρ αὐτοὶ κεκρυμμένως πράττωσιν, κἂν λανθάνειν ἐθέλωσιν, ἀλλ' ὁ Κύριος αὐτοὺς ὡς λύχνον δείκνυσι πᾶσιν ("For even if they go about their business in secret and wish to go unnoticed, the Lord nevertheless exhibits them before all like a lamp").40The twofold anaphoric κἂν and the homoioteleutic verb-ending -ωσιν work in tandem to tighten the parallelism between the two clauses and to accentuate the humility of ascetics wishing to keep a low profile.
Antithesis is the juxtaposition of concepts that are opposite in meaning.The contrast, which aims primarily at producing clarity of expression, is intensified when this figure is allied with other forms of parallelism.Examples abound in the Life, but three representative ones give a good sense of Athanasius' deft handling of this device.One day while Antony is traveling on a rural road, he chances upon some gold strewn about on the ground: Εἶτα πάλιν οὐκέτι φαντασίαν, ἀληθινὸν δὲ χρυσὸν ἐρριμμένον ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς ἑώρακεν ἀπερχόμενος ("Then as he went on he saw not an illusory image as before but actual gold scattered on the road") (12.1).The word φαντασία evokes the mirage of a large silver dish that Antony saw on the road earlier (11.2),41 and here Athanasius contrasts its illusory nature and the realness of the gold through the direct antithetical juxtaposition of φαντασίαν and ἀληθινόν; because this gold is real, it poses a greater temptation which Antony nevertheless easily resists.In 39.5 Antony briefly recounts an experience of demonic visitation: Ἔσεισάν ποτε τὸ μοναστήριον• ἐγὼ δὲ ηὐχόμην ἀκίνητος μένειν τῷ φρονήματι ("They once shook my hermitage, but I prayed to remain unshaken in my spirit").42Antony's heroism is made more pronounced by the antithesis between the demons' literal shaking (ἔσεισαν) of his abode and his own determination to remain metaphorically unshaken (ἀκίνητος).43Further on in the same discourse to monks Antony encourages them not to be discouraged by the prospect of demons stalking them: Μηδ' ὅλως ἐνθυμώμεθα τοιαῦτα μηδὲ λυπώμεθα ὡς ἀπολλύμενοι• θαρρῶμεν δὲ μᾶλλον καὶ χαίρωμεν ἀεὶ ὡς σῳζόμενοι ("Let us not entertain any such thoughts at all, nor let us be distressed as though all is lost.Let us instead take heart and rejoice as people who are being saved").This exhortation gains rhetorical potency from its combination of perfect parison, homoioteleuton (ἀπολλύμενοι…σῳζόμενοι), and multi-tiered antithesis (μηδ'…ἐνθυμώμεθα…μηδὲ λυπώμεθα-θαρρῶμεν…χαίρωμεν and ὡς ἀπολλύμενοι…ὡς σῳζόμενοι).
We will not have a craving for anything, nor be angry with anyone, nor store up wealth on earth.Rather, if daily we expect to die, we will have no possessions and will forgive everyone for everything.We will not merely have mastery over the desire for a woman or for another sordid pleasure but we will turn away from it as if we had not noticed it.
49 What specifically Paul means by "I die daily" is debated by scholars.Some connect it to the fights with "wild beasts" at Ephesus which he mentions in the very next verse (Malherbe 1968) or even to evil spirits at work in the demon-possessed, sorcerers, and idol-worshipers in Ephesus (Williams 2006).Whatever the case, Paul does seem to be referring to some kind of physical threat to his person, and so his statement about dying daily appears to have "nothing to do with piety and the daily dying to self and sin" (Fee 1987, 769).Nevertheless, this connotation of self-mortification is exactly what is being expressed here as well as two other times in the Life (89.4,91.3), and in each of these three instances this verset situates asceticism in the broader context of death's inevitability (cf.Malone 1956, 215-16) We find another noteworthy instance of chiasmus in yet another statement ascribed to Antony at 78.2, this time a retort directed at some pagan philosophers: Ἡμεῖς ἐπερειδόμεθα τῇ πίστει τῇ εἰς τὸν Χριστόν, ὑμεῖς δὲ σοφιστικαῖς λογομαχίαις.καὶ τὰ μὲν παρ' ὑμῖν τῶν εἰδώλων φαντάσματα καταργεῖται, ἡ δὲ παρ' ἡμῖν πίστις ἐπεκτείνεται πανταχοῦ ("We rely on faith in Christ, whereas you rely on sophistic logomachies.50The idols' delusions in your midst are being done away with, whereas our faith is spreading everywhere").Note the chiastic arrangement of these two sentences which presumably is intentionally symbolic of Christianity's hemming in of paganism: tokens of Christian triumph (ἡμεῖς…Χριστόν-ἡ…πανταχοῦ) are the book-ends that enclose signs of paganism's desuetude (ὑμεῖς…λογομαχίαις-τὰ…καταργεῖται).
The examples of chiasmus noted above concern the syntactical disposition of words within adjacent clauses or sentences.Another form of chiasmus which deserves mention because Athanasius makes abundant use of it in the Life-ring composition-serves as an internal ordering principle for the broader narrative rather than for individual sentences.Many examples may be adduced, but two will suffice.In one case Athanasius connects the beginning and end of Antony's life through biblical typology, implicitly comparing him, first as a boy at home and later as an elder monk on his deathbed, to the biblical patriarch Jacob.In Life 1.3 he says of the child Antony: "He had the singular desire, as it is written, to live in his home as one not influenced by the outside world" (τὴν δὲ ἐπιθυμίαν πᾶσαν εἶχε, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, ὡς ἄπλαστος οἰκεῖν ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ αὐτοῦ).The formulaic phrase κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον signals a Scriptural allusion, and it is to Gen. 25.27 LXX: "So the boys grew up, and Esau was a man who knew how to hunt, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living at home (Ιακωβ δὲ ἦν ἄνθρωπος ἄπλαστος οἰκῶν οἰκίαν)."51On his deathbed, Antony "lifted his feet and…he died and was gathered to the fathers" (ἐξάρας τοὺς πόδας…ἐξέλιπε καὶ προσετέθη καὶ αὐτὸς πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας) (92.1).52 Athanasius draws his phraseology directly from Gen. 49.33 LXX: "When Jacob ended his charge to his sons, he lifted his feet (ἐξάρας τοὺς πόδας) on the bed, died, and was gathered to his people (ἐξέλιπε καὶ προσετέθη πρὸς τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ)."50 For the conventional patristic opposition between learned disputation and unadorned faith, see Tat. Or. ad Gr. 14.1;Lact. Div. inst. 3.1;Joh. Chrys. Hom. Rom. p. 401;Hom. 1 Tim. p. 591. Cf. Cain 2013b, 114. 51 In the biblical passage, ἄπλαστος (Heb.‫)םת‬ seems to point to a domesticated lifestyle in contrast to a nomadic lifestyle as typified by Esau (Hamilton 1995, 181), and so Athanasius pictures the child Antony as a homebody in the biblical mold of Jacob.
The other example of ring composition forms one important component of Athanasius' agenda to portray Antony as the father of eremitic asceticism.The monastic urbanization of the desert is a prominent motif of the Life (8.2,14.7,41.4,44.4).Athanasius first voices it explicitly at 8.2, where he comments that the devil fears that Antony, at the time a budding ascetic, will transform the desert into a city through his askesis (φοβούμενος μὴ κατ' ὀλίγον καὶ τὴν ἔρημον πολίσῃ τῇ ἀσκήσει).53In that passage the verb πολίζω is in the subjunctive mood (πολίσῃ), expressing potentiality.Further on, at 14.7, Athanasius declares: Καὶ οὕτω λοιπὸν γέγονε καὶ ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσι μοναστήρια καὶ ἡ ἔρημος ἐπολίσθη ("Consequently, from then on there sprang up monastic habitations even in the mountains and the desert was made a city").54Here he recycles πολίζω but this time puts it in the indicative mood (ἐπολίσθη), expressing the certainty of an event that has come to pass (hence the aorist tense).Athanasius thus uses the same verb in both instances as a nexus to create an internal ring composition within the narrative so as to emphasize that what the devil had feared would happen did in fact happen, and the end result spells both a resounding defeat for him and a victory for Antony and the monastic movement he spawned.
Comparison (or simile) is a figure whereby one person or thing is compared to another through an illustration that is meant to clarify or vivify the person or thing in question.55An introductory word such as οἷον/οἷα or ὥσπερ customarily announces the device.Athanasius makes ample and diversified use of similes in the Life.Antony himself is compared to a prudent honeybee that culls the nectar of virtues from senior monks (3.4),56 a fish out of water when he is not in solitude 53 Cf.Anon.V. Pach.G 3 117, where an arch-demon casts aspersions on Pachomius for colonizing the desert with monks (συνάξας γὰρ κατ' ἐμοῦ τοσοῦτον πλῆθος καὶ πολίσας τὴν ἔρημον).
54 Like Athanasius, other hagiographers credit their protagonists with spear-heading the monastic colonization of the desert.Palladius remarks that the monk Elpidius, who lived in the caves near Jericho, transformed this desert and mountainous region into a city (τὸ ὄρος ἐπόλισε) (Hist.Laus.48.2).Cyril of Scythopolis invokes the desert-as-city commonplace rather often.He credits Sabas with founding a πόλις εὐσεβῶν in the desert (V.Sab.p. 100 (Schwartz 1939)) and with colonizing it with a huge number of monks (τὴν ἔρημον πολίσας τῷ πλήθει τῶν μοναχῶν) (V.Sab.p. 158 (Schwartz 1939)), and he asserts that Euthymius populated the formerly uninhabitable desert with his spiritual seed (πάσης τῆς ὑπὸ τῶν αὐτοῦ σπερμάτων πολισθείσης ἐρήμου) (V.Euth.p. 24 (Schwartz 1939)).The anonymous author of the Greek Historia monachorum in Aegypto claims that Apollo of Bawit's proselytizing efforts resulted in there being more monks concentrated in the desert than laypeople living in the rest of the world (Anon.Hist. mon. Aeg. 8.20).
55 It accordingly is essential for the object used in the illustration to be more readily familiar to the audience than the thing it illustrates; see Quint. Inst. or. 5.11.22,8.3.72.56 Apian imagery captures monks' diligence in other contexts as well.For instance, in his Latin translation of the Greek Historia monachorum in Aegypto, Rufinus likens the monks of Nitria to a swarm of bees who pour out of their cells to welcome pilgrim-visitors: "As we approached this place, and when the brothers realized that foreign travelers were arriving, they all immediately poured out of their cells like a swarm of bees and ran up to meet us with joy and eagerness" (Hist.mon.Aeg. 21.1.3;trans. Cain 2019, 181); Rufinus is subverting the Roman historiographic topos of bee swarms, representing opposing armies, as a familiar prodigy portending Roman defeat (cf.Rosenberger 1998, 98-99, 114-15, 135).(85.3-4), a physician given by God to Egypt (87.3), a lamp of spiritual light to the world (93.6), a father to all monks (15.3, 16.2, 50.4, 54.6, 66.7, 88.3), a deaf man ignoring the devil's taunts (39.5), and numerous figures from the Bible.57Athanasius also employs similes oftentimes to capture the awfulness of various personages.The devil prowls around like a lion looking for monks to devour (7.2).58 Demons are likened to unruly mobs loudly raising a ruckus (13.1),59 scorpions and serpents (24.5), thieves and robbers (31.4, 33.2, 42.6),60 and fully armed battalions of soldiers (23.3);61 and, demonic apparitions are said to vanish like smoke when rebuked (11.5, 40.4).62Furthermore, in an extended simile Athanasius has Antony compare the Arians to senseless mules that brutally attack the church of .
Metaphor is akin to comparison except that one thing is substituted for another and not simply likened to it by means of some introductory word of comparison.Athanasius draws from an impressive array of metaphors.A culinary one envisions Antony's speech as being seasoned with divine salt (73.4).The imagery of luminescence depicts saints, and especially Antony, as brightly-shining lamps giving light to the whole world (79.5, 82.12, 93.6).Athanasius invokes the trope of death as metaphorical sleep (88.3),63 and he also uses the language of burning to give some sense of the violence that a holy person's rebuke does to demons (41.6).The devil tries to inflict his own violence on Antony, stirring up a "dust-cloud of thoughts in his mind" (κονιορτὸν λογισμῶν ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ) (5.3).64 Athanasius thus dramatizes his mental assault by evoking the militaristic imagery of a dust-cloud being raised by horses or chariots on the move.The bulk of his metaphors are reserved for charac-57 See Movrin 2011.58 On leonine imagery for the devil in the New Testament, see Schwank 1962 andThurén 2013. 59 This is a stereotypical analogy for demonic soundscape.Cf.Jer.V. Hil.10.10; Sulp.Sev.V. Mart. 23.6;Joh. Eph. Lives p. 114 (Brooks 1923-25).
64 In Greek literature the imagery of a dust-cloud being raised-e.g., by horses and chariots on the move-typically has militaristic undertones (App. Mith. 396;Polyaen. Strat. 4.19.1,7.44.1;Lib. Or. 59.101), and Athanasius taps into this connotation to create a word-picture of the mental consternation that the devil stirred up against Antony.
Ekphrasis is a graphic description of something in lifelike detail which enables the audience to visualize what is being depicted.65Like other patristic orators and authors,66 Athanasius is resourceful in his application of this device.The ekphrastic insets in the Life fall primarily under the heading of τοπογραφία, a graphic representation of geography and topography.67Recruiting biblical allusions to fill out his portraiture, Athanasius paints the monastic settlements in the desert mountains, which sprang up under Antony's inspiration, as a utopian landscape, a "land unto itself," in which righeousness prevails and monks spend all their time praying, fasting, and co-existing in mutual harmony (44.2-4).68In 49.7 Athanasius conjures up a brief but picturesque description, reminiscent of classical pastoral poetry, of Antony's Inner Mountain (Mt.Colzim): Ἦλθεν εἰς ὄρος λίαν ὑψηλόν.καὶ ὕδωρ μὲν ἦν ὑπὸ τὸ ὄρος διειδέστατον, γλυκὺ καὶ μάλα ψυχρόν.πεδιὰς δὲ ἔξωθεν καὶ φοίνικες ἀμεληθέντες ὀλίγοι ("He arrived at a very lofty mountain.The water at its base was crystal-clear, sweet, and very cold, and beyond there was a plain and a few scraggy date palms").
In amplifying their subjects in panegyric oratory and hagiographic literature Christians in Late Antiquity availed themselves of traditional rhetorical techniques to which they had first been exposed during the course of their educational cursus.One of the most frequently deployed of these rhetorical devices was diaporesis,69 whereby an orator or author pretends that he is altogether incapable of treating the subject matter at hand in a manner befitting its loftiness.The fundamental aim of such self-depreciation is not to induce the audience to lose confidence in the communicator but rather to convey the impression that the subject matter transcends the limits of all human discourse, no matter who happens to be the communicator.In the Prologue ( § 4) Athanasius ostensibly downplays his account of Antony's life with the claim that it contains "only a few things from my recollection of his 65 See e.g.Heffernan 1993;Webb 2009. 66 E.g., Basil (Campbell 1922, 128-45) and Chrysostom (Ameringer 1921, 86-100).67 See Lausberg 1960, § 819.68 Athanasius evokes the geographical and conceptual otherness of monastic Egypt and paints it as something of a post-biblical Promised Land.In his eighth homily on Mathew, John Chrysostom strikes the same utopian chord (Hom. 8 Mt. (PG 57,87)), as does Jerome in Ep. 2.1: Spectarem desertum, omni amoeniorem civitatem, viderem desolata ab accolis loca quasi ad quoddam paradisi instar sanctorum coetibus obsideri.
deeds" (ὀλίγα τῶν ἐκείνου μνημονεύσας) and he goes on to invite his addressees to ask other eyewitnesses about Antony, though even "when each person tells what he knows, the cumulative account about him would perhaps still barely do him justice" (ἑκάστου λέγοντος ὅπερ οἶδε, μόλις ἐπαξίως ἡ περὶ ἐκείνου γένηται διήγησις); the suggestion, then, is that no single account-not even Athanasius'-can adequately compass Antony's life and deeds.70At the end of the Life Athanasius circles back to this inexpressibility topos: Εἰ καὶ μικρὰ ταῦτα πρὸς τὴν ἀρετὴν ἐκείνου, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τούτων λογίζεσθε καὶ ὑμεῖς ὁποῖος ἦν ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος Ἀντώνιος ("Even if this account is insignificant compared to his virtue, nevertheless ascertain from it what the man of God Antony was like") (93.1).
Hyperbaton is the intentional displacement of two or more syntactically connected words or groups of words from their natural order for the purpose of emphasizing either the words thus displaced or the interpositioned word(s), or sometimes both simultaneously.This was one of the most salient rhetorical figures in ancient Greek literary language.71Athanasius employs this device to great effect, as three typical examples demonstrate.For instance, in the Prologue ( § 3) he writes: Ἔστι γὰρ μοναχοῖς ἱκανὸς χαρακτὴρ πρὸς ἄσκησιν ὁ Ἀντωνίου βίος ("For monks Antony's life is a sufficient pattern for ascetic discipline").This sentence has a palpable gnomic quality which enhances it as a paraenetic prescription.Additionally, its subject is delayed until the very end and also hyperbatically displaced from its copulative verb, and the resulting effect is emphasizing the paradigmatic nature of Antony's βίος.In 81.1 Athanasius speaks of Antony's fame in high places: Ἔφθασε δὲ καὶ μέχρι βασιλέων ἡ περὶ Ἀντωνίου φήμη ("Talk of Antony reached even as far as emperors").Two species of hyperbaton are observable in this sentence, one in which an article is separated from its corresponding noun (ἡ περὶ Ἀντωνίου φήμη), and the other in which the main noun is separated from its verb-and by seven intervening words, no less; this latter hyperbaton syntactically underscores the extent of his celebrity.Finally, Athanasius opens his multi-chapter account of Antony's encounters with various pagan philosophers with the following assertion: Kαὶ φρόνιμος δὲ ἦν λίαν ("Antony also possessed practical wisdom to an extraordinary degree") (72.1).The pithiness of this statement gives it an air of gravitas, and the adverbial modifier λίαν achieves somewhat more forcefulness both because it is hyperbatically separated from φρόνιμος and because it is postponed to the end of the short sentence, whereas elsewhere in the Life it precedes its adjective four times (23.5, 42.8, 49.7, 58.1) and follows it three times (20.6, 40.1, 72.1); the overall effect is emphasis on Antony's practical wisdom, which ends up confounding all of his philosopher-interlocutors.
Paradox, the juxtaposition of words or concepts which are mutually exclusive apart from the context, is a device that patristic authors and orators found especially useful for communicating some small sense of the ineffability of the theological mysteries of the Christian faith.72This device is applied diversely in the Life, as just two examples demonstrate.In 74.6 Antony confronts pagan philosophers: Πῶς δὲ χλευάζειν τολμᾶτε ἡμᾶς, λέγοντας τὸν Χριστὸν ἄνθρωπον πεφανερῶσθαι; ("How do you presume to mock us for saying that Christ appeared as a man?").Antony is referencing the (Athanasian) doctrine of the Incarnation, and he highlights its inherent paradoxicality by directly juxtaposing "Christ" and "man."In 14.7 Athanasius describes the concrete effects of Antony's monastic proselytizing: Kαὶ οὕτω λοιπὸν γέγονε καὶ ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσι μοναστήρια καὶ ἡ ἔρημος ἐπολίσθη, μοναχῶν ἐξελθόντων ἀπὸ τῶν ἰδίων καὶ ἀπογραψαμένων τὴν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς πολιτείαν ("From then on there sprang up monastic habitations even in the mountains and the desert was made a city, as monks left all that was theirs and registered themselves for citizenship in heaven").Embedded in this statement are not one but two paradoxes: the uninhabitable desert is made habitable, and monks are citizens of heaven yet still live on earth.73

Prose Rhythm in the Life of Antony
The stylish deployment of traditional rhetorical figures, especially in complex combinations with one another, is one important hallmark of artistic late Greek prose.Another is the consistent incorporation of rhythmic clausulae into sentences to maintain a melodious tempo.Here, too, Athanasius demonstrates his attentiveness to the finer points of his literary craft.Like the rhythm used by other stylistically conscientious contemporary and near-contemporary writers in Greek, his is predominantly accentual rather than quantitative.The standard forms attested in their works are found also in the Life.They are differentiated from one another by the number of unstressed syllables which separate the last two accents of a clause; the number of syllables either preceding or following these two stressed syllables is irrelevant.The table below lists these forms, along with one example, and indicates the relative frequency of each:74  Of the seven varieties that appear in the Life, Athanasius favors Forms 1 and 2 the most, with Form 2 accounting for nearly one-third of all clausular endings.Form 2 in fact is the accentual pattern overwhelmingly preferred also by many other late Greek authors and orators,77 such as Libanius, Himerius,78 Themistius, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa,79 Gregory of Nazianzus,80 John Chrysostom,81 Synesius of Cyrene,82 Procopius,83 Isidore of Pelusium,84 and Sozomen.85

Conclusion
The Life of Antony prominently exhibits key stylistic features associated with the aesthetic prose of its time.The mere occurrence of this or that rhetorical device here and there would not in itself be conclusive proof of intentional sophistication,86 but the sheer frequency and abundance of devices, not to mention Athanasius' penchant for aggregating multiple ones in close proximity for heightened effect, do speak to a certain degree of deliberate artifice, as does his rhythmic prose.These findings are noteworthy on their own terms because they lend to a newfound appreciation of the Life as a literary artifact.They also complement those of other studies which affirm that in his writings Athanasius evinces a facility with advanced rhetorical techniques and argumentation,87 and they likewise counter the claims of some scholars that his works, such as the Life of Antony, are devoid of rhetorical embellishment.88None of this is necessarily to assert, however, that Athanasius must have received extensive formal training in rhetoric in his youth like other fellow Greek-speaking Christian authors in antiquity such as Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Basil of Caesarea.89We know virtually nothing for certain about his educational pedigree, and what precious little we reliably can know must be derived indirectly from his writings.90Our findings nevertheless indicate, even conservatively, that he had significant exposure to the art of rhetoric-if not in a classroom setting,91 then perhaps through rhetorical handbooks and/or through attentive study of the writings of Irenaeus, Origen, and other Christian authors who wrote rhetorically adroit prose.92Whatever the case, it is abundantly clear from the Life at least that he not only knew his rhetoric well but also knew how to marshall it in order to refine his message for his Hellenophone audience.
Furthermore, our investigation yields an interesting insight into Athanasius' portraiture of Antony.Proportionately speaking, the rhetorical figures are relatively evenly interspersed between the text presented in Athanasius' voice as narrator and in the direct speech he attributes to Antony.Nevertheless, the fact that they are present at all in, much less pervasive throughout, speech purportedly uttered by Antony is noteworthy because the historical Antony was a native Coptic-speaker and evidently either could speak no Greek or had so little spoken proficiency in it that he had to communicate with Greek-speakers through an interpreter.93Athanasius' depiction of him as speaking stylistically decorous Greek (albeit, in translation from Coptic) therefore is rather ironic, given that in the narrative Antony repeatedly eschews Hellenic paideia and all of its trappings,94 of which a mastery of rhetoric is of course one.
89 Some scholars are inclined to think that Athanasius did not progress far enough in his educational cursus to undertake formal study under a rhetor (e.g., Barnes 1993, 11-12, 126;Louth 2004, 275;Gwynn 2012, 3-4).Cf.Rubenson 2006, 207, who describes Athanasius as "a literate man educated in Alexandria," the implication being that he did undergo some kind of rhetorical training.
90 The ancient historiographic and hagiographic testimonia for Athanasius' educational background are not on the whole trustworthy; for a critical review of them, see Gemeinhardt 2011, 79-82.In his panegyric on Athanasius, delivered seven years after his death, Gregory of Nazianzus claims that the bishop had had only a modicum of training in philosophy (ὀλίγα τῶν ἐγκυκλίων φιλοσοφήσας) (Or.21.6).Although scholars (e.g., Anatolios 2004, 4) sometimes take Gregory's comment at face value, we have no way of verifying how historically reliable it is, and at any rate it must be taken with a grain of salt because Gregory makes it in the broader context of emphasizing that Athanasius immersed himself in Scripture more than any other human being.
94 See e.g.1.2 on the child Antony's rejection of Hellenic education.By contrast with Antony, the prototype of the "unlettered" saint, some later hagiographic protagonists are depicted as having been diligent, even precocious, students as children.Theodore of Sykeon learned his letters very thoroughly (πάνυ καλῶς) (Georg.Syk.V. Theod.Syk.10), Hilarion was a virtuoso at oratory (Jer.V. Hil.2.2), Paul of Thebes was a young master of Greek and Coptic (Jer.V. Paul.4.1), the Egyptian ascetic Sarap-What, if anything, are we to make of this discrepancy?It may well not have occurred, or even mattered, to Athanasius.He deployed the devices of sophistic rhetoric ultimately as the means to an end, to convey his narratival content in an aesthetically attractive manner which in turn renders this content more persuasive, more captivating, and therefore more palatable to his target audience.95For Athanasius, then, the rhetorical embellishment and verbal euphony serve a practical rather than a purely or even predominantly epideictic purpose and do not distract from the fundamentally didactic objective at hand.96Indeed, the embellishment does not so clutter his prose as to create the impression of pretentious and flamboyant showmanship, nor does it give his writing a distinct air of artificiality or turgidity.His syntax likewise is not sinuous or convoluted but straightforward and lucid, thus rendering the work readily accessible and comprehensible to any readers of humble or at least non-elite origins.3), Eucherius of Orléans surpassed the best of his peers in his studies (Anon.V. Euch.3), and Leutfred of Évreux successfully implored his parents to give him access to exercitia litterarum in scholis (Anon.V. Leut.Madr.1).95 Ancient rhetoric, at least in its classical Roman expression, had a threefold function-to instruct (docere), to entertain (delectare), and most of all to persuade (persuadere).From our analysis it is clear that the Life neatly satisfies all three of these criteria.
96 Cf.Rapp 1998, 437, who, referring to Greek hagiographic texts in general, notes that "the absence of stylistic embellishment enables the audience to focus on the content of the story without the distractions of a lofty style."
Ep. ad Diog.5.9),Athanasius is more exclusive and reserves such citizenship in the here and now only for monks of the desert (the desert being the reflection of the heavenly polis of Jerusalem which is to come), while for non-monastic Christians citizenship in heaven remains a future, eschato-Porph.4.74The percentages given have been tabulated on the basis of the complete text of the Life and its prologue, and thus they are not extrapolations from a limited number of randomly selected clausulae.