VocaMe - Kassia - Yper ton Ellinon
текст песни

Written for the Morning Office of December 73th, "Yper ton Ellinon" is the second of two settings by Kassia for the memory of the five martyrs Eustratius, Auxentios, Eugenius, Orestes, and Mardartus. This stichemn celebrates that all five marytrs were above the teachings of the pagan Ancient Creeks and instead embraced the wisdom of the apostles, the fishermen of Christ, who preached the doctrine of Christianity. As a symbol of the five martyrs Kassia again makes use of the motive of the interval of the fifth and its pentachord as a structural unification for the form of the hymn.

Translation:
Above the teachings of the Greeks the holy martyrs preferred the wisdom of the apostles, abandoning the books of the orators and excelling in those of the fishermen. For there indeed was the eloquence of words, and in the preaching oi the uneducated they learned the divine knowledge of the Trinity, by which they serve as envoys that our sou/s be guarded in peace.