The Rhetoric of Landscape in Gregory of Nyssa’s Homilies on the Song of Songs

This chapter examines Gregory of Nyssa’s exegesis of Song 2:10–13: he reads this as an ekphrasis of spring, which he then elaborates himself in a similar literary style. The chapter begins by examining the use of ekphrasis to describe gardens more generally, especially the way in which ancient gardens were symbols of nature tamed and bounded and the way in which they were blurred with the concept of the locus amoenus or pleasant natural space. Gardens are used in literature to express something about their owners or creators; they are used to evoke mood and to reflect on the art of words. Gregory shares this understanding of the ancient garden; he too uses ekphrasis to evoke a mood of awe and to arouse expectation; he uses it to depict the character of the lover in the Song/the divine Word, and to reflect on the nature of divine discourse.