E06826: The Greek Martyrdom of *Gordiοs (soldier and martyr of Caesarea of Cappadocia, S00114), almost certainly a 10th c. or slightly earlier text which reproduces almost unchanged a lost earlier Martyrdom of *Hesychios (martyr of Antioch, S01034).

Martyrdom of Gordios (Hesychios) (BHG 703b)

Brief summary:

In Antioch, when the emperor Maximianos orders everyone to sacrifice to the pagan gods or resign from office [στρατεία, denoting a military or bureaucratic career], the hero is among those who voluntarily take off the belt [the symbol of office]. The emperor attempts, without success, to persuade him in various ways to renounce Christianity: first by making him wear women's clothes and work in a textile workshop (γυναικεῖον τῶν λαναρίων), then by alternately promising him high honours and by torturing him, suspended upside down, with burning irons and a cauldron of boiling pitch placed underneath him.

When these attempts fail, Maximianos hands the saint over to the centurion Zeugmatios, who threatens to shame both the hero and the young Christian woman, Alexandria, by forcing them to have intercourse. The saint, however, exchanges clothes with Alexandria, allowing her to escape while he pretends to be her; the ruse is only discovered when the saint is brought to the palace.

After a final unsuccessful attempt to persuade the saint to exchange Christ for worldly glory and riches, the emperor has his tongue cut out, but the saint keeps talking. After this he is executed by having a millstone tied around his neck and being thrown him into the river Orontes. The saint's body is carried by the current to the sea and cast ashore in Katabasis, a suburban location (προάστειον) of the Cilician city of Rhosus. Christians collect the body and deposit it in the same place, near the beach. The martyrdom of Gordios [Hesychios] took place on 3 January.

Text: Halkin 1961, 8-15.
Summary: N. Kälviäinen.