PISIDES, GIORGIO (Γεώργιος ὁ Πισίδης). – A native of Pisidia, deacon and skeuophylax of Hagia Sophia, he lived under the emperor Heraclius (610–41) and the patriarch Sergius, with whom he maintained close relations. He accompanied the Emperor on his expeditions against the Persians and celebrated his deeds in verse.
The following works by him are extant: 1) The Expedition of Heraclius against the Persians, a poem in which the author recounts the events of the campaign of 622; 2) The Siege of Constantinople by the Avars and Their Defeat; 3) The Heraclid, or Heraclius’s Definitive Victory over Chosroes; 4) Hexaemeron, or The Creation of the World, which is P.’s most extensive work. An Armenian translation and a Slavonic-Russian one from the fourteenth century are preserved; 5) Epigrams and minor poems of various kinds, among which are noteworthy: Against the Impious Severus, a theological work directed against the Monophysite doctor; On the Resurrection of Christ; On the Vanity of Life.
Opinions of P.’s work have varied. Compared by the Byzantines (Psellos) to Euripides, he is regarded by others as a poetaster because of his lack of originality. In reality, owing to the correctness of his form and the clarity and fluency of his language, he is the best among the secular poets of the Byzantine period; nevertheless, despite some genuinely personal touches, his work is much affected by the bombastic rhetoric of a period of decadence.
For the akathist hymn falsely attributed to him, V. ACATISTO. The other works are in PG 92, 1160–1756, which reproduces the edition of J. M. Querci (Rome 1777); a series of little poems overlooked by Querci was published by L. Sternbach, Georgii Pisidae carmina inedita, in Wiener Studien, 13 (1891), pp. 1–62; 14 (1892), pp. 51–68; other fragments in L. Sternbach, De Georgii Pisidae apud Theophanem aliosque historicos reliquis, in Dissert. philolog. Acad. litter. Cracoviensis, 2nd series, 15 (1910), pp. 1–108.