Ephrem Mtsire

Ephrem Mtsire (Second part of 11th c.), Philosopher, philologist and translator. He spent his childhood in Constantinople, where he was meticulously educated. Besides other disciplines, he knew the Greet language perfectly well. In 1091, the members of Georgian colony elected him the Dean of Kastan Monastery on Black Mountain, near Antioch. The Georgians who lived in that locality, put Ephrem’s universal education and to good use and commissioned him to translate Greek books. Ephrem Mtsire worked out an original theory of translation. His translations enriched Georgian ecclesiastic literature. He translated the works by Gregory of Neocaesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great of Caesarea, Cassian of Hroma and others. He wrote several original iambs, edited Psalters, etc. Ephrem Mtsire’s name is closely linked with the development of Georgian philosophy in the 11th and 12th centuries.

He promoted two important philosophical trends in Georgia: Aristotelism and Neoplatonism. His translation of the works by Dionysius the Areopagite and comments to them played great role in the development of Georgian Neoplatonism. Works of Ephrem Mtsire contributed to the formation of philosophic terms in the Georgian language.