Fierce was the wild billow

Fierce was the wild billow. Greek, ascribed to St Anatolius (ca. 8th century), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866). In Hymns of the Eastern Church (1862) this dramatic three-verse hymn, ‘ζοφεράς τρικυμίας’ (Zopheras trikumias’), was described by Neale as ‘Stichera for A Sunday of the First Tone’, and placed in the ‘First Epoch’ of Greek Hymnody, which he dated from 360 to 726. It was printed in EH, CP, and some other books with alterations. Re-writings have concentrated - alas  -  on removing the obscurity of ‘Wail of Euroclydon’ in verse 2 (a stormy wind, from Acts 27: 14, changed to ‘Wail of the hurricane’), and on changing verse 3 line 2, where ‘Come Thou to me’ becomes ‘Near to...