Cave of the Seven Sleepers, Turkey (1987)
by user Kpisimon, via Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons Attribution 3 Unported License)
TO BE honest, I'm fond of the tale in a secular way because I'm very fond of sleeping, especially at epic lengths if there are no particular responsibilities to fulfill and therefore relaxing is in order.
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ONE OF the earlier accounts of the tale (the earliest recorded seems to have been written in the 6th century) appears in the Koran, in Al-Kahf* ("The Cave"), verses 9-25. As the story goes the seven — or fewer; and maybe they had a dog to protect them — companions retire to the cave so that they are not stoned or coerced into apostasy. (Based on the context of disputing the existence of a "son of Allah," it sounds like the Christians rather than the Romans are the villains here.) Allah guards them and lets them sleep for three hundred to three hundred and nine years.
A Christian version is recounted in "The Golden Legend" (ca. 1260):
DURING the reign of Decius, the citizens of Ephesus, which is in present-day Turkey, were forced to come to the temple to make sacrifices or else be killed. Seven Christian brothers decided not to comply, preferring to retire indoors until the danger passed; they were still found and brought to trial, and during the period given them for repentance, they decided to spread their inheritance among the poor and withdraw to Mount Celion. One of them was a servant, Malchus, who would disguise himself and bring them food. At any rate Decius found out their retreat and Malchus returned from one of his journeys in terror; but they ate the food he had brought and then rested. The emperor demanded that the cave be sealed so that the Seven Sleepers would starve.
362** years later the Christian emperor Theodosius came to the cave to pray and lament. Then a townsman of Ephesus ordered that a stable be built in the caves, and when the masons had cleared away the stones, the Seven Sleepers woke up and thought that they had only been sleeping for a day. Malchus was sent off for food, and was surprised to find that Ephesus was full of crosses and that God was freely mentioned in the streets. The townspeople were surprised that he had an old coin and thought that he had found a treasure, so they put him in a rope noose and led him before the church authorities. Obviously Malchus couldn't give a clear account of himself.
But he led the authorities and townspeople to the mountain, where they discovered letters that had been sealed up and put there by sympathizers during the reign of Decius, and found the remaining saintly Sleepers. Theodosius, having heard the news, doffed his sackcloth and joined the celebrations. Then the Sleepers, having doctrinairely affirmed that resurrection is real, died.
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IF Seven Sleepers' Day falls on July 7th, as it did in the Julian calendar when the folk belief originated, the supposition that the weather is likely to hold true for the next seven weeks may be 60-70% confirmed in southerly Germany; since in roughly this time period the jet stream tends to even out the character of the weather.
Scheint am Siebenschläfer Sonne, gibt es sieben Wochen Wonne.THERE are a couple of proverbs; this one is particularly cheerful and loosely translated goes, "If the sun shines on Seven Sleepers', there will be seven weeks of happiness."
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"Seven Sleepers" [Wikipedia] Read June 27, 2011
"Al-Kahf" [Wikisource]
"Golden Legend" [Wikipedia]
Medieval Sourcebook: The Golden Legend: Volume 4 [Fordham], originally gathered by Jacobus de Voragine
"Siebenschläfertag" [Wikipedia] in German
"Sieben Schläfer von Ephesus" [Wikipedia] in German
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* I think the writing style of this translation is kind of horrid, so apologies for that.
** Voragine himself realizes that this interval is not historically accurate and reduces it to 208 years at the end of the tale; in modern times it is estimated to be over 150 but certainly less.
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