In his principal work, The Banquet of the Ten Virgins, the hymn is found from which the following is a cento. It contains twenty-four strophes, each beginning with a letter of the Greek alphabet in alphabetical order, and ending with the same refrain.
Methodius is said to have suffered martyrdom under Diocletian about 311 A.D.
ἄνωθεν, παρθένοι, βοῆς ἐγερσίνεκρος ἦχος
I
Behold the Bridegroom! Hark the cry,
The dead, awaking, rends the sky!
Go, virgins, He is near,
Your lamps all burning clear;
He enters where the rising light
Asunder bursts the gates of night.