For Byzantines, catanyctic poetry offered a rich source of models for self-representation. In this paper I analyse the poetic strategies and literary motifs through which Nikephoros Ouranos (tenth–eleventh century) shaped the self in his catanyctic alphabet. In particular, I will focus on the intertextual strategies employed by Ouranos in order to model the catanyctic self, such as the identification with scriptural sinners, and the presence of biblical metaphors.