Homilies and Sermons 21.11–22.2
Authorship disputed: Most of these homilies are accepted as Basil's; a few (On Faith, On Humility, parts of the Ps. homilies) have been questioned. Judge each homily separately.
Greek text: PG 31.English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0).
Chapter 21
21.11PG 31:551
Ἐπειδὴ δὲ αὐτὲν νιχῶντα εἶδε πάλιν ὁ δυσμενὴς. καὶ οὐδενὶ τούτων τιναχθήναι δυνάμενον, αὑτῇ, τῇ σαρχὶ τὸ τῆς πείγας προσῆγε μηχάνημα, καὶ τὸ σῶμα μαστίξας ἀῤῥήτοις πληγαῖς, σχωλήχων ἀναδίδοσθαι πηγὰς ἐξ αὐτοῦ παρ:σχεύασε " καὶ τῶν τῆς βασιλείας θρόνων τὸν ἄνδρα χαταγαγὼν, ἐπὶ χοπρίας ἐχάθισεν. Ὁ δὲ, καὶ τοιούτοις βαλλόμενος πάθεσιν, ἀχίνητος ἔμεινε" καὶ σπαραττομένου τοῦ σώματος, ἄσυλον ἐφύλαττε τὸν τῆς εὐσεθείας θησαυρὸν ἐν τῷ χρυπτῷ τῆς ψυχῆς. Οὐχ ἔχων τοίνυν ὅ τι ποιήσει λοιπὸν ὁ πολέμιος, ἐπὶ τὴν τῆς ἀρκαίας ἔρχεται μνήμην, καὶ τὴν τοῦ γυναίου διάνοιαν ὑποσύρας εἰς ἀσεθῆ γνώμην γαὶ βλάσφημον, δι᾽ ἐγείνης σαλεύειν ἐπειρᾶτο τὸν ἀθλητήν. Καὶ ἡ μὲν πρὸς τὸν μαχρὸν χρόνον ἀπαγορεύσασα, τῷ δικαίῳ παρίστατο, κάτω νενευχυῖΐα, καὶ τὰς χεῖρας ἐπὶ τοῖς ὁρωμένοις συγχρούουσα, καὶ τοὺς τῆς εὐσεμὲν τὴν παλαιὰν εὐθηνίαν τῶν οἰχείων, ὑποδειχνύουσα δὲ τὰ παρόντα καχὰ, χαὺ οἷον ἐξ οἵων ἔλαχε βίον, καὶ τίνα τῶν πολλῶν θυσιῶν ἐδέξατο παρὰ τοῦ Δεσπότου μισθὸν, ἔλεγέ τε ἀεὶ τῆς μὲν τῶν γυναιχῶν ὀλιγοψυχίας ἄξια ῥήματα, ταράξαι δὲ πάντα ἄνδρα δυνάμενα, καὶ περιτρέψαι καὶ γενναίαν διάνοιαν - πλανῇ.τις γὰρ καὶ λάτρις περιέρχομαι, ἡ βασιλὶς δουλεύω, καὶ πρὸς τὰς τῶν ἐμῶν οἰχετῶν χεῖρας ἠνάγχασμαι βλέπειν, καὶ τρέφουσα πάλαι πολλοὺς, ἀγαπητῶς ἐκ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων παρατρέφομαι νῦν " καὶ ὅτι χαλὸν εἴη καὶ χρήσιμον, ἀσεθέσι χρησάμενον ῥήμασιν ἑαυτὸν τῆς γῆς ἐχτεμεῖν, τὸ τῆς τοῦ χτίσαντος ὀργῆς ἀχονήσαντα ξίφος, ἣ διαχαρτεροῦντα πρὸς τὰ δεινὰ, τὸν ἐν τοῖς ἀγῶσι μόχθον ἑαυτῷ καὶ τῇ συνοιχούσῃ μηχύνειν. Ὁ δὲ, ἐπὶ τούτοις τοῖς ῥήμασιν ἀχθεσθεὶς, ὡς ἐπ᾽ οὐδενὶ τῶν προτέρων καχῶν, καὶ θυμοῦ τὸ βλέμμα πληρώσας, καὶ πρὸς τὴν γυναῖχα χαθάπερ πρὸς πολεμίαν ἀποστραφεὶς, κέφησιν; Ἵνα τί ὡς μία τῶν ἀφρόνων γυναικῶν ἐφθέγξω; Κατάθου, φησὶν, ὦ γύναι, τὴν συμδουλήν. Μέχρι τίνος τὴν χοινὴν ἐν οἷς λέγεις ὑδρίζεις ζωήν; ἘΨεύτω καὶ τὴν ἐμὴν, ὡς οὐχ ηὐὖχόμην, ἀναστροφὴν, διέδαλες ἐν οἷς ἐλάλησας καὶ τὸν ἐμὸν βίον. Ἔξ ἡμισείας ἡσεδηχέναι νενόμιχα νῦν, ἐπειδήπερ ἕν μὲν σῶμα ἀμφοτέρους ἡμᾶς ὁ γάμος ἐποίησς, σὺ δὲ εἰς βλασφημίαν χατέπεσες. Εἰ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ἐδεξάμεθα ἐκ χειρὸς Κυρίου, τὰ καχὰ οὐχ ὑποίσομεν; ᾿Ανάμνησον τῶν φθασάντων σεαυτὴν ἀγαθῶν. ᾿Αντισήχωσον τὰ χρείττω τοῖς χείροσιν. Οὐδενὸς ἀνθρώπων ὁ βίος διόλου μαχάριος. Τὸ διὰ παντὸς εὖ πράττειν μόνου Θεοῦ " Σὺ δὲ, εἰ τοῖς παροῦσιν ἀλγεῖς, ἀπὸ τῶν προλαδόντων σαυτὴν παραμύθησαι. Νῦν δαχρύεις, ἀλλ᾽ ἐγέλασας πρότερον " νῦν πτωχεύεις, ἀλλ᾽ ἐπλούτησας πρότερον. ἜἜπιες τὸ διειδὲς νᾶμα τοῦ βίου, καὶ τὸ θολερὸν τοῦτο πίνουσα χαρτέρησον. Οὐδὲ τὰ τῶν ποταμῶν ῥεύματα διόλου φαίνετα: χαθαρά. Ποταμὸς δὲ͵ ὡς οἵσθα, ὁ βίος ἡμῶν, μενος. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ αὐτοῦ προέῤῥευσεν ἤδη, τὸ δὲ ἔτι πορεύεται καὶ τὸ μὲν ἄρτι προέχυψε τῶν πηγῶν, τὸ δὲ μέλλει - καὶ πρὸς τὴν χοινὴν ἅπαντες ποῦ θανάτου σπεύδομεν θάλατταν. Εἰ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ἐδεξάμεθα ἐκ χειρὸς Κυρίου, τὰ καχὰ οὐχ ὑποίσομεν; ᾿Αναγχάζομεν τὸν χριτὴν ὅμοια χορηγεῖν πράγματα δ αἰῶνος ἡμῖν; Διδάσχομεν τὸν Δεσπότην, ὅπως χρὴ διεξάγειν τὸν ἡμέτερον βίον; Αὐτὸς τῶν οἰχείων ψήφων ἔχει τὴν ἐξουσίαν. “Ὅπως βούλεται τάττει τὰ χαθ᾽ ἡμᾶς. Σοφὸς δέ ἔστι, καὶ τὸ λυσιτελοῦν ἐπιμετρεῖ τοῖς οἰχέταις.
Epeidē de auten nichōnta eide palin ho dysmenēs. kai oudeni toutōn tinachthēnai dynamenon, hautę̄, tę̄ sarchi to tēs peigas prosēge mēchanēma, kai to sōma mastixas arrhētois plēgais, schōlēchōn anadidosthai pēgas ex autou par:scheuase " kai tōn tēs basileias thronōn ton andra chatagagōn, epi choprias echathisen. Ho de, kai toioutois ballomenos pathesin, achinētos emeine" kai sparattomenou tou sōmatos, asylon ephylatte ton tēs eusetheias thēsauron en tǭ chryptǭ tēs psychēs. Ouch echōn toinyn ho ti poiēsei loipon ho polemios, epi tēn tēs arkaias erchetai mnēmēn, kai tēn tou gynaiou dianoian hyposyras eis asethē gnōmēn gai blasphēmon, di᾽ egeinēs saleuein epeirato ton athlētēn. Kai hē men pros ton machron chronon apagoreusasa, tǭ dikaiǭ paristato, katō neneuchuiïa, kai tas cheiras epi tois horōmenois synchrouousa, kai tous tēs eusemen tēn palaian euthēnian tōn oicheiōn, hypodeichnyousa de ta paronta kacha, chau hoion ex hoiōn elache bion, kai tina tōn pollōn thysiōn edexato para tou Despotou misthon, elege te aei tēs men tōn gynaichōn oligopsychias axia rhēmata, taraxai de panta andra dynamena, kai peritrepsai kai gennaian dianoian - planę̄.tis gar kai latris perierchomai, hē basilis douleuō, kai pros tas tōn emōn oichetōn cheiras ēnanchasmai blepein, kai trephousa palai pollous, agapētōs ek tōn allotriōn paratrephomai nyn " kai hoti chalon eiē kai chrēsimon, asethesi chrēsamenon rhēmasin heauton tēs gēs echtemein, to tēs tou chtisantos orgēs achonēsanta xiphos, hē diacharterounta pros ta deina, ton en tois agōsi mochthon heautǭ kai tę̄ synoichousę̄ mēchynein. Ho de, epi toutois tois rhēmasin achthestheis, hōs ep᾽ oudeni tōn proterōn kachōn, kai thymou to blemma plērōsas, kai pros tēn gynaicha chathaper pros polemian apostrapheis, kephēsin? Hina ti hōs mia tōn aphronōn gynaikōn ephthenxō? Katathou, phēsin, ō gynai, tēn symdoulēn. Mechri tinos tēn choinēn en hois legeis hydrizeis zōēn? EPseutō kai tēn emēn, hōs ouch ēuychomēn, anastrophēn, diedales en hois elalēsas kai ton emon bion. Ex hēmiseias hēsedēchenai nenomicha nyn, epeidēper hen men sōma amphoterous hēmas ho gamos epoiēss, sy de eis blasphēmian chatepeses. Ei ta agatha edexametha ek cheiros Kyriou, ta kacha ouch hypoisomen? ᾿Anamnēson tōn phthasantōn seautēn agathōn. ᾿Antisēchōson ta chreittō tois cheirosin. Oudenos anthrōpōn ho bios diolou macharios. To dia pantos eu prattein monou Theou " Sy de, ei tois parousin algeis, apo tōn proladontōn sautēn paramythēsai. Nyn dachryeis, all᾽ egelasas proteron " nyn ptōcheueis, all᾽ eploutēsas proteron. EEpies to dieides nama tou biou, kai to tholeron touto pinousa charterēson. Oude ta tōn potamōn rheumata diolou phaineta: chathara. Potamos de͵ hōs hoistha, ho bios hēmōn, menos. To men gar autou proerrheusen ēdē, to de eti poreuetai kai to men arti proechypse tōn pēgōn, to de mellei - kai pros tēn choinēn hapantes pou thanatou speudomen thalattan. Ei ta agatha edexametha ek cheiros Kyriou, ta kacha ouch hypoisomen? ᾿Ananchazomen ton chritēn homoia chorēgein pragmata d aiōnos hēmin? Didaschomen ton Despotēn, hopōs chrē diexagein ton hēmeteron bion? Autos tōn oicheiōn psēphōn echei tēn exousian. “Hopōs bouletai tattei ta chath᾽ hēmas. Sophos de esti, kai to lysiteloun epimetrei tois oichetais.
[11] But when the enemy saw him victorious again and unable to be shaken by any of these things, he brought his engine of trial against the flesh itself; and scourging the body with unspeakable blows, he caused springs of worms to break out from it; and bringing the man down from the thrones of kingship, he seated him on a dunghill. But he, though struck with such sufferings, remained unmoved; and while his body was being torn, he kept the treasure of piety inviolate in the secret place of his soul. Having nothing more to do, the enemy comes to his old memory, and, drawing the wife's mind into an impious and blasphemous judgment, tried through her to shake the athlete. And she, having given up because of the long time, stood beside the righteous man with her head bowed, striking her hands together at what she saw, and … the old prosperity of the household, pointing out the present evils, and from what a life she had fallen to what, and what reward she had received from the Master for the many sacrifices; and she kept speaking words worthy of the faint-heartedness of women, but able to trouble any man and to overturn even a noble mind: “I go about a wanderer and a hired servant; I, a queen, am a slave, and am forced to look to the hands of my own servants; I who once fed many am now glad to be fed from what belongs to others.” And she said that it would be good and profitable for him to use impious words and so cut himself off from the earth, sharpening the sword of the Creator's anger, rather than, by holding out against the terrors, to prolong the toil of the contests for himself and for his wife. But he, more grieved at these words than at any of the earlier evils, filling his look with anger and turning to his wife as to an enemy, says: “Why have you spoken like one of the foolish women? Put away your counsel, woman. How long will you outrage our common life by what you say? You have spoken falsely of my conduct too, as I never wished, and slandered my life by what you have said. I think that I have now been half impious, since marriage made us both one body, and you have fallen into blasphemy. If we received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not bear the bad? Remind yourself of the good things that went before. Weigh the better against the worse. No man's life is blessed throughout. To prosper always belongs to God alone. If the present pains you, comfort yourself from what went before. Now you weep, but you laughed before; now you are poor, but you were rich before. You drank the clear stream of life; drinking this muddy one too, hold out. Not even the streams of rivers appear clean throughout. Our life, as you know, is a river … For part of it has already flowed by, part is still passing; part has just come out of the springs, part is still to come; and all of us hasten to the common sea of death. If we received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not bear the bad? Do we compel the judge to supply us with the same things forever? Do we teach the Master how he must conduct our life? He has authority over his own decisions. He orders our affairs as he wills. And he is wise, and measures out to his servants what is profitable.
Job 2:7 (allusion, high confidence) · Job 2:8 (allusion, high confidence) · Job 2:9 (allusion, high confidence) · Job 2:10 (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 2:24 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Struck in body and seated on the dunghill, Job resists even his wife's plea to curse God, answering that good and evil alike are to be received from the Lord.
- Staged as section 7; the scan reads Migne's numeral 11, and it is section 11. Basil follows the longer speech of Job's wife in the Septuagint (Job 2:9). Words lost under Migne's notes and Latin are marked “…” (the participle with “the old prosperity,” evidently “reproaching him with the rewards of his piety, recalling”; the description of the river after “is a river”). The scan's ἐψεύτω (“you have spoken falsely”) is read as ἐψεύσω. Compared afterward with FOTC 9 (private check); one rendering adjusted. Quotations and allusions: Job 2:7–8; 2:9 (LXX); 2:10; Gen 2:24.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Migne's note (variant τοῦ … θρόνου) and Latin inside the word ὀλιγοψυχίας; column letter; column letter and Latin translation inside the word δυνάμενα): ἤγαγε. ΔΙΙφυδηίο ροϑὶ 60}. ρῥτίπιι5. τοῦ.... θρόνου. φυ → ψυ; - Α Ἰΐα ἰάπιδῃ, αυδ Υἱγῦπι οαι θη ΡΟΓίαθΆτα, οἱ δηΐ → ; δι᾽ Ὁ ἐγείνης → δι᾽ ἐγείνης.
Topics: Marriage
Cite (SBL): Basil, Hom. 21.11 (PG 31:551; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/basil-homiliae-variae/21-11/#p-21-11). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Migne PG 31 (archive.org OCR; slips, Migne's Latin and notes removed as logged corrections; sections renumbered to the Benedictine divisions) and checked privately against FOTC 9 where it has the homily; otherwise re-read against the Greek (no public-domain English).
21.12PG 31:551
Μὴ περιεργάζου τοῦ Δεσπότου τὴν κρίσιν. ᾿λγάπα μόνον τὰ παρὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ σοφίας οἰχονομούμενα. Ὅπερ ἂν δῷ σοι, τοῦτο δέχου μεθ᾽ ἡδονῆς. Δεῖξον ἐν τοῖς ἀλγεινοῖς, ὡς καὶ τῆς εὐφροσύνης ἀξία τῆς πρόσθεν ἐτύγχανες. Ταῦτα ὁ ᾿Ἰὼδ λέγων, ἀπεχρούσατο καὶ ταύτην τοῦ διαδόλου τὴν προσδολὴν, καὶ τελείαν αὐτῷ τῆς ἥττης αἰσχύνην ἐπήγαγε. Τί οὖν ἐντεῦθεν συνέδαινεν; Ἔφυγε αὖθις ἡ νόσος αὐτὸν, ὡς εἰχῇ προσελθοῦσα, καὶ μηδὲν ἀνύσατα πλέον. ᾿Ανέθαλεν εἰς δευτέραν ἤδην ἡ σάρξ ἤνθησεν ὁ βίος πάλιν πᾶσι τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς, καὶ διπλασίων ἐπὶ τὸν οἶχον … δὲ πανταχόθεν ὁ πλοῦτος συνέῤῥευσεν, ἵνα τὸ μὲν ὡς μηδὲν ἀπολωλεχὼς ἔχῃ, τὸ δὲ ὑπάρξῃ τῆς χαρτερίας τῷ δικαίῳ μισθός. Διὰ τέ δὲ ἵππους μὲν, καὶ ἡμιόνους, καὶ χαμήλους, καὶ πρόδθατα, καὶ γεώργια, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν τῆς περιουσίας τρυφὴν ἐχ τοῦ διπλασίονος ὑπεδέξατο, ὁ τῶν παίδων δὲ ἀριθμὸς ἴσος τοῖς ἀποθανοῦσιν ἐδλάστησεν; Ὅτι τὰ μὲν ἄλογα χτήνη, χαι πᾶς ὃ πλοῦτος διαφθειρόμενος, εἰς τελείαν ἦλθεν ἀπώλειαν" οἱ παῖδες δὲ, καὶ τεθνεῶτες, ἕξων τῷ καλλίστῳ μέρει «ἧς φύσεως. Κοσμηθεὶς οὖν αὖθις ἑτέροις υἱοῖς καὶ θυγατράσιν ὑπὸ τοῦ χτίσαντος, καὶ τοῦτο εἶχε χτῆμα διπλοῦν. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ παρῆσαν τὴν ἐν τῷ βίῳ τοῖς γεννήσασιν εὐφροσύνην παρέχοντες, οἱ δὲ προοδεύσαντες ἀνέμενον τὸν φυτεύσαντα " τότε πάντες περιστησόμενοι τὸν Ἰὼό, ὅταν ὁ χριτὴς τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ζωῆς συναγάγῃ τὴν Ἐχχλησίαν τὴν πάνδηβὸν " ὅταν ἣ σάλπιγξ, ἡ τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως ἐπιδημίαν σημαίνουσα, τοῖς τάφοις σφοδρότερον ἐμόοήσασα, τὴν τῶν σωμάτων ἀπαιτήσῃ παραχαταθήχην. Τότε καὶ οἱ νῦν εἶναι δοχοῦντες νεχροὶ θᾶττον τῶν ζώντων παραστήσονται τῷ τῶν ὅλων δημιουργῷ. Διὰ τοῦτο, οἶμαι, διπλοῦν τὸν ἄλλον πλοῦτον ἐπιμετρήσας αὐτῷ, τοῖς παισὶν ἀρχεῖσθαι τοῖς ἴσοις αὐτὸν ἐδικαίωσεν. Ὁρᾷς ὁπόσα ὁ δίχαιος Ἰὼδ ἐχ τῆς ὑπομονῆς ἑαυτῷ συνέλεξεν ἀγαθά; Καὶ σὺ τοίνυν, εἴ τὲ σοι προσεπέλασε δυσχερὲς ἀπὸ τοῦ χθὲς ἀναφθέντος πυρὸς ἐκ τῆς τῶν δαιμόνων ἐπιδουλῇς, τοῦτο χαρτέθήῆσον, καὶ τὴν ἐχ τοῦ πάθους ἀνίαν χρείττοσι χατεύῥέψον ἐπὶ Κύριον τὴν μέριμνάν σου, καὶ αὐτός σε διαθρέψει. Αὐτῷ πρέπει ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. ᾿Αμήν.
Mē periergazou tou Despotou tēn krisin. ᾿lgapa monon ta para tēs autou sophias oichonomoumena. Hoper an dǭ soi, touto dechou meth᾽ hēdonēs. Deixon en tois algeinois, hōs kai tēs euphrosynēs axia tēs prosthen etynchanes. Tauta ho ᾿Iōd legōn, apechrousato kai tautēn tou diadolou tēn prosdolēn, kai teleian autǭ tēs hēttēs aischynēn epēgage. Ti oun enteuthen synedainen? Ephyge authis hē nosos auton, hōs eichę̄ proselthousa, kai mēden anysata pleon. ᾿Anethalen eis deuteran ēdēn hē sarx ēnthēsen ho bios palin pasi tois agathois, kai diplasiōn epi ton oichon … de pantachothen ho ploutos synerrheusen, hina to men hōs mēden apolōlechōs echę̄, to de hyparxę̄ tēs charterias tǭ dikaiǭ misthos. Dia te de hippous men, kai hēmionous, kai chamēlous, kai prodthata, kai geōrgia, kai pasan tēn tēs periousias tryphēn ech tou diplasionos hypedexato, ho tōn paidōn de arithmos isos tois apothanousin edlastēsen? Hoti ta men aloga chtēnē, chai pas ho ploutos diaphtheiromenos, eis teleian ēlthen apōleian" hoi paides de, kai tethneōtes, hexōn tǭ kallistǭ merei «hēs physeōs. Kosmētheis oun authis heterois huiois kai thygatrasin hypo tou chtisantos, kai touto eiche chtēma diploun. Hoi men gar parēsan tēn en tǭ biǭ tois gennēsasin euphrosynēn parechontes, hoi de proodeusantes anemenon ton phyteusanta " tote pantes peristēsomenoi ton Iōo, hotan ho chritēs tēs anthrōpinēs zōēs synagagę̄ tēn Echchlēsian tēn pandēbon " hotan hē salpinx, hē tēn tou basileōs epidēmian sēmainousa, tois taphois sphodroteron emooēsasa, tēn tōn sōmatōn apaitēsę̄ parachatathēchēn. Tote kai hoi nyn einai dochountes nechroi thatton tōn zōntōn parastēsontai tǭ tōn holōn dēmiourgǭ. Dia touto, oimai, diploun ton allon plouton epimetrēsas autǭ, tois paisin archeisthai tois isois auton edikaiōsen. Horąs hoposa ho dichaios Iōd ech tēs hypomonēs heautǭ synelexen agatha? Kai sy toinyn, ei te soi prosepelase dyscheres apo tou chthes anaphthentos pyros ek tēs tōn daimonōn epidoulę̄s, touto chartethēēson, kai tēn ech tou pathous anian chreittosi chateurhepson epi Kyrion tēn merimnan sou, kai autos se diathrepsei. Autǭ prepei hē doxa eis tous aiōnas tōn aiōnōn. ᾿Amēn.
[12] “Do not meddle with the Master's judgment. Only love what is ordered by his wisdom. Whatever he gives you, receive with pleasure. Show in painful things that you were worthy also of the joy you had before.” By saying these things Job repelled this assault of the devil too, and brought on him the complete shame of defeat. What then happened next? The disease fled from him again, as having come in vain and achieved nothing more. His flesh bloomed again into a second youth; his life flowered again with all good things, and wealth flowed to his house from every side twofold, so that he had the one part as if he had lost nothing, and the other might be the reward of endurance for the righteous man. But why did he receive twofold horses and mules and camels and sheep and farms and all the luxury of abundance, while the number of children that sprang up for him was equal to those who had died? Because the irrational animals and all the wealth, once destroyed, came to complete destruction; but the children, even though dead, live in the best part of their nature. So, adorned again by the Creator with other sons and daughters, he had this possession too twofold. For the ones were present, giving their parents joy in this life, while the others, having gone ahead, were waiting for the one who begot them; then all of them will stand around Job, when the Judge of human life gathers the Church of all the people; when the trumpet that signals the coming of the King, sounding more loudly to the tombs, demands back the deposit of the bodies. Then those who now seem to be dead will stand before the Maker of all things sooner than the living. That is why, I think, having measured out to him the other wealth twofold, he judged it right that he be content with an equal number of children. Do you see how many goods the righteous Job gathered for himself from his endurance? You too, then, if any hardship has come upon you from the fire kindled yesterday by the plotting of the demons, endure it patiently, and the pain of the suffering … to better … “Cast your care upon the Lord, and he will sustain you.” To him belongs the glory to the ages of ages. Amen.
Job 42:10 (allusion, high confidence) · Job 42:12 (allusion, high confidence) · Job 42:13 (allusion, high confidence) · 1 Thess 4:16 (allusion, high confidence) · 1 Cor 15:52 (allusion, medium confidence) · Ps 55:22 (54:23 LXX) (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Job received back double wealth but only the same number of children, since the dead children still live; Basil urges the victims of the fire to bear their loss in the same way.
- Staged as section 8; the scan reads Migne's numeral 12, and it is section 12, the end of the homily. Words lost under Migne's notes and Latin are marked “…” (part of the house's twofold wealth; the last sentence before the quotation, evidently urging them to soothe the pain with better thoughts). Compared afterward with FOTC 9 (private check). Quotations and allusions: Job 42:10–13; 1 Thess 4:16; 1 Cor 15:52; Ps 55:22 (54:23 LXX).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Migne's marginal references, notes and Latin translation; Greek words lost here; footnote marker): 200 π΄, 10. 3. δρυδηθο, 4υ3Π} δὶ μηδ γιπὶ ἸΟἰογδηια βἰ ὶ ἰρϑὶ οἱ Εἰ νυ! απι ἰγὰ Τϑρί θη, δὰ ὑχογοπὶ νοι! Ὠοβίθπι ΡΘΡ [6] 166 πὶ 6586, βοἰυ8 Βεὶ 651. Ἔνι ἰρίίυγ δὶ οὗ οἱ ἢυπο αἴ 00}} Δ55Ππ), οἱ ἱπίθσγαπι οἱ ραάογομι ἰυονγ Π τὶ ΤΑ ρου μενοι, δαιτὶ ἄορ. βοουπάυ5. εἰ (01 ρεΐμνις τὸ μὲν γὰρ αὐτοῦ, Νοχ ιυτἰπϊὰ ἴῃ νυ Ἰπογία! 6886, Υἱ ΘΠ 018 οἰ 8 δἰϑέθπίυν ορὶ ἢοὶ υμἱὅ → … ; πρέπει ([ ἡ → πρέπει ἡ.
Topics: Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Basil, Hom. 21.12 (PG 31:551; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/basil-homiliae-variae/21-11/#p-21-12). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Migne PG 31 (archive.org OCR; slips, Migne's Latin and notes removed as logged corrections; sections renumbered to the Benedictine divisions) and checked privately against FOTC 9 where it has the homily; otherwise re-read against the Greek (no public-domain English).
Chapter 22
22.1PG 31
Πολλά με τὰ παραχαλοῦντά ἔστι ξυμθουλεῦσαι ὑμῖν, ὦ παῖδες, ἃ βέλτιστα εἶναι χρίνω, καὶ ἃ ξυνοέσειν ὑμῖν ἑλομένοις πεπίστευκα. Τό τε γὰρ ἡλιχίας οὕτως ἔχειν, καὶ τὸ διὰ πολλῶν ἤδη γεγυμνάσθαι πραγμάτων, καὶ μὴν καὶ τὸ τῆς πάντα παιδενούστς ἐπ᾽ ἄμφω μεταδολῆς ἱκανῶς μετασχεῖν, ἔμπειρόν με εἶναι τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων πεποίηχεν, ὥστε τοῖς ἄρτε χαθισταμένοις τὸν βίον ἔχειν ὥσπερ ὁδοῦ τὴν ἀσφαλεστάτην ὑποδεικνύναι. Τῇ τε παρὰ τῆς φύσεως οἱχειότητι εὐθὺς μετὰ τοὺς γονέας ὑμῖν τυγχάνω, ὥστε μήτε αὐτὸς ἔλαττόν τι πατέρων εὐνοίας νέμειν ὑμῖν, ὑμᾶς τε νομίζω, εἰ μὴ τι ὑμῶν διαμαρτάνω κῆς γνώμης, μὴ ποθεῖν τοὺς τεχόντας. πρὸς ἐμὲ βλέποντας. Εἰ μὲν ουν προθύμως δέχοισθε τὰ λεγόμενα, τῆς δευτέρας τῶν ἐπαινουμένων ἔσεσθε παρ᾽ Ἡσιόδῳ τάξεως " εἰ δὲ μὴ, ἐγὼ μὲν οὐδὲν ἂν εἴποιμι δυσχερὲς, αὐτοὶ δὲ μέμνησθε τῶν ἐπῶν δηλονότι, ἐν οἷς ἐχεῖνός φησι" “Ἄριστον μὲν εἶναι τὸν παρ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ τὰ δέοντα ξυνορῶντα - ἐσθλὸν δὲ χἀχεῖνον τὸν τοῖς παρ᾽ ἑτέρων ὑποδειχθεῖσιν ἑπόμενον " τὸν δὲ πρὸς οὐδέτερον ἐπιτήδειον, ἀχρεῖον εἶναι πρὸς ἅπαντα.
Polla me ta parachalounta esti xymthouleusai hymin, ō paides, ha beltista einai chrinō, kai ha xynoesein hymin helomenois pepisteuka. To te gar hēlichias houtōs echein, kai to dia pollōn ēdē gegymnasthai pragmatōn, kai mēn kai to tēs panta paidenousts ep᾽ amphō metadolēs hikanōs metaschein, empeiron me einai tōn anthrōpinōn pepoiēchen, hōste tois arte chathistamenois ton bion echein hōsper hodou tēn asphalestatēn hypodeiknynai. Tę̄ te para tēs physeōs hoicheiotēti euthys meta tous goneas hymin tynchanō, hōste mēte autos elatton ti paterōn eunoias nemein hymin, hymas te nomizō, ei mē ti hymōn diamartanō kēs gnōmēs, mē pothein tous techontas. pros eme blepontas. Ei men oun prothymōs dechoisthe ta legomena, tēs deuteras tōn epainoumenōn esesthe par᾽ Hēsiodǭ taxeōs " ei de mē, egō men ouden an eipoimi dyscheres, autoi de memnēsthe tōn epōn dēlonoti, en hois echeinos phēsi" “Ariston men einai ton par᾽ heautou ta deonta xynorōnta - esthlon de chacheinon ton tois par᾽ heterōn hypodeichtheisin hepomenon " ton de pros oudeteron epitēdeion, achreion einai pros hapanta.
[1] Many things urge me to advise you, children, about what I judge to be best and what I am confident will benefit you if you choose it. For my age, and my having been exercised already by many experiences, and also my having had a full share of the change in both directions that teaches all things, have made me experienced in human affairs, so that I can show those who are just setting out on life the safest course, as of a road. And by natural kinship I come next to your parents, so that I myself bear you no less goodwill than fathers, and you, I think, unless I am mistaken in your mind, do not miss your parents when you look to me. If, then, you receive what I say eagerly, you will belong to the second class of those praised by Hesiod; if not, I would say nothing harsh, but you yourselves surely remember the verses in which he says that best is the man who sees for himself what is needed, good also the one who follows what is pointed out by others, but the one fit for neither is useless for everything.
Notes and citation
Summary: Basil, writing as an experienced elder and near kinsman, offers the young advice on their education, recalling Hesiod's three kinds of men.
- Homily 22, To Young Men, on How They Might Benefit from Greek Literature (Ad adulescentes); its title is not in the scan text. This is an address, not a sermon. Section 1. Migne's Latin and a footnote marker are removed. No public-domain English translation was available for comparison; the translation was re-read against the Greek. Hesiod, Works and Days 293–297, paraphrased.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Latin inside a hyphenated word; column letter and Latin translation; footnote marker): Α ῥἱαί, ΔΓΒΙΓΟΥ, 91 πιὸ → ; βλέ- Ὀν΄ὶ αὐτός. ποντας → βλέποντας; φησι(21} → φησι.
Extrabiblical texts: Hesiod, Op. 293 (Hesiod, Works and Days; allusion)
Cite (SBL): Basil, Hom. 22.1 (PG 31; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/basil-homiliae-variae/21-11/#p-22-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Migne PG 31 (archive.org OCR; slips, Migne's Latin and notes removed as logged corrections; sections renumbered to the Benedictine divisions) and checked privately against FOTC 9 where it has the homily; otherwise re-read against the Greek (no public-domain English).
22.2PG 31:508
Μὴ θαυμάζετε δὲ, εἰ καὶ χαθ᾽ ἑχάστην ἡμέραν εἰς διδασχάλους φοιτῶσι, καὶ τοῖς ἑλλογίμοις τῶν παλαιῶν ἀνδρῶν, δι᾽ ὧν χαταλελοίπασι λόγων, συγγινομένοις ὑμῖν, αὐτός τι παρ᾽ ἐμαυτοῦ λυσιτελέστεροὸν ἐξευρηχέναι φημί. Τοῦτο μὲν οὖν: αὐτὸ καὶ ξυμδουλεύσων ἕχω, τὸ μὴ δεῖν εἰς ἅπαξ τοῖς ἀνδράσι τούτοις, ὥσπερ πλοίον τὰ πηδάλια τῆς διανοίας ὑμῶν παραδόντας, ἧπερ ἂν ἄγωσι, ταύτῃ συνέπεσθαι " ἀλλ᾽ ὅτον ἐστὶ χρήσιμον αὐτῶν δεχομένους, εἰδέναι τί χρὴ καὶ παριδεῖν. Τίνα οὖν ἐστι ταῦτα, καὶ ὅπως διαχρινοῦμεν, τοῦτο δὴ καὶ διδάξω ἔνθεν ἑλών. Ἡμεῖς, ὦ παῖδες, οὐδὲν εἶναι χρῆμα παντάπασι τὸν ἀνθρώπῶον βίον τοῦτον ὑπολαμθάνομεν, οὔτ᾽ ἀγαθόν τι νομίζομεν ὅλως, οὔτ᾽ ὀνομάζομεν, ὃ τὴν συντέλειαν ἠμὲν ἄχρι τούτου παρέχεται. Οὔχουν προγόνων περιφάνειαν, οὐχ ἰσχὺν σώματος, οὐ χάλλος, οὐ μέγεθος, οὐ τὰς παρὰ πάντων ἀνθρώπων τιμὰς, οὐ βασιλείαν αὐτὴν, οὐχ ὅ τι ἂν εἴποι τις τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων, μέγα, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ εὐχῆς ἄξιον χρίνομεν, ἣ τοὺς ἔχοντας ἀποδλέπομεν" ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ μαχρότερον πρόϊμεν ταῖς ἐλπίσι, καὶ πρὸς ἑτέρου βίου παρασχευὴν ἅπαντα πράττομεν. “Ἃ μὲν οὖν ἂν συντελῇ πρὸς τοῦτον ἡμῖν, ἀγαπᾷν τε καὶ διώχειν παντὶ σθένει χρῆναί φαμεν᾿ τὰ δὲ οὐχ ἐξιχνούμενα πρὸς ἐχεῖνον, ὡς οὐδενὸς ἄξια παρορᾷν. Τίς δὴ οὖν οὗτος ὁ βίος, καὶ ὅπη καὶ ὅπως αὐτὸν βιωσόμεθα, μαχρότερον μὲν ἣ κατὰ τὶν παροῦσαν ὁρμὴν ἐφιχέσθαι, μειζόνων δὲ ἣ χαθ᾽ ὑμᾶς ἀκροατῶν ἀχοῦσαι. Τοσοῦτόν γε μὴν εἰπὼν, ἱκανῶς ἂν ἵσως ὑμῖν ἐνδειξαίμην, ὅτι πᾶσαν ὁμοῦ πὴν, ἀφ᾽ οὗ γεγόνασιν ἄνθρωποι, τῷ λόγῳ τις συλλαδὼν καὶ εἰς ἕν ἀθροίσας εὐδαιμονίαν, οὐδὲ πολλοστῷ μέρει τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐχείνων εὑρῆσε: παρισουμένην, ἀλλὰ πλεῖον τοῦ ἐν ἐχείνοις ἐλαχίστου τὰ σύμπαντα τῶν τἧδε χαλῶν κατὰ τὴν ἀξίαν ἀφεστηχότα, ἣ χαθ᾽ ὅσον σχιὰ καὶ ὄναρ τῶν ἀληθῶν ἀπολείπεται. Μᾶλλον δὲ, 0 ἵν᾽ οἰχειοτέρῳ χρήσωμαι παραδείγματι, ὅσῳ. ψυχὴ ποῖς πᾶσιτιμιωτέρα σώματος, τοσούτῳ καὶ τῶν βίων ἑχατέρων ἐστὶ τὸ διάφορον. Εἰς δὴ τοῦτον ἄγουσι μὲν ἱεροὶ λόγοι, δι᾽ ἀποῤῥήτων ἡμᾶς ἐχπαιδεύοντες " ἕως γε μὴν ὑπὸ τῆς ἡλιχίας ἐπαχούειν τοῦ βάθους τῆς διανοίας αὐτῶν οὐχ οἷόν τε, ἐν ἑτέροις οὐ πάντη διεστηκόσιν, ὥσπερ ἕν σχιαῖς τισι καὶ κατόπτροις, τῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ὄμματι τέως προγυμναζόμεθα, τοὺς ἐν τοῖς ταχτιχοῖς τὰς μελέτας ποιουμένους μιμούμενον" … ρίαν χτηφάμενοι, ἐπὶ τῶν ἀγώνων τοῦ ἐχ τῆς παιδιᾶς ἀπολαύουσι κέρδους. Καὶ ἡμῖν δὴ οὖν ἀγῶνα προχεῖσθαι πάντων ἀγώνων μέγιστον νομίζειν χρεὼν, ὑπὲο οὗ πάντα ποιητέον ἡμῖν καὶ πονητέον εἰς δύναμὴν ἐπὶ, τὴν τούτου παρασχενὴν, καὶ ποιηταῖς, καὶ λογοποιοῖς, καὶ ῥήτορσι, καὶ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ὁμιληπέον, ὅθεν ἂν μέλλῃ πρὸς τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἐπιμέλειαν ὠφέλειά τις ἔσεσθαι. Ὥσπερ οὖν οἱ δευσοποιοὶ, παραφχευάσαντες πρότερον θεραπείαις τισὶν ὅ τί ποτ᾽ ἂν ἢ τὸ δεξόμενον τὴν βαφὴν, οὕτω τὸ ἄνθος ἐπάγουσιν, ἄν τε ἁλουργὸν, ἄν τέ τι ἕτερον ἦ" τὸν αὐτὸν δὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς τρόπον, εἰ μέλλοι ἀνέχπλυτος ἡμῖν ἅπαντα τὸν χρόνον ἣ τοῦ χαλοῦ παραμένειν δόξα, τοῖς ἔξω δὴ τούτοις προτελεσθέντες, τηνιχαῦτα τῶν … οΐον ἐν ὕδατι τὸν ἥλιον ὁρᾷν ἐθισθέντες, οὕτως αὐτῷ προσδαλοῦμεν τῷ φωτὶ τὰς ὄψεις. Εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐστί τις οἰχειότης πρὸς ἀλλήλους τοῖς λόγοις, προῦργου ἂν ἡμῖν αὐτῶν ἡ. γνῶσις γένοιτο " εἰ δὲ μὴς ἀλλὰ τό γε, παράλληλα θέντας, χαταμαθεῖν τὸ διάφορον, οὐ μιχρὸν εἰς βεδαίωσιν τοῦ βελτίονος. Τίνι μέντοι καὶ παρειχάσας τῶν παιδεύσεων ἑχατέραν, τῆς εἰχόνος ἂν τύχοις; Ἥ που χαθάπερ φυτοῦ οἰχεία μὲν ἀρετὴ τῷ χαρπῷ βρύειν ὡραίῳ, φέρει δέ τινα χόσμον καὶ φύλλα τοῖς χλάδοις περισειόμενα " οὕτω δὴ καὶ ψυχῇ προηγουμένως μὲν χαρπὸς ἣ ἀλήθεια, οὐκ ἄχαρί γε μὴν οὐδὲ τὴν θύραθεν σοφίαν περιθεθλῆσθαι, οἷόν τινα φύλλα σχέπην τε τῷ χαρπῷ καὶ ὄψιν οὐχ ἄωρον παρεχόμενα. Λέγεται τοίνυν καὶ Μωῦσῆς ἐχεῖνος ὁ πάνυ, οὗ μέγιστόν ἐστιν ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ παρὰ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ὄνομα, τοῖς Αἰγυπτίων μαθήμασιν ἐγγυμνασάμενος τὴν διάνοιαν, οὕτω προσελθεῖν τῇ θεωρίᾳ τοῦ ὄντος. Παραπλησίως δὲ τούτῳ χἀν τοῖς χάτω χρόνοις τὸν σοφὸν Δανιὴλἐπὶ βαδυλῶνός φασι τὴν σοφίαν Χαλδαίων χαταμαθόντα, τότε τῶν θείων ἄψασθαι παιδευμάτων. ᾿Αλλ᾽ ὅτι μὲν οὐχ ἄχρηστον ψυχαῖς μαθήματα τὰ ἔξωθεν δὴ ταῦτα, ἱκανῶς εἴρηται" ὅπως γε μὴν αὐτῶν μεθεχτέον ὑμῖν, ἑξῆς ἂν εἴη λέγειν. Πρῶτον μὲν οὖν τοῖς παρὰ τῶν ποιητῶν (ἵν᾿ ἐντεῦθεν ἄρξωμαι), ἐπεὶ παντοδαποί τινές εἰσι χατὰ τοὺς λόγους, μὴ πᾶσιν ἐφεξῆς προσέχειν τὸν νοῦν" ἀλλ᾽ ὅταν μὲν τὰς τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀνδρῶν πράξεις Ὦ λόγους ὑμῖν διεξίωσιν, ἀγαπᾷν τε καὶ ζηλοῦν, καὶ ὅτι μάλιστα πειρᾶσθαι: τοιούτους εἶναι " ὅταν δὲ ἐπὶ μοχθηροὺς ἄνδρας ἔλθωσι, τὴν μίμησιν ταύτην δεῖ φεύγειν, ἐπιφρασσομένους τὰ ὦτα, οὖχ ἧττον ἣ τὸν Ὀδυσσέα φασὶν ἐχεῖνοι τὰ τῶν Σειρήνων μέλῃ. Ἡ νὰρ πρὸς τοὺς φαύλους τῶν λόγων συνήθεια ὁδός ἐστιν ἐπὶ τὰ πράγματα. Διὸ δὴ πάσῃ φυλαχῇ τὴν ψυχὴν τηρητέον, μὴ διὰ τῆς τῶν λόγων ἡδονῆς παραδεξάμενοί τι λάθωμεν τῶν χειρόνων, ὥσπερ οἱ τὰ δηλητήρια μετὰ τοῦ μέλιτος προσιέμενοι. Οὐ τοίνυν ἐπαινεσόμεθα τοὺς ποιητὰς, οὐ λοιδορουμένους, οὐ σχώπτοντας, οὐχ ἐρῶντας ἣ μεθύοντας μιμουμένους, οὐχ ὅταν τραπέζῃ πληθούσῃ καὶ ᾧδαῖς ἀνειμέναις τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν ὁρίζωνται. Πάντων δὲ ἥχιστα περὶ θεῶν τι διαλεγομένοις προσέξομεν, καὶ μάλισθ᾽ ὅταν ὡς περὶ πολλῶν τε αὐτῶν διεξίωσι καὶ τούτων οὐδὲ ὁμονοούντων. ᾿Αδελφὸς γὰρ δὴ παρ᾽ ἐχείνοις διαστασιάζει πρὸς ἀδελφὸν, καὶ γονεὺς πρὸς παῖδας, καὶ τούτοις αὖθις πρὸς τοὺς τεχόντας πόλεμός ἐστιν ἀχήρύχτος. Μοιχείας δὲ θεῶν καὶ ἔρωτας καὶ μίξεις ἀναφανδὸν, καὶ ταύτας γε μάλιστα τοῦ χορυφαίου πάντων καὶ ὑπάτου Διὸς, ὡς αὐτοὶ λέγουσιν, ἃ χἂν περὶ βοσχημάτων τις λέγων ἐρυθριάσειε, τοῖς ἐπὶ τὶ … Ταυτὰ δὴ ταῦτα λέγειν καὶ περὶ συγγραφέων ἔχω καὶ μάλισθ᾽ ὅταν ψυχαγωγίας ἕνεχα τῶν ἀχουόντῶν λογοποιῶσι. Καὶ ῥητόρων δὲ τὴν περὶ τὸ ψεύὄεσθαι τέχνην οὐ μιμησόμεθα. Οὔτε γὰρ ἐν διχαστηρίοις, οὔτ᾽ ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις πράξεσιν ἐπιτήδειον ἡμῖν τὸ ψεῦδος, τοῖς τὴν ὀρθὴν ὁδὸν καὶ ἀληθῆ προελομένοις τοῦ βίου, οἷς τὸ μὴ δικάζεσθαι νόμῳ προστεταγμένον ἐστίν. ᾿Αλλ᾽ ἐχεῖνα αὑτῶν μᾶλλον ἀποδεξόμεθα, ἐν οἷς ἀρετὴν ἐπένεσαν, ἢ πονηρίαν διέδαλον. Ὡς γὰρ τῶν ἀνθέων τοῖς μὲν ἄχρι τῆς εὐωδίας ἢ τῆς χρόας ἐστὶν ἡ ἀπόλαυσις, “αἷς μελίτταις δ᾽ ἄρα καὶ μέλι λαμθάνειν ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν ὑπάρχει" οὕτω δὴ χἀνταῦθα τοῖς μὴ τὸ ἡδὺ καὶ ἐπίχαρ: μόνον τῶν τοιούτων λόγων διώχουσιν ἔστι τινὰ καὶ ὠφέλειαν ἀπ' αὐτῶν εἰς τὴν Ψυχὴν ἀποθέσθαι. Κατὰ πᾶσαν δὴ οὖν τῶν μελιττῶν τὴν εἰχόνα, τῶν λόγων ὑμῖν μεθεχτέον. Ἐχεῖναί τε γὰρ οὔτε ἅπασι «οἷς ἄνθεσι παραπλησίως ἐπέρχονται, οὔτε μὴν οἷς ἂν ἐπιπτῶσιν ὅλα φέρειν ἐπιχειροῦσιν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσον αὖτῶν ἐπιτήδειον πρὸς τὴν ἐργασίαν λαθοῦσαι, τὸ λοιπὸν καίρειν ἀφῆχαν. Ἡμεῖς τε, ἣν σωφρονῶμεν, ὅσον οἰχεῖον ἡμῖν καὶ συγγενὲς τῇ ἀληθείᾳ μένον. Καὶ χαθάπερ τῆς ῥοδωνιᾶς τοῦ ἄνθους δρεφάμενοι τὰς ἀκάνθας ἐχχλίνομεν, οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ποιούτων λόγων ὅσον χρήσιμον χαρπωσάμενοι, τὸ βλαδερὸν φυλαξώμεθα. Εὐθὺς οὖν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐπισχοπεῖν ἕχαστον τῶν μαθημάτων, καὶ συναρμόζειν τῷ τέλει προσῆχε, κατὰ τὴν Δωριχὴν παροιμίαν, τὸν «ἰἰθον ποτὶ τὰν σπάρτον ἄγοντας. Καὶ ἐπειδήπερ δι᾽ ἀρετῆς ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ τὸν βίον χαθεῖναι δεῖ τὸν … δὲ συγγραφεῦσι, πολλῷ δὲ ἔτι πλείω φιλοσόφοις ἀνδράσιν ὕμνηται, τοῖς τοιούτοις τῶν λόγων μάλιστα προσεχτέον. Οὐ μιχρὸν γὰρ τὸ ὄφελος, οἰχειότητά τινα καὶ συνήθειαν ταῖς τῶν νέων ψυχαῖς -ἧς ἀρετῆς ἐγγενέσθαι: ἐπείπερ ἀμετάστατα πέφυχεν εἶναι τὰ τῶν τοιούτων μαθήματα, δι' ἁπαλότητα τῶν φυχῶν εἰς βάθος ἐνσημαινόμενα. Ἢ τί ποτε ἄλλο διανοηθέντα τὸν Ἡσίοδον ὑπολάδωμεν ταυτὶ ποιῆσαι τὰ ἔπη, ἃ πάντες ἄδουσιν, ἣ οὐχὶ προτρέποντα τοὺς γέους ἐπ᾽ ἀρετὴν; Ὅτι τραχεῖα μὲν πρῶτον καὶ δύσθατος, γαὶ ἱδρῶτος συχνοῦ καὶ πόνου πλήρης, ἡ πρὸς ἀρετὴν φέρουσα, καὶ ἀνάντης, ὁδός. Διόπερ οὐ παντὸς, οὔτε προσδῆναι αὐτῇ διὰ τὸ ὄρθιον, οὔτε, προσθδάντι, ῥᾳδίως ἐπὶ τὸ ἄχρον ἐλθεῖν. “ἄνω δὲ γενομένῳ ὁρᾷν ὑπά χεῖ, ὡς μὲν λεία τε καὶ χαλὴ, ὡς δὲ ῥᾳδία τε καὶ εὔπορος, καὶ τῆς ἑτέρας ἡδίων τῆς ἐπὶ τὴν καχίαν ἀγούσης, ἣν ἀθρόον εἶναι λαθεῖν ἐχ τοῦ σύνεγγυς ὁ αὐτὸς οὗτος ποιητὴς ἔφησεν. Ἐμοὶ μὲν γὰρ δοχεῖ οὐδὲν ἕτερον ἥ προτρέπων ἡμᾶς ἐπ᾽ ἀρετὴν, καὶ προχαλούμενος ἅπαντας ἀγαθοὺς εἶνα!, ταῦτα διελθεῖν, καὶ ὥστε μὴ χαταμαλαχισθέντας πρὸς τοὺς πόνους προαποστῆναι τοῦ τέλους. Καὶ μέντοι καὶ εἴ τις ἕτερος ἐοιχότα τούτοις τὴν ἀρετὴν ὕμνησεν, ὡς εἰς ταὐτὸν ἡμῖν φέροντας τοὺς λόγους ἀποδεχώμεθα. Ὡς δὲ ἐγώ τινος ἤχουσα δεινοῦ χαταμαθεῖν ἀνδρὸς ποιητοῦ διάνοιαν, πᾶσα μὲν ἡἣ ποίησις τῷ Ὁμήρῳ ἀρετῆς ἐστιν ἔπαινος, καὶ πάντα αὐτῷ πρὸς τοῦτο φέρει, ὅ τι μὴ πάρεργο"" οὐχ Ὦχιστα δὲ ἐν οἷς τὸν στρατηγὸν τῶν Κεφαλλήνων πεποίηχε γυμνὸν ἐχ τοῦ ναυαγίου περισωθέντα, πρῶτον μὲν αἰδέσαι τὴν βασιλίδα φανέντα μόνον" τοσούτου δεῖν αἰσχύνην ὀφλῆσαι γυμνὸν ὀφθέντα μόνον, ἐπειδήπερ αὐτὸν ἀρετὴ ἀντὶ ἱματίων χεχοσμημένον ἐποίησε - ἔπειτα μέντοι καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς Φαίάξι τοσούτου ἄξιον νομισθῆναι, ὥστε, ἀφέντας τὴν τρυφὴν ἧ συνέζων, ἐχεῖνον ἀποθλέπειν καὶ ζηλοῦν ἅπαντας, καὶ μηδένα Φαιάχων ἐν τῷ τότε εἶναι ἄχλο τι ἂν εὔξασθαι μᾶλλον, ἣ Ὀδυσσέα γενέσθαι, καὶ ταῦτα ἐχ ναναγίου περισωθέντα. Ἕν τούτοις γὰρ ἔλεγεν ὁ τοῦ ποιητοῦ τῆς διανοίας ἐξηγητὴς, μονονουχὶ βοῶντα λέγειν τὸν Ὅμηρον, ὅτι ᾿Αρετῆς ὑμῖν ἐπιμελητέον, ὦ ἄνθρωποι, ἣ καὶ ναυαγήσαντι συνεχνήχεται, καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς … τῶν εὐδαιμόνων Φαιάχων. Καὶ γὰρ οὕτως ἔχει. Τὰ μὲν ἄλλα τῶν χτημάτων, οὐ μᾶλλον τῶν ἐχόντων ἢ καὶ οὑτινοσοῦν τῶν ἐπιτυχόντων ἐστὶν, ὥσπερ ἐν παιδιᾷ χύδων τῇδε χἀχεῖσε μεταθαλλόμενα " μόνη δὲ χτημάτων ἡ ἀρετὴ ἀναφαίρετον, καὶ ζῶντι καὶ πελευτήσαντι παραμένουσα. Ὅθεν δὴ καὶ Σόλων … μοι δοχεῖ πρὸς τοὺς εὐπόρους εἰπεῖν τό" Τῆς ἀρετῆς τὸν πλοῦτον" ἐπεὶ τὸ μὲν ἔμπεδον αἰεὶ, Χρήματα δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἄλλοτε ἄλλος ἔχει. Παραπλήσια δὲ τούτοις καὶ τὰ Θεόγνιδος, ἐν οἷς φησι τὸν Θεὸν, ὄντινα δὴ καὶ φησὶ, τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὸ τάλαντον ἐπιῤῥέπειν ἄλλοτε ἄλλως, ἄλλοτε μὲν. πλουτεῖν, ἄλλοτε δὲ μηδὲν ἔχειν. Καὶ μὴν καὶ ὁ Κεῖός ποὺ σοφιστὴς Πρόδιχος τῶν ἑαυτοῦ συγγραμμάτων ἀδελφὰ τούτοις εἰς ἀρετὴν καὶ χαχίαν ἔφιλο-. δόφησεν " ᾧ δὴ καὶ αὐτῷ τὴν διάνοιαν προσεχτέον" οὐ γὰρ ἀπόδλητος ὁ ἀνήρ. Ἔχει δὲ οὕτω πως ὁ λόγος αὐτῷ, ὅσα ἐγὼ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τῆς διανοίας μέμνημαι, ἐπεὶ τά γε ῥήματα οὐχ ἐπίσταμαι, πλήν γε δὴ ὅτι ἁπλῶς οὕτως εἴρηχεν ἄνευ μέτρου. Ὅτι νέῳ ὄντι τῷ Ἡραχλεῖ χομιδῇ, καὶ σχεδὸν ταύτην ἄγοντι τὴν ἡλιχίαν, ἣν καὶ ὑμεῖς νῦν, βουλευομένῳ πυτέραν τράπηται τῶν ὁδῶν, τὴν διὰ τῶν πόνων ἄγουσαν πρὸς ἀρετὴν, ἢ τὴν ῥάστην, προσελθεῖν δύο γυναῖχας, ταύτας δὲ εἶναι ᾿Αρετὴν καὶ Καχίαν - εὐθὺς μὲν οὖν καὶ σιωπώσας ἐμφαίνειν ἀπὸ τοῦ σχήματος τὸ διάφόρον. Εἶναι γὰρ τὴν μὲν ὑπὸ κομμωτιχῆς διἐφχενασμένην εἰς χάλλος, καὶ ὑπὸ τρυφῆς διαῤῥεῖν, καὶ πάντα ἑσμὸν ἡδονῆς ἐξηρτη μένην ἄγειν" ταῦτά τε οὖν δειχνύναι, καὶ ἔτι πλείω τούτων ὑπισχνουμέγὴν, ἕλχειν ἐπιχειρεῖν τὸν Ἡραχλέα πρὸς ἑαυτήν" τὴν δ᾽ ἑτέραν κατεσχληχέναι, καὶ αὐχμεῖν, καὶ σύντονον βλέπειν, καὶ λέγειν τοιαῦτα ἕτερα '" ὑπισχνεῖσθαι γὰρ οὐδὲν ἀνειμένον, οὐδὲ ἡδὺ, ἀλλ᾽ ἱδρῶτας μυρίους καὶ πόνους καὶ χινδύνους διὰ πάσης ἠπείρου ( τε καὶ θαλάσσης. ἴΑθλον δὲ τούτων εἶναι θεὸν γενέσθαι, ὡς ὁ ἐχείνου λόγος " ἧπερ δὴ καὶ τελευπτῶντα τὸν Ἣραχλέα ξυνέπεσθαι. Καὶ σχεδὸν ἅπαντες, ὧν δὴ καὶ λόγος τίς ἔστιν ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ, ἢ μιχρὸν ἣ μεῖζον, εἰς δύναμιν ἔχαστος ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτῶν συγγράμμασιν, ἀρετῆς ἔπαινον διεξῆλθον, οἷς πειστέον καὶ πειρατέον ἐπὶ τοῦ βίου δειχνύναι τοὺς λόγους. Ὡς ὅ.γχε τὴν ἄχρι ῥημάτων παρὰ τοῖς ἄλλοις φιλο- Οἷος πέπνυται" τοὶ δὲ σκιαὶ ἀΐσσουσι. Καί μοι δοχεῖ τὸ τοιοῦτον παραπλήσιον εἶναι, ὥσπερ ἂν εἰ ζωγράφου θαυμαστόν τι οἷον χάλλος ἀνθρώπου μεμησαμένου, ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς εἴη τοιοῦτος ἐπὶ τῆς ἀληθείας, οἷον ἐπὶ τῶν πινάκων ἐχεῖνος ἔδειξεν, Ἐπεὶ τό γε λαμπρῶς μὲν ἐπαινέσαι τὴν ἀρετὴν εἰς τὸ μέσον, καὶ μαχροὺς ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς ἀποτείνειν λόγους, ἰδίᾳ δὲ τὸ ἡδὺ πρὸ τῆς σωφροσύνης, καὶ τὸ πλέον ἔχειν πρὸ τοῦ δικαίου τιμᾶν, ἐοικέναι φαίην ἂν ἔγωγε τοῖς ἐπὶ σχηνῆς ὑποχρινομένοις τὰ δράματα" οἵ ὡς βασιλεῖς καὶ δυνάσται πολλάχις εἰσέρχονται, οὔτε … ἐλεύθεροι τὸ παράπαν. Εἶτα μουσιχὸς μὲν οὐχ ἂν ἑχὼν δέξαιτο ἀνάρμοστον αὐτῷ τὴν λύραν εἶναι " καὶ χοροῦ χορυφαῖος, μὴ ὅτι μάλιστα συνάδοντα τὸν χορὸν ἔχειν. Αὐτὸς δέ τις ἕχαστος διαστασιάσει πρὸς ἑαυτὸν, καὶ οὐχὶ τοῖς λόγοις ὁμολογοῦντα τὸν βίον παρέξεται" ἀλλ᾽ ἡ γλῶττα μὲν ὀμώμοχεν, ἣ δὲ φρὴν ἀνώμοτος, κατ᾽ Εὐριπίδην ἐρεϊ" καὶ τὸ δοχεῖν ἀγαθὸς πρὸ τοῦ εἶναι διώξεται. ᾿Αλλ᾽ οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἔσχατος τῆς ἀδιχίας ὅρος, εἴ τ! δεῖ Πλάτωνι πείθεσθαι, τὸ δοχεῖν δίχαιον εἶναι, μὴ ὄντα. Τοὺς μὲν οὖν τῶν λόγων, οἱ τὰς τῶν καλῶν ἔχουσιν ὑποθέχας, οὕτως ἀποδεχώμεθα. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ καὶ πράξεις σπουδαῖαι τῶν παλαιῶν ἀνδρῶν ἣ μνήμης ἀχολουθίᾳ πρὸς ἡμᾶς διασώζονται, ἣ ποιητῶν ἣ συγγραφέων φυλαττόμεναι λόγοις, μηδὲ τῆς ἐντεῦθεν ὠφελείας ἀπολειπώμεθα. Οἷον, ἐλοιδόρει τὸν Περιχλέα τῶν ἐξ ἀγορᾶς τις ἀνθρώπων" ὁ δὲ οὐ προσεῖχε" καὶ εἰς πᾶσαν διήρχεσε τὴν ἡμέραν, ὁ μὲν ἀφειδῶς πλύνων αὐτὸν τοῖς ὀνείδεσιν, ὁ δὲ οὐ μέλων αὐτῷ. Εἶτα ἑσπέρας ἔδη καὶ σχύτους ἀπαλλαττόμενον μόλις ὑπὸ φωτὶ παρέπεμψε Περιχλῇς, ὅπως αὑτῷ μὴ διαφθαρείη τὸ πρὸς φιλοσοφίαν γυμνάσιον. Πάλιν τις λησε, καὶ ἐπώμοσεν᾽ ὁ δὲ ἀντώμοσεν ἢ μὴν ἱλεώσασθαι αὐτὸν, καὶ παύσειν χαλεπῶς πρὸς αὐτὸν ἔχον. Ἠόσου ἄξιον τῶν τοιούτων τι παραδειγμάτων εἰσελθεῖν τὴν μνήμην, ἀνδρὸς ὑπὸ ὀργῆς ἤδη χατ' ἐχομένου! Τῇ τραγῳδίᾳ γὰρ οὐ πιστευτέον ἁπλῶς λεγούσῃ " Ἐπ᾽ ἐχθροὺς θυμὸς ὁπλίζει χεῖρα" ἀλλὸ μάλιστα μὲν μηδὲ διανίστασθαι πρὸς θυμὸν τὸ παράπαν" εἰ δὲ μὴ ῥάδιον τοῦτο, ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ χαλινὸν αὐτῷ τὸν λογισμὸν ἐμθάλλοντας, μὴ ἐᾷν ἐχφέρεσθαι περαιτέρω. Ἐπαναγάγωμεν δὲ τὸν λόγον αὖθις πρὸς τὰ τῶν σπουδαίων πράξεων παραδείγματα. “Ετυπτέ τις τὸν Σωφρονίσχου Σωχράτην εἰς αὐτὸ τὸ πρόσωπον ἐμπεσὼν ἀφειδῶς " ὁ δὲ οὐκ ἀντῆρεν, ἀλλὰ παρεῖχε τῷ παροινοῦντι τῆς ὀργῆς ἐμφορεῖσθαι, ὥστε ἐξοιδεῖν ἤδη καὶ ὕπουλον αὐτῷ τὸ πρόσωπον ὑπὸ τῶν πληγῶν εἶναι. Ὡς δ᾽ οὖν ἐπαύσατο τύπτων, ἄλλο μὲν οὐδὲν ὁ Σωχράτης ποιῆσαι, ἐπιγράψαι δὲ τῷ μετώπῳ λέγεται, ὥσπερ ἀνδριάντι, τὸν δημιουργὸν, Ὁ δεῖνα ἐποίει" καὶ τοσοῦτον ἀμύνασθα:. Ταῦτα σχεδὸν εἰς ταὐτὸν τοῖς ἡμετέροις φέροντα πολλοῦ ἄξιον εἶναι μιμήσασθαι τοὺς τηλιχούτους φημί, Τουτὶ μὲν γὰρ τὸ τοῦ Σωκράτους ἀδελφὸν ἐχείνῳ τῷ παραγγέλματι, ὅτι τῷ τύπτοντι κατὰ τῆς σιαγόνος καὶ τὴν ἑτέραν παρέχειν προσῆχε, τοσούτου δεῖν ἀπαμύνασθαι. τὸ δὲ τοῦ Περιχλέους ἣ τὸ Εὐχλείδου τῷ τοὺς διώχοντας ὑπομένειν, καὶ πράως αὑτῶν τῆς ὀργῆς ἀνέχεσθαι - καὶ τῷ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς εὔχεσθαι τὰ ἀγαθὰ, ἀλλὰ μὴ ἐπαρᾶσθαι. Ὡς ὃ γε ἐν τούτοις προπαιδευθεὶς οὐχ ἔτ᾽ ἂν ἐχείνοις ὡς ἀδυνάτοις διαπιστήσειεν, Οὐχ ἂν παρέλθοιμε τὰ τοῦ ᾿Αλεξάνδρου, ὃς, τὰς θυγατέρας Δαρείου αἰχμαλώτους λαθὼν, θαυμαστὸν τι οἷον τὸ χάλλος παρέχειν μαρτυρουμένας, οὐδὲ προσιδεῖν ἠξίωσεν" αἰσχρὸν εἶναι χρίνων, τὸν ἄνδρας ἑλόντα, γυναιχῶν ἡττηθῆναι. Τουτὶ γὰρ εἰς ταὐτὸν ἐχείνῳ φέρει, ὅτι ὁ ἐμόλέψας πρὸς ἡδονὴν γυναιχὶ, χἂν μὴ τῷ ἔργῳ τὴν μοιχείαν ἐπιτελέσῃ, ἀλλὰ τῷ γε τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν τῇ ψυχῇ παραϑέξασθαι οὐχ ἀφίεται τοῦ ἐγχλήματος. Τὸ ὃὲ τοῦ Ἀλεινίου, τῶν Πυθαγόρου γνωρίμων ἑνὸς, χαλεπὸν πιστεῦτα: ἀπὸ ταὐτομάτου συμθῆναι τοῖς ἡ ἄλλ᾽ οὐχὶ μιμησαμένου σπουδῇ. Τί δὲ ἣν ὃ ἐποίησεν ἔχεῖνος; Ἐξὸν δι᾽ ὄρχου τριῶν ταλάντων ζημίαν ἀποφυγεῖν, ὁ δὲ ἀπέτισε μᾶλλον ἢ ὥμοσε, καὶ ταῦτα εὐορκεῖν μέλμων". ἀχούσας, ἐμοὶ δοχεῖν, τοῦ προστάγματος τὸν ὄρχον ἡμῖν ἀπαγορεύοντος. ᾿Αλλ᾽, ὅπερ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἔλεγον, πάλιν εἰς ταὐτὸν ἐπανίωμεν " οὐ πάντα ἑξῆς παραδεχτέον ἡμῖν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσα χρήσιμα. Καὶ γὰρ. αἰσχρὸν τῶν μὲν σιτίων τὰ βλαδερὰ διὠθεῖσθα:, τῶν δὲ μαθημάτων, ἃ τὴν ψυχὴν ἡ μῶν τρέφει, μηδένα λόγον ἔχειν, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ χειμάῤῥουν παρασύροντας ἅπαν τὰ προστυχὸν ἐμθάλλεσθαι. Καίτοι τίνα ἔχει λόγον χυδερνήτην μὲν οὐχ εἰχῇ τοῖς πνεύμασιν ἐφιέναι, ἀλλὰ πρὸς ὅρμους εὐθύνειν τὸ σχάξφος, καὶ τοξότην κατὰ σχοποῦ βάλλειν, καὶ μὲν δὴ καὶ χαλχευτιχόν τινὰ ἢ τεχτονικὸν ὄντα τοῦ χατὰ τὴν τέχνην ἐφίεσθαι τέλους " ἡμᾶς δὲ καὶ τῶν τοιούτῶν δημιουργῶν ἀπολείπεσθαι, πρός γε τὸ συνορᾷν δύνασθαι τὰ ἡμέτερα; Οὐ γὰρ δὴ τῶν μὲν χειρω- "αχτῶν ἔστι τι πόρας τῆς ἐργασίας, τοῦ δὲ ἀνθρωπίνου βίου σχοπὸς οὐχ ἔστι, πρὸς ὃν ἀφορῶντα πάντα ποιεῖν καὶ λέγειν χρὴ τόν γε μὴ τοῖς ἀλόγοις παντάπασι προσεοιχέναι μέλλοντα. Ἢ οὕτως ἂν εἴημεν ἀτεχνῶς χατὰ τῶν πλοίων τὰ ἀνερμάτιστα, οὐδενὸς ἡμῖν νοῦ ἐπὶ τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς οἰάχων χαθεζομένου, εἰχῆ κατὰ τὸν βίον ἄνω καὶ κάτω περιφερόμενοι - ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς γυμνιχοῖς ἀγῶσιν, εἰ ὃὲ βούλει, τῆς μουσιχῆς, ἐχείνων εἰσὶ τῶν ἀγώνων αἱ μελέται, ὧνπερ οἱ στέφανοι πρόχεινται, καὶ οὐδεὶς γε πάλην ἀσχῶν ἣ παγχράτιον, εἶτα χιθαῥίζειν ἣ αὐλεῖν μελετᾷ. Οὔχουν ὁ Πολυδάμας γε, ἀλλ᾽ ἐχεῖνος πρὸ τοῦ ἀγῶνος τοῦ Ὀλυμπιάσι τὰ ἄρματα ἴστη τρέχοντα, καὶ διὰ τούτων τὴν ἰσχὺν ἐχράτυνε. Καὶ ὃ γε Μίλων ἀπὸ τῆς ἀληλιμμένης ἀσπίδος οὐχ ἐξωθεῖτο, ἀλλ᾽ ἀντεῖχεν ὠθούμενος οὐχ Ἐποον ἢ οἱ ἀνδριάντες οἱ τῷ μολύδδῳ συνδεδεμένοι. Καὶ ἀπαξαπλῶς αἱ μελέται αὐτοῖς παρασχευαὶ τῶν ἄθλων ἴσαν. Εἰ ὃὲ τὰ Μαρσύου ἣ τὰ Ὀλύμπου … τὴν χόνιν καὶ τὰ γυμνάσια, ταχύ γ᾽ ἂν στεφάνων ἣ δόξης ἔτυχον, ἣ διέφυγον τὸ μὴ καταγέλαστοι εἶναι χατὰ τὸ σῶμα; ᾿Αλλ᾽ οὐ μέντοι οὐδὲ ὁ Τιμόθεος, τὴν μελῳδίαν ἀφεὶς, ἐν ταῖς παλαίστραις διῆγεν. Οὐ γὰρ ἂν τοσοῦτον ὑπῆρξεν αὐτῷ διενεγχεῖν ἁπάντων τῇ μουσιχῇ, ᾧ γε τοσοῦτον περιῆν τῆς τέχνης, ὥστε καὶ θυμὸν ἐγείρειν διὰ τῆς συντόνου καὶ αὖστηρᾶς ἁρμονίας, καὶ μέντοι καὶ χαλᾷν καὶ μαλάττειν πάλιν διὰ τῆς ἀνειμένης, ὁπότε βούλοιτο. Ταύτῃ τοι καὶ ᾿Αλεξάνδρῳ ποτὲ τὸ Φρύγιον ἐπαυλέσαντα, ἐξαναστῆσαι αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὰ ὅπλα λέγεται μεταξὺ δειπνοῦντα, καὶ ἐπαναγαγεῖν πάλιν πρὸς τοὺς συμπότας, τὴν ἁρμονίαν χαλάσαντα. Τοσαύτην ἰσχὺν ἕν τε μουσιχῇ καὶ τοῖς γυμνιχοῖς ἀγῶσι πρὸς τὴν τοῦ τέλους χτῆσιν ἣ μελέτη παρέχεται.
Mē thaumazete de, ei kai chath᾽ hechastēn hēmeran eis didaschalous phoitōsi, kai tois hellogimois tōn palaiōn andrōn, di᾽ hōn chataleloipasi logōn, synginomenois hymin, autos ti par᾽ emautou lysitelesteroon exeurēchenai phēmi. Touto men oun: auto kai xymdouleusōn hechō, to mē dein eis hapax tois andrasi toutois, hōsper ploion ta pēdalia tēs dianoias hymōn paradontas, hēper an agōsi, tautę̄ synepesthai " all᾽ hoton esti chrēsimon autōn dechomenous, eidenai ti chrē kai paridein. Tina oun esti tauta, kai hopōs diachrinoumen, touto dē kai didaxō enthen helōn. Hēmeis, ō paides, ouden einai chrēma pantapasi ton anthrōpōon bion touton hypolamthanomen, out᾽ agathon ti nomizomen holōs, out᾽ onomazomen, ho tēn synteleian ēmen achri toutou parechetai. Ouchoun progonōn periphaneian, ouch ischyn sōmatos, ou challos, ou megethos, ou tas para pantōn anthrōpōn timas, ou basileian autēn, ouch ho ti an eipoi tis tōn anthrōpinōn, mega, all᾽ oude euchēs axion chrinomen, hē tous echontas apodlepomen" all᾽ epi machroteron proïmen tais elpisi, kai pros heterou biou parascheuēn hapanta prattomen. “Ha men oun an syntelę̄ pros touton hēmin, agapąn te kai diōchein panti sthenei chrēnai phamen᾿ ta de ouch exichnoumena pros echeinon, hōs oudenos axia parorąn. Tis dē oun houtos ho bios, kai hopē kai hopōs auton biōsometha, machroteron men hē kata tin parousan hormēn ephichesthai, meizonōn de hē chath᾽ hymas akroatōn achousai. Tosouton ge mēn eipōn, hikanōs an hisōs hymin endeixaimēn, hoti pasan homou pēn, aph᾽ hou gegonasin anthrōpoi, tǭ logǭ tis sylladōn kai eis hen athroisas eudaimonian, oude pollostǭ merei tōn agathōn echeinōn heurēse: parisoumenēn, alla pleion tou en echeinois elachistou ta sympanta tōn tēde chalōn kata tēn axian aphestēchota, hē chath᾽ hoson schia kai onar tōn alēthōn apoleipetai. Mallon de, 0 hin᾽ oicheioterǭ chrēsōmai paradeigmati, hosǭ. psychē pois pasitimiōtera sōmatos, tosoutǭ kai tōn biōn hechaterōn esti to diaphoron. Eis dē touton agousi men hieroi logoi, di᾽ aporrhētōn hēmas echpaideuontes " heōs ge mēn hypo tēs hēlichias epachouein tou bathous tēs dianoias autōn ouch hoion te, en heterois ou pantē diestēkosin, hōsper hen schiais tisi kai katoptrois, tǭ tēs psychēs ommati teōs progymnazometha, tous en tois tachtichois tas meletas poioumenous mimoumenon" … rian chtēphamenoi, epi tōn agōnōn tou ech tēs paidias apolauousi kerdous. Kai hēmin dē oun agōna procheisthai pantōn agōnōn megiston nomizein chreōn, hypeo hou panta poiēteon hēmin kai ponēteon eis dynamēn epi, tēn toutou paraschenēn, kai poiētais, kai logopoiois, kai rhētorsi, kai pasin anthrōpois homilēpeon, hothen an mellę̄ pros tēn tēs psychēs epimeleian ōpheleia tis esesthai. Hōsper oun hoi deusopoioi, paraphcheuasantes proteron therapeiais tisin ho ti pot᾽ an ē to dexomenon tēn baphēn, houtō to anthos epagousin, an te halourgon, an te ti heteron ē" ton auton dē kai hēmeis tropon, ei melloi anechplytos hēmin hapanta ton chronon hē tou chalou paramenein doxa, tois exō dē toutois protelesthentes, tēnichauta tōn … oïon en hydati ton hēlion horąn ethisthentes, houtōs autǭ prosdaloumen tǭ phōti tas opseis. Ei men oun esti tis oicheiotēs pros allēlous tois logois, prourgou an hēmin autōn hē. gnōsis genoito " ei de mēs alla to ge, parallēla thentas, chatamathein to diaphoron, ou michron eis bedaiōsin tou beltionos. Tini mentoi kai pareichasas tōn paideuseōn hechateran, tēs eichonos an tychois? Hē pou chathaper phytou oicheia men aretē tǭ charpǭ bryein hōraiǭ, pherei de tina chosmon kai phylla tois chladois periseiomena " houtō dē kai psychę̄ proēgoumenōs men charpos hē alētheia, ouk achari ge mēn oude tēn thyrathen sophian perithethlēsthai, hoion tina phylla schepēn te tǭ charpǭ kai opsin ouch aōron parechomena. Legetai toinyn kai Mōysēs echeinos ho pany, hou megiston estin epi sophią para pasin anthrōpois onoma, tois Aigyptiōn mathēmasin engymnasamenos tēn dianoian, houtō proselthein tę̄ theōrią tou ontos. Paraplēsiōs de toutǭ chan tois chatō chronois ton sophon Daniēlepi badylōnos phasi tēn sophian Chaldaiōn chatamathonta, tote tōn theiōn apsasthai paideumatōn. ᾿All᾽ hoti men ouch achrēston psychais mathēmata ta exōthen dē tauta, hikanōs eirētai" hopōs ge mēn autōn methechteon hymin, hexēs an eiē legein. Prōton men oun tois para tōn poiētōn (hin᾿ enteuthen arxōmai), epei pantodapoi tines eisi chata tous logous, mē pasin ephexēs prosechein ton noun" all᾽ hotan men tas tōn agathōn andrōn praxeis Ō logous hymin diexiōsin, agapąn te kai zēloun, kai hoti malista peirasthai: toioutous einai " hotan de epi mochthērous andras elthōsi, tēn mimēsin tautēn dei pheugein, epiphrassomenous ta ōta, ouch hētton hē ton Odyssea phasin echeinoi ta tōn Seirēnōn melę̄. Hē nar pros tous phaulous tōn logōn synētheia hodos estin epi ta pragmata. Dio dē pasę̄ phylachę̄ tēn psychēn tērēteon, mē dia tēs tōn logōn hēdonēs paradexamenoi ti lathōmen tōn cheironōn, hōsper hoi ta dēlētēria meta tou melitos prosiemenoi. Ou toinyn epainesometha tous poiētas, ou loidoroumenous, ou schōptontas, ouch erōntas hē methyontas mimoumenous, ouch hotan trapezę̄ plēthousę̄ kai hǭdais aneimenais tēn eudaimonian horizōntai. Pantōn de hēchista peri theōn ti dialegomenois prosexomen, kai malisth᾽ hotan hōs peri pollōn te autōn diexiōsi kai toutōn oude homonoountōn. ᾿Adelphos gar dē par᾽ echeinois diastasiazei pros adelphon, kai goneus pros paidas, kai toutois authis pros tous techontas polemos estin achērychtos. Moicheias de theōn kai erōtas kai mixeis anaphandon, kai tautas ge malista tou choryphaiou pantōn kai hypatou Dios, hōs autoi legousin, ha chan peri boschēmatōn tis legōn erythriaseie, tois epi ti … Tauta dē tauta legein kai peri syngrapheōn echō kai malisth᾽ hotan psychagōgias henecha tōn achouontōn logopoiōsi. Kai rhētorōn de tēn peri to pseuoesthai technēn ou mimēsometha. Oute gar en dichastēriois, out᾽ en tais allais praxesin epitēdeion hēmin to pseudos, tois tēn orthēn hodon kai alēthē proelomenois tou biou, hois to mē dikazesthai nomǭ prostetagmenon estin. ᾿All᾽ echeina hautōn mallon apodexometha, en hois aretēn epenesan, ē ponērian diedalon. Hōs gar tōn antheōn tois men achri tēs euōdias ē tēs chroas estin hē apolausis, “hais melittais d᾽ ara kai meli lamthanein ap᾽ autōn hyparchei" houtō dē chantautha tois mē to hēdy kai epichar: monon tōn toioutōn logōn diōchousin esti tina kai ōpheleian ap' autōn eis tēn Psychēn apothesthai. Kata pasan dē oun tōn melittōn tēn eichona, tōn logōn hymin methechteon. Echeinai te gar oute hapasi «hois anthesi paraplēsiōs eperchontai, oute mēn hois an epiptōsin hola pherein epicheirousin, all᾽ hoson autōn epitēdeion pros tēn ergasian lathousai, to loipon kairein aphēchan. Hēmeis te, hēn sōphronōmen, hoson oicheion hēmin kai syngenes tę̄ alētheią menon. Kai chathaper tēs rhodōnias tou anthous drephamenoi tas akanthas echchlinomen, houtō kai epi tōn poioutōn logōn hoson chrēsimon charpōsamenoi, to bladeron phylaxōmetha. Euthys oun ex archēs epischopein hechaston tōn mathēmatōn, kai synarmozein tǭ telei prosēche, kata tēn Dōrichēn paroimian, ton «iithon poti tan sparton agontas. Kai epeidēper di᾽ aretēs hēmas epi ton bion chatheinai dei ton … de syngrapheusi, pollǭ de eti pleiō philosophois andrasin hymnētai, tois toioutois tōn logōn malista prosechteon. Ou michron gar to ophelos, oicheiotēta tina kai synētheian tais tōn neōn psychais -hēs aretēs engenesthai: epeiper ametastata pephychen einai ta tōn toioutōn mathēmata, di' hapalotēta tōn phychōn eis bathos ensēmainomena. Ē ti pote allo dianoēthenta ton Hēsiodon hypoladōmen tauti poiēsai ta epē, ha pantes adousin, hē ouchi protreponta tous geous ep᾽ aretēn? Hoti tracheia men prōton kai dysthatos, gai hidrōtos sychnou kai ponou plērēs, hē pros aretēn pherousa, kai anantēs, hodos. Dioper ou pantos, oute prosdēnai autę̄ dia to orthion, oute, prosthdanti, rhądiōs epi to achron elthein. “anō de genomenǭ horąn hypa chei, hōs men leia te kai chalē, hōs de rhądia te kai euporos, kai tēs heteras hēdiōn tēs epi tēn kachian agousēs, hēn athroon einai lathein ech tou synengys ho autos houtos poiētēs ephēsen. Emoi men gar dochei ouden heteron hē protrepōn hēmas ep᾽ aretēn, kai prochaloumenos hapantas agathous eina!, tauta dielthein, kai hōste mē chatamalachisthentas pros tous ponous proapostēnai tou telous. Kai mentoi kai ei tis heteros eoichota toutois tēn aretēn hymnēsen, hōs eis tauton hēmin pherontas tous logous apodechōmetha. Hōs de egō tinos ēchousa deinou chatamathein andros poiētou dianoian, pasa men hēē poiēsis tǭ Homērǭ aretēs estin epainos, kai panta autǭ pros touto pherei, ho ti mē parergo"" ouch Ōchista de en hois ton stratēgon tōn Kephallēnōn pepoiēche gymnon ech tou nauagiou perisōthenta, prōton men aidesai tēn basilida phanenta monon" tosoutou dein aischynēn ophlēsai gymnon ophthenta monon, epeidēper auton aretē anti himatiōn chechosmēmenon epoiēse - epeita mentoi kai tois loipois Phaiaxi tosoutou axion nomisthēnai, hōste, aphentas tēn tryphēn hē synezōn, echeinon apothlepein kai zēloun hapantas, kai mēdena Phaiachōn en tǭ tote einai achlo ti an euxasthai mallon, hē Odyssea genesthai, kai tauta ech nanagiou perisōthenta. Hen toutois gar elegen ho tou poiētou tēs dianoias exēgētēs, mononouchi boōnta legein ton Homēron, hoti ᾿Aretēs hymin epimelēteon, ō anthrōpoi, hē kai nauagēsanti synechnēchetai, kai epi tēs … tōn eudaimonōn Phaiachōn. Kai gar houtōs echei. Ta men alla tōn chtēmatōn, ou mallon tōn echontōn ē kai houtinosoun tōn epitychontōn estin, hōsper en paidią chydōn tę̄de chacheise metathallomena " monē de chtēmatōn hē aretē anaphaireton, kai zōnti kai peleutēsanti paramenousa. Hothen dē kai Solōn … moi dochei pros tous euporous eipein to" Tēs aretēs ton plouton" epei to men empedon aiei, Chrēmata d᾽ anthrōpōn allote allos echei. Paraplēsia de toutois kai ta Theognidos, en hois phēsi ton Theon, ontina dē kai phēsi, tois anthrōpois to talanton epirrhepein allote allōs, allote men. ploutein, allote de mēden echein. Kai mēn kai ho Keios pou sophistēs Prodichos tōn heautou syngrammatōn adelpha toutois eis aretēn kai chachian ephilo-. dophēsen " hǭ dē kai autǭ tēn dianoian prosechteon" ou gar apodlētos ho anēr. Echei de houtō pōs ho logos autǭ, hosa egō tou andros tēs dianoias memnēmai, epei ta ge rhēmata ouch epistamai, plēn ge dē hoti haplōs houtōs eirēchen aneu metrou. Hoti neǭ onti tǭ Hērachlei chomidę̄, kai schedon tautēn agonti tēn hēlichian, hēn kai hymeis nyn, bouleuomenǭ pyteran trapētai tōn hodōn, tēn dia tōn ponōn agousan pros aretēn, ē tēn rhastēn, proselthein dyo gynaichas, tautas de einai ᾿Aretēn kai Kachian - euthys men oun kai siōpōsas emphainein apo tou schēmatos to diaphoron. Einai gar tēn men hypo kommōtichēs diephchenasmenēn eis challos, kai hypo tryphēs diarrhein, kai panta hesmon hēdonēs exērtē menēn agein" tauta te oun deichnynai, kai eti pleiō toutōn hypischnoumegēn, helchein epicheirein ton Hērachlea pros heautēn" tēn d᾽ heteran kateschlēchenai, kai auchmein, kai syntonon blepein, kai legein toiauta hetera '" hypischneisthai gar ouden aneimenon, oude hēdy, all᾽ hidrōtas myrious kai ponous kai chindynous dia pasēs ēpeirou ( te kai thalassēs. iAthlon de toutōn einai theon genesthai, hōs ho echeinou logos " hēper dē kai teleuptōnta ton Hērachlea xynepesthai. Kai schedon hapantes, hōn dē kai logos tis estin epi sophią, ē michron hē meizon, eis dynamin echastos en tois heautōn syngrammasin, aretēs epainon diexēlthon, hois peisteon kai peirateon epi tou biou deichnynai tous logous. Hōs ho.nche tēn achri rhēmatōn para tois allois philo- Hoios pepnytai" toi de skiai aïssousi. Kai moi dochei to toiouton paraplēsion einai, hōsper an ei zōgraphou thaumaston ti hoion challos anthrōpou memēsamenou, ho de autos eiē toioutos epi tēs alētheias, hoion epi tōn pinakōn echeinos edeixen, Epei to ge lamprōs men epainesai tēn aretēn eis to meson, kai machrous hyper autēs apoteinein logous, idią de to hēdy pro tēs sōphrosynēs, kai to pleon echein pro tou dikaiou timan, eoikenai phaiēn an egōge tois epi schēnēs hypochrinomenois ta dramata" hoi hōs basileis kai dynastai pollachis eiserchontai, oute … eleutheroi to parapan. Eita mousichos men ouch an hechōn dexaito anarmoston autǭ tēn lyran einai " kai chorou choryphaios, mē hoti malista synadonta ton choron echein. Autos de tis hechastos diastasiasei pros heauton, kai ouchi tois logois homologounta ton bion parexetai" all᾽ hē glōtta men omōmochen, hē de phrēn anōmotos, kat᾽ Euripidēn ereï" kai to dochein agathos pro tou einai diōxetai. ᾿All᾽ houtos estin ho eschatos tēs adichias horos, ei t! dei Platōni peithesthai, to dochein dichaion einai, mē onta. Tous men oun tōn logōn, hoi tas tōn kalōn echousin hypothechas, houtōs apodechōmetha. Epeidē de kai praxeis spoudaiai tōn palaiōn andrōn hē mnēmēs acholouthią pros hēmas diasōzontai, hē poiētōn hē syngrapheōn phylattomenai logois, mēde tēs enteuthen ōpheleias apoleipōmetha. Hoion, eloidorei ton Perichlea tōn ex agoras tis anthrōpōn" ho de ou proseiche" kai eis pasan diērchese tēn hēmeran, ho men apheidōs plynōn auton tois oneidesin, ho de ou melōn autǭ. Eita hesperas edē kai schytous apallattomenon molis hypo phōti parepempse Perichlę̄s, hopōs hautǭ mē diaphthareiē to pros philosophian gymnasion. Palin tis lēse, kai epōmosen᾽ ho de antōmosen ē mēn hileōsasthai auton, kai pausein chalepōs pros auton echon. Ēosou axion tōn toioutōn ti paradeigmatōn eiselthein tēn mnēmēn, andros hypo orgēs ēdē chat' echomenou! Tę̄ tragǭdią gar ou pisteuteon haplōs legousę̄ " Ep᾽ echthrous thymos hoplizei cheira" allo malista men mēde dianistasthai pros thymon to parapan" ei de mē rhadion touto, all᾽ hōsper chalinon autǭ ton logismon emthallontas, mē eąn echpheresthai peraiterō. Epanagagōmen de ton logon authis pros ta tōn spoudaiōn praxeōn paradeigmata. “Etypte tis ton Sōphronischou Sōchratēn eis auto to prosōpon empesōn apheidōs " ho de ouk antēren, alla pareiche tǭ paroinounti tēs orgēs emphoreisthai, hōste exoidein ēdē kai hypoulon autǭ to prosōpon hypo tōn plēgōn einai. Hōs d᾽ oun epausato typtōn, allo men ouden ho Sōchratēs poiēsai, epigrapsai de tǭ metōpǭ legetai, hōsper andrianti, ton dēmiourgon, Ho deina epoiei" kai tosouton amynastha:. Tauta schedon eis tauton tois hēmeterois pheronta pollou axion einai mimēsasthai tous tēlichoutous phēmi, Touti men gar to tou Sōkratous adelphon echeinǭ tǭ parangelmati, hoti tǭ typtonti kata tēs siagonos kai tēn heteran parechein prosēche, tosoutou dein apamynasthai. to de tou Perichleous hē to Euchleidou tǭ tous diōchontas hypomenein, kai praōs hautōn tēs orgēs anechesthai - kai tǭ tois echthrois euchesthai ta agatha, alla mē eparasthai. Hōs ho ge en toutois propaideutheis ouch et᾽ an echeinois hōs adynatois diapistēseien, Ouch an parelthoime ta tou ᾿Alexandrou, hos, tas thygateras Dareiou aichmalōtous lathōn, thaumaston ti hoion to challos parechein martyroumenas, oude prosidein ēxiōsen" aischron einai chrinōn, ton andras helonta, gynaichōn hēttēthēnai. Touti gar eis tauton echeinǭ pherei, hoti ho emolepsas pros hēdonēn gynaichi, chan mē tǭ ergǭ tēn moicheian epitelesę̄, alla tǭ ge tēn epithymian tę̄ psychę̄ paraϑexasthai ouch aphietai tou enchlēmatos. To hoe tou Aleiniou, tōn Pythagorou gnōrimōn henos, chalepon pisteuta: apo tautomatou symthēnai tois hē all᾽ ouchi mimēsamenou spoudę̄. Ti de hēn ho epoiēsen echeinos? Exon di᾽ orchou triōn talantōn zēmian apophygein, ho de apetise mallon ē hōmose, kai tauta euorkein melmōn". achousas, emoi dochein, tou prostagmatos ton orchon hēmin apagoreuontos. ᾿All᾽, hoper ex archēs elegon, palin eis tauton epaniōmen " ou panta hexēs paradechteon hēmin, all᾽ hosa chrēsima. Kai gar. aischron tōn men sitiōn ta bladera diōtheistha:, tōn de mathēmatōn, ha tēn psychēn hē mōn trephei, mēdena logon echein, all' hōsper cheimarrhoun parasyrontas hapan ta prostychon emthallesthai. Kaitoi tina echei logon chydernētēn men ouch eichę̄ tois pneumasin ephienai, alla pros hormous euthynein to schaxphos, kai toxotēn kata schopou ballein, kai men dē kai chalcheutichon tina ē techtonikon onta tou chata tēn technēn ephiesthai telous " hēmas de kai tōn toioutōn dēmiourgōn apoleipesthai, pros ge to synorąn dynasthai ta hēmetera? Ou gar dē tōn men cheirō- "achtōn esti ti poras tēs ergasias, tou de anthrōpinou biou schopos ouch esti, pros hon aphorōnta panta poiein kai legein chrē ton ge mē tois alogois pantapasi proseoichenai mellonta. Ē houtōs an eiēmen atechnōs chata tōn ploiōn ta anermatista, oudenos hēmin nou epi tōn tēs psychēs oiachōn chathezomenou, eichē kata ton bion anō kai katō peripheromenoi - all᾽ hōsper en tois gymnichois agōsin, ei hoe boulei, tēs mousichēs, echeinōn eisi tōn agōnōn hai meletai, hōnper hoi stephanoi procheintai, kai oudeis ge palēn aschōn hē panchration, eita chitharhizein hē aulein meletą. Ouchoun ho Polydamas ge, all᾽ echeinos pro tou agōnos tou Olympiasi ta armata istē trechonta, kai dia toutōn tēn ischyn echratyne. Kai ho ge Milōn apo tēs alēlimmenēs aspidos ouch exōtheito, all᾽ anteichen ōthoumenos ouch Epoon ē hoi andriantes hoi tǭ molyddǭ syndedemenoi. Kai apaxaplōs hai meletai autois parascheuai tōn athlōn isan. Ei hoe ta Marsyou hē ta Olympou … tēn chonin kai ta gymnasia, tachy g᾽ an stephanōn hē doxēs etychon, hē diephygon to mē katagelastoi einai chata to sōma? ᾿All᾽ ou mentoi oude ho Timotheos, tēn melǭdian apheis, en tais palaistrais diēgen. Ou gar an tosouton hypērxen autǭ dienenchein hapantōn tę̄ mousichę̄, hǭ ge tosouton periēn tēs technēs, hōste kai thymon egeirein dia tēs syntonou kai austēras harmonias, kai mentoi kai chaląn kai malattein palin dia tēs aneimenēs, hopote bouloito. Tautę̄ toi kai ᾿Alexandrǭ pote to Phrygion epaulesanta, exanastēsai auton epi ta hopla legetai metaxy deipnounta, kai epanagagein palin pros tous sympotas, tēn harmonian chalasanta. Tosautēn ischyn hen te mousichę̄ kai tois gymnichois agōsi pros tēn tou telous chtēsin hē meletē parechetai.
[2] Do not be surprised, then, if I say to you, who go to teachers every day and keep company with the renowned men of old through the writings they have left, that I myself have found out something more profitable. This is the very thing I have come to advise: that you should not hand over to these men once for all the rudder of your mind, as of a ship, and follow wherever they lead, but take from them what is useful and know what you must also pass over. What these things are, then, and how we shall distinguish them, I will now teach you, beginning from this point. We, children, consider this human life to be nothing at all, and we neither think nor call anything at all good that brings us its contribution only as far as this life. We do not judge distinction of ancestors, nor strength of body, nor beauty, nor stature, nor honors from all men, nor kingship itself, nor anything human one might name, to be great, nor even worth praying for, nor do we look up to those who have them; but we go further in our hopes, and do everything in preparation for another life. Whatever contributes to that, we say we must love and pursue with all our strength; but what does not reach to it we must disregard as worth nothing. What this life is, and where and how we shall live it, is too long a matter to reach in the present undertaking, and fitter for greater hearers than you to hear. Yet, having said this much, I might perhaps show you sufficiently that if someone gathered in thought all the happiness there has been since men came to be and collected it into one, he would find it not equal even to the smallest part of those goods; rather, all the fine things here together fall further short in worth of the least of those than a shadow and a dream fall short of the realities. Or rather, to use a more fitting example, as much as the soul is more precious than the body in every way, so great is the difference between the two lives. To that life the sacred writings lead us, educating us through mysteries; but as long as our age does not allow us to understand the depth of their meaning, we exercise the eye of the soul for the time being in other writings not altogether different, as in shadows and mirrors, imitating those who practice military drills, who, having gained … in the exercises, enjoy in the contests the profit of their play. We too, then, must consider that a contest lies before us, the greatest of all contests, for which we must do everything and labor as much as we can in preparation for it, and associate with poets, prose writers, orators, and all men from whom some benefit for the care of the soul is to be had. As dyers first prepare by certain treatments whatever is to receive the dye, and then apply the color, whether purple or some other, so we too, if the glory of the good is to remain indelible in us for all time, will first be initiated by these outside writings, and then … like those accustomed to see the sun in water, so we shall turn our eyes to the light itself. If, then, there is some kinship between the two literatures, knowledge of them would be useful to us; and if not, at least to place them side by side and learn the difference is no small help toward confirming the better. To what, then, might you compare each education and find the right image? Perhaps as it is the proper excellence of a plant to teem with seasonable fruit, though it also bears some adornment in the leaves waving about its branches, so for the soul too the truth is primarily the fruit, yet it is not without grace for it to be clothed also with the outside wisdom, like leaves that give both shelter to the fruit and a not unseasonable appearance. So it is said that even that great Moses, whose name for wisdom is greatest among all men, exercised his mind in the learning of the Egyptians and so came to the contemplation of him who is. And similarly, in later times, they say that the wise Daniel learned the wisdom of the Chaldeans in Babylon and then laid hold of the divine teachings. That these outside studies are not useless to souls has been sufficiently said; how you should share in them is the next thing to say. First, then, as to what comes from the poets (to begin there), since they are of every kind in their writings, do not attend to all of them indiscriminately; but when they recount to you the deeds or words of good men, love and emulate them, and try as much as possible to be like them; but when they come to wicked men, you must flee this imitation, stopping your ears no less than Odysseus, as they say, against the songs of the Sirens. For familiarity with base words is a road to the deeds. Therefore the soul must be guarded with all vigilance, lest through the pleasure of the words we unawares take in something of the worse, like those who take poisons along with honey. We shall not praise the poets, then, when they abuse or mock, or when they portray lovers or drunkards, or when they define happiness by a full table and dissolute songs. Least of all shall we attend to them when they discourse about the gods, and especially when they speak of them as many and not even of one mind. For among them brother quarrels with brother, and parent with children, and the children in turn wage truceless war on those who begot them. And the adulteries of the gods, and their loves and open unions, and especially those of Zeus, the chief and highest of all, as they themselves say, things one would blush to tell even of cattle, to those on the …
[3] I have the same to say of prose writers too, especially when they compose stories for the entertainment of their hearers. Nor shall we imitate the orators' art of lying. For falsehood is not fitting for us, either in law courts or in other affairs, who have chosen the right and true road of life, and for whom it is enjoined by law not to go to law. But we shall rather accept those passages of theirs in which they praised virtue or condemned vice. For as with flowers others enjoy only their fragrance or color, but bees can also take honey from them, so here too those who do not pursue only the pleasant and charming in such writings can store up some benefit from them for the soul. It is altogether after the image of the bees, then, that you should partake of these writings. For they neither go to all the flowers alike, nor try to carry off whole those on which they alight, but take as much as is suitable for their work and let the rest go. And we, if we are wise, will take from them as much as is proper to us and akin to the truth, and pass over the rest. And as in plucking the flower of the rose we avoid the thorns, so in such writings too, harvesting what is useful, let us guard against what is harmful. Right from the start, then, we should examine each lesson and fit it to its end, according to the Doric proverb, “bringing the stone to the line.” And since we must enter … our life through virtue, and much has been sung of it by poets, much by prose writers, and much more still by philosophers, we must attend especially to such writings. For it is no small benefit that a certain intimacy and familiarity with virtue should be produced in the souls of the young; since such lessons are by nature unchangeable, being stamped deeply because of the tenderness of their souls. Or what else shall we suppose Hesiod had in mind when he composed the verses that everyone sings, if not to urge the young to virtue? That the road which leads to virtue is rough at first and hard to tread, full of much sweat and toil, and steep. Therefore it is not for everyone either to set foot on it because of its steepness, or, having set foot on it, to reach the summit easily. But when one has come up, one can see how smooth and beautiful it is, how easy and passable, and more pleasant than the other, which leads to vice and which, the same poet said, can be taken in a body from close at hand. To me he seems to have said these things for no other reason than to urge us to virtue and summon all to be good, and so that we may not grow soft before the toils and give up before the end. And indeed if anyone else has hymned virtue in similar terms, let us accept his words as leading to the same end as ours.
[4] As I heard from a man skilled in understanding a poet's mind, all Homer's poetry is a praise of virtue, and everything in him tends to this, except what is incidental; and not least where he has made the general of the Cephallenians, saved naked from the shipwreck, first be respected by the princess merely on appearing (so far was he from incurring shame by being seen naked, since virtue had made him adorned instead of clothes), and then be thought of such worth by the other Phaeacians that, leaving the luxury in which they lived, they all looked to him and emulated him, and no Phaeacian at that time would have prayed for anything more than to become Odysseus, and that a man saved from a shipwreck. For in these passages, said the interpreter of the poet's mind, Homer all but cries aloud: “You must care for virtue, O men, which swims out with the shipwrecked man, and on dry land … than the prosperous Phaeacians.” And so it is. Other possessions belong no more to those who have them than to anyone who chances on them, tossed hither and thither as in a game of dice; virtue alone of possessions cannot be taken away, remaining with a man both living and dead. Hence Solon too seems to me to have said to the rich: “… virtue for wealth; for the one is always secure, but riches belong now to one man, now to another.” Similar to these too are the words of Theognis, in which he says that God, whoever he means, tips the scale for men now one way and now another, now to be rich, now to have nothing. And the sophist of Ceos, Prodicus, somewhere in his writings philosophized in kindred terms about virtue and vice; to him too we must attend, for the man is not to be rejected. His account runs something like this, as far as I remember the man's thought (for I do not know the words, except that he spoke simply, without meter): when Heracles was quite young, of about the age you are now, and was deliberating which of the roads to take, the one leading through toils to virtue or the easiest, two women came to him, Virtue and Vice. At once, even in silence, they showed the difference by their bearing. The one was dressed up for beauty by the art of cosmetics, flowing with luxury, leading a whole swarm of pleasures hung about her; she displayed these, and, promising still more, tried to draw Heracles to herself. The other was lean and squalid, with an intent look, and spoke of quite other things; she promised nothing relaxed or pleasant, but countless sweats and toils and dangers over every land and sea; and the prize of these was to become a god, as his story goes. Her indeed Heracles followed to the end. And almost all who have some name for wisdom, more or less, each as far as he could, have set forth the praise of virtue in their writings; these we must obey, and try to show their words in our life. For whoever [confirms in deed] the philosophy that goes no further than words among others, “he alone is wise; the rest flit about as shadows.” And this seems to me like a painter who had represented some wonderful beauty of a man, and the man himself were in reality such as the painter showed him on the panels. For to praise virtue splendidly in public and stretch out long speeches about it, but in private to honor pleasure before self-control and advantage before justice, I would say resembles those who act dramas on the stage; who often enter as kings and lords, though they are neither …, nor perhaps even free at all. Again, a musician would not willingly accept a lyre out of tune, nor the leader of a chorus a chorus that does not sing in perfect harmony; but each man will be at odds with himself, and will not show his life in agreement with his words; but “the tongue has sworn, but the mind is unsworn,” he will say with Euripides, and will pursue seeming good before being good. But this is the utmost limit of injustice, if we must believe Plato: to seem just while not being so. The writings, then, that contain counsels of fine things let us accept in this way. And since noble deeds of men of old are preserved for us either by the continuity of memory or kept in the words of poets or prose writers, let us not miss the benefit from them either. For example, one of the men of the marketplace abused Pericles, but he paid no attention; and it lasted the whole day, the one unsparingly washing him down with reproaches, the other not caring. Then in the evening, when it was already dark, Pericles escorted him off with a light, so that his own training in philosophy might not be ruined. Again, someone [angered against Euclides of Megara] threatened [him with death] and swore it; but he swore in return that he would surely appease him and make him stop being angry with him. How valuable it is for some such example to come into the memory of a man already seized by anger! For one must not simply believe the tragedy that says, “Anger arms the hand against enemies”; but it is best not to be roused to anger at all; or if that is not easy, at least to throw reason on it as a bridle and not let it be carried further.
[5] But let us bring our speech back to the examples of noble deeds. Someone struck Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus, falling on his very face unsparingly; but he did not raise his hand against him, but let the drunken man sate his anger, so that his face was already swollen and bruised from the blows. When the man stopped striking him, Socrates did nothing else, it is said, than write on his forehead, as on a statue, the maker's name, “So-and-so made this”; and that was his whole revenge. Since these things lead almost to the same end as ours, I say they are well worth imitation by those of your age. For this deed of Socrates is akin to that precept that one should offer the other cheek also to the one who strikes on the jaw, so far from taking revenge; and that of Pericles or Euclides to the command to bear with persecutors and endure their anger gently, and to pray for good things for enemies rather than curse them. For one trained beforehand in these will no longer distrust those commands as impossible. Nor would I pass over the deed of Alexander, who, having taken captive the daughters of Darius, though they were attested to have a wonderful beauty, did not even deign to look at them, judging it shameful for one who had conquered men to be conquered by women. For this tends to the same end as that saying, that one who looks at a woman for pleasure, even if he does not commit adultery in deed, is not acquitted of the charge, because he has admitted the desire into his soul. And the deed of Clinias, one of the disciples of Pythagoras, is hard to believe happened by chance to resemble our precepts, and not by deliberate imitation. What did he do? Though he could have escaped a fine of three talents by an oath, he paid rather than swear, and that though he was going to swear truly; having heard, it seems to me, the command that forbids us the oath. But, as I said at the beginning, let us return again to the same point: we must not accept everything indiscriminately, but only what is useful. For it is shameful to reject harmful foods but take no account of the lessons that nourish our soul, and, like a torrent, to sweep in whatever comes. And yet what sense is there in this, that a helmsman does not commit himself idly to the winds but steers the vessel to anchorages, and an archer shoots at a target, and indeed a smith or a carpenter aims at the end of his craft, while we fall short even of such craftsmen in being able to discern our own interests? For surely there is not an end to the work of handicrafts and no goal of human life, looking to which one must do and say everything, at least if one is not to be altogether like the irrational beasts. Or else we would be like unballasted boats, with no mind seated at the tillers of the soul, carried aimlessly up and down through life. But as in athletic contests, or, if you like, in those of music, the exercises are for those contests for which the crowns are set, and no one who trains for wrestling or the pancratium then practices the lyre or the pipe. Not Polydamas, at least; but he, before the contest at Olympia, used to stop chariots in their course, and so strengthened his might. And Milo could not be pushed off his oiled shield, but held out when pushed no less than statues fastened with lead. In a word, their exercises were preparations for the contests. But if they had busied themselves with the airs of Marsyas or Olympus, … the dust and the gymnasia, would they quickly have won crowns or glory, or escaped being ridiculous in body? But neither did Timotheus, abandoning melody, spend his time in the wrestling schools. For he would not then have so far surpassed all men in music, he who had such mastery of the art that he could rouse anger through the intense and austere harmony, and again relax and soften it through the gentle one, whenever he wished. In this way, it is said, once playing the Phrygian mode to Alexander, he roused him to arms in the middle of dinner, and brought him back again to his fellow drinkers by relaxing the harmony. Such strength does practice provide, in music and in athletic contests alike, for the attainment of the end.
Acts 7:22 (allusion, high confidence) · Dan 1:17 (allusion, high confidence) · Exod 3:14 (echo, medium confidence) · 1 Cor 13:12 (echo, low confidence) · 1 Cor 6:7 (allusion, medium confidence) · Matt 5:39 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 5:44 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 5:28 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 5:34 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Pagan literature can prepare the young for Scripture as dyeing prepares cloth: take from poets, historians and orators, like bees from flowers, what praises virtue (Homer, Solon, Theognis, Prodicus, the deeds of Pericles, Socrates, Alexander) and reject the rest.
- Staged as section 2 (the scan reads the numeral as 8); it contains sections 2–5. The numerals of 3 (ὅ), 4 (ἀ) and 5 (ὃ) are misread in the scan; their starts are marked [3], [4], [5] by sense of the sequence (staged 22.3 reads 6). Words lost under Migne's notes and Latin are marked “…”; words in brackets are supplied by sense (in section 4, “confirms in deed” and the threat against Euclides of Megara, named later in the passage). No public-domain English translation was available; re-read against the Greek. Sources: Hesiod, Works and Days 287–292; Homer, Odyssey 12 (Sirens), 6–8 (Odysseus and the Phaeacians), 10.495; Solon frag. 15; Theognis 157–158; Prodicus's choice of Heracles (in Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.1.21–34); Euripides, Hippolytus 612; Plato, Republic 361a; anecdotes of Pericles (Plutarch, Pericles 5), Euclides of Megara, Socrates, Alexander and Darius's daughters (Plutarch, Alexander 21), Clinias, Polydamas, Milo, Timotheus. Biblical allusions: Acts 7:22; Dan 1:4, 17; Exod 3:14; 1 Cor 13:12; 1 Cor 6:7; Matt 5:39, 44, 28, 34.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Latin translation; Latin translation and section numeral; Greek words lost here; Migne's marginal references and Latin translation; Greek words lost here; Migne's marginal references; Greek words lost here; Migne's note (repeating phrases of the text) and Latin; Migne's note and Latin translation; the first words of Solon's verse are lost; Migne's notes and Latin translation; Greek words lost here; Migne's notes on variants; column letter; footnote marker; garbled repetition and stray letters; hyphenated word; hyphenated word broken by a column letter; section numeral; stray Latin letters; stray bracket; stray letters): (21.) ἜρΥ. καὶ ἡμ., ν. Βαϊ οὐχοῦν προγόνων. ἴθμιι5 6 → … ; δ᾽ Αοῖ, γι, 92. δ Ῥλδη. ᾿, 4. χαϊ → … ; «ἐς τῇ μιμήσει, ταῦτα δεῖ, εἴ6., 56 υἱ γὸσ μιμήσει Τεἔπι σοῦοχ ἃ Οοιμμρεῆβίο Το αιυ5 ἔλθωσι, τὴν μίμη → ; βαυπ θη]. ΕἼΓΑΙΟΓ Θηἶπὶ δάνογϑυϑ γαῖ γον ἀρυά ὅ. → … ; ὅ. Εδάδιῃ οογῖα οἱ ἀο ἢ] 5 βουπι οἰ δὰ δυάϊοπιίαπι δηϊπιιιπὶ Οὐ] οἰ Δ πὶ → ; Ο Υἱμιροταγίηι νἱται), ὕ δπίαι. τοι! β8οῖο Πογαηι → ; 5 καὶ τῆς. σοπδπίαγ : δοὰ οὐ ἐχ ᾿οἷα φυλπίιπι ἰάομουπι εεὶ τοι φαμὶ ρυφίθυ ἰθιαΝ. Εἰ φυῤπιαδιποάυηη ἴῃ ἀὁδυο πηι] μοοιῖ5, πε] Π! 5ιογ οἶδ, πη] 10 Ρίυγὰ ροβί 001}. ἰογιΐυβ λόγων τὸ ἡδὺ λαύόντες τὸ βλαεἰπι ὁ} Υἱοὶ πίαπη Δ οὶ ρ0586 αἰχὶξ ἰάδπι 1116 ροείδ. → … ; ΥΤῸΒ 86 88 δεῖ, Νὰπι ροβϑεββϑίθοπθβ γα! 485 ἤθη τὴτα ψυχῆς. ἀθρόον. → … ; (οἸθονιίηὶ ἀυθ. εἰς ἐκεῖνον. γοσια εἰς → … ; Εἰ ΡΙυΑγοδυ5 φαοαὰθ ἴῃ δοίοπὶς γέία. ες. ὅ, ῦϑ. Νεο ἰδ τηλ]0 Ροδὲ ἴθ 601}. (δγιϊο 6 γα δε πος αἰυϊ ἰδ ποι σοπιπιμ αϑῖηϊις εἰς 80.185 50 }ρι}5 ἀπ [}18 ἰπ Υἱγιυ6 πὶ 86. νι οοη- Οὐ] 6 πὶ ᾿υνθηθ πηι), οἱ (ὉΓῸ δὴ ἐἰδίοιη, 4080 {γπηαυῖῖ, βαρ 1 50108, γο αυὶ ναῖαϊ ἀπ γ νο] ἴδηι. ΘΟ. ἐογιίυδ αὐτός τις εἴη. Μοχ ἰάοπι ἐπαινεῖν τήν. γα δυΐ ἰδίοτ σογὰ πὶ πιοηππηθηιἾ5 οι οἀ πί}Ὑ, Β ὅ. 56 ταγϑιι5 οὐδ ποιὰ γϑι μολῃ)ι5. δὰ βειοηυπὶ → … ; ΟοἸϊθοτεῖηὶ ἀπο οἱ δα. ργίμυϑ τοσοῦτον. πἴγϑησδ, πος 6δῖ, Ῥαγὶβ. οἱ Βαβι}. εὔχεσθαι τούτοις → ; τ Μά. νυ, 41. 5 1914. 28. 5 1014... ἱμον 015. ρα γί τυ 0 [556 ργαρϊσαϊαν, πθ αβμὶ- 16 Ὁ δαγοϊυταηθο εὐπὶ οἱ Πἰσογοὶ ἐδ]οπίογα {τΐ πὶ Εἰ φυϊάδπι φαομηοὰο ται οπὶ σοπβθηιδη θὰ π οδῖ, υἱ δὶ, Ρυ ν γα 80 ΘΥΠΙΠΑΒ18 το] οιἰ8, δὰ ῦ ὅσο Ἰϊγοίφιια βοῦ τοι ββδπ), οὐπὶ νε ]δὶ. Ηδο ἰ(6 πὶ ἃγίθ. ταπὶ, 111 Ἰαογὶ 5 Βα χοθηι 8 σι ροῦ βθχοθῃίο5 οχϑῃεἰδπι, υδὶ ἴῃ τοὶ φυὶβ ἰϊα υἱχογυπῆ, υἱ ἰρβογυιῃ Υἱίᾶ δχυσυιὶ 56 δὰ βιδάϊιπι, πα πὶ ποπ ἸΔθογαπι, πα Π]} ποη ρου !απὶ δάθαπίθ8, αἰ οἰδαδίτγί, δι} ἀρὶϊ, ἃυϊ σοῦ ὲβ δσριοαγὶ πο ροβϑἰπί, δὶ ἴῃ αἱγαηᾳ 6 → … ; τὴν εἴπ δὰ ψυχὴν → τὴν ψυχὴν; ἃ χἂν Β περὶ → ἃ χἂν περὶ; γε- Β νομένῳ → γενομένῳ; ὡς βενῳ ὁρᾷ Ρχ μ' δὲ → ὡς δὲ; ἀ. Ὡς δὲ ἐγώ → Ὡς δὲ ἐγώ; τὸ μέ- ὃ σον → τὸ μέσον; τα. Ἠόσου → Ἠόσου; ἁπλῶς ( λεγούσῃ → ἁπλῶς λεγούσῃ; ὃ, Ἐπαναγάγωμεν → Ἐπαναγάγωμεν; πληγῶν (δ5) εἶναι → πληγῶν εἶναι; Ταῦτα Ὁ σχεδὸν → Ταῦτα σχεδὸν; τῆς Α ὀργῆς → τῆς ὀργῆς; (Ὁ1) πόρας → πόρας; πρὸς τὴν Β τοῦ τέλους → πρὸς τὴν τοῦ τέλους.
Extrabiblical texts: Hesiod, Op. 287 (Hesiod, Works and Days; quotation); Homer, Od. 6.135 (Homer, Odyssey; allusion); Homer, Od. 10.495 (Homer, Odyssey; quotation); Solon, 15 (Solon (elegies and fragments); quotation); Theognis, 157 (Theognis (elegies); allusion); Xenophon, Mem. 2.1.21 (Xenophon, Memorabilia; allusion); Euripides, Hipp. 612 (Euripides (plays and fragments); quotation); Plato, Resp. 361a (Plato (works); allusion); Plutarch, Per. 5 (Plutarch; allusion)
Topics: Ethics, Scripture and canon
Cite (SBL): Basil, Hom. 22.2 (PG 31:508; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/basil-homiliae-variae/21-11/#p-22-2). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Migne PG 31 (archive.org OCR; slips, Migne's Latin and notes removed as logged corrections; sections renumbered to the Benedictine divisions) and checked privately against FOTC 9 where it has the homily; otherwise re-read against the Greek (no public-domain English).