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slavery (for it dishonors the nobility of the soul), but the fornicator is a more ignoble slave of sin; assigned by it to draw up filth, 9.214 he gathers a heap of defilement and performs an unclean service. Or is it not dreadful to be wallowing in mud, to be worn out by shamefulness, to have a body no different from a rag? For what is the difference between a rag and a fornicator? He is torn from the body of piety, he is corrupted by daily decay, he is cast away in the paths of sin like a useless rag, he lies as a trampling-ground for all demons, upon him the devil wipes off his own corruption.

And the manifest and clear spiritual misfortune of the fornicator is no less; for he is to be shunned by households, abominable in encounters, an outrage to those who approach him, a reproach to his enemies, a shame to his relatives, accursed to his housemates, a grief to his parents, a public spectacle to his servants, a laughable story to his neighbors, rejected when eager to marry, a suspicious bridegroom after marriage, a father hated by his children, a despised counselor, unpleasant when granting favors, more unpleasant when asking, grievous when seen from afar, more miserable when sick, more dishonored when dead. Paul, seeing fornication as the mother of such a multitude of evils, just now cried out, commanding us the victorious flight: Flee fornication. This cry has now reminded me of a chaste youth who excelled against Egyptian fornication through flight. And yet many things were contriving persuasion for the youth: a pleasure-loving age, the yoke of slavery, the amorous flattery of his mistress, a constant conversation of licentiousness, a secret exhortation to intercourse. For it happened on such a day that Joseph entered the house 9.215 to do his work and no one from the household was inside, and his mistress seized his garments, saying: Lie with me. great is the dignity of chastity; it made the mistress a slave of the slave; for he was being supplicated, while she was supplicating: Lie with me, lie. the arrow of fornication was fiery, but it did not find the substance of his soul to be burned, but it found its dissolution in his garment, which the shamelessness of fornication, clutching tight, cried: Lie with me. she bellows the hunger of fornicating desire, but this rather closed the ears of the chaste man. For she was saying: Lie with me, but chastity was proclaiming in response to the young man: stay awake with me, and he was showing his watchfulness by his deeds; for his vigor did not nod off at her flatteries, his mind did not fall asleep at her enchantments, the sobriety of his chastity did not slumber, he was not undone by her grasping holds, he was not caught by the adornments of her form, he was not broken by the caresses of amorous words, but to him the flattering voice of his mistress was more bitter than an insult: Lie with me. The devil, the bridegroom's attendant for the adultery, was standing ready, and he was tightening the garment with the fornicatress and was partaking in her holds, but he did not know that he was wrestling with a skilled athlete of chastity who was skillfully slipping out of her holds. For leaving his garments, it says, in her hands, he fled and went outside. O nakedness holier than clothing. What then of the madness of Egyptian licentiousness? she puts her own evils upon Joseph 9.216 and running to her husband she says: You brought in a Hebrew servant to us to mock us; for he said to me, to your wife who until now has chastely guarded your bed: I will lie with you. But when I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garments with me and fled and went outside. Again Joseph is slandered by means of a garment; previously his brothers, taking his tunic, wickedly slandered him through it as having been devoured by wild beasts, now she, taking the tunic, accuses him as a fornicator. fitting for Joseph is the voice of the master: They divided my garments among themselves and upon my clothing they cast a lie. sweet to the army of the chaste is the rhetoric of chastity, but painful to the weakness of the flesh. O the just protection from God for Joseph; he did not honor Joseph before the temptations, but he showed the future through dreams, teaching that

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δουλεία (ἀτιμοῖ γὰρ τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν εὐγένειαν), ὁ δὲ πόρνος ἁμαρτίας ἀδοξότερος δοῦλος· βόρβορον ἀντλεῖν παρ' αὐτῇ τεταγμένος 9.214 μολυσμοῦ συνάγει σωρὸν καὶ ἀκάθαρτον λειτουργεῖ ἐργασίαν. ἢ οὐ δεινὸν ἐγκυλίεσθαι πηλῷ, αἰσχρότητι τρίβεσθαι, ῥάκους ἔχειν τὸ σῶμα μὴ διαλλάττον; ποία γὰρ ῥάκους καὶ πόρνου διαφορά; τοῦ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἀπεσχίσθη σώματος, φθείρεται καθημερινῇ σηπεδόνι, ταῖς τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὁδοῖς ὡς ἄχρηστον ἐναπορρίπτεται ῥάκος, κεῖται πᾶσι καταπάτημα δαίμοσιν, εἰς αὐτὸ ὁ διάβολος τὴν ἰδίαν ἀπομάσσεται σῆψιν.

Τῆς νοητῆς δὲ τοῦ πόρνου κακοπραγίας ἡ πρόδηλος καὶ σαφὴς οὐκ ἐλάττων· ἔστι γὰρ φευκτὸς οἰκίαις, ἀπευκτὸς συν τυχίαις, τοῖς πλησιάζουσιν ὕβρις, τοῖς ἐχθραίνουσιν ὄνειδος, συγγενέσιν αἰσχύνη, συνοίκοις ἐπάρατος, ἀθυμία γονεῦσιν, οἰκέταις θεατρισμός, γελώμενον διήγημα γείτοσι, γῆμαι σπου δάζων ἀπόβλητος, ὕποπτος μετὰ γάμον νυμφίος, μισούμενος τέκνοις πατήρ, εὐκαταφρόνητος σύμβουλος, ἀηδὴς χαριζό μενος, αἰτῶν ἀηδέστερος, πόρρωθεν ὀφθεὶς λυπηρός, νοσῶν ἀθλιώτερος, τεθνεὼς ἀτιμότερος. τοσούτου πλήθους κακῶν τὴν πορνείαν ὁ Παῦλος μητέρα θεώμενος τὴν νικητήριον φυγὴν ἡμῖν ἀρτίως παραγγέλλων ἐβόα· Φεύγετε τὴν πορνείαν. Αὕτη ἡ φωνὴ νεανίσκου με νῦν ἀνέμνησε σώφρονος κατ' Αἰγυπτιακῆς πορνείας διὰ φυγῆς ἀριστεύσαντος. καίτοι γε πολλὰ τῷ νεανίσκῳ τὴν πειθὼ κατεσκεύαζεν· ἡλικία φιλή δονος, δουλείας ζυγός, δεσποίνης ἐρωτικὴ κολακεία, διάλεξις συνεχὴς ἀσελγείας, λαθραία πρὸς μίξιν παράκλησις. Ἐγένετο γὰρ τοιαύτη τις ἡμέρα καὶ εἰσῆλθεν Ἰωσὴφ εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν 9.215 ποιεῖν τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ καὶ οὐδεὶς ἦν τῶν ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ ἔσω καὶ ἐπεσπάσατο ἡ κυρία τῶν ἱματίων αὐτοῦ λέγουσα· κοιμήθητι μετ' ἐμοῦ. μέγα τὸ τῆς σωφροσύνης ἀξίωμα· τοῦ δούλου τὴν δέσποιναν κατεσκεύασε δούλην· ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἱκετεύετο, ἡ δὲ ἱκέτευεν· Κοιμήθητι μετ' ἐμοῦ, κοιμήθητι. πεπυρωμένον τῆς πορνείας τὸ βέλος, ἀλλ' ὕλην ψυχῆς καιομένην οὐχ εὗρεν, εἰς ἐσθῆτα δὲ τὴν διάλυσιν ἔσχεν, ἣν τὸ τῆς πορνείας ἀναιδὲς περισφίγγον ἐβόα· Κοιμήθητι μετ' ἐμοῦ. μυκᾶται τὸν τῆς πορνικῆς ἐπιθυμίας λιμόν, ἀλλ' ἔκλειεν μᾶλλον τὰ τοῦ σώφρονος ὦτα. ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἔλεγε· Κοιμήθητι μετ' ἐμοῦ, ἀντεκήρυττε δὲ ἡ σωφροσύνη τῷ νέῳ· γρηγόρησον μετ' ἐμοῦ, καὶ τοῖς ἔργοις ἐκεῖνος ἐδήλου τὸ ἄγρυπνον· οὐ γὰρ ἐνύσταξε ταῖς κολακείαις ὁ τόνος, οὐχ ὕπνωσεν ἡ γνώμη ταῖς ἐπῳδαῖς, οὐκ ἐκαθεύδησε τῆς σωφροσύνης ἡ νῆψις, οὐ ταῖς κατασχού σαις ὑπεξελύθη λαβαῖς, οὐ τοῖς τῆς μορφῆς καλλωπισμοῖς ἡλιεύθη, οὐ ῥημάτων ἐρωτικῶν διεκλάσθη θωπείαις, ἀλλ' ἦν αὐτῷ πικροτέρα λοιδορίας τῆς δεσποίνης ἡ φωνὴ κολα κευούσης· Κοιμήθητι μετ' ἐμοῦ. ἕτοιμος εἱστήκει τῆς μοιχείας νυμφαγωγὸς ὁ διάβολος καὶ συνέσφιγγε τὴν ἐσθῆτα τῇ πόρνῃ καὶ τῶν παρ' ἐκείνης συνεκοινώνει λαβῶν, οὐκ ᾔδει δὲ τεχνίτῃ παλαίων ἀθλητῇ σωφροσύνης καὶ καλῶς τὰς ἐκείνης ἀπεκδυομένῳ λαβάς. Καταλιπὼν γάρ, φησί, τὰ ἱμάτια εἰς τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῆς ἔφυγε καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἔξω. ὢ γυμνότης ἁγιωτέρα ἐνδύσεως. τί γοῦν τῆς Αἰγυπτιακῆς ἀκολασίας ἡ λύσσα; τὰ ἑαυτῆς κακὰ τῷ Ἰωσὴφ περιτίθησι 9.216 καὶ δραμοῦσα πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα φησίν· Εἰσήγαγες ἡμῖν παῖδα Ἑβραῖον ἐμπαίζειν ἡμῖν· εἶπέ μοι γὰρ τῇ γυναικί σου τῇ μέχρι τοῦ νῦν σωφρόνως φυλαξάσῃ τὴν κοίτην σου· κοιμηθήσο μαι μετὰ σοῦ. ὡς δὲ ὕψωσα τὴν φωνήν μου καὶ ἀνεβόησα, ἀφῆκε τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ παρ' ἐμοὶ καὶ ἔφυγε καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἔξω. πάλιν Ἰωσὴφ δι' ἐσθῆτος συκοφαντεῖται· ἀδελφοὶ πρότερον αὐτοῦ τὸν χιτῶνα λαβόντες ὡς θηριόβρωτον αὐτὸν δι' ἐκείνου ἐσυκοφάντουν κακούργως, νῦν αὕτη τὸν χιτῶνα λαβοῦσα διαβάλλει ὡς πόρνον. πρέπουσα τῷ Ἰωσὴφ ἡ τοῦ δεσπότου φωνή· ∆ιεμερίσαντο τὰ ἱμάτιά μου ἑαυτοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν ἱματισμόν μου ἐπέβαλον ψεῦδος. γλυκεία τῷ τῶν σωφρόνων στρατῷ τῆς σωφροσύνης ἡ ῥητορεία, ἀλλ' ἐπίπονος τῇ τῆς σαρκὸς ἀσθενείᾳ. ὢ τῆς δικαίας ἐπὶ τῷ Ἰωσὴφ παρὰ θεοῦ προστασίας· πρὸ τῶν πειρασμῶν τὸν Ἰωσὴφ οὐκ ἐτίμησεν, ἀλλ' ἔδειξε δι' ὀνειράτων τὸ μέλλον διδάσκων ὅτι