John Chrysostom, Against Those Who Did Not Attend

more bitter and more destructive. And not even here did the struggles come to an end, but it was again the beginning and prelude of the battle-line. For since the devil gained nothing from this, the chorus of friends arrived, displaying the works of the enemy under a mask of sympathy, and they leap upon him as he lies prostrate, and they scratch open his wounds, succeeding one another and not even allowing him to breathe, and circling in many circles, dancing a certain harsh dance. Shall I also speak of the unbearable temptation of the night, it too being new and strange? For to all other men, even if they suffer countless terrible things, even if they inhabit prisons, even if they wear chains, even if they lament misfortunes, even if they endure mutilation of the body, even if they are oppressed by poverty, or by sickness. or by toils, or by hardships, nevertheless the coming night brings a medicine of comfort, releasing the body from its toils, relaxing the soul from its cares; but in his case then, even the harbor became a reef, and the medicine became a wound, and the comfort was a kind of addition of harsher pain, and the storm became more terrible in the night which provides calm for all men; and he would flee from the day as if from waves, on account of those unendurable pains, but he would find triple waves and whirlwinds and submerged rocks and reefs, so as to seek again the waves of the day. Therefore, he himself, narrating this new suffering, cried out saying: If I lie down to sleep, I say: When will it be day? If I rise up, I say: When will it be evening? For what reason, tell me? For in the day you rightly seek the night; for he calls the night 'evening,' since it provides for all a release from the evils of the day; but being in the night, and in calm and forgetfulness of those pains and cares, why do you again seek the day? Because the night is harsher to me than the day; for it does not provide me release from my toils, but intensification and disturbances and confusions; and narrating this very thing he said: You frighten me in dreams, and in visions you terrify me. For he was terrified, seeing frightful sights in the night, and enduring unbearable fear, and much ecstasy and astonishment.

3. Have you not grown weary hearing these successive misfortunes? But he did not grow weary suffering them. Therefore I beseech your love to wait a little longer; for we have not yet said everything, nor have we added the other exaggeration. For one was, that one body endured all the evils among men; a second, that all came at once, and he did not have even a chance truce; but I wish to speak of a third as well; what then is this? That each of the things mentioned not only came at the same time, but also with much exaggeration and vehemence; for the poverty was harsher than all poverty, and the sickness, and the sitting, and the loss of his children, and of all his possessions. But consider: Did someone lose his possessions? But not so completely, nor in such a manner. Did he lose children? But never all at once, nor so many, nor such ones. Did he fall into sickness? But not such a one, but either fevers, or mutilation, or some other common affliction. But that blow was a strange one, and clear only to the one suffering it. For no word could represent the bitterness of those sores and the pain of the wounds, but it is enough just to name the one who worked them and his unbearable wrath, to show the 63.481 magnitude of the blow. And his sitting was also new and strange; for there is not, there is not any poor man who ever sat thus in the open air for all that time, as he endured, naked of clothes, deprived of all shelter, sitting ulcerated on the dunghill. Someone has often had a wicked wife, but no one was ever so wicked, as to attack her husband in such a misfortune, and to whet a sword against his soul, and to advise such counsels. And the matter of his friends was strange, and that of his servants; and that of his hunger again was newer, that he did not taste of the table set before him. Shall I speak of a fourth exaggeration as well? I mean his former wealth and the

πικρότερα καὶ ὀλεθριώτερα. Καὶ οὐδὲ ἐνταῦθα τέλος ἐλάμβανε τὰ παλαίσματα, ἀλλ' ἀρχὴ πάλιν καὶ προοίμια τῆς παρατάξεως ἦν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ οὐδὲν ἐντεῦθεν ἐγένετο πλέον τῷ διαβόλῳ, τῶν φίλων ὁ χορὸς παρεγένετο, ἐν προσωπείῳ συμπαθείας τὰ τῶν πολεμίων ἐπιδεικνύμενος, καὶ ἐνάλλονται κειμένῳ, καὶ ἀναξαίνουσι τὰ ἕλκη, ἀλλήλους διαδεχόμενοι καὶ μηδὲ ἀναπνεῖν ἐῶντες, καὶ πολλοὺς κύκλους κυκλοῦντες, χαλεπήν τινα χορείαν χορεύοντες. Εἴπω καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς τὸν ἀφόρητον πειρασμὸν, καὶ αὐτὸν καινὸν ὄντα καὶ παράδοξον; Τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ἄλλοις ἅπασιν ἀνθρώποις, κἂν μυρία πάσχωσι δεινὰ, κἂν δεσμωτήρια οἰκῶσι, κἂν ἅλυσιν περικέωνται, κἂν συμφορὰς θρηνῶσι, κἂν λώβην σώματος ὑπομένωσι, κἂν πενίᾳ πιέζωνται, κἂν νόσῳ. κἂν πόνοις, κἂν ταλαιπωρίαις, ἀλλ' ὅμως ἐπελθοῦσα ἡ νὺξ φάρμακον ἐπάγει παραμυθίας, ἀφιεῖσα τῶν πόνων τὸ σῶμα, ἀνιεῖσα τῶν φροντίδων τὴν ψυχήν· ἐπὶ δὲ ἐκείνου τότε καὶ ὁ λιμὴν σκόπελος γέγονε, καὶ τὸ φάρμακον ἕλκος κατέστη, καὶ ἡ παραμυθία προσθήκη τις ἦν ὀδύνης χαλεπωτέρα, καὶ φοβερώτερος ὁ χειμὼν ἐγίνετο ἐν τῇ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις νυκτὶ παρεχούσῃ γαλήνην· καὶ ἔφευγε μὲν ὡς ἀπὸ κυμάτων τῆς ἡμέρας, διὰ τὰς ἀκαρτερήτους ὀδύνας ἐκείνας, εὕρισκε δὲ τρικυμίας καὶ στροβίλους καὶ ὑφάλους καὶ σπιλάδας, ὡς πάλιν τὰ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ κύματα ζητεῖν. ∆ιὸ δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς τὸ καινὸν τοῦτο πάθος διηγούμενος, ἐβόα λέγων· Ἐὰν κοιμηθῶ, λέγω· Πότε ἡμέρα; ἐὰν ἀναστῶ, λέγω· Πότε ἑσπέρα; Τίνος ἕνεκεν, εἰπέ μοι; ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ εἰκότως τὴν νύκτα ἐπιζητεῖς· ἑσπέραν γὰρ τὴν νύκτα καλεῖ, ἅτε ἀτέλειαν πᾶσι παρέχουσαν τῶν μεθημερινῶν κακῶν· ἐν νυκτὶ δὲ γενόμενος· καὶ γαλήνῃ καὶ λήθῃ τῶν ὀδυνῶν ἐκείνων καὶ τῶν φροντίδων, τί πάλιν ἐπιζητεῖς τὴν ἡμέραν; Ὅτι μοι τῆς ἡμέρας χαλεπωτέρα ἡ νύξ· οὐ γὰρ ἀτέλειάν μοι παρέχει τῶν πόνων, ἀλλ' ἐπίτασιν καὶ θορύβους καὶ ταραχάς· καὶ τοῦτο αὐτὸ διηγούμενος ἔλεγε· Φοβεῖς με ἐν ἐνυπνίοις, καὶ ἐν ὁράμασί με καταπλήσσεις. Καὶ γὰρ ἐξεδειματοῦτο, φοβερὰς ὄψεις ὁρῶν ἐπὶ τῆς νυκτὸς, καὶ φόβον ἀφόρητον ὑπομένων, ἔκστασίν τε πολλὴν καὶ κατάπληξιν.

γʹ. Ἆρα οὐκ ἀπεκάμετε ἀκούοντες τὰς ἐπαλλήλους ταύτας συμφοράς; Ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνος οὐκ ἔκαμνε πάσχων. ∆ιὸ δὴ παρακαλῶ τὴν ὑμετέραν ἀγάπην ἔτι μικρὸν ἀναμεῖναι· οὐδέπω γὰρ τὸ πᾶν εἰρήκαμεν, οὐδὲ τὴν ἑτέραν προσεθήκαμεν ὑπερβολήν. Μία μὲν γὰρ ἦν, ὅτι πάντα τὰ ἐν ἀνθρώποις κακὰ ἓν σῶμα ὑπέμεινεν· ἑτέρα δὲ, ὅτι πάντα ὁμοῦ, καὶ οὐδὲ τὴν τυχοῦσαν ἔσχεν ἀνακωχήν· βούλομαι δὲ καὶ τρίτην εἰπεῖν· τίς οὖν ἐστιν αὕτη; Ὅτι τῶν εἰρημένων ἕκαστον οὐ μόνον οὐχ ὁμοῦ ἐπῆλθεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς ὑπερβολῆς καὶ τῆς σφοδρότητος· ἥ τε γὰρ πενία πενίας ἁπάσης χαλεπωτέρα, ἥ τε νόσος, ἥ τε καθέδρα, ἥ τε τῶν παίδων ἀπώλεια, ἥ τε τῶν ὄντων ἁπάντων. Σκόπει δέ· Ἀπώλεσέ τις τὰ ὄντα; ἀλλ' οὐχ οὕτως ὁλοσχερῶς, οὐδὲ τρόπῳ τοιούτῳ. Ἀπέβαλε παῖδας; ἀλλ' οὐδέποτε ὑφ' ἓν ἅπαντας, οὐδὲ τοσούτους, οὐδὲ τοιούτους. Νόσῳ περιέπεσεν; ἀλλ' οὐ τοιαύτῃ, ἀλλ' ἢ πυρετοῖς, ἢ λώβῃ, ἢ ἑτέρῳ τινὶ πάθει συνήθει. Ἐκείνη δὲ ἡ πληγὴ ξένη τις ἦν, καὶ τῷ πάσχοντι μόνῳ σαφής. Λόγος γὰρ οὐδεὶς παραστῆσαι δύναιτ' ἂν τὸ πικρὸν τῶν ἑλκῶν ἐκείνων καὶ τὸ τῶν τραυμάτων ὀδυνηρὸν, ἀλλ' ἀρκεῖ μόνον τὸν ἐργασάμενον εἰπόντα καὶ τὸν ἄσχετον αὐτοῦ θυμὸν, ἐνδείξασθαι τῆς πληγῆς τὸ 63.481 μέγεθος. Καινὴ δὲ καὶ ἡ καθέδρα ἦν καὶ ξένη· οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν, οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδεὶς πένης οὕτω ποτὲ καθεσθεὶς αἴθριος διὰ παντὸς τοῦ χρόνου, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος ὑπέμεινε, γυμνὸς ἱματίων, στέγης ἀπεστερημένος ἁπάσης, ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας ἡλκωμένος καθήμενος. Ἔσχε τις γυναῖκα πονηρὰν πολλάκις, ἀλλ' οὐδεὶς οὐδέποτε ἐγένετο οὕτω πονηρὰ, ὡς ἐν τοιαύτῃ συμφορᾷ ἐπιτίθεσθαι τῷ ἀνδρὶ, καὶ ξίφος ἀνονῆσαι κατὰ τῆς ἐκείνου ψυχῆς, καὶ συμβουλεῦσαι τοιαύτας συμβουλάς. Καὶ τὸ τῶν φίλων δὲ ξένον, καὶ τὸ τῶν οἰκετῶν· καὶ τὸ τοῦ λιμοῦ δὲ καινότερον πάλιν, ὅτι παρακειμένης οὐκ ἀπεγεύετο τῆς τραπέζης. Εἴπω καὶ τετάρτην ὑπερβολήν; τὸν πλοῦτον λέγω τὸν ἔμπροσθεν καὶ τὴν