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Be ashamed of your own passion, heal yourselves in a fitting time, before His coming arrives suddenly as a swift lightning flash, before the fire-bearing, before the outer darkness, before the end and the sleepless worm. Trembling we say: hear with fear, let not the matter appear laughable; sons of God are handed over to the chains of Tartarus because of a woman.

But you will say to me, that cohabiting with her I am not harmed. If the serpent cohabiting with the asp is not harmed, surely you will not be harmed either; for the male serpent, uniting with the female serpent, receives death as the wage of cohabitation, such being the nature of the female beast. See, then, lest the matter of a woman is also similar. Let us set forth proofs, refuting rational men: If fire does not ignite stubble; but also if you strike the male stone with the female, a fire is produced. But since you say that a woman can also be chaste; this I know clearly. And a man living by himself can be respectable; this I know precisely. But a man with a woman is an evil; and a woman with a man, a more terrible evil. If again a woman, having departed from her own relatives, attempts to live with a strange man for the sake of a feigned love, this is then a mixture of an unlawful union which produces a fire.

For in time, being warmed by cohabitation under one roof, they ignite the matter, and set the house on fire, or rather they burn their own bodies for Gehenna and eternal punishment. Tell me, O crafty beast, you who have the clothing of a she- 30.821 -ep, and have taken to heart the mind of an asp: why do you anoint yourself, why do you paint yourself? Why with foreign, lifeless colors do you take on an idolatrous form? Why do you torture your hair? Why do you raise up added braids, and high headdresses on your head of foreign additions and of dead and irrational animals, through your head, and face, and through the variety of foreign garments, deceiving and softening and maddening the souls of men? For the unfaithful woman, gathering manifold lifeless materials, and a variety of colors through all kinds of dyes and soot and lime and herbs, which are external to her own body, having attached them, has made herself a multiform beast, as it were. But the faithful woman ought to be a stranger to these things, and especially she who professes to be a Christian. Or do you condemn God, O woman, that He formed you thus? Let be as you were formed; add nothing to yourself through cleverness; for are you more experienced than the one who created you?

And wishing to please whom do you do these things? A man? you do not have a man, as you have said, O virgin; and if you do have one, he knows your crafty composition. Why, having prepared your body with manifold baits, do you hunt the souls of men to destruction? And how do you dare to call upon Christ, or to tread the threshold of the church, bearing the lifeless forms of idols on your whole body through perishable gold, or rather being paraded by them, and drawing a great crowd of licentious men to the lawless sight of yourself? But to whom do we speak these things? To a rational creature having the disposition of crawling serpents. Do neither the Scriptures persuade you, nor Gehenna frighten you, nor the admonition of men convict you? At least respect your own nature, change your appearance, do not make it an idolatrous character, do not imitate those who undergo the shame of the courtesan and the adulteress. For they, being daughters of lawlessness, have a custom of doing such a thing. But to you, who enjoined such a command? What prophetic Scriptures, or what Gospels, what apostolic commands? I know that the divine Scriptures restrain even those who have a custom of doing this from any longer performing the idol-shaped assimilations.

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αἰσχύνθητε τὸ ἑαυτῶν πάθος, θεραπεύσατε ἑαυτοὺς ἐν καιρῷ εὐθέτῳ, πρὶν ἢ ἐξάπινα ὡς ἀστραπὴ ἀθρόα ἥξει ἡ αὐτοῦ παρουσία, πρὶν ἢ πυρφόρος, πρὶν σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον, πρὶν συντέλεια καὶ σκώληξ ἀκοίμητος. Τρέμοντες λέγομεν· μετὰ φόβου ἀκούετε, μηδ' ἐν γελοίῳ καταφανήτω τὸ πρᾶγμα· υἱοὶ Θεοῦ, σειραῖς ταρτάρου παραδίδονται διὰ γυναῖκα.

Ἀλλ' ἐρεῖς μοι, ὅτι Συνοικῶν ταύτῃ οὐ βλάπτο μαι. Εἰ ὁ δράκων συνοικῶν τῇ ἀσπίδι οὐ βλάπτε ται, πάντως καὶ σὺ οὐ βλαβήσῃ· ὁ γὰρ δράκων τῇ δρακαίνῃ συγγινόμενος, θάνατον λαμβάνει τὸν μισθὸν τῆς συμβιώσεως, τοιαύτης φύσεως τυγχάνοντος τοῦ θήλεος θηρίου. Ὅρα γοῦν, μήποτε ὅμοιόν ἐστι καὶ τὸ τῆς γυναικὸς πρᾶγμα. Παραθώμεθα δὲ ἀποδείξεις, ἐλέγχοντες τοὺς λογικοὺς ἀνθρώπους· Εἰ τὸ πῦρ τὴν καλάμην οὐκ ἀνάπτει, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν ἄῤῥην λίθον εἰ σπείσεις τῇ θηλείᾳ, πυρκαϊὰ γίνεται. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ λέγετε καὶ γυναῖκα σωφρονεῖν δύνασθαι· τοῦτο σαφῶς ἐπίσταμαι. Καὶ ἀνὴρ μένων καθ' ἑαυτὸν εὐσχημονεῖν δύναται· τοῦτο ἀκριβῶς ἐπίσταμαι. Ἀνὴρ δὲ μετὰ γυναικὸς, κακόν· καὶ γυνὴ μετὰ ἀνδρὸς, δεινότερον κακόν. Ἂν πάλιν γυνὴ τῶν ἰδίων ἀποστᾶσα συγγενῶν, ξένῳ ἀνδρὶ συνοικεῖν ἐπιχειρῇ τῆς ἐπιπλάστου ἀγάπης ἕνεκεν, τοῦτο μίξις λοιπὸν συζυγίας ἀθεμίτου πυρκαϊὰν ἐργαζομένης.

Τῷ χρόνῳ γὰρ ἀναθερμαινόμενοι τῇ ὁμοσκήνῳ συμβιώσει, ἀνάπτουσι τὴν ὕλην, καὶ ἐμπυρίζουσι τὴν οἰκίαν, μᾶλλον δὲ τὰ ἑαυτῶν σώματα καίουσιν εἰς γέενναν καὶ αἰωνίαν κόλασιν. Λέγε μοι, ὦ πολυμήχανον θηρίον, ἡ τὸ τοῦ προ 30.821 βάτου ἔνδυμα ἔχουσα, καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀσπίδος φρόνημα ἐνστερνισμένη· τί περιχρίεις, τί ὑποχρίεις σεαυτήν; τί χρώμασιν ἀλλοτρίοις ἀψύχοις προσλαμβάνεις μορ φὴν εἰδωλικήν; τί βασανίζεις σου τὰς τρίχας; τί προσθέτους πλοκάμους, καὶ κορύβαντας ἐπὶ κεφαλῆς ἀλλοτρίων προσθεμάτων καὶ νεκρῶν καὶ ἀλόγων ζώων ἀνιστᾷς, διὰ τῆς κεφαλῆς, καὶ ὄψεως, καὶ διὰ τῆς τῶν ἀλλοτρίων ἱματίων ποικιλίας ἐξαπατῶσα καὶ ἐκμαλάσσουσα καὶ ἑλλεβορίζουσα τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων; Ἡ γὰρ ἄπιστος γυνὴ πολυτρόπους ἀψύχους ὕλας συνάγουσα, καὶ χρωμάτων ποικιλίας διὰ παντοδαπῶν χρωμάτων καὶ ἀσβόλης καὶ ἀσβέστου καὶ βοτανῶν, ἃ τῷ ἰδίῳ σώματι ἔξωθέν ἐστι, προσκολλή σασα, πολύμορφον ὥσπερ τι θηρίον, ἑαυτὴν ἀπειργάσατο. Ἡ δὲ πιστὴ γυνὴ, τούτων ὀφείλει ξένη τυγχά νειν, καὶ μάλιστα ἡ ἐπαγγελλομένη εἶναι Χριστιανή. Ἢ καταγινώσκεις τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὦ γύναι, ὅτι τοιαύτην σε ἔπλασεν; Ἄφες ὡς ἐπλάσθης εἶναι· μηδὲν ἑαυτῇ δι' εὐμηχανίας προσθῇς· μὴ γὰρ ἐμπειροτέρα εἶ τοῦ δημιουργήσαντός σε.

Τίνι δὲ καὶ ἀρέσαι βουλομένη ταῦτα ποιεῖς; Τῷ ἀνδρί; οὐκ ἔχεις ἄνδρα, ὥς γε ἔφης, ὦ παρθένε· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἔχεις, οἶδέ σου τὴν πολυμήχανον σύνθεσιν. Τί δελεάσμασι πολυτρόποις ὀρ γανώσασα τὸ σῶμα, θηρεύεις τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἀνθρώ πων πρὸς ἀπώλειαν; καὶ πῶς τὸν Χριστὸν ἐπικαλεῖ σθαι τολμᾷς, ἢ ἐκκλησίας οὐδὸν πατεῖν, ξοάνων μορ φὰς ἀψύχων ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ σώματι διὰ χρυσοῦ τοῦ ἀπολλυμένου φέρουσα, μᾶλλον δὲ πομπευομένη ὑπ' αὐτῶν, καὶ πολλὴν συστροφὴν ἀκολάστων ἀνδρῶν πρὸς τὴν ἑαυτῆς ἔκθεσμον θέαν ἐφελκομένη; Ἀλλὰ τίνι ταῦτα λαλοῦμεν; Λογικῷ ζώῳ ἑρπη στικῶν δρακόντων προαίρεσιν ἔχοντι. Οὔτε σε αἱ Γρα φαὶ πείθουσιν, οὔτε ἡ γέεννα φοβεῖ, οὔτε ἡ τῶν ἀνθρώπων νουθεσία κατανύσσει; Κἂν τὴν ἑαυτῆς φύσιν αἰδέσθητι, μετάβαλέ σου τὴν ὄψιν, μὴ ἀπεργάζου ταύτην εἰδωλικὸν χαρακτῆρα, μὴ μιμοῦ τὰς τὴν ἑται ρικὴν καὶ μοιχιαίαν αἰσχύνην ὑπερχομένας. Ἐκεῖναι γὰρ τῆς ἀνομίας θυγατέρες τυγχάνουσαι, ἔθος τοιοῦ τον πράττειν ἔχουσι. Σοὶ δὲ τίς τοιαύτην ἐνετείλατο τὴν παραγγελίαν; ἄρα ποῖαι Γραφαὶ προφητικαὶ, ἢ ποῖα Εὐαγγέλια, ποῖαι δὲ ἀποστολικαὶ παραγγελίαι; Ἐγὼ οἶδα, ὅτι αἱ θεῖαι Γραφαὶ καὶ τὰς ἐξ ἔθους ἐχούσας τοῦτο πράττειν ἀπείργουσι τοῦ μηκέτι ἐπιτελεῖν τὰς εἰδωλομόρφους ἐξομοιώσεις.