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Feeble, things thought by the wise Greeks to be co-unoriginate. As for all the revered forms they fashion into gods, they did not exist, but came to be, by the will of the great God. Who has ever seen formless matter, or who, immaterial form, even after toiling much with the whirlings of the mind? For neither have I found a colorless body, or any bodiless color. Who has distinguished things which nature, bringing them into one, has not? But nevertheless let us make a distinction; consider for me, if they were altogether unmixed, how have they come into one, or what world stands with all things separate through and through? But if they are mixed, how were they mixed? who mixed them without God? but if God is the mixer, accept him also as the creator of all. 417 The potter, turning his wheel, gave form to the clay, the goldsmith to gold, the stonemason to his stones. Grant something more of our mind to God, O lover of unoriginateness. Matter is the greater part with its moving forms. He thought, and things came to have form; divine thought, the intricate mother of all things. For it is not fitting, like some painter, to produce a form from a likely form, looking at what is before him, things which the mind alone did not draw. And you, evil darkness of Manichaeus, were not before enthroned opposite the highest light. If it were God, it is not darkness. For it is not fitting for evil to oppose God. If it is darkness, you do not know God. To be of one mind is disorder; but when they fight, the strength is with the better one. But if they are equally matched, 418 who is the third one bringing them into one with wisdom and resolving their strife? And this is the greatest wonder, since you stir up a terrible battle, then making them of one mind again, you have forgotten the joy of battle. I am soul and body. The one, a fragment of the divinity of the boundless Light; the other, from a dark root was fashioned by you. And things that were far apart you have brought into one; If I am a common nature, I resolve the strife. If the strife is terrible and constant, I am no longer a nature woven from both. For there is no common offspring of those who fight, but of those who love. Such then is the gloom of your heart. But for me there is one God, without beginning, without strife, one good light, the strength of minds simple and complex, who dwell on high, 419 both heavenly and earthly; but darkness came last, not as a circumscribed, established nature, but this is our wickedness. And wickedness is the breaking of a commandment, as night is the setting of the sun, the feeble old age of youth. The upward course of the sun has brought dreadful winter. The very first one among the heavenly lights, having lost his light and glory through his arrogance, always hates the race of mortals. And from him then the first mortal tasted the wickedness of the man-slayer, and death, when he fanned a flame against me with his wiles. This then is the nature of the late-born evil, of which he is the father. Rust is the corruption of strong iron; 420 but I, self-slain, planted the corruption of wickedness, following the struggles of the envious one through whose design. O world, if you were then the Trinity, near to the Unoriginate in glory. how then did the Christ-bearing men, skilled in divine things, place you so far away, so that a not very great number of rolling years is measured, since the great Word of God established you? But if you were established afterwards, let us consider what the divine thought was doing (for to me God is not inactive, nor unaccomplishing), before this universe was set up and adorned with its forms. Reigning supreme over the empty ages, He was moved, contemplating the beloved splendor of His own beauty, 421 the single, equally-shared radiance of the threefold-light Godhead, as is very clear to the Godhead alone, and to those of whom He is God. He was moved also by seeing the types of the world which the world-creating Mind established in His own great thoughts, of what would be thereafter, but for God was also present. All things are before God: what will be, what has been, and what now is present. For me time has so divided things, some things before, others after; but for God all things are one, and are held in the arms of the great Godhead. Therefore, may you hear as much as my mind has comprehended. The Mind was in travail with all things, and the birth-pang broke forth later, at the due time, when the great Word of God revealed it. 422 He willed indeed to establish an intellectual nature, both heavenly and earthly, translucent mirrors of the first light, the one shining above, a handmaid to the King, filled with light, great, the other having glory here below, gushing forth divinity, so that he might rule over many heavenly beings, and be a bliss-giving light to many. For this is the nature of my King, bliss

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ἀφαυρὸς, Ἑλλήνων πινυτοῖσι νοούμενα ὡς συνάναρχα. Τῶν μὲν ὅσα πλάσσουσι θεοὺς μορφώματα σεπτὰ, Οὐκ ἔσαν, ἀλλὰ γένοντο, Θεοῦ μεγάλοιο θέλοντος. Τίς δ' ὕλην ποτ' ὄπωπεν ἀνείδεον, ἢ τίς ἄϋλον Μορφὴν, καὶ μάλα πολλὰ νόου στροφάλιγξι μογήσας; Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἄχροον εὗρον ἐγὼ δέμας, ἤ τιν' ἄσωμον Χροιήν. Τίς διέκρινεν ἃ μὴ φύσις, εἰς ἓν ἄγουσα; Ἀλλ' ἔμπης τέμνωμεν· ἄθρει δέ μοι, εἰ μὲν ἄμικτα Πάμπαν ἔην, πῶς εἰς ἓν ἐλήλυθεν, ἢ τίς ὁ κόσμος Ἕστακεν ἄνδιχα πάντα διαμπερές; Εἰ δ' ἐπίμικτα, Πῶς μίχθη; τίς ἔμιξε Θεοῦ δίχα; εἰ δὲ κεραστὴς Ἔστι Θεὸς, τοῦτον καὶ κτίστορα δέχνυσο πάντων. 417 Εἶδος καὶ κεραμεὺς πηλῷ βάλε κύκλον ἑλίσσων, Χρυσῷ χρυσοχόος, λαοξόος οἷσι λίθοισι. ∆ὸς πλέον ἡμετέρης τι Θεῷ φρενὸς, ὦ φιλάναρχε. Ὕλη τὸ πλέον ἐστὶ σὺν εἴδεσι κινυμένοισι. Νώσατο, καὶ τὰ γένοντο ἐνείδεα· θεία νόησις, Ἡ πάντων γενέτειρα πολύπλοκος. Οὐ γὰρ ἔοικε Ζωγράφον ὥς τιν' ἐοικὸς ἀπ' εἴδεος εἶδος ἐγείρειν ∆ερκόμενον προπάροιθε τὰ μὴ νόος ἔγραφεν οἶος. Καὶ σὺ, Μανιχαίοιο κακὸν σκότος, οὐ πάρος ἦες Ἀκροτάτοιο φάους ἀντίθρονον. Εἰ Θεὸς ἦεν, Οὐ σκότος. Οὐ γὰρ ἔοικε Θεῷ κακὸν ἀντιφερίζειν. Εἰ σκότος, οὐ Θεὸν οἶδας. Ὁμοφρονέειν μὲν ἄκοσμον· Μαρναμένων δὲ, τὸ κάρτος ἀρείονος. Ἰσοπαλεῖς δὲ, 418 Τίς τρίτος εἰς ἓν ἄγων σοφίῃ καὶ νείκεα λύων; Καὶ τόδε θαῦμα μέγιστον, ἐπεὶ μόθον αἰνὸν ἐγείρεις, Αὖθις ὁμοφρονέοντα τιθεὶς, ἐπελήσαο χάρμης. Ψυχὴ καὶ δέμας εἰμί. Τὸ μὲν θεότητος ἀποῤῥὼξ Φωτὸς ἀπειρεσίοιο· τὸ δὲ σκοτίης ἀπὸ ῥίζης Σοὶ πλάσθη. Τὰ δὲ πολλὸν ἀπόπροθεν εἰς ἓν ἄγειρας· Εἰ ξυνὴ φύσις εἰμὶ, λύω μόθον. Εἰ μόθος αἰνὸς, Ἔμπεδος, οὐκέτ' ἐγὼ πλεκτὴ φύσις ἀμφοτέρωθεν. Οὐ γὰρ μαρναμένων ξυνὸς γόνος, ἀλλὰ φιλεύντων. Τοῖος μὲν κραδίης τῆς σῆς ζόφος. Αὐτὰρ ἔμοιγε Εἷς Θεός ἐστιν ἄναρχος, ἀδήριτος, ἓν φάος ἐσθλὸν, Ἁπλῶν τε πλεκτῶν τε νοῶν σθένος ὑψιθεόντων, 419 Οὐρανίων χθονίων τε· τὸ δὲ σκότος ὕστατον ἦλθεν, Οὐ φύσις ἑστηκυῖα περίγραφος, ἡμετέρη δὲ Τοῦτο πέλει κακίη. Κακίη δέ τε λῦσις ἐφετμῆς, Ὡς νὺξ ἠελίοιο δύσις, νεότητος ἀφαυρὸν Γῆρας. Χεῖμα δ' ἔνεγκεν ἄνω δρόμος ἠελίοιο Φρικτόν. Ὁ μὲν πρώτιστος ἐν οὐρανίοις φαέεσσιν Ἧς ὑπεροπλίῃσι φάος καὶ κῦδος ὀλέσσας, Αἰὲν ἀπεχθαίρει μερόπων γένος. Ἐκ δ' ἄρ' ἐκείνου Γεύσατο καὶ κακίης πρῶτος βροτὸς ἀνδροφόνοιο, Καὶ θανάτου, ῥιπίσαντος ἐμοὶ φλόγα οἷσι δόλοισιν. Ἥδε μὲν ὀψιγόνοιο κακοῦ φύσις, ἧς περ ἐκεῖνος Ἔστι πατήρ. Λώβη μὲν ἰὸς κρατεροῖο σιδήρου· 420 Λώβην δ' αὐτοδάϊκτος ἐγὼ κακίην ἐφύτευσα, Ἑσπόμενος φθονεροῖο παλαίσμασιν ἣν διὰ μῆτιν. Κόσμε, σὺ δ' εἰ μὲν ἔης τῆμος Τριὰς, ἐγγὺς ἀνάρχου Κύδεϊ. πῶς δέ σε τόσσον ἀπόπροθι φῶτες ἔθηκαν Χριστοφόροι, θείων τε δαήμονες, ὥστε μετρεῖσθαι Οὐ μάλα πολλὸν ἀριθμὸν ἑλισσομένων ἐνιαυτῶν, Ἐξότε πῆξε μέγας σε Θεοῦ Λόγος; Εἰ δ' ἄρ' ἔπειτα Πήχθης, φραζώμεσθα τί κίννυτο θεία νόησις (Οὐδὲ γάρ ἐστιν ἄπρηκτος ἐμοὶ Θεὸς, οὐδ' ἀτέλεστος), Πρὶν τόδε πᾶν στῆναί τε καὶ εἴδεσι κοσμηθῆναι. Αἰῶσιν κενεοῖσιν ὑπέρτατος ἐμβασιλεύων, Κίννυτο κάλλεος οἷο φίλην θηεύμενος αἴγλην, 421 Τρισσοφαοῦς Θεότητος ὁμὸν σέλας ἰσοφέριστον, Ὡς μούνῃ Θεότητι, καὶ ὧν Θεὸς, ἔστ' ἀρίδηλον. Κίννυτο καὶ κόσμοιο τύπους οὓς στήσατο λεύσσων Οἷσιν ἐνὶ μεγάλοισι νοήμασι κοσμογόνος νοῦς Ἐσσομένου μετέπειτα, Θεῷ δέ τε καὶ παρεόντος. Πάντα Θεῷ προπάροιθεν, ἅτ' ἔσσεται, ὅσσ' ἐγένοντο, Ὅσσα τε νῦν παρέασιν. Ἐμοὶ χρόνος ὧδε κέασσε, Πρόσθε τὰ μὲν, τὰ δ' ὄπισθε· Θεῷ δέ τε εἰς ἓν ἅπαντα, Καὶ μεγάλης Θεότητος ἐν ἀγκοίνῃσι κρατεῖται. Τοὔνεκεν ὅσσον ἔτετμεν ἐμὸς νόος εἰσαΐοιτε. Νοῦς ὤδινεν ἅπαντα, ῥάγη δ' εἰς ὕστερον ὠδὶς, Ὥριος, εὖτε Θεοῖο μέγας Λόγος ἐξεκάλυψεν. 422 Ἤθελε μὲν νοερὰν στῆναι φύσιν, οὐρανίην τε Καὶ χθονίην, πρώτοιο διαυγέα φωτὸς ἔσοπτρα, Τὴν μὲν ἄνω στίλβουσαν, ὑποδρήστειραν ἄνακτος, Πλησιφαῆ, μεγάλην, τὴν δ' ἐνθάδε κῦδος ἔχουσαν, Πηγάζων θεότητα, ὅπως πλεόνεσσιν ἀνάσσῃ Οὐρανίοις, πλεόνων τε πέλῃ φάος ὀλβιόδωρον. Ἥδε γάρ ἐστιν ἄνακτος ἐμοῦ φύσις ὄλβον