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and places, telling their own marks of recognition: I am the son of so-and-so, and so-and-so is my mother, and this is my name, and you were once my friend and acquaintance. And this they do, for they cannot be recognized by their old appearance; people mutilated, and stripped of possessions, family, friends, their very bodies; people who alone of all men both pity themselves, and hate themselves alike; not knowing which to lament more, the parts of the body that are no longer, or those that remain; what the disease has already consumed, or what is left for the disease. For some parts are wretchedly consumed, others are more wretchedly preserved; some are gone before the grave, for others there is no one to commit them to the grave. For even the very kind and philanthropic person is most unfeeling toward them; and here alone we forget that we are flesh, and are clothed with the body of our humiliation; and we are so far from caring for our kin, that we consider fleeing from them the safety of our own bodies. And someone has approached an old corpse, perhaps even a stinking one, and has borne the stinking bodies of irrational animals, and has endured being filled with filth; but these we flee with all our might (O, the inhumanity!), being almost disgusted that we even draw the same air as them.

XI. What is more genuine than a father? and what more compassionate than a mother? But even nature has been shut out from these; and a father his own child, whom he begot, whom he raised, whom he thought to have as the only eye of his life, for whom he prayed many things and often to God, this child he laments, but drives away, partly willingly, partly under compulsion. And a mother remembers her birth pangs, and her heart is torn, and she calls out very piteously, and setting him forth she laments, as if the living were dead: "Child," she says, "unfortunate child of a wretched mother, whom the disease has bitterly shared with me; pitiful child, unrecognized child, child whom I have raised for cliffs and mountains and deserts; 35.872 you will dwell with wild beasts, and a rock will be your shelter, and of men only the most pious will see you; and she utters these pitiful words of Job: "For why were you formed in a mother's womb, and came forth from the belly, and did not perish at once, so that death might coincide with birth? Why did you not depart untimely, before tasting the evils of life? Why did knees receive you? And why did you suckle breasts, you who were destined to live wretchedly, and a life more grievous than death?" And saying these things, she lets forth springs of tears, and the wretched woman wishes to embrace him, but she fears the flesh of her child as if it were an enemy's. And public outcries and persecutions arise, not against those who do wrong, but against those who are unfortunate. And one has already sheltered a murderer, and has given a share not only of his roof, but also of his table to an adulterer, and has chosen a temple-robber as a companion in life, and has made a truce with those who have done him some evil; but from him whose affliction, like a crime, has caused no pain, he has turned away. And wickedness has more power than disease; and we have embraced the inhuman as noble, but we have dishonored the compassionate as shameful.

XII. They are driven from cities, driven from houses, from the marketplace, from gatherings, from roads, from festivals, from banquets, (O, the suffering!) from water itself; neither are flowing springs common to them with other men, nor are rivers trusted not to draw any of the pollution; and most paradoxical, we drive them away as abominations, but we turn them back upon themselves as those who cause no pain, not assigning them a dwelling, nor the necessary food, nor treatment for their wounds, nor covering their disease with a shelter as far as possible. For this reason they wander about night and day, destitute, and naked, and homeless, displaying their disease, recounting their former state, crying out to the Creator, using each other's limbs in place of those that are missing, clever devisers of ways for their ulcerated limbs to win pity, begging for a little bread, or a very small morsel of food, or some tattered rag, a help for their shame, or a comfort for their sores. And

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καὶ τόπους, ἑαυτῶν γνωρίσματα λέγοντες· Ἐγὼ τοῦ δεῖνος, καὶ ἡ δεῖνά μοι μήτηρ, καὶ τόδε μοι ὄνομα, καὶ σύ μοι φίλος ποτὲ καὶ γνώριμος. Καὶ τοῦτο πράττουσιν, οὐ γὰρ ἔχουσι τῷ παλαιῷ χαρακτῆρι γινώσκεσθαι· ἄνθρωποι περικεκομμένοι, καὶ περιῃρημένοι χρήματα, συγγένειαν, φίλους, αὐτὰ τὰ σώματα· ἄνθρωποι μόνοι τῶν πάντων ἐλεοῦντές τε ἑαυτοὺς, καὶ μισοῦντες ὁμοίως· οὐκ ἔχοντες πότερα μᾶλλον θρηνήσωσι, τὰ μηκέτ' ὄντα τοῦ σώματος, ἢ τὰ μένοντα· ὅσα προανάλωσεν ἡ νόσος, ἢ ὅσα τῇ νόσῳ λεί πεται. Τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἀνήλωται δυστυχῶς, τὰ δὲ σώζεται δυστυχέστερον· τὰ μὲν οἴχεται πρὸ τῶν τά φων, τὰ δὲ οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ παραδώσων ταφῇ. Καὶ γὰρ ὁ λίαν χρηστὸς καὶ φιλάνθρωπος, τούτοις ἐστὶν ἀναλγητότατος· κἀνταῦθα μόνον ἐπελαθόμεθα σάρ κες ὄντες, καὶ τὸ σῶμα τῆς ταπεινώσεως περικείμε νοι· καὶ τοσούτου δέομεν θεραπεύειν τὸ συγγε νὲς, ὥστε καὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων σωμάτων ἀσφάλειαν τὴν τούτων φυγὴν νομίζομεν. Καὶ νεκρῷ μὲν ἤδη προσῆλθέ τις παλαιῷ, καὶ τούτῳ τυχὸν ὀδωδότι, καὶ ζώων ἀλόγων ἤνεγκεν ὀδωδότα σώματα, καὶ βορβόρου πλησθεὶς ἠνέσχετο· τούτους δὲ κατὰ κράτος φεύγο μεν (ὢ τῆς ἀπανθρωπίας!), ὅτι καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν αὐτοῖς σπῶμεν ἀέρα, μικροῦ δυσχεραίνοντες.

ΙΑʹ. Τί πατρὸς γνησιώτερον; καὶ τί μητρὸς συμ παθέστερον; Ἀλλ' ἀπεκλείσθη γε τούτοις καὶ ἡ φύ σις· καὶ πατὴρ παῖδα τὸν ἑαυτοῦ, ὃν ἐγέννησεν, ὃν ἀνέθρεψεν, ὃν ὀφθαλμὸν βίου μόνον ἔχειν ἐνόμισεν, ὑπὲρ οὗ πολλὰ Θεῷ καὶ πολλάκις προσηύξατο, τοῦ τον ὀδύρεται μὲν, ἀπελαύνει δὲ, τὸ μὲν ἑκὼν, τὸ δὲ τυραννούμενος. Καὶ μήτηρ μέμνηται μὲν τῶν ὠδίνων, καὶ τὰ σπλάγχνα σπαράσσεται, καὶ ἀνακαλεῖται λίαν ἐλεεινῶς, καὶ προθεῖσα θρηνεῖ, καθάπερ τεθνη κότα τὸν ζῶντα· Τέκνον, λέγουσα, δυστυχὲς καὶ ἀθλίας μητρὸς, ὅ μοι συνεμερίσατο πικρῶς ἡ νόσος· τέκνον ἐλεεινὸν, τέκνον οὐ γνωριζόμενον, τέκνον, ὃ κρημνοῖς καὶ ὄρεσι καὶ ἐρημίαις ἀνεθρεψάμην· 35.872 μετὰ θηρίων οἰκήσεις, καὶ σκέπη σοι πέτρα, καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων μόνον ὄψονταί σε οἱ εὐσεβέστατοι· καὶ ταῦτα δὴ τὰ τοῦ Ἰὼβ ἐλεεινὰ ῥήματα ἐπιφθέγ γεται· Ἵνα τί γὰρ ἐπλάσθης ἐν κοιλίᾳ μητρὸς, ἐκ γαστρὸς δὲ ἐξῆλθες, καὶ οὐκ εὐθὺς ἀπώλου, ὡς συνδραμεῖν τῇ γεννήσει τὸν θάνατον; ἵνα τί δὲ οὐκ ἀπῆλθες ἄωρος, πρὶν γεύσασθαι τῶν τοῦ βίου κακῶν; Ἵνα τί δέ σοι συνήντησε γόνατα; Τί δέ σοι τὸ θηλάσαι μαστοὺς, ἀθλίως ζήσε σθαι μέλλοντι, καὶ ζωὴν θανάτου χαλεπωτέραν; Καὶ ταῦτα λέγει, καὶ ἐπαφίησι πηγὰς δακρύων, καὶ περι πτύξασθαι βούλεται μὲν ἡ δυστυχὴς, φοβεῖται δὲ τὰς τοῦ παιδὸς σάρκας ὡς πολεμίας. Πάνδημοι δὲ κα ταβοήσεις τε καὶ διώξεις, οὐ κατὰ τῶν ἀδικούντων, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τῶν δυστυχούντων γίνονται. Καὶ φο νέα μὲν ἤδη τις συνῳκίσατο, καὶ μοιχῷ μετέδωκεν, οὐ στέγης μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τραπέζης, καὶ βίου κοι νωνὸν τὸν ἱερόσυλον εἵλετο, καὶ τοῖς αὐτόν τι διατε θεικόσι κακὸν ἐσπείσατο· τοῦ δὲ τὸ πάθος, ὡς ἔγκλημα, μηδὲν λυπήσαντος ἀπεστράφη. Καὶ πλέον ἔχει νόσου κακία· καὶ τὸ μὲν ἀπάνθρω πον ὡς ἐλευθέριον ἠσπασάμεθα, τὸ δὲ συμπαθὲς ὡς αἰσχρὸν ἠτιμάσαμεν.

ΙΒʹ. Ἀπελαύνονται πόλεων, ἀπελαύνονται οἰκιῶν, ἀγορᾶς, συλλόγων, ὁδῶν, πανηγύρεων, συμποσίων, (ὢ τοῦ πάθους!) αὐτοῦ τοῦ ὕδατος· οὔτε πηγαὶ ῥέ ουσαι, τούτοις κοιναὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους ἀνθρώ πους, οὔτε ποταμοὶ πιστεύονται μηδὲν ἐφέλκεσθαι τοῦ μολύσματος· καὶ τὸ παραδοξότατον, ὡς ἄγη μὲν ἀπελαύνομεν, ὡς δὲ οὐδὲν λυποῦντας πάλιν πρὸς ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐπιστρέφομεν, οὐκ οἴκησιν ἀπονέ μοντες, οὐ τὰς ἀναγκαίας τροφὰς, οὐ θεραπείαν τοῖς τραύμασιν, οὐ σκέπῃ τὴν νόσον εἰς δύναμιν περιστέλ λοντες. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο περιπλανῶνται νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας, ἄποροι, καὶ γυμνοὶ, καὶ ἀνέστιοι, τὴν νόσον ἐπιδει κνύντες, τὰ ἀρχαῖα ἐκδιηγούμενοι, τὸν Πλάστην ἐπι βοώμενοι, χρώμενοι τοῖς ἀλλήλων μέλεσιν ἀντὶ τῶν λειπόντων, σοφισταὶ μελῶν ἑλκόντων ἕλεον, ἄρτου τι μικρὸν αἰτοῦντες, ἢ ὄψου τι βραχύτατον, ἢ ῥάκος τι τρύχινον, βοήθημα τῆς αἰσχύνης, ἢ παραμυθίαν τοῖς ἕλκεσι. Καὶ