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market-place, and wars and battles and battle-lines; but in the struggles of piety the arena is common, common the wrestling-matches; likewise women also strip for the contest, and are not cast out of the games, but also draw up in battle-line and are crowned and proclaimed victors, and have as prizes for their valor both rewards and crowns, and glorious trophies are with them, and successive and repeated victories. And that you might not think these words to be a boast nor a sound of words, but may know clearly that women are not only more courageous than men, but are even, so to speak, transferred to the very impassibility of the angels, as far as is possible, let there be brought into our midst the woman who was a woman by nature, but who touched the heavens by the intensity of her philosophy, the mother of the Maccabees, who bound on twice seven crowns, and bring into our discourse whatever champion soldier you wish, most warlike, most courageous, most magnanimous, and you will see the woman loftier by as much as the vaults of the heavens are distant from the earth. For the soldier and champion fears one blow, and only the quick death from it; but she stood like a mountain being mined, enduring with each child more grievous pains in her soul than the tortures which they received in their sides; for she was a mother, and a widow, and had reached extreme old age; and you know this, as many of you as have become fathers, and as many as have been delivered of the pangs of childbirth, how it is more grievous than any goad. And no sharp arrow inflicts so bitter a pain on those who are wounded, as each of these things was piercing her soul. For consider how great a thing it was to see for each of her children one body being divided by iron and fire, and the long double courses being run; how she saw, how she heard, how she received the savor from those bodies, seeing ten thousand deaths being inflicted upon each of her children. But she stood like an immovable rock, not shaken by the waves, but breaking the waves into foam, like iron, like adamant; or rather, whatever I might say, I cannot find a name worthy to apply to the endurance of the woman. Shall we then call this one a woman or even a man at all, but not rather loftier than men themselves out of great abundance? What then, when you see another from her earliest youth in a tender body passing sleepless nights, foodless days, choking the desire of the belly 63.489 casting love of money to the ground, mortifying the body, crucifying the flesh, esteeming the present as nothing, walking on the earth and touching the very vaults of heaven, trampling down power, laughing at glory, spitting upon display, having put on sackcloth instead of fine linen, wearing a collar, having strewn ashes underneath, using the ground for a bed, and asking for nothing more, shut up in a narrow room, conversing with prophets, managing a life that has the practice of death, being dead before death, wasting away with hunger and sleeplessness and filth, and dishonoring the phantoms of this present life more than rotting leaves; will you call this one a woman, tell me? but will you not rather remove her from the rank of men and place her in the choir of angels, because in a female nature she displays such great philosophy? 4. And who will speak against these things? There is no one. Hear what sort of women there were also in the time of the apostles; hear Paul writing to the Romans and saying: I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea, who has been a patron of many and of myself also. What do you say, O Paul? A woman became your patron, and are you not ashamed and do you not blush to say these things? I am not ashamed, he says, but I even glory in it; and my Master was not ashamed of a mother

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ἀγορὰ, καὶ πόλεμοι καὶ μάχαι καὶ παρατάξεις· ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν παλαισμάτων τῆς εὐσεβείας κοινὸν τὸ στάδιον, κοινὰ τὰ παλαίσματα· ὁμοίως καὶ γυναῖκες ἀποδύονται, καὶ οὐκ ἐκβάλλονται τοῦ ἀγῶνος, ἀλλὰ καὶ παρατάσσονται καὶ στεφανοῦνται καὶ ἀναγορεύονται, καὶ ἀριστείας ἔχουσιν ἔπαθλα καὶ βραβεῖα καὶ στεφάνους, καὶ τρόπαια δὲ παρ' ἐκείναις λαμπρὰ, καὶ νῖκαι συνεχεῖς καὶ ἐπάλληλοι. Καὶ ἵνα μὴ κόμπον νομίσητε εἶναι ταυτὶ τὰ ῥήματα μηδὲ ψόφον ῥημάτων, ἀλλ' εἰδῆτε σαφῶς ὅτι οὐκ ἀνδρῶν μόνον εἰσὶν ἀνδρειότεραι γυναῖκες, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς αὐτὴν, ὡς εἰπεῖν, τῶν ἀγγέλων τὴν ἀπάθειαν κατὰ τὸ ἐγχωροῦν μεθορμίζονται, ἀγέσθω εἰς μέσον ἡ γυνὴ μὲν τὴν φύσιν, τῶν οὐρανῶν δὲ ἁψαμένη τῷ τόνῳ τῆς φιλοσοφίας, ἡ τῶν Μακκαβαίων μήτηρ, ἡ δὶς ἑπτὰ ἀναδησαμένη στεφάνους, καὶ ὃν βούλει στρατιώτην ἀριστέα, πολεμικώτατον, ἀνδρειότατον, μεγαλοψυχότατον, ἄγε εἰς μέσον τῷ λόγῳ, καὶ τοσοῦτον ὄψει τὴν γυναῖκα ὑψηλοτέραν, ὅσον τῆς γῆς ἀφεστήκασιν αἱ τῶν οὐρανῶν ἁψῖδες. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ στρατιώτης καὶ ἀριστεὺς μίαν δέδοικε πληγὴν, καὶ τὴν σύντομον ἐξ αὐτῆς τελευτὴν μόνον· αὕτη δὲ ἑστήκει καθάπερ ὅρος μεταλλευομένη, καθ' ἕκαστον παιδίον χαλεπωτέρας ὑπομένουσα ὀδύνας ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ τῶν βασάνων ὧν ἐκεῖνοι ταῖς πλευραῖς ἐδέχοντο· καὶ γὰρ μήτηρ ἦν, καὶ χήρα, καὶ εἰς ἔσχατον ἐληλακυῖα γῆρας· ἴστε δὲ ταῦτα ὅσοι πατέρες ἐγένεσθε, καὶ ὅσαι παίδων ὠδῖνας ἐλύσατε, πῶς κέντρου παντός ἐστι χαλεπώτερα. Καὶ οὐδὲν οὕτω βέλος ὀξὺ δριμεῖαν ἐπάγει τοῖς τραυματιζομένοις ὀδύνην, ὡς τούτων ἕκαστον τὴν ἐκείνης κατεκέντει ψυχήν. Ἐννόησον γὰρ ἡλίκον ἦν καθ' ἕκαστον τῶν παίδων ὁρᾷν σιδήρῳ καὶ πυρὶ σῶμα μεριζόμενον ἓν, καὶ μακροὺς τιθεμένους τοὺς διαύλους· πῶς ἑώρα, πῶς ἤκουε, πῶς ἐδέχετο τὴν κνῖσσαν τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν σωμάτων ἐκείνων, μυρίους θανάτους ἑκάστῳ τῶν παίδων ἐπαγομένους βλέπουσα. Ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν εἰστήκει καθάπερ πέτρα ἀκίνητος, οὐ σαλευομένη ὑπὸ τῶν κυμάτων, ἀλλὰ τὰ κύματα εἰς ἀφρὸν διαλύουσα, ὡς σίδηρος, ὡς ἀδάμας· μᾶλλον δὲ, ὅπερ ἂν εἴπω, οὐκ ἔχω τῇ καρτερίᾳ τῆς γυναικὸς ἀξίαν ἐπιθεῖναι προσηγορίαν. Ταύτην οὖν γυναῖκα ἐροῦμεν ἢ ἄνδρα δὲ ὅλως, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ ἀνδρῶν αὐτῶν ὑψηλοτέραν ἐκ πολλῆς τῆς περιουσίας; Τί δὲ, ὅταν ἴδῃς ἑτέραν ἐκ πρώτης ἡλικίας ἐν ἁπαλῷ σώματι νύκτας ἀΰπνους διάγουσαν, ἡμέρας ἀσίτους, γαστρὸς ἐπιθυμίαν 63.489 ἄγχουσαν, χρημάτων ἔρωτα χαμαὶ ῥίπτουσαν, νεκροῦσαν τὸ σῶμα, σταυροῦσαν τὴν σάρκα, οὐδὲν τὰ παρόντα ἡγουμένην, χαμαὶ βαδίζουσαν καὶ αὐτῶν ἁπτομένην τῶν ἁψίδων, καταπατοῦσαν δυναστείαν, καταγελῶσαν δόξης, διαπτύουσαν περιφάνειαν, ἀντὶ λεπτῆς ὀθόνης σάκκον περιβεβλημένην, κλοιὰ περικειμένην, σποδὸν ὑποστρωσαμένην, εὐνῇ τῷ ἐδάφει χρωμένην, καὶ μηδὲν πλέον αἰτουμένην, ἐν δωματίῳ κατακεκλεισμένην στενῷ, προφήταις ὁμιλοῦσαν, βίον θανάτου μελέτην ἔχοντα μεταχειριζομένην, πρὸ τῆς τελευτῆς νενεκρωμένην, λιμῷ καὶ ἀγρυπνίᾳ καὶ αὐχμῷ κατατηκομένην, καὶ τοῦ παρόντος βίου τὰς φαντασίας φύλλων σηπομένων μᾶλλον ἀτιμάζουσαν· ταύτην γυναῖκα προσερεῖς, εἰπέ μοι; ἀλλ' οὐχὶ καὶ τῆς τάξεως τῶν ἀνδρῶν αὐτὴν ἀπαλλάξας εἰς τὸν τῶν ἀγγέλων στήσεις χορὸν, ὅτι ἐν γυναικείᾳ φύσει τοσαύτην ἐπιδείκνυται φιλοσοφίαν; δʹ. Καὶ τίς ἀντερεῖ πρὸς ταῦτα; οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδείς. Ἄκουσον οἷαι καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων ἦσαν γυναῖκες· ἄκουσον Παύλου Ῥωμαίοις ἐπιστέλλοντος καὶ λέγοντος· Συνίστημι δὲ ὑμῖν Φοίβην τὴν ἀδελφὴν ἡμῶν, διάκονον οὖσαν τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ἐν Κεγχρεαῖς, ἥτις προστάτις πολλῶν ἐγενήθη καὶ ἐμοῦ αὐτοῦ. Τί λέγεις, ὦ Παῦλε; γυνὴ σοῦ προστάτις ἐγένετο, καὶ οὐκ αἰσχύνῃ καὶ ἐρυθριᾷς ταῦτα λέγων; Οὐκ αἰσχύνομαι, φησὶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐγκαλλωπίζομαι· καὶ ὁ ∆εσπότης ὁ ἐμὸς οὐκ ἐπῃσχύνθη μητέρα