DEATH OF THE YOUNG MAN

But Envy cut off these bright hopes by snatching away the poor lad from life. Now Macrina was not ignorant of her "father's schemes. But when the plan formed for her was shattered by the young man's death, she said her father's intention was equivalent to a marriage, and resolved to remain single henceforward, just as if the intention had become accomplished fact. And indeed her determination was more steadfast than could have been expected from her age. For when her parents brought proposals of marriage to her, as often happened owing to the number of suitors that came attracted by the fame of her beauty, she would say that it was absurd and unlawful not to be faithful to the marriage that had been arranged for her by her father, but to be compelled to consider another; since in the nature of things there was but one marriage, as there is one birth and one death. She persisted that the man who had been linked to her by her [964D] parents' arrangement was not dead, but that she considered him who lived to God, thanks to the hope of the resurrection, to be absent only, not dead; it was wrong not to keep faith with the bridegroom who was away.

Ὁ δὲ φθόνος ἐπικόπτει τὰς χρηστοτέρας ἐλπίδας ἀναρπάσας αὐτὸν ἐκ τῆς ζωῆς ἐν ἐλεεινῇ τῇ νεότητι.Οὐκ ἠγνόει δὲ τὰ τῷ πατρὶ δεδογμένα ἡ κόρη: ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τῷ θανάτῳ τοῦ νεανίου τὸ κεκριμένον ἐπ' αὐτῇ διεκόπη, γάμον ὀνομάσασα τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς κρίσιν, ὡς γεγενημένου τοῦ κεκριμένου, μένειν ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς τὸ λοιπὸν ἠξίου, καὶ ἦν τῆς ἡλικίας ἡ κρίσις παγιωτέρα. Πολλάκις γὰρ αὐτῇ τοὺς περὶ τοῦ γάμου προσαγόντων λόγους τῶν γεννησαμένων διὰ τὸ πολλοὺς εἶναι τοὺς κατὰ φήμην τοῦ κάλλους μνηστεύειν ἐθέλοντας, ἄτοπον ἔλεγε καὶ παράνομον εἶναι μὴ στέργειν τὸν ἅπαξ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῇ κυρωθέντα γάμον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς ἕτερον ἀναγκάζεσθαι βλέπειν, ἑνὸς ὄντος ἐν τῇ φύσει τοῦ γάμου ὡς μία γένεσις καὶ θάνατος εἷς: τὸν δὲ συναρμοσθέντα κατὰ τὴν τῶν γονέων κρίσιν μὴ τεθνάναι διισχυρίζετο, ἀλλὰ τὸν «τῷ θεῷ ζῶντα» διὰ τὴν ἐλπίδα τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἀπόδημον κρίνειν καὶ οὐ νεκρόν: ἄτοπον δὲ εἶναι τῷ ἐκδημοῦντι νυμφίῳ μὴ φυλάσσειν τὴν πίστιν.