not only having but also bestowing the power to act against contrary fear, and to those who have passed over from worse things to a sacred mind, they implant a sacred disposition so as not to be captured again by evil, and those who are lacking with respect to being all-holy they completely purify, and they lead the sacred ones to the divine images and their contemplations and communions, and they feast the all-holy on blessed and intelligible visions, fulfilling their oneness of the One and making them one. <4> And what? Does not the present sacred liturgy, in the same manner of the synaxis, dismiss without mingling the orders not entirely pure, which we have already mentioned, being seen in images only by the sacred and being contemplated and celebrated immediately only by the all-holy through hierarchical upliftings? These things, then, having already been said by us many times, it is superfluous, I think, to go over the same arguments again and not to move on to what follows, seeing the hierarch inspiredly covered by twelve wings, holding the divine myron and celebrating the most holy perfection upon it. Let us say, then, that the composition of the myron is a certain collection of fragrant substances, richly having in itself sweet-smelling qualities, of which those who partake become fragrant according to the proportion of the amount of the fragrant participation that has occurred in them. And we are persuaded that the most divine Jesus is super-essentially fragrant, filling our intellect with intelligible diffusions of divine pleasure. For if the perception of sensible fragrances causes our faculty of discerning smells to feel well and nourishes it with much pleasure, provided it is unharmed and suitably proportioned to the fragrance, one might say by analogy that our intellectual powers too, being incorruptibly disposed against decline toward the worse, in the natural disposition of our critical faculty, according to the theurgic measures and the suitable turning of the mind to the divine, come to be in perception of the divine fragrance and are filled with sacred well-being and most divine nourishment. Therefore the symbolic composition of the myron, as in a shaping of the unshaped, depicts for us Jesus himself, being the fount of the bliss of divine fragrant perceptions, giving up the most divine vapors by divine analogies to the most godlike of the intelligences, on which the minds, rejoicing with well-being and being filled with sacred perceptions, partake of intelligible nourishment by the penetration into their intellect of the fragrant diffusions according to divine participation. <5> And it is clear, I think, that to the beings above us, as being more divine, the giving up of the fount of fragrance is somehow nearer and more reveals and diffuses itself, abundantly overflowing and penetrating manifoldly into their most transparent and well-disposed perceptive power of mind, but to the subordinate intelligences and those not likewise receptive, having immaculately hidden the highest vision and participation, it is diffused with vapors analogous to the participants in divine proportion. Of the holy beings above us, then, the order of the Seraphim, so pre-eminent, is signified by the twelve wings, standing and established around Jesus, casting itself upon his most blessed visions as is right, and being sacredly filled in all-holy receptacles with the intelligible diffusion, and, to speak sensibly, crying out the much-hymned theology with unsilenced mouths. For the sacred knowledge of the supracelestial minds is both tireless and has an unceasing divine love, and is at the same time above all evil and forgetfulness, whence, I think, the unsilenced cry hints at their eternal and immutable knowledge and intellection of divine things in all intensity and thanksgiving. <6> The bodiless properties of the Seraphim, then, sacredly described in the sensible images of the sacred oracles which reveal intelligible things, in the orders of the super-heavenly hierarchies, we have, I think, contemplated well and have shown to your intellectual eyes. Nevertheless, since [even now] those sacredly standing around the hierarch represent for us that very supreme order, in summary even now we shall see their most godlike splendor with most immaterial visions. <7> Their having countless faces and many feet, then, is revelatory, I think, of their property of seeing much into the most divine illuminations and of the ever-moving and many-pathed

ἐναντίας πτοίας δραστήριον οὐκ ἔχοντες μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ δωρούμενοι, τοῖς δὲ εἰς νοῦν ἱερὸν ἐκ τῶν χειρόνων μεταφοιτήσασιν ἕξιν ἱερὰν ἐντίθενται πρὸς τὸ μὴ αὖθις ὑπὸ κακίας ἁλῶναι, τοὺς δὲ πρὸς τὸ εἶναι πανάγνους ἐνδεεῖς τελέως ἀποκαθαίρουσιν, τοὺς δὲ ἱεροὺς ἄγουσιν ἐπὶ τὰς θείας εἰκόνας καὶ ἐποψίας αὐτῶν καὶ κοινωνίας, ἑστιῶσι δὲ τοὺς πανιέρους ἐν μακαρίοις καὶ νοητοῖς θεάμασιν ἀποπληροῦσαι τὸ ἑνοειδὲς αὐτῶν τοῦ ἑνὸς καὶ ἑνοποιοῦσαι. <4> Τί δέ; Oὐχὶ καὶ τὰς μὴ πάντῃ καθαρὰς ὧν ἤδη μνήμην ἐποιησάμεθα, τάξεις ἀμιγῶς ἀπολύει κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τῆς συνάξεως τρόπον ἡ παροῦσα νῦν ἱερὰ τελετουργία, μόνοις ἐν εἰκόσιν ὁρωμένη τοῖς ἱεροῖς καὶ πρὸς μόνων ἀμέσως τῶν πανιέρων ἱεραρχικαῖς ἀναγωγαῖς ἐποπτευομένη καὶ ἱερουργουμένη; Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἤδη πολλάκις ἡμῖν εἰρημένα περιττόν ἐστιν ὡς οἶμαι τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐπανακυκλεῖν λόγοις καὶ μὴ πρὸς τὰ ἑξῆς μεταβῆναι τὸν ἱεράρχην ἐνθέως ὁρῶντας ὑπὸ δυοκαίδεκα πτέρυξι περικεκαλυμμένον ἔχοντα τὸ θεῖον μύρον καὶ τὴν παναγεστάτην ἐπ' αὐτῷ τελείωσιν ἱερουργοῦντα. Λέγωμεν τοίνυν, ὡς ἡ τοῦ μύρου σύνθεσις συναγωγή τίς ἐστιν εὐπνόων ὑλῶν ἐν ἑαυτῇ πλουσίως ἔχουσα ποιότητας εὐόσμους, ἧς οἱ μετασχόντες εὐωδιάζονται κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν τοῦ ποσοῦ τῆς ἐγγενομένης αὐτοῖς τοῦ εὐώδους μεθέξεως. Πεπείσμεθα δὲ εἶναι τὸν θεαρχικώτατον Ἰησοῦν ὑπερουσίως εὐώδη νοηταῖς διαδόσεσι τὸ νοερὸν ἡμῶν ἀποπληροῦντα θείας ἡδονῆς. Eἰ γὰρ ἡ τῶν αἰσθητῶν εὐωδῶν ἀντίληψις εὐπαθεῖν ποιεῖ καὶ τρέφει σὺν ἡδονῇ πολλῇ τὸ τῶν ὀσφραντῶν ἡμῶν διακριτικὸν εἴπερ ἀβλαβές τε εἴη καὶ πρὸς τὸ εὐῶδες ἐν συμμετρίᾳ κατάλληλον, ἀναλόγως ἄν τις φαίη καὶ τὰς νοερὰς ἡμῶν δυνάμεις πρὸς τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον ὕφεσιν ἀπαραφθάρτως διακειμένας ἐν τῇ τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν κριτικοῦ φυσικῇ ·ώσει κατὰ τὰ θεουργικὰ μέτρα καὶ τὴν κατάλληλον τοῦ νοὸς πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ἐπιστροφὴν ἐν ἀντιλήψει τῆς θεαρχικῆς εὐωδίας γίνεσθαι καὶ εὐπαθείας ἱερᾶς πληροῦσθαι καὶ θειοτάτης τροφῆς. Oὐκοῦν ἡ τοῦ μύρου συμβολικὴ σύνθεσις ὡς ἐν μορφώσει τῶν ἀμορφώτων αὐτὸν ἡμῖν ὑπογράφει τὸν Ἰησοῦν πηγαῖον ὄντα τῶν θείων εὐωδῶν ἀντιλήψεων ὄλβον ἀναλογίαις θεαρχικαῖς εἰς τὰ θεοειδέστατα τῶν νοερῶν ἀναδιδόντα τοὺς θειοτάτους ἀτμούς, ἐφ' οἷς οἱ νόες εὐπαθῶς ἡδόμενοι καὶ τῶν ἱερῶν ἀντιλήψεων ἀποπληρούμενοι τροφῇ νοητῇ χρῶνται τῇ πρὸς τὸ νοερὸν αὐτῶν εἰσδύσει τῶν κατὰ θείαν μέθεξιν εὐωδῶν διαδόσεων. <5> Ἔστι δὲ ὡς οἶμαι δῆλον, ὅτι ταῖς ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς οὐσίαις ὡς θειοτέραις ἡ τῆς πηγαίας εὐωδίας ἀνάδοσις ἐγγυτέρα πώς ἐστιν καὶ μᾶλλον ἑαυτὴν ἐκφαίνει καὶ διαδίδωσιν, εἰς τὸ διειδέστατον αὐτῶν καὶ εὐεκτικὸν τῆς κατὰ νοῦν ἀντιληπτικῆς δυνάμεως ἀφθόνως ὑπερβλύζουσα καὶ πολυπλασίως εἰσδυομένη, πρὸς δὲ τὰ τῶν νοερῶν ὑφειμένα καὶ μὴ ὡσαύτως δεκτικὰ τὴν ὑπερτάτην ἀχράντως ἀποκρύψασα θέαν καὶ μέθεξιν ἀναλόγοις τῶν μετεχόντων ἀτμοῖς ἐν συμμετρίᾳ θεαρχικῇ διαδίδοται. Τῶν ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς οὖν ἁγίων οὐσιῶν ἡ τόσον ὑπερκειμένη τῶν Σεραφὶμ τάξις ἐν τῇ τῶν πτερῶν δυοκαιδεκάδι σημαίνεται περὶ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἑστῶσα καὶ ἱδρυ μένη τοῖς μακαριωτάτοις αὐτοῦ θεάμασιν ὡς θεμιτὸν ἐπιβάλλουσα καὶ τῆς νοητῆς διαδόσεως ἱερῶς ἐν πανάγνοις ὑποδοχαῖς ἀποπληρουμένη καὶ τὴν πολυύμνητον αἰσθητῶς εἰπεῖν ἀσιγήτοις στόμασιν ἀνακράζουσα θεολογίαν. Ἡ γὰρ ἱερὰ τῶν ὑπερκοσμίων νοῶν γνῶσις ἀκάματός τέ ἐστιν καὶ ἀκατάληκτον ἔχει τὸν θεῖον ἔρωτα κακίας τε ἅμα πάσης ὑπερκεῖται καὶ λήθης, ὅθεν ὡς οἶμαι τὸ τῆς ἀσιγήτου κραυγῆς ὑπαινίσσεται τὴν αἰώνιον αὐτῶν καὶ ἀμετάστατον ἐν συντονίᾳ πάσῃ καὶ εὐχαριστίᾳ τῶν θείων ἐπιστήμην καὶ νόησιν. <6> Τὰς μὲν οὖν ἀσωμάτους τῶν Σεραφὶμ ἰδιότητας ἐν τοῖς λογίοις αἰσθηταῖς εἰκόσι τῶν νοητῶν ἐκφαντορικαῖς ἱερῶς ἀναγεγραμμένας ἐν τοῖς διακόσμοις τῶν ὑπερουρανίων ἱεραρχιῶν ὡς οἶμαι καλῶς ἐθεασάμεθα καὶ τοῖς σοῖς νοεροῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ὑπεδείξαμεν. Ὅμως, ἐπειδὴ [καὶ νῦν] οἱ τὸν ἱεράρχην ἱερῶς περιεστῶτες αὐτὴν ἡμῖν ἐκείνην ἀποτυποῦσι τὴν ὑπερτάτην διακόσμησιν, ἐν ἐπιτομῇ καὶ νῦν ἀϋλοτάταις ὄψεσι τὴν θεοειδεστάτην αὐτῶν ἀγλαΐαν ὀψόμεθα. <7> Τὸ μὲν οὖν ἀπειροπρόσωπον αὐτῶν καὶ πολύπουν ἐκφαντορικόν ἐστιν ὡς οἶμαι τῆς πολυθεάμονος αὐτῶν εἰς τὰς θειοτάτας ἐλλάμψεις ἰδιότητος καὶ τῆς ἀεικινήτου καὶ πολυπόρου