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So, let us yield, O dear maidens. Go, go, and let us depart with quiet step to the house where the female kind remains, where is especially Mary, the mother of Mark, where I think the mystic company is gathering; and there we shall remain for the course of the sweet light; or rather let us go to the young child, whom my only Son has made a son to me. {THEOLOGIAN} Yes, this is just, and you speak not otherwise; it is necessary to go there now, mistress, so that being nearer the tomb you may observe all things, and to keep all the next day quiet on account of the commandment and to remain until dusk, a bright dusk of the third day, so that going in secret you may fulfill the custom. Let us go then, let us go, let us withdraw from the tomb, before some enemy passing by should seize us. And I will show you a place, where it is needful to stay the night. {THEOTOKOS} Behold, Child, leaving you alone we depart, to where the dwellings of the female kind are, to the house of the son, to whom you entrusted me, Child, though it is needful to remain by the grove near your tomb. {JOSEPH} O dearest of men, even in death, yet to me you will always be counted much among the dearest; farewell; for the last time I now address you. {THEOLOGIAN} A noble offspring, I will not speak in riddles, this man is also God, the Son of God. For I clearly deem him God by what he has wrought, and concerning his death I attribute it to wise providence and judgment, through which the fate of the race will be loosed. But he, the enemy of the race who drags to the ground, is now crushed, put to death, slain; for the all-glorious Lord Jesus of the heavens will slay him and will in turn deliver the race, and he shall receive satisfaction for his brethren and his first father, the ancient elder, who sowed the race of mortals on earth, cast out from the meadow by the deceit of the swift-glancing serpent, and he will place it in the most blessed city. And these things his fate accomplishes, and on account of these things he also appeared somehow as a mortal, and this man was seen full of awesome wonders in this world, of which you are not ignorant of many; and having appeared as the best of men, he is gone, having died, but rising again he will also be known as God. But if he were in the heavens, being good he would have been unnoticed, praised only by the hosts above, and would have had a silent glory in heaven. These are the reasons for his birth and his fate; but I will tell you the whole: the salvation of mortals. Therefore he has died by those by whom he least ought to have, and he came into bonds and words of mockery. Such things the people once beloved did to their benefactor, angered by envy; and he suffered these things not unwillingly; but what evils the people must suffer in turn, I will not hide. He shall leave the city, yielding to barbarians, unwilling, a slave, an exile. For it is the oracle, to flee into every land of the barbarians, captured by the spear, having endured many evils. For it tells all the murderers to leave this city with their whole race, paying the penalty for their unholy pollution to this one whom they killed through envy, and to see their fatherland no more; for it is not pious for murderers to remain at the tombs of the slain. And they shall come to many cities, the unfortunate ones bearing the yoke of slavery, captured by the spear, as the oracle of God says, scattered everywhere, and the wretched ones will have no return nor homecoming, from when the Ausonian dragon, leading with innumerable army of spears, will destroy these things. These things no one born of a mortal father said, but from God, just as this one who is now a corpse has said all things in power, having learned nothing from the prophets, but rather having taught them all these things himself. But what woes this shameful seller from among his followers is about to fulfill, I will tell. You yourself said that, maddened by grief, he put his neck in a hanging noose; but then falling, the wretch will be torn in two and will see a dreadful day; nor will the miserable one cease from evils, nor, having crossed into descending Hades, will he be at peace, groaning unceasingly and crying out in intense pains, and a stream of fire will receive this one. {JOSEPH} O friend, as you say that all have come to terrible evils, both myself and all my kinsmen; and shall I, wretched, go to the barbarians? Or where shall I turn, with my fatherland being sacked? O city that once breathed great things against the barbarians, soon your glorious name will be taken away. Farewell, O hall, farewell, ancestral city; I leave, I leave you, having unhappily become a slave, captured by the spear; and may I see the land of barbarians, unless fate should overtake me as an old man, which I would that I might see while remaining in my fatherland

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οὖν, εἴκωμεν, ὦ φίλαι κόραι. Ἴτ' ἴτε, κἀπίωμεν ἡσύχῳ βάσει εἰς δῶμ' ἐν ᾧ θηλυγενὲς μένει γένος, μήτηρ ὅπου μάλιστα Μάρκου Μαρία, μύστην ὅπου θίασον οἶμαι συντρέχειν· κἀκεῖ μενοῦμεν γλυκεροῦ φάους δρόμον· ἢ μᾶλλον ἀπίωμεν ἐς παιδὸς νέου, ὅν μοι τέθεικεν υἱὸν Υἱός μοι μόνος. {ΘΕΟΛΟΓΟΣ} Ναὶ καὶ δίκαιον τοῦτο, κοὐκ ἄλλως λέγεις· ἐκεῖσε δεῖ, δέσποινα, νῦν ἀπιέναι, ὥστ' ἆσσον οὔσας τοῦ τάφου πάντα σκοπεῖν, πᾶσαν δὲ τὴν αὔριον ἡσύχως ἔχειν τῆς ἐντολῆς ἕκητι καὶ μένειν κνέφας, κνέφας φαεινὸν τῆς τριτάτης ἡμέρας, ὡς ἂν ἰοῦσαι λάθρα πληρώσητ' ἔθος. Ἴωμεν οὖν, ἴωμεν, εἴκωμεν τάφου, πρὶν δυσμενῶν τις παριὼν καταλάβῃ. ∆είξω δὲ χῶρον, ἔνθα νυχεῦσαι δέον. {ΘΕΟΤΟΚΟΣ} Ἰδού σε, Τέκνον, καταλείπουσαι μόνον ἄπιμεν, ᾗχι σταθμὰ θηλειῶν γένους, πρὸς οἶκον υἱοῦ, τῷ με παρέθου, Τέκνον, δέον μένειν πρὸς νάπος ἐγγὺς σοῦ τάφου. {ΙΩΣΗΦ} Ὦ φίλτατ' ἀνδρῶν, καὶ θανών, ἐμοὶ δ' ὅμως τῶν φιλτάτων ἀεί γ' ἀριθμήσῃ πολύ· χαῖρ'· ὕστατόν σε νῦν ἐγὼ προσφθέγγομαι. {ΘΕΟΛΟΓΟΣ} Γένεθλον ἐσθλόν, οὐκ ἐν αἰνιγμοῖς φράσω, ἀνὴρ ὅδ' ἐστὶ καὶ Θεὸς Θεοῦ γόνος. Σαφῶς γὰρ αὐτὸν τοῖσιν ἐξειργασμένοις Θεὸν νομίζω, τοῦ δὲ θανάτου πέρι σοφὴν πρόνοιαν αἰτιῶμαι καὶ κρίσιν, δι' ἧς ὁ πότμος τοῦ γένους λυθήσεται. Αὐτὸς δ' ὁ χαμαίσυρτος ἐχθρὸς τοῦ γένους συντρίβεται νῦν, θανατοῦται, κτείνεται· κτανεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸν κἀντιπορθήσει γένος ὁ τῶν πόλων πάγκλυτος Ἰησοῦς Ἄναξ, ποινάς τ' ἀδελφῶν καὶ πατρὸς πρώτου λάβῃ, παλαιφάτου γέροντος, ὃς βροτῶν γένος ἔσπειρεν ἐν γῇ, λείμακος ῥιφεὶς ἄπο ἐξ ἀπάτης δράκοντος αἰολοσκόπου, πόλει δὲ θήσει τῇ μακαριωτάτῃ. Καὶ ταῦθ' ὁ τοῦδε πότμος ἐξεργάζεται, καὶ τῶνδ' ἕκητι καὶ βροτὸς πέφηνέ πως, φρικτῶν θ' ὅδ' ἀνὴρ θαυμάτων ὦπτο πλέως ἐς τόνδε κόσμον, ὧν σὺ πόλλ' οὐκ ἀγνοεῖς· φανεὶς δ' ἀνὴρ ἄριστος, οἴχεται θανών, αὖθις δ' ἀναστὰς καὶ Θεὸς γνωσθήσεται. Εἰ δ' ἐν πόλοις ἦν, ἐσθλὸς ὢν ἐλάνθανε, ταῖς στρατιαῖς ὑμνούμενος μόναις ἄνω, σιγώμενόν τε κῦδος εἶχεν ἐν πόλῳ. Αἴτια ταῦτα τοῦ τόκου καὶ τοῦ πότμου· τὸ πᾶν δ' ἐρῶ σοι, τῶν βροτῶν σωτηρία. Τοίγαρ τέθνηκεν ὧν ἐχρῆν ἥκισθ' ὕπο, εἰς δεσμά τ' ἦλθε καὶ λόγους ἐμπαιγμάτων. Τοιαῦτα λαὸς ὁ πρὶν ἠγαπημένος εὐεργέτην ἔδρασε, θυμωθεὶς φθόνῳ· καὶ ταῦτα μὲν πέπονθεν οὗτος οὐκ ἄκων· ἃ δ' αὖ παθεῖν δεῖ λαόν, οὐ κρύψω κακά. Λίπῃ πόλισμα, βαρβάροις εἴκων, ἄκων, δοῦλος, μέτοικος. Ἔστι γὰρ τὸ θέσφατον, εἰς πᾶσαν αἶαν βαρβάρων ἀποτρέχειν, αἰχμαῖς ἁλωτούς, πόλλ' ἀνατλάντας κακά. Ἀναιρέταις γὰρ πᾶσιν αὐδᾷ παγγενῆ λιπεῖν πόλιν τήνδ' ἀνοσίου μιάσματος δίκας τίνοντας τῷδ' ὃν ἔκτειναν φθόνῳ, καὶ μηκέτ' ἰδεῖν πατρίδ'· οὐ γὰρ εὐσεβὲς μένειν φονευτὰς ἐν τάφοις νεκρουμένων. Πόλεις δὲ πολλὰς εἰσαφίκωνται, ζυγὸν δούλειον ἀνέλκοντες οἱ δυσδαίμονες, αἰχμαῖς ἁλωτοί, χρησμὸς ὡς λέγει Θεοῦ, πάντη διασπαρέντες, οὐ νόστον δ' ἔτι οἱ τάλανες σχήσουσιν οὐδ' ἐπάνοδον, ἀφ' οὗ τάδ' ἐκπέρσει γ' ἀνηρίθμῳ στρατῷ ἡγούμενος λόγχαισιν Αὐσόνων δράκων. Ταῦτ' οὐχὶ θνητοῦ πατρὸς ἐκγεγὼς ἔφη εἰπών τις, ἐκ Θεοῦ δέ, καθὼς ἄρ' ὅδε ὁ νῦν νέκυς εἴρηκε πάντ' ἐν δυνάμει, οὐδέν τι μαθὼν τῶν θεοπρόπων ἄπο, αὐτοὺς δὲ μᾶλλον πάντα διδάξας τάδε. Οὗτος δ' ἃ μέλλει πήματ' ἐκπλήσειν, φράσω, ἀπεμπολητὴς αἰσχρὸς ἐξ ὀπαόνων. Αὐτὸς μὲν εἶπας, ὡς μανεὶς ἄλγους ὕπο βρόχοις κρεμαστοῖς ὑπέβαλε τὴν δέρην· πεσὼν δ' ἔπειτα δίχα λακίσει τάλας ἴδῃ τε δεινὸν ἦμαρ· οὐδὲ παύσεται κακῶν ὁ τλήμων, οὐδέ, τὸν καταιβάτην ᾅδην διαβάς, ἥσυχος γενήσεται, στένων ἄληκτα καὶ βοῶν σφοδροῖς πόνοις, καὶ νᾶμα πυρὸς τόνδε δ' ὑποδέξεται. {ΙΩΣΗΦ} Ὦ φίλος, ὡς εἰς δεινὰ φῂς ἐλθεῖν κακὰ πάντας, κἄμ' αὐτὸν συγγόνους τ' ἄρδην ἐμούς· κἀγὼ δ' ὁ τλήμων βαρβάρους ἀφίξομαι; ἢ ποῖ τράπωμαι, πατρίδος πορθουμένης; Ὦ πάμμεγ' ἐμπνέουσα βαρβάροις ποτὲ πόλις, τὸ κλεινὸν οὔνομ' ἀφαιρῇ τάχα. Χαῖρ', ὦ μέλαθρον, χαῖρε, πατρῴα πόλις· λίπω λίπω σε, δυστυχῶς δοῦλος γεγώς, αἰχμαῖς ἁλωτός· βαρβάρων δ' ἴδω πέδον, εἰ μὴ γέροντ' ὄντα με προφθάσει πότμος, ὃν εἴθ' ἴδοιμι πατρίδος μένων