Chapter IV.—How to Conduct Ourselves at Feasts.

Let revelry keep away from our rational entertainments, and foolish vigils, too, that revel in intemperance. For revelry is an inebriating pipe, the chain367    The reading ἅλυσις is here adopted. The passage is obscure.    Hesiod, Works and Days, ii. 371. of an amatory bridge, that is, of sorrow. And let love, and intoxication, and senseless passions, be removed from our choir. Burlesque singing is the boon companion of drunkenness. A night spent over drink invites drunkenness, rouses lust, and is audacious in deeds of shame. For if people occupy their time with pipes, and psalteries, and choirs, and dances, and Egyptian clapping of hands, and such disorderly frivolities, they become quite immodest and intractable, beat on cymbals and drums, and make a noise on instruments of delusion; for plainly such a banquet, as seems to me, is a theatre of drunkenness. For the apostle decrees that, “putting off the works of darkness, we should put on the armour of light, walking honestly as in the day, not spending our time in rioting and drunkenness, in chambering and wantonness.”368    Rom. xiii. 12, 13.    [Such were women before the Gospel came. See note to Hermas, cap. xi. note 1, p. 47, this volume, and Elucidation (p. 57) of the same.] Let the pipe be resigned to the shepherds, and the flute to the superstitious who are engrossed in idolatry. For, in truth, such instruments are to be banished from the temperate banquet, being more suitable to beasts than men, and the more irrational portion of mankind. For we have heard of stags being charmed by the pipe, and seduced by music into the toils, when hunted by the huntsmen. And when mares are being covered, a tune is played on the flute—a nuptial song, as it were. And every improper sight and sound, to speak in a word, and every shameful sensation of licentiousnes—which, in truth, is privation of sensation—must by all means be excluded; and we must be on our guard against whatever pleasure titillates eye and ear, and effeminates. For the various spells of the broken strains and plaintive numbers of the Carian muse corrupt men’s morals, drawing to perturbation of mind, by the licentious and mischievous art of music.369    [He distinguishes between the lewd music of Satanic odes (Tatian, cap. xxxiii. p. 79, supra), and another art of music of which he will soon speak.]    [The barbarians were more decent than the Greeks, being nearer to the state of nature, which is a better guide than pagan civilization. But see the interesting note of Rawlinson (Herod., vol. i. p. 125, ed. New York), who quotes Thucydides (i. 6) to prove the recent invasion of immodest exposure even among athletes. Our author has this same quotation in mind, for he almost translates it here.]

The Spirit, distinguishing from such revelry the divine service, sings, “Praise Him with the sound of trumpet;” for with sound of trumpet He shall raise the dead. “Praise Him on the psaltery;” for the tongue is the psaltery of the Lord. “And praise Him on the lyre.”370    Ps. cl. 3, 5.    [Attic girls raced in the games quite naked. Spartan girls wore only the linen chiton, even in the company of men; and this was esteemed nudity, not unjustly. David’s “uncovering himself” (2 Sam. vi. 20) was nudity of the same sort. Married women assumed to peplus.] By the lyre is meant the mouth struck by the Spirit, as it were by a plectrum. “Praise with the timbrel and the dance,” refers to the Church meditating on the resurrection of the dead in the resounding skin. “Praise Him on the chords and organ.” Our body He calls an organ, and its nerves are the strings, by which it has received harmonious tension, and when struck by the Spirit, it gives forth human voices. “Praise Him on the clashing cymbals.” He calls the tongue the cymbal of the mouth, which resounds with the pulsation of the lips. Therefore He cried to humanity, “Let every breath praise the Lord,” because He cares for every breathing thing which He hath made. For man is truly a pacific instrument; while other instruments, if you investigate, you will find to be warlike, inflaming to lusts, or kindling up amours, or rousing wrath.

In their wars, therefore, the Etruscans use the trumpet, the Arcadians the pipe, the Sicilians the pectides, the Cretans the lyre, the Lacedæmonians the flute, the Thracians the horn, the Egyptians the drum, and the Arabians the cymbal. The one instrument of peace, the Word alone by which we honour God, is what we employ. We no longer employ the ancient psaltery, and trumpet, and timbrel, and flute, which those expert in war and contemners of the fear of God were wont to make use of also in the choruses at their festive assemblies; that by such strains they might raise their dejected minds. But let our genial feeling in drinking be twofold, in accordance with the law. For “if thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” and then “thy neighbour,” let its first manifestation be towards God in thanksgiving and psalmody, and the second toward our neighbour in decorous fellowship. For says the apostle, “Let the Word of the Lord dwell in you richly.”371    Col. iii. 16.    Matt. v. 28. And this Word suits and conforms Himself to seasons, to persons, to places.

In the present instance He is a guest with us. For the apostle adds again, “Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to God.” And again, “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and His Father.” This is our thankful revelry. And even if you wish to sing and play to the harp or lyre, there is no blame.372    [Here instrumental music is allowed, though he turns everything into a type.]    John i. 3. Thou shalt imitate the righteous Hebrew king in his thanksgiving to God. “Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; praise is comely to the upright,”373    Ps. xxxiii. 1–3. says the prophecy. “Confess to the Lord on the harp; play to Him on the psaltery of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song.” And does not the ten-stringed psaltery indicate the Word Jesus, who is manifested by the element of the decad? And as it is befitting, before partaking of food, that we should bless the Creator of all; so also in drinking it is suitable to praise Him on partaking of His creatures.374    [Even the heathen had such forms. The Christian grace before and after meat is here recognised as a matter of course. 1 Tim. iv. 3, 4.] For the psalm is a melodious and sober blessing. The apostle calls the psalm “a spiritual song.”375    Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16.

Finally, before partaking of sleep, it is a sacred duty to give thanks to God, having enjoyed His grace and love, and so go straight to sleep.376    [Besides the hymn on lighting the lamps, he notes completory prayer at bedtime.] “And confess to Him in songs of the lips,” he says, “because in His command all His good pleasure is done, and there is no deficiency in His salvation.”377    Wisd. Sirach (Ecclus.) xxxix. 15, 16.

Further, among the ancient Greeks, in their banquets over the brimming cups, a song was sung called a skolion, after the manner of the Hebrew psalms, all together raising the pæan with the voice, and sometimes also taking turns in the song while they drank healths round; while those that were more musical than the rest sang to the lyre. But let amatory songs be banished far away, and let our songs be hymns to God. “Let them praise,” it is said, “His name in the dance, and let them play to Him on the timbrel and psaltery.”378    Ps. cxlix. 3. And what is the choir which plays? The Spirit will show thee: “Let His praise be in the congregation (church) of the saints; let them be joyful in their King.”379    Ps. cxlix. 1, 2. And again he adds, “The Lord will take pleasure in His people.”380    Ps. clxix. 4. For temperate harmonies381    [Observe the contrast between the modest harmonies he praises, and the operatic strains he censures. Yet modern Christians delight in these florid and meretricious compositions, and they have intruded into the solemnities of worship. In Europe, dramatic composers of a sensual school have taken possession of the Latin ceremonial.] are to be admitted; but we are to banish as far as possible from our robust mind those liquid harmonies, which, through pernicious arts in the modulations of tones, train to effeminacy and scurrility. But grave and modest strains say farewell to the turbulence of drunkenness.382    [On gluttony and drinking, our author borrows much from Plato. Kaye, p. 74.] Chromatic harmonies are therefore to be abandoned to immodest revels, and to florid and meretricious music.

Πῶς χρὴ περὶ τὰς ἐστιάσεις ἀνίεσθαι. Ἀπέστω δὲ ἡμῖν τῆς λογικῆς εὐωχίας ὁ κῶμος, ἀλλὰ καὶ αἱ παννυχίδες αἱ μάταιοι ἐπὶ παροινίᾳ κομῶσαι· ὃ μὲν γάρ ἐστι μεθυστικὸς αὐλὸς ἄλυς, ἐρωτικῆς σχεδιαστὴς ἀδημονίας, ὁ κῶμος· ἔρως δὲ καὶ μέθη, τὰ ἀλόγιστα πάθη, μακρὰν ἀπῴκισται τοῦ ἡμεδαποῦ χοροῦ· σύγκωμος δὲ παροινία τίς ἐστιν ἡ παννυχὶς δὲ ἐπὶ πότῳ, μέθης ἐκκλητικὴ καὶ συνουσίας ἐρεθιστική, τόλμα αἰσχρο ποιός. Οἱ δὲ ἐν αὐλοῖς καὶ ψαλτηρίοις καὶ χοροῖς καὶ ὀρχήμασιν καὶ κροτάλοις Αἰγυπτίων καὶ τοιαύταις ῥᾳθυμίαις σάλοι ἄτακτοι καὶ ἀπρεπεῖς καὶ ἀπαίδευτοι κομιδῇ γίγνοιντο ἂν κυμβάλοις καὶ τυμπάνοις ἐξηχούμενοι καὶ τοῖς τῆς ἀπάτης ὀργάνοις περιψοφούμενοι· ἀτεχνῶς γάρ, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, θέατρον μέθης τὸ τοιοῦτον γίνεται συμπόσιον. Ἀποθεμένους γὰρ ἡμᾶς τὰ ἔργα τοῦ σκότους ἐνδύσασθαι τὰ ὅπλα τοῦ φωτὸς ἀξιοῖ ὁ ἀπόστολος, ὡς ἐν ἡμέρᾳ εὐσχημόνως περιπατοῦντας, μὴ κώμοις καὶ μέθαις, μὴ κοίταις καὶ ἀσελγείαις σχολάζοντας. Σῦριγξ μὲν οὖν ποιμέσιν ἀπονενεμήσθω, αὐλὸς δὲ ἀνθρώποις δεισιδαίμοσιν εἰς εἰδωλολατρείας σπεύδουσιν. Καὶ γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀποπεμπτέα τὰ ὄργανα ταῦτα νηφαλίου συμποσίου, θηρίοις μᾶλλον ἢ ἀνθρώποις κατάλληλα καὶ ἀνθρώπων τοῖς ἀλογωτέροις. Τὰς μὲν γὰρ ἐλάφους ταῖς σύριγξι κηλεῖσθαι παρειλήφαμεν καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς ποδάγρας πρὸς τῶν κυνηγῶν θηρευομένας ἄγεσθαι τῷ μέλει, ταῖς δὲ ἵπποις μιγνυμέναις οἷον ὑμέναιος ἐπαυλεῖται νόμος αὐλῳδίας· ἱππόθορον τοῦτον κεκλήκασιν οἱ μουσικοί. Πᾶσαν δὲ ἁπαξαπλῶς ἀνελεύθερον ὄψιν τε καὶ ἀκοὴν καὶ συνελόντι φάναι αἴσθησιν ἀκρασίας αἰσχράν, τὴν ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀναισθησίαν, ἐκκοπτέον εὖ μάλα, τὴν ἐν ὄμμασιν καὶ ἐν ὠσὶν γαργαλίζουσαν καὶ ἀποθηλύνουσαν ἡδονὴν εὐλαβουμένους· μελῶν γάρ τοι κατεαγότων καὶ ῥυθμῶν γοερῶν τῆς μούσης τῆς Καρικῆς αἱ ποικίλαι φαρμακεῖαι διαφθείρουσιν τοὺς τρόπους ἀκολάστῳ καὶ κακοτέχνῳ μουσικῇ εἰς πάθος ὑποσύρουσαι. Τοῦ κώμου τούτου τὴν λειτουργίαν τὴν θεϊκὴν διαχωρίζον ψάλλει τὸ πνεῦμα αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν ἐν ἤχῳ σάλπιγγος, καὶ γὰρ ἐν ἤχῳ σάλπιγγος ἀναστήσει τοὺς νεκρούς· αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν ἐν ψαλτηρίῳ, ὅτι ἡ γλῶττα τὸ ψαλτήριον κυρίου· καὶ ἐν κιθάρᾳ αἰνεῖτε αὐτόν, κιθάρα νοείσθω τὸ στόμα, οἱονεὶ πλήκτρῳ κρουόμενον τῷ πνεύματι· ἐν τυμπάνῳ καὶ χορῷ αἰνεῖτε αὐτόν, τὴν ἐκκλησίαν λέγει τὴν μελετήσασαν τῆς σαρκὸς τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἐν ἠχοῦντι τῷ δέρματι· ἐν χορδαῖς καὶ ὀργάνῳ αἰνεῖτε αὐτόν, ὄργανον τὸ σῶμα λέγει τὸ ἡμέτερον καὶ χορδὰς τὰ νεῦρα αὐτοῦ, δι' ὧν ἐναρμόνιον εἴληφε τὴν τάσιν, καὶ κρουόμενον τῷ πνεύματι τοὺς φθόγγους ἀποδίδωσι τοὺς ἀνθρωπίνους· αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν ἐν κυμβάλοις ἀλαλαγμοῦ, κύμβαλον τοῦ στόματος τὴν γλῶτταν λέγει, ἣ τοῖς κρουομένοις ἐπηχεῖ χείλεσιν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἐπεφώνησεν τῇ ἀνθρωπότητι πᾶσα πνοὴ αἰνεσάτω τὸν κύριον, ὅτι πᾶσαν, ἣν ἐποίησεν, ἐπεσκέψατο πνοήν. Εἰρηνικὸν γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς ὄργανον ὁ ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν, τὰ δ' ἄλλα ἢν πολυπραγμονῇ τις, ὄργανα εὑρήσει πολεμικά, ἢ τὰς ἐπιθυμίας ἐκφλέγοντα ἢ τοὺς ἔρωτας ἐκκαίοντα ἢ ἐξαγριαίνοντα τοὺς θυμούς. Χρῶνται γοῦν παρὰ τοὺς πολέμους αὐτῶν Τυρρηνοὶ μὲν τῇ σάλπιγγι, σύριγγι δὲ Ἀρκάδες, Σικελοὶ δὲ πηκτίσιν καὶ Κρῆτες λύρᾳ καὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι αὐλῷ καὶ κέρατι Θρᾷκες καὶ Αἰγύπτιοι τυμπάνῳ καὶ Ἄραβες κυμβάλῳ· ἐνὶ δὲ ἄρα ὀργάνῳ, τῷ λόγῳ μόνῳ τῷ εἰρηνικῷ, ἡμεῖς κεχρήμεθα, ᾧ γεραίρομεν τὸν θεόν, οὐκέτι τῷ ψαλτηρίῳ τῷ παλαιῷ καὶ τῇ σάλπιγγι καὶ τυμπάνῳ καὶ αὐλῷ, οἷς ἔθος ἦν τοὺς ἐν πολέμῳ ἀσκητὰς καὶ τοῦ θείου καταπεφρονηκότας φόβου ἀνὰ τὰς πανηγύρεις χορδαῖς συγχρῆσθαι, ὡς δὴ τὸ ἔκλυτον αὐτῶν τοῦ φρονήματος διὰ τῶν τοιούτων ἐπανίστασθαι ῥυθμῶν. Ἔστω δὲ ἡμῶν ἡ παρὰ πότον φιλοφροσύνη διττὴ κατὰ τὸν νόμον· εἰ γὰρ ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου, ἔπειτα τὸν πλησίον σου, προτέρα μὲν ἡ εἰς θεὸν δι' εὐχαριστίας καὶ ψαλμῳδίας γενέσθω φιλοφροσύνη, δευτέρα δὲ εἰς τὸν πλησίον διὰ τῆς ὁμιλίας τῆς σεμνῆς· Ὁ γὰρ λόγος ὁ τοῦ κυρίου ἐνοικείτω ἐν ὑμῖν πλου σίως, ὁ ἀπόστολός φησιν. Ὁ δὲ λόγος οὗτος συναρμόζεται καὶ συσχηματίζεται καιροῖς, προσώποις, τόποις, συμποτικὸς δέ ἐστι νῦν· ἐπιφέρει γὰρ ὁ ἀπόστολος πάλιν· ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ διδάσκοντες καὶ νουθετοῦντες ἑαυτοὺς ψαλμοῖς, ὕμνοις, ᾠδαῖς πνευματικαῖς ἐν τῇ χάριτι, ᾄδοντες ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ ὑμῶν τῷ θεῷ· καὶ πᾶν ὅ τι ἂν ποιῆτε ἢ ἐν λόγῳ ἢ ἐν ἔργῳ, πάντα ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου Ἰησοῦ, εὐχα ριστοῦντες τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ. Οὗτος ἡμῶν ὁ κῶμος ὁ εὐχάριστος, κἂν πρὸς κιθάραν ἐθελήσῃς ἢ λύραν ᾄδειν τε καὶ ψάλλειν, μῶμος οὐκ ἔστιν, Ἑβραῖον μιμήσῃ δίκαιον βασιλέα εὐχάριστον τῷ θεῷ. Ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, δίκαιοι, ἐν τῷ κυρίῳ, τοῖς εὐθέσι πρέπει αἴνεσις, φησὶν ἡ προφητεία, ἐξομολογεῖσθε τῷ κυρίῳ ἐν κιθάρᾳ, ἐν ψαλτηρίῳ δεκαχόρδῳ ψάλατε αὐτῷ, ᾄσατε αὐτῷ ᾆσμα καινόν. Καὶ μή τι τὸ δεκάχορδον ψαλτήριον τὸν λόγον τὸν Ἰησοῦν μηνύει, τῷ στοιχείῳ τῆς δεκάδος φανερούμενον. Ὡς δὲ ἁρμόδιον πρὶν ἡμᾶς μεταλαβεῖν τροφῆς τῶν συμπάντων εὐλογεῖν τὸν ποιητήν, οὕτως καὶ παρὰ πότον καθήκει ψάλλειν αὐτῷ τῶν αὐτοῦ μεταλαμβάνοντας κτισμάτων· καὶ γὰρ ὁ ψαλμὸς ἐμμελής ἐστιν εὐλογία καὶ σώφρων· ᾠδὴν πνευματικὴν ὁ ἀπόσ τολος εἴρηκε τὸν ψαλμόν. Ἐπὶ πᾶσίν τε πρὶν ὕπνου λαχεῖν εὐχαριστεῖν ὅσιον τῷ θεῷ τῆς αὐτοῦ χάριτος καὶ φιλανθρωπίας ἀπολαύσαντας, ὡς καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν ὕπνον ἰέναι ἡμᾶς ἐνθέως. Καὶ ἐξομολογήσασθε αὐτῷ ἐν ᾠδαῖς χειλέων, φησίν, ὅτι ἐν προστάγματι αὐτοῦ πᾶσα εὐδοκία γίνεται, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐλάττωσις εἰς τὸ σωτή ριον αὐτοῦ. Ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τοῖς παλαιοῖς Ἕλλησι παρὰ τὰς συμποτικὰς εὐωχίας καὶ τὰς ἐπιψεκαζούσας κύλικας Ἑβραϊκῶν κατ' εἰκόνα ψαλμῶν ᾆσμα τὸ καλούμενον σκολιὸν ᾔδετο, κοινῶς ἁπάντων μιᾷ φωνῇ παιανιζόντων, ἔσθ' ὅτε δὲ καὶ ἐν μέρει περιελιττόντων τὰς προπόσεις τῆς ᾠδῆς· οἱ δὲ μουσικώτεροι αὐτῶν καὶ πρὸς λύραν ᾖδον. Ἀλλ' αἱ μὲν ἐρωτικαὶ μακρὰν ἐρρόντων ᾠδαί, ὕμνοι δὲ ἔστων τοῦ θεοῦ αἱ ᾠδαί. Αἰνεσάτωσαν, φησίν, τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐν χορῷ, ἐν τυμπάνῳ καὶ ψαλτηρίῳ ψαλάτωσαν αὐτῷ. Καὶ τίς ὁ ψάλλων χορός, αὐτό σοι διηγήσεται τὸ πνεῦμα. Ἡ αἴνεσις αὐτοῦ ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ ὁσίων, ἀγαλλιάσθωσαν ἐπὶ τῷ βασιλεῖ αὐτῶν. Καὶ πάλιν ἐπιφέρει· ὅτι εὐδοκεῖ κύριος ἐν τῷ λαῷ αὐτοῦ. Καὶ γὰρ ἁρμονίας παραδεκτέον τὰς σώφρονας, ἀπωτάτω ὅτι μάλιστα ἐλαύνοντας τῆς ἐρρωμένης ἡμῶν διανοίας τὰς ὑγρὰς ὄντως ἁρμονίας, αἳ περὶ τὰς καμπὰς τῶν φθόγγων κακοτεχνοῦσαι εἰς θρύψιν καὶ βωμολοχίαν ἐκδιαιτῶνται· τὰ δὲ αὐστηρὰ καὶ σωφρονικὰ μέλη ἀποτάσσεται ταῖς τῆς μέθης ἀγερωχίαις. Καταλειπτέον οὖν τὰς χρωματικὰς ἁρμονίας ταῖς ἀχρώμοις παροινίαις καὶ τῇ ἀνθοφορούσῃ καὶ ἑταιρούσῃ μουσικῇ.