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19.1 I know a certain useless ambition of painters, bestowing something even

to their rather ugly friends in their eagerness to transcribe their form into a picture, but they do something contrary to what they wish. For in that by which they supposedly correct nature in their imitation, hiding the unpleasantness of the form on the panel with the most brilliant colors, they alter the character, and the intention of honoring the friend through an imitation for the better becomes the reason that the friend does not see himself at all in the picture. 19.2 As, therefore, in their case there is no gain at all from golden, thick hair curving over the forehead and gleaming, and the bloom on the lip and the blush on the cheek, and the circle of the eyelids and the beam of the eyes and eyebrows gleaming in their blackness, and the forehead shining above the brow, and whatever else of this kind contributes to the beauty of the form—for if the one set before the painter for imitation does not have these things from nature, he has gained nothing from such kindness, but while the panel has shown a sweet and florid face by the painting, the face of the friend, being shown as different, convicts the excess of ambition—in the same way, it seems to me, as if someone out of friendship were to bestow excesses of praise on the one he loves and were to fashion him in words not as he is, but as it befits one who is perfect in everything to be; with his words he has depicted the upright life, but he has not so much honored his friend with the excesses of praise as he has refuted him, who cries out against the speech through his life and another 19.3 shown to be than he is thought to be. What then does my discourse mean? I saw in the letters of your love a kind of statue, perfected to the highest degree, whose name was “I,” for the letter signified me. But since, having looked into my own life as into a mirror with all accuracy, I knew myself to be very much separated from the portrait made by your speech, I for my part accepted you for showing your love of the good through these things. For in thinking me to be such a man and then loving me so much, you have made a most clear demonstration of the rightness of your character, as having no other reason for loving than virtue alone, some share of which you thought we too possessed, and so held me among your truest friends. *** For which reason I thought it good to know my own affairs through myself rather than to be misled by the testimonies of others, even if the witnesses are truthful in all other things. For this is what the proverbial saying also recommends: that those who are about to know themselves according to external report should become judges of themselves. 19.4 But let this be enough on these matters, so that I might not seem, by the very act of declining praise, to be mock-modest about the praises. But since you have commanded that, having labored on some discourses concerning the matters sought among us, I should benefit the community by such diligence, know now that we have had as much leisure as that one of whom one of the prophets says that having grappled with a lion and with difficulty escaped its jaws and the sharpness of its claws, in the very direction he thought to flee, he found himself unnoticed in the mouth of a bear, then, having run through this danger also with great struggle and resting himself against the wall, he was met by the ambush and bite of a serpent. Such has been the continuity of the grievous things that have befallen us, and so successive are the successions of sorrows, always by the excesses of the things that come after, making the things 19.5 that went before seem to be small. But if it is not burdensome to bestow grief on those who love us with somber narratives, I will set forth for you briefly the wretched story. 19.6 We had a sister, a teacher of life, a mother after our mother, having such boldness toward God that she was for us a tower of strength and a weapon of good pleasure, as the Scripture says, and a city of refuge and every name of safety on account of the boldness toward God that was hers from her life. 19.7 She dwelt in the remote parts of Pontus, having exiled herself from the life of men. There was a choir around

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19.1 Οἶδά τινα τῶν ζωγράφων φιλοτιμίαν ἀνόνητον χαρίζεσθαι μέν τι καὶ

τοῖς εἰδεχθεστέροις τῶν φίλων ἐν τῷ μεταγράφειν τὴν μορφὴν εἰς εἰκόνα προθυμουμένων, ἐναντίον δέ τι ποιούντων ἢ βούλονται· ἐν οἷς γὰρ διορθοῦνται δῆθεν τῇ μιμήσει τὴν φύσιν τοῖς εὐανθεστέροις τῶν χρωμάτων τὸ τῆς μορφῆς ἀηδὲς ἐπὶ τοῦ πίνακος κρύψαντες, τὸν χαρακτῆρα παραλλάττουσιν, καὶ ἡ πρόθεσις τοῦ τιμᾶν τὸν φίλον διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον μιμήσεως ἀφορμὴ γίνεται τοῦ μηδ' ὅλως αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ εἰκόνι βλέπειν τὸν φίλον. 19.2 ὡς οὖν ἐπ' ἐκείνων κέρδος οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδὲν κόμη ξανθὴ καὶ βαθεῖα ἐπικυρτουμένη τῷ μετώπῳ καὶ περιστίλβουσα καὶ τὸ ἐπὶ τοῦ χείλους ἄνθος καὶ τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς παρειᾶς ἐρύθημα βλεφάρων τε κύκλος καὶ ἀκτὶς ὀμμάτων καὶ ὀφρύες ἐν τῷ μέλανι στίλβουσαι καὶ ἐπιλάμπον τῇ ὀφρύι τὸ μέτωπον, καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο τοιοῦτο τὴν τῆς μορφῆς ὥραν συναπεργάζεταιἐὰν γὰρ μὴ παρὰ τῆς φύσεως ἔχῃ ταῦτα ὁ τῷ ζωγράφῳ προτεθεὶς εἰς τὴν μίμησιν, οὐδὲν ἀπώνατο τῆς τοιαύτης φιλανθρωπίας, ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν πίναξ ἡδύ τι καὶ περιηνθισμένον τὸ διὰ τῆς ζωγραφίας πρόσωπον ἔδειξεν, ἐλέγχει δὲ τὸ περιττὸν τῆς φιλοτιμίας ἄλλο δεικνύμενον τοῦ φίλου τὸ πρόσωπον, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον, δοκεῖ μοι, καὶ εἴ τις ὑπὸ φιλίας ἐπαίνων ὑπερβολὰς τῷ ἀγαπωμένῳ χαρίζοιτο καὶ ἀναπλάσσοι τῷ λόγῳ μὴ οἷός ἐστιν, ἀλλ' οἷον εἶναι προσήκει τὸν ἐν παντὶ τὸ τέλειον ἔχοντα, τῷ μὲν λόγῳ τὸν ὀρθὸν βίον ἀνετυπώσατο, τὸν δὲ φίλον οὐ μᾶλλον ἐσέμνυνε ταῖς τῶν ἐπαίνων ὑπερβολαῖς ἢ διήλεγξεν ἀντιφθεγγόμενον διὰ τοῦ βίου τῷ λόγῳ καὶ ἄλλον 19.3 δεικνύμενον ἢ οἷος νομίζεται. τί οὖν ὁ λόγος μοι βούλεται; εἶδον ἐν τοῖς γράμμασι τῆς ἀγάπης σου οἷον ἀνδριάντα τινὰ πρὸς τὸ ἀκρότατον ἀπηκριβωμένον, ᾧ ὄνομα ἦν ἐγώ, ἐμὲ γὰρ ἐδήλου τὸ γράμμα· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ὥσπερ ἐν κατόπτρῳ τῷ βίῳ ἐγὼ τῷ ἐμαυτοῦ κατὰ πᾶσαν ἀκρίβειαν ἐνιδών, ἐμαυτὸν ἔγνων πάμπολυ κεχωρισμένον τῆς διὰ τοῦ λόγου γραφῆς, σὲ μὲν ἀπεδεξάμην καὶ διὰ τούτων τὸ φιλάγαθον δείξαντα· δι' ὧν γὰρ τοιοῦτον εἶναι νομίσας ἔπειτα τοσοῦτον ἠγάπησας, ἐναργεστάτην ἀπόδειξιν τῆς τῶν τρόπων σου πεποίησαι δεξιότητος ὡς οὐδεμίαν ἄλλην <ἔχων> τοῦ ἀγαπᾶν ἀφορμὴν πλὴν τὴν ἀρετὴν μόνην, ἧς καὶ ἡμῖν τι μετεῖναι νομίζων ἐν τοῖς γνησιωτάτοις τῶν φίλων ἔσχες· *** δι' ὃ καλῶς ἔχειν ᾠήθην δι' ἐμαυτοῦ μᾶλλον τὰ ἐμαυτοῦ γινώσκειν ἢ ταῖς ἑτέρων μαρτυρίαις παράγεσθαι, κἂν ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις πᾶσιν ἀληθεῖς ὦσιν οἱ μάρτυρες· τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ ὁ παροιμιώδης λόγος παρεγγυᾷ, ἑαυτῶν ἐπιγνώμονας γίνεσθαι τοὺς μέλλοντας κατὰ τὸν ἔξωθεν λόγον ἑαυτοὺς γινώσκειν. 19.4 Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν εἰς τοσοῦτον, ὡς ἂν μὴ δοκοίην αὐτῷ τῷ παραιτεῖσθαι τὸν ἔπαινον τῶν ἐπαίνων κατειρωνεύεσθαι· ἐπειδὴ δὲ διεκελεύσω λόγους τινὰς περὶ τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν ζητουμένων πονήσαντα ὠφελῆσαί τι τὸ κοινὸν διὰ τῆς τοιαύτης σπουδῆς, γίνωσκε νῦν σχολῆς ἡμᾶς τοσοῦτον μετεσχηκέναι, ὅσον μικροῦ δεῖν ἐκεῖνος περὶ οὗ φησί τις τῶν προφητῶν ὅτι συμπλακεὶς λέοντι καὶ μόγις διεκδὺς τὸ χάσμα καὶ τὴν τῶν ὀνύχων ἀκμήν, καθ' ὃ μέρος ᾤετο φεύγειν, ἔλαθε κατὰ στόμα τῆς ἄρκτου γινόμενος, εἶτα διαδρὰς σὺν ἀγῶνι πολλῷ καὶ τοῦτον τὸν κίνδυνον καὶ πρὸς τὸν τοῖχον ἑαυτὸν ἀναπαύων ἐνέδρᾳ καὶ δήγματι ὄφεως συνηνέχθη· τοιαύτη τις γέγονε τῶν συμπεπτωκότων ἡμῖν ἀνιαρῶν ἡ συνέχεια καὶ οὕτως ἐπάλληλοι τῶν λυπηρῶν αἱ διαδοχαί, ἀεὶ ταῖς ὑπερβολαῖς τῶν ἐπιγινομένων μικρὰ τὰ 19.5 φθάσαντα δοκεῖν εἶναι παρασκευάζουσαι. εἰ δὲ μὴ φορτικόν ἐστι λύπην τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι χαρίσασθαι σκυθρωποῖς διηγήμασιν, ἐκθήσομαί σοι δι' ὀλίγου τὴν κακὴν ἱστορίαν. 19.6 Ἦν ἡμῖν ἀδελφὴ τοῦ βίου διδάσκαλος, ἡ μετὰ τὴν μητέρα μήτηρ, τοσαύτην ἔχουσα τὴν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν παρρησίαν ὥστε πύργον ἡμῖν ἰσχύος εἶναι καὶ ὅπλον εὐδοκίας, καθώς φησιν ἡ γραφή, καὶ πόλιν περιοχῆς καὶ πᾶν ἀσφαλείας ὄνομα διὰ τὴν προσοῦσαν ἐκ τοῦ βίου αὐτῇ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν 19.7 παρρησίαν. ᾤκει δὲ τοῦ Πόντου τὰ ἔσχατα, τοῦ βίου τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἑαυτὴν ἐξοικίσασα· χορὸς ἦν περὶ