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the jar», not a closing of doors and an appearance of the Word, but the disciple Didymus as a doubter also falls under contemplation, and the pair running together, and those running ahead; nor is the fish-hook without meaning, nor the fish drawn up from the sea, nor the stater, nor the number of the fishes. Nor are the names of the apostles without symbol, nor the “girdle” of the Forerunner, nor the “camel’s hairs,” but, to put it all concisely, every word of the gospel has received an innate knowledge difficult for the many to perceive. With these things I, “anointing my head” and washing my soul, will have no need of Hellenic purifications. 30. But since such a life has been allotted to me that I am not sufficient for myself alone, but am set before others and must give to them to draw from, like some “mixing bowl overflowing” with streams, for these reasons I also take up secular wisdom, not only as much as is theoretical, but also as much as descends to history and poetry. For I also speak about poems to some of my companions, and about Homer and Menander and Archilochus, and Orpheus and Musaeus, and as many as were also of the female kind, both Sibyls and “Sappho the poetess,” and Theano and the wise Egyptian woman. Many have also begged me about the terms in them, so as to know what breakfast is, what luncheon is, what the evening meal is, and what supper is, and the `isaia` at dinners, and who wrote in epic verse, and who used prose diction, and what is the dance in Homer, and in general what the heroic life is in the poet, what is “dainty-eating and” what is “luxury” and what is the use of fruits, and the history before the Trojan War, what is nectar and ambrosia, and the `propoma`, and the underground `geranion`, and the earth-born genesis. I omit to say how much trouble they give me about who Alexis and Menander are, and the “self-fed” Crobylus, and Clesaphus, and if any other is said to have used poetry. Many also compel me to the healing of bodies and demand a treatment and, before these, a diagnosis; for these reasons my whole art concerning this has been philosophized, so that I do not have to go through individual cases. Many have dragged me not only with words, but with their very hands to Italian wisdom—I do not mean that Pythagorean philosophical kind, but this one that simply loves the community and loves matter—so that I have to say something about legal actions, both private and public, and about business-related proofs, slavery and freedom, and legal and illegal marriages, and the gifts and gains therein, and degrees of kinship, and testaments, both military and civil, what surety is and what power a security has in business matters, and what a “kicking horse” or a goring ox or a biting dog impart of their own vice to their master, what is the legal rule and why its name is false, and legacy, and the ascendant and the descendant, the natural child and the illegitimate, and what each of the terms means, and what outrage is and into how many types it is divided, and how much time is appointed for each legal action. Then, badgering me with these things as if in philosophy, they demand the reasons for the established laws. And they do not leave off asking about the stadia of the inhabited world, and what is the measure of the uninhabited parts, and what of the fifth part, the inhabited one. I am compelled, at any rate, to teach them geography in its entirety, and to correct for them or to fill in the missing part of their geographical tablet, and whatever things by Apelles and Bion and Eratosthenes have been accurately handled concerning these matters; And I have not ceased from allegorizing the myths of the Hellenes for them, and yet they still pull me to and fro and tear me apart, loving only my tongue and my soul as knowing “something more extraordinary than the others.” 31. But for me, O mother, this life has been renounced, and the other has been stored up, to which for a long time to run

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τὸ κεράμιον», οὐ θυρῶν κλεῖσις καὶ ἐπιστασία τοῦ Λόγου, ἀλλ' ὑποπέπτωκε τῇ θεωρίᾳ καὶ ὁ ∆ίδυμος μαθητὴς ὡς ἀμφίβολος καὶ ἡ συντρέχουσα συζυγία καὶ οἱ προτρέχοντες· οὐδὲ τὸ ἄγκιστρον λόγου χωρίς, οὐδ' ὁ ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης ἀνεσπασμένος ἰχθῦς, οὐδὲ ὁ στατὴρ, οὐδὲ ὁ ἀριθμὸς τῶν ἰχθύων. ἀσύμβολα δὲ οὐδὲ τὰ τῶν ἀποστόλων ὀνόματα οὐδὲ ἡ τοῦ Προδρόμου «ζώνη» οὐδ' αἱ τῆς «καμήλου τρίχες», ἀλλ' ἵνα τὸ πᾶν συντεμὼν εἴπω, ὅτι πᾶς εὐαγγελικὸς λόγος γνῶσιν ἔμφυτον ἔλαχε δυσθεώρητον τοῖς πολλοῖς. τούτοις ἐγὼ «λιπαίνων τὴν κεφαλὴν» καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ῥύπτων Ἑλληνικῶν καθαρσίων οὐ δεηθήσομαι. 30. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδή μοι ὁ βίος τοιοῦτος ἀπεκληρώθη ὥστε μὴ ἑαυτῷ μόνῳ ἀρκεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις προκεῖσθαι καὶ διδόναι ἀρύεσθαι οἷα δή τις «κρατὴρ» τῶν ναμάτων «ὑπερχειλής» διὰ ταῦτα καὶ σοφίας τῆς θύραθεν ἅπτομαι, οὐχ ὅση θεωρητικὴ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅση πρὸς ἱστορίαν καταβαίνει καὶ ποίησιν. καὶ γὰρ καὶ περὶ ποιημάτων πρὸς ἐνίους τῶν ὁμιλητῶν φθέγγομαι καὶ περὶ Ὁμήρου καὶ Μενάνδρου καὶ Ἀρχιλόχου, Ὀρφέως τε καὶ Μουσαίου καὶ ὁπόσα καὶ τὸ θῆλυ ᾖσαν, Σιβύλλαι τε καὶ «Σαπφὼ ἡ μουσοποιός», Θεανώ τε καὶ ἡ Αἰγυπτία σοφή. Πολλοὶ δέ με καὶ περὶ τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς ὀνομάτων κατελιπάρησαν, ὥστ' εἰδέναι τί τὸ ἀκράτισμα, τί τὸ ἄριστον τί δὲ τὸ ἑσπέρισμα καὶ τίς ἡ δορπὶς καὶ ἡ ἐν τοῖς δείπνοις ἰσαία καὶ τίνες μὲν ἐν ἔπεσι συνεγράψαντο, τίνες δὲ τῇ καταλογάδην λέξει ἐχρήσαντο καὶ τίς ἡ παρ' Ὁμήρῳ ὄρχησις καὶ ὅλως τίς ὁ παρὰ τῷ ποιητῇ ἡρωϊκὸς βίος, τί τε «ὀψοφαγία καὶ» τί «πολυτέλεια» καὶ τίς ἡ τῶν ἀκροδρύων χρῆσις καὶ ἡ ἀρχαιοτέρα τῶν Τρωϊκῶν, τί τε τὸ νέκταρ καὶ ἡ ἀμβροσία καὶ τὸ πρόπομα καὶ τὸ ὑπὸ γῆν γεράνιον καὶ ἡ ἐγγεοτόκος γένεσις. ἐῶ λέγειν ὁπόσα μοι παρέχουσι πράγματα, τίς ὁ Ἄλεξις καὶ ὁ Μένανδρος καὶ ὁ «αὐτόσιτος» Κρώβυλος καὶ ὁ Κλήσαφος καὶ εἴ τις ἕτερος ποιήσει λεγόμενος χρήσασθαι. Πολλοὶ δέ με καὶ εἰς θεραπείαν σωμάτων καταναγκάζουσι καὶ χρῆσιν ἀπαιτοῦσι καὶ τὴν πρὸ τούτων διάγνωσιν· διὰ ταῦτα ἡ πᾶσά μοι περὶ τοῦτο τέχνη πεφιλοσόφηται, ἵνα μὴ τοῖς καθ' ἕκαστον ἐπεξέρχωμαι. πολλοὶ δέ με οὐ λόγοις μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ χερσὶν αὐταῖς πρὸς τὴν Ἰταλικὴν σοφίαν κατήγαγον, οὐ τὴν Πυθαγόρειον ἐκείνην φημὶ τὴν φιλόσοφον, ἀλλὰ τὴν φιλόκοινον ταύτην καὶ φιλόϋλον ἀτεχνῶς, ὥστε περὶ ἀγωγῶν τι λέγειν ἰδιωτικῶν τε καὶ δημοσίων περί τε πραγματωδῶν ἀποδείξεων, δουλείας τε καὶ ἐλευθερίας καὶ γάμων νομίμων καὶ οὐ νομίμων καὶ τῶν ἐν τούτοις δωρεῶν καὶ κερδῶν καὶ συγγενείας βαθμῶν καὶ διαθηκῶν, ὁπόσαι στρατιωτικαὶ καὶ ὁπόσαι πολιτικαί, τί τε ἡ ἐγγύη καὶ τί παρὰ τοῖς πράγμασιν ἡ ἔγγυος δύναται, καὶ τί μὲν «ἵππος λακτίζων» ἢ βοῦς κερατίζων ἢ δάκνων κύων τῷ δεσπότῃ τῆς ἑαυτῶν κακίας προσαπομόργνυνται, τίς τε ὁ νόμιμος κανὼν καὶ διὰ τί ψεύδεται τοὔνομα, ἥ τε κληροδοσία καὶ ὁ ἀνιὼν καὶ ὁ κατιών, ὅ τε φυσικὸς παῖς καὶ ὁ νόθος, καὶ τί ἕκαστον τῶν ῥημάτων δεδύνηται, καὶ τίς ἡ ὕβρις καὶ εἰς πόσα διῄρηται, πόσος τε ἑκάστῃ τῶν ἀγωγῶν χρόνος ἀφώρισται. εἶτά με τούτοις προστρίβοντες ὥσπερ ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ τοὺς λόγους τῶν νενομοθετημένων εἰσπράττουσιν. Οὐκ ἀφιᾶσι δὲ καὶ περὶ σταδίων τῆς οἰκουμένης ἀνερωτῶντες καὶ πόσον μὲν τῶν ἀοικήτων τὸ μέτρον, πόσον δὲ τοῦ πέμπτου μέρους καὶ οἰκουμένου. ἀνάγκην γοῦν ἔχω τὸ ξύμπαν τούτοις γεωγραφεῖν καὶ διορθοῦν αὐτοῖς ἢ ἀναπληροῦν τὸ ἐλλελειμμένον τῆς γεωγραφίας πινάκιον καὶ ὁπόσα Ἀπελλῇ τε καὶ Βίωνι καὶ Ἐρατοσθένει περὶ τούτων ἐς τὸ ἀκριβὲς πεπραγμάτευται· τοὺς δὲ παρ' Ἕλλησι μύθους οὐδ' ἐπαυσάμην τούτοις ἀλληγορῶν, οἱ δέ με καὶ οὕτως ἀνθέλκουσι καὶ σπαράττουσι τῆς ἐμῆς γλώττης μόνης ἐρῶντες καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ὡς «περιττότερόν τι τῶν ἄλλων» εἰδυίας. 31. Ἐμοὶ δέ, ὦ μῆτερ, ἀφωσίωται οὗτος ὁ βίος, ὁ δ' ἕτερος τεθησαύρισται πρὸς ὃν ἐκ πολλοῦ δραμεῖν