36

to do for the time being, they brought a wicked reproach against him, they enveloped him in a shameful accusation, the brothers anticipating the barbarian woman and proving to be far worse than her. For she was wicked toward a stranger, but they toward a brother. And not even there did they stop their wickedness, but they always strove to outdo their previous deeds, and taking him alone in the wilderness they both slaughtered and sold him and made him a slave instead of a free man, and to the most extreme slavery. For they did not hand over their brother to any of their own race, but to foreign-speaking barbarians who were themselves going to a barbarian land; but God, intending to make him more illustrious, tolerated what was happening and was long-suffering, as dangers succeeded dangers. For after the envy and the shameful slander, they handed him over to slaughter and to a slavery more grievous than slaughter. For do not pass over what has been said lightly, but consider how great a thing it was for a noble youth, raised in his father's house with all freedom, with such great love from his father, to be suddenly sold by his brothers who had nothing to accuse him of, and to be given over to foreign-speaking barbarians with strange customs, more like wild beasts than men, and to become city-less and a migrant and a servant and a foreigner instead of a free man and a citizen, and after enjoying such prosperity, to be brought down to the ultimate misery of slavery, being completely unaccustomed to it, and to receive the most bitter masters, and to be carried off to a foreign and barbarian land. But not even there did the terrible things cease, but plots again succeeded plots after those wonderful dreams which proclaimed beforehand the obeisance of his brothers. For when these merchants took him, they did not keep him, but sold him again to other, worse barbarians. And you know what a great cause of misfortune it is, to be passed from one set of such masters to another. For this makes slavery more difficult, when the new owners are again foreigners and are harsher than the previous ones. And he finds himself in Egypt, at that time God-fighting and maddened, from whence come the shameless mouths, from whence the blasphemous tongues. And he is among the Egyptians, of whom just one was enough to make the great Moses a runaway and a fugitive. And when he had a little respite there, as the man-loving God arranged even paradoxical things, making the wild beast who bought him into a sheep, immediately a wrestling pit was prepared for him again, and an arena, and wrestling bouts, and contests and toils more intense than the previous ones. For his mistress, seeing him with unjust eyes and overcome by the beauty of his appearance and completely seized by passion, became a lioness instead of a woman because of this licentious desire. And again the enemy was his housemate, having a cause opposite to the previous ones; for they, hating him, cast him out of the house; but she, loving and burning for the young man; and the war was twofold, or rather, threefold and manifold. For do not think that, because he leaped over the nets and cut the snare in a brief moment of time, he accomplished this contest without a struggle; for he endured much sweat. 10.12 And if you wish to learn this clearly, consider what youth is, and the prime of youth. For he was then in the very flower of his age, when the flame of nature is roused more vehemently, when the tempest of desire is great, when reason is weaker. For the souls of the young are not strongly fortified with prudence, nor do they put much effort into virtue; but the winter of the passions is harsher, and the reason that governs the passions is weaker. And in addition to his nature and his age, great also was the licentiousness of the woman. And just as those Persian hands kindled the Babylonian furnace with great eagerness, providing abundant fuel for the fire and throwing various kindling materials into the flame, so indeed then did the wretched woman

36

ποιῆσαι τέως, κατήνεγκαν αὐτῷ ψόγον πονηρόν, αἰσχρᾷ περιέβαλον αἰτίᾳ, τὴν βάρβαρον γυναῖκα προφθάσαντες οἱ ἀδελφοὶ καὶ πολλῷ χείρους φανέντες αὐτῆς. Ἡ μὲν γὰρ εἰς ἀλλότριον, οἱ δὲ εἰς ἀδελφὸν ἐγίνοντο πονηροί. Καὶ οὐδὲ ἐνταῦθα ἔστησαν τῆς κακίας, ἀλλ' ἐπηγωνίζοντο τοῖς προτέροις ἀεί, καὶ λαβόντες μόνον ἐν ἐρημίᾳ καὶ ἔσφαξαν καὶ ἀπέδοντο καὶ δοῦλον ἀντ' ἐλευθέρου ἐποίησαν καὶ δουλείαν τὴν ἐσχάτην. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ὁμοφύλοις τισίν, ἀλλὰ βαρβάροις ἑτερογλώσσοις καὶ αὐτοῖς εἰς βάρβαρον ἀπιοῦσι χώραν ἐξέδωκαν τὸν ἀδελφόν· ὁ δὲ Θεὸς λαμπρότερον αὐτὸν ποιῶν ἠνείχετο τῶν γινομένων καὶ ἐμακροθύμει, κινδύνων κινδύνους διαδεχομένων. Μετὰ γὰρ τὸν φθόνον καὶ τὴν αἰσχρὰν διαβολὴν σφαγῇ παρέδωκαν καὶ δουλείᾳ σφαγῆς χαλεπωτέρᾳ. Μὴ γάρ μοι παραδράμῃς ἁπλῶς τὸ εἰρημένον, ἀλλ' ἐννόησον ἡλίκον ἦν μειράκιον εὐγενὲς ἐν οἰκίᾳ πατρικῇ τραφὲν μετὰ ἐλευθερίας ἁπάσης, μετὰ ἀγάπης πατρὸς τοσαύτης, ἀθρόον ὑπὸ ἀδελφῶν ἀπεμποληθῆναι οὐδὲν ἐχόντων ἐγκαλεῖν καὶ βαρβάροις ἐκδοθῆναι ἑτερογλώσσοις καὶ ἤθεσιν ἀλλοκότοις καὶ αὐτοθηρίοις μᾶλλον ἢ ἀνθρώποις καὶ ἄπολιν καὶ μετανάστην καὶ οἰκέτην καὶ ξένον ἀντ' ἐλευθέρου καὶ πολίτου γενέσθαι, καὶ τοσαύτης ἀπολαύσαντα τῆς εὐημερίας, πρὸς τὴν ἐσχάτην κατενεχθῆναι ταλαιπωρίαν δουλείας ἀήθη ὄντα μεθ' ὑπερβολῆς ἁπάσης καὶ πικροτάτους λαβεῖν δεσπότας καὶ πρὸς ἀλλοτρίαν καὶ βάρβαρον ἀπενεχθῆναι γῆν. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ἐνταῦθα ἵστατο τὰ δεινά, ἀλλ' ἐπιβουλαὶ πάλιν ἐπιβουλὰς διεδέχοντο μετὰ τὰ ὀνείρατα ἐκεῖνα τὰ θαυμαστὰ καὶ τὴν τῶν ἀδελφῶν αὐτοῦ προσκύνησιν προαναφωνοῦντα. Λαβόντες γὰρ αὐτὸν οὗτοι οἱ ἔμποροι οὐ κατέσχον, ἀλλ' ἑτέροις αὐτὸν πάλιν χείροσιν ἀπέδοντο βαρβάροις. Οἶσθα δὲ ἡλίκον τοῦτο εἰς συμφορᾶς λόγον, τὸ δεσπότας τοιούτους ἐκ τοιούτων ἀμείβειν. Τοῦτο γὰρ δυσκολωτέραν ποιεῖ τὴν δουλείαν, ὅταν καὶ ξένοι πάλιν οἱ κτώμενοι καὶ τῶν προτέρων ὦσι χαλεπώτεροι. Καὶ γίνεται ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τῇ θεομάχῳ τότε καὶ μαινομένῃ, ὅθεν τὰ ἀναίσχυντα στόματα, ὅθεν αἱ βλάσφημοι γλῶσσαι. Καὶ γίνεται παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις ὧν καὶ εἷς ἤρκεσε μόνος τὸν μέγαν Μωϋσέα δραπέτην καὶ φυγάδα ποιῆσαι. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ μικρὸν ἀνέπνευσεν ἐκεῖ, τοῦ φιλανθρώπου Θεοῦ καὶ τὰ παράδοξα οἰκονομοῦντος, τὸν ἄγριον θῆρα τὸν ὠνησάμενον αὐτὸν ποιήσαντος πρόβατον, εὐθέως αὐτῷ σκάμματα παρεσκευάζετο πάλιν καὶ στάδιον καὶ παλαίσματα καὶ ἀγῶνες καὶ ἱδρῶτες σφοδρότεροι τῶν προτέρων. Ἰδοῦσα γὰρ αὐτὸν ἀδίκοις ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡ κεκτημένη καὶ τῷ κάλλει τῆς ὄψεως αὐτοῦ χειρωθεῖσα καὶ κατὰ κράτος ἁλοῦσα τῷ πάθει, λέαινα ἀντὶ γυναικὸς ὑπὸ τῆς ἀκολάστου ταύτης ἐπιθυμίας ἐγένετο. Καὶ πάλιν σύνοικος ὁ πολέμιος ἦν ἐναντίαν τοῖς προτέροις τὴν ὑπόθεσιν ἔχων· ἐκεῖνοι μὲν γὰρ μισοῦντες αὐτὸν τῆς οἰκίας ἐξέβαλον· αὕτη δὲ ἐρῶσα καὶ περικαιομένη τοῦ νεανίσκου· καὶ ἦν διπλοῦς, μᾶλλον δὲ τριπλοῦς καὶ πολλαπλοῦς ὁ πόλεμος. Μὴ γάρ, ἐπειδὴ τὰ δίκτυα ὑπερήλατο καὶ τὸν βρόχον διέτεμεν ἐν βραχείᾳ καιροῦ ῥοπῇ, νομίσῃς ἀπραγμόνως αὐτὸν ἠνυκέναι τὸν ἆθλον τοῦτον· καὶ γὰρ πολὺν τὸν ἱδρῶτα ὑπέμεινε. 10.12 Καὶ εἰ βούλει τοῦτο σαφῶς μαθεῖν, ἐννόησον οἷόν ἐστι νεότης καὶ νεότητος ἀκμή. Ἐν γὰρ αὐτῷ τῷ ἄνθει τῆς ἡλικίας τότε ἐτύγχανεν ὢν ὅτε σφοδροτέρα τῆς φύσεως ἡ φλὸξ ἐγείρεται, ὅτε πολλὴ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἡ ζάλη, ὅτε ἀσθενέστερος ὁ λογισμός. Τῶν γὰρ νεωτέρων αἱ ψυχαὶ οὐ σφόδρα πολλῇ φράττονται τῇ συνέσει, οὐδὲ πολλὴν τῆς ἀρετῆς ποιοῦνται σπουδήν· ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν χειμὼν τῶν παθῶν χαλεπώτερος, ὁ δὲ τὰ πάθη κυβερνῶν λογισμὸς ἀσθενέστερος. Μετὰ δὲ τῆς φύσεως καὶ τῆς ἡλικίας, πολλὴ καὶ τῆς γυναικὸς ἦν ἡ ἀκολασία. Καὶ καθάπερ τὴν Βαβυλωνίαν κάμινον αἱ Περσικαὶ χεῖρες ἐκεῖναι μετὰ πολλῆς ἀνῆπτον τῆς σπουδῆς, δαψιλῆ τῷ πυρὶ παρέχουσαι τὴν τροφὴν καὶ ποικίλα ὑπεκκαύματα ἐμβάλλουσαι τῇ φλογί, οὕτω δὴ καὶ τότε ἡ ἀθλία