John Chrysostom, On Virginity

satiety but want and scarcity does. But this is not present at those banquets of the rich, but is always present at those of the poor, dripping much honey on the food set before them more than any table-setter or cook. For the rich eat without being hungry and drink without being thirsty, and they sleep before the need for sleep comes upon them intensely. But these, first finding themselves in need of all these things, thus partake of them, which most of all increases pleasure. For why, tell me, does Solomon also say that the sleep of the servant is sweet, speaking thus: “Sweet is the sleep of the servant, whether he eats much or little?” Is it because of the soft bed? And yet most of them sleep on the ground or on a pallet of straw. But is it because of security? But they are not masters even of a small moment of time. But is it because of ease? But they are ceaselessly worn out by toils and hardships. What then is it that makes sleep sweet? The labors, and partaking of it only after first having come into need. But as for the rich, unless the night finds them steeped in drunkenness, they must stay awake all the time and turn over and be restless while lying on their soft mattresses.

71 That luxury also harms the soul. It was possible also from another direction to show the unpleasantness and the harm and the ugliness of luxury, by enumerating the diseases it imprints upon the soul, being far more numerous and more severe than those of the body. For it renders them soft and unmanly and bold and boastful and licentious and insolent and intemperate and quick-tempered and cruel and ignoble and greedy and servile and, in a word, useless for all useful and necessary things; self-sufficiency produces all the opposites of these. But now our discourse hastens on to another matter; wherefore, adding only this, let us take up again the apostolic words. For if the things that seem to be desirable are full of so many evils and bring such a blizzard of diseases upon the soul and the body, where shall we place the painful things? Such as fears of rulers, impulses of mobs, the plots of slanderers and enviers, which especially surround the rich, in which it is necessary for women also to share more greatly in the evils because they do not bear such changes of fortune nobly.

72 That among other evils, living luxuriously also makes changes of fortune unbearable. And why do I say women? For the men themselves are also miserably caught by such things. For the one who lives in self-sufficiency fears no reversal of fortune. But the one who has been spent in that soft and dissolute life, if it ever happens through some circumstance and necessity that he is handed over to poverty, will die before he will bear this change, because he is unpracticed and untrained. For this reason the blessed Paul said: “Such will have affliction in the flesh; but I spare you.” Then after this he says: “The time that remains is shortened.”

73 That the present time is not for marriage. And what has this to do with marriage? someone might perhaps say. Very much indeed to do with it. For if it is confined to the present life, and in the future they neither marry nor are given in marriage, and the present time is hastening toward the end and the things of the resurrection stand at the doors, it is not a time for marriages nor for possessions, but for want and all the rest of the philosophy that is useful to us there. For just as a maiden, as long as she remains at home with her mother, takes great care of all her childish things, and having put a box in the store-room for what is kept there, she herself possesses the key and has all authority, and she undertakes as much care for the keeping of those small and trivial things as those who are stewards of great houses. But when she must be betrothed and the time of marriage compels her to leave her father's house, then having been released from that simple and lowly state, the charge of a house and of possessions and a multitude of slaves and the care of her husband and the other things that are much greater than these

πλησμονὴ ἀλλ' ἡ ἔνδεια καὶ ἡ σπάνις ποιεῖ. Αὕτη δὲ οὐκ ἐν ἐκείνοις τοῖς συμποσίοις τοῖς τῶν πλουτούντων ἀλλ' ἐν τοῖς τῶν πενομένων ἀεὶ πάρεστι, παντὸς τραπεζοποιοῦ καὶ μαγείρου μᾶλλον ἐπιστάζουσα πολὺ τοῖς προκειμένοις τὸ μέλι. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ πλουτοῦντες οὔτε πεινῶντες ἐσθίουσι καὶ χωρὶς τοῦ διψεῖν πίνουσι, καὶ πρὶν αὐτοῖς σφοδρῶς ἐπελθεῖν τὴν ἀνάγκην τοῦ ὕπνου καθεύδουσιν. Οὗτοι δὲ ἐν χρείᾳ τούτων ἁπάντων καθιστάμενοι πρότερον οὕτως αὐτῶν μετέχουσιν, ὃ μάλιστα πάντων αὔξει τὰ τῆς ἡδονῆς. ∆ιὰ τί γάρ, εἰπέ μοι, καὶ ὁ Σολομὼν τὸν ὕπνον τοῦ δούλου φησὶν εἶναι ἡδὺν οὑτωσὶ λέγων· «Ἡδὺς ὕπνος τῷ δούλῳ ἄν τε πολὺ ἄν τε ὀλίγον φάγῃ;» Ἆρα διὰ τὴν στρωμνὴν τὴν ἁπαλήν; Καὶ μὴν ἐπὶ ἐδάφους ἢ ἐπὶ στιβάδος οἱ πλείους καθεύδουσιν. Ἀλλὰ διὰ τὴν ἄδειαν; Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ μικρᾶς καιροῦ ῥοπῆς εἰσι κύριοι. Ἀλλὰ διὰ τὴν ῥᾳστώνην; Ἀλλ' οὐ διαλιμπάνουσι μόχθοις κοπτόμενοι καὶ ταλαιπωρίαις. Τί ποτ' οὖν ἐστι τὸ ποιοῦν τὸν ὕπνον ἡδύν; Οἱ πόνοι, καὶ τὸ πρότερον εἰς χρείαν καταστάντας οὕτως αὐτοῦ μεταλαμβάνειν. Τοὺς δὲ πλουτοῦντας ἂν μὴ μέθῃ βαπτισθέντας ἡ νὺξ καταλάβῃ, ἀνάγκη διὰ παντὸς ἀγρυπνεῖν καὶ ἐπιστρέφεσθαι καὶ ἀλύειν ἐπὶ τῶν μαλακῶν κειμένους στρωμάτων.

71 Ὅτι καὶ ψυχὴν λυμαίνεται ἡ τρυφή. Ἐνῆν καὶ ἑτέρωθεν δεῖξαι τῆς τρυφῆς τὴν ἀηδίαν καὶ τὴν ζημίαν καὶ τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην, τὰς νόσους καταλέγοντα ὅσας ἐναπομόργνυται τῇ ψυχῇ πολλῷ πλείους καὶ χαλεπωτέρας οὔσας τῶν σωματικῶν. Καὶ γὰρ μαλακοὺς καὶ ἀνάνδρους καὶ θρασεῖς καὶ ἀλαζόνας καὶ ἀσελγεῖς καὶ ὑβριστὰς καὶ ἀκολάστους καὶ ἀκροχόλους καὶ ὠμοὺς καὶ ἀγεννεῖς καὶ πλεονέκτας καὶ δουλοπρεπεῖς καὶ πρὸς ἅπαν εἰπεῖν τῶν χρησίμων καὶ ἀναγκαίων ἀχρήστους καθίστησιν, ὧν τἀναντία πάντα ἡ αὐτάρκεια ποιεῖ. Ἀλλὰ νῦν πρὸς ἕτερον ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος ἐπείγεται· διὸ μόνον ἐκεῖνο προσθέντες τῶν ἀποστολικῶν πάλιν ἁψώμεθα ῥημάτων. Εἰ γὰρ τὰ δοκοῦντα εἶναι ζηλωτὰ τοσούτων γέμει κακῶν καὶ τοσοῦτον τῇ ψυχῇ καὶ τῷ σώματι τὸν νιφετὸν ἐπάγει τῶν νοσημάτων, ποῦ τὰ λυπηρὰ θήσομεν; Οἷον ἀρχόντων φόβους, δήμων ὁρμάς, συκοφαντῶν καὶ βασκάνων ἐπιβουλάς, ἃ μάλιστα τοὺς πλουτοῦντας περιστοιχίζεται, ἐν οἷς καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας μειζόνως τῶν κακῶν ἀνάγκη κοινωνεῖν διὰ τὸ μὴ γενναίως τὰς τοιαύτας φέρειν μεταβολάς.

72 Ὅτι μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων κακῶν καὶ τὰς μεταβολὰς ἀφορήτους ποιεῖ τὸ τρυφᾶν. Καὶ τί λέγω γυναῖκας; Καὶ γὰρ αὐτοὶ οἱ ἄνδρες ταλαιπώρως ὑπὸ τῶν τοιούτων ἁλίσκονται. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐν αὐταρκείᾳ ζῶν οὐδεμίαν μετάπτωσιν δέδοικεν. Ὁ δὲ ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ ὑγρῷ καὶ διακεχυμένῳ βίῳ δαπανηθείς, εἴποτε συμβαίη κατὰ περίστασίν τινα καὶ ἀνάγκην παραδοθῆναι πενίᾳ, τεθνήξεται πρότερον ἢ ταύτην οἴσει τὴν μεταβολὴν διὰ τὸ ἀμελέτητον καὶ ἀγύμναστον. ∆ιὰ ταῦτα ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος ἔλεγε· «Θλῖψιν τῇ σαρκὶ ἕξουσιν οἱ τοιοῦτοι· ἐγὼ δὲ ὑμῶν φείδομαι.» Εἶτα μετὰ τοῦτό φησιν· «Ὁ καιρὸς συνεσταλμένος τὸ λοιπόν ἐστιν.»

73 Ὅτι οὐ γάμου ὁ καιρὸς ὁ παρών. Καὶ τί τοῦτο πρὸς τὸν γάμον; ἴσως ἂν εἴποι τις. Καὶ σφόδρα μὲν οὖν πρὸς αὐτόν. Εἰ γὰρ ἐν τῷ παρόντι βίῳ συγκέκλεισται, ἐν δὲ τῷ μέλλοντι οὔτε γαμοῦσιν οὔτε γαμίζονται, ὁ δὲ παρὼν καιρὸς πρὸς τὸ τέλος ἐπείγεται καὶ ἐπὶ θύραις τὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἕστηκεν, οὐ γάμων καιρὸς οὐδὲ κτημάτων ἀλλ' ἐνδείας καὶ τῆς ἄλλης φιλοσοφίας ἁπάσης τῆς ἐκεῖ χρησιμευούσης ἡμῖν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἡ παρθένος ἕως μὲν ἂν οἴκοι μένῃ μετὰ τῆς μητρὸς πολλὴν τῶν παιδικῶν ἁπάντων ποιεῖται φροντίδα καὶ κιβώτιον ἐν τῷ ταμιείῳ καταθεμένη τῶν ἀποκειμένων ἐκεῖ καὶ τὴν κλεῖν αὐτὴ κέκτηται καὶ τὴν ἐξουσίαν ἅπασαν ἔχει, καὶ τοσαύτην ὑπὲρ τῆς τῶν μικρῶν ἐκείνων καὶ φαύλων φυλακῆς ἀναδέχεται μέριμναν ὅσην οἱ τὰς μεγάλας ἐπιτροπεύοντες οἰκίας. Ἐπειδὰν δὲ μνηστεύεσθαι δέῃ καὶ ὁ τοῦ γάμου καιρὸς ἀναγκάζῃ τὴν πατρῴαν οἰκίαν ἀφεῖναι, τότε τῆς εὐτελείας ἐκείνης ἀπαλλαγεῖσα καὶ τῆς ταπεινότητος, οἰκίας προστασίαν καὶ κτημάτων καὶ ἀνδραπόδων πλῆθος καὶ ἀνδρὸς θεραπείαν καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τὰ τούτων πολλῶν μείζονα