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3. By poetic means: That Scripture has also used certain poetic fictions for the guidance of the human mind, but as it is unable to receive the teaching of greater things; for the heavenly symbols are like those imagined by poets, as this holy man says (and understand poets as either those admired among the Greeks, such as Homer, Hesiod, and the rest), or as it were by poetic, formative adumbrations. For the wise condescension of God, knowing that our mind is weak and unsuited for higher contemplation, fashioning for it a suitable uplifting, thus brought into manifestation the archangelic arrangements, not clarifying how they are in truth, but how we are able to comprehend them; therefore, imagine nothing unfitting of the heavenly things.

§ 2. Compositions: He calls the aforesaid fictions and formations compositions. In themselves: In themselves, that is, as they are by nature, they are unknown to us, he says,

and unobservable. Abrupt: Abrupt, I think, he calls the strange, and as it were from the usual

path and fiction cut off; therefore he also names it a stage, making clear that the recorded forms of the holy angels are not true; for they are not in truth such as holy Scripture hands them down, but so that we might attain to their majesty. But the divine Dionysius himself attempts to interpret what has been said about them and to show that it is possible through explanation to understand the angelic arrangements in this way, as has been said.

In some way immaterial: In some way immaterial, that is partially, for not 14Ε_210 entirely immaterial; but he speaks of transcendent substances, heaven and the things in heaven, such as stars; for their most subtle and single substance is somehow near to immateriality.

Godlike: He calls the intelligible substances Godlike simplicities; for they are entirely immaterial and uncompounded substances, not being a mixture and compound of the elements; for bodies are from these, but they are bodiless.

Seated in: Seated in and causing to remain. Of lions: These forms of the divine and holy cherubim both with the divine

Ezekiel and with the divinely-inspired John in the Apocalypse were recorded. Of swarms: A swarm is the fulfilled multitude. And that of birds. For example, of bird-like form and from birds. Of animals: He says other animals, such as horses, mules, and such things, but matters

less honorable, such as thrones as from wood, and wheels, and swords from iron, as the sword drawn against Balaam, and which David saw, as is said in the book of Kingdoms, book 2, and chariots as wooden.

Passionate: He says passionate, since the lion-form signifies something spirited, and the calf-form something appetitive, which are also great passions. And he calls the signifying suppositions similarities; therefore Ezekiel says that he saw a likeness of the throne; and a likeness of a lion, which reveals the fictitious imagination of what appeared; therefore it is also said here, 'dissimilar similarities'; for the prophet does not see all as similar, but some of one kind, and some of another; but they are also completely dissimilar to those they seem to be similar to; for they truly have nothing of a lion or a calf or the rest; and what the dissimilar signifies, you will find in what follows.

14Ε_212 But the: Apologetically. 1. That neither into the divine things: He promises through his own interpretation to show

each point, so that the heavenly things might neither seem to be insulted, nor we be fixed in groveling humiliations concerning the animals said to be among the angels.

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γ'. Ποιητικαῖς: Ὅτι καί ποιητικαῖς τισι πλάσεσιν ἐχρήσατο ἡ Γραφή πρός χειραγωγίαν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης διανοίας, ἀλλ' ὡς οὐ δυναμένης τήν τῶν μειζόνων παραλαβεῖν διδασκαλίαν· ἐοικέναι γάρ τά οὐράνια σύμβολα τοῖς παρά ποιηταῖς φανταζομένοις, ὡς ὁ ἱερός ἀνήρ οὗτός φησι (ποιητάς δέ νόησον ἤ τούς παρ' Ἕλλησι θαυμαζομένους, οἷον Ὅμηρον, Ἡσίοδον, καί τούς ἑξῆς), ἤ ποιητικαῖς ὡσανεί πλαστικαῖς ὑποτυπώσεσιν. Εἰδυῖα γάρ ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφή συγκατάβασις τόν ἡμέτερον νοῦν ἀσθενῆ καί πρός ὑφηλοτέραν θεωρίαν ἀνεπιτηδείως ἔχοντα, ἀναγωγήν αὐτῷ συμφυῆ πλασαμένη, οὕτω τάς ἀρχαγγελικάς εἰς φανερόν ἤγαγε διακοσμήσεις, οὐχ ὅπως ἔχουσι τῇ ἀληθείᾳ διασαφήσασα, ἀλλ' ὅπως ἡμεῖς δυνάμεθα καταλαβεῖν· μηδέν οὖν ἀνοίκειον φαντάζου τῶν οὐρανίων.

§ 2. Συνθέσεις: Συνθέσεις φησί τάς εἰρημένας πλάσεις καί σχηματοποιίας. Ἐφ' ἑαυτῶν: Ἐφ' ἑαυτῶν, τουτέστιν ὡς ἔχουσι φύσεως, ἄγνωστοι ἡμῖν, φησί,

καί ἀθεώρητοι ὑπάρχουσιν. Ἀπότομον: Ἀπότομον, οἶμαι, λέγειν αὐτόν τήν ξένην, καί οἷον τῶν συνήθων

ἀποτετμημένην ὁδόν καί πλάσιν· διό καί σκηνήν αὐτήν ὀνομάζει, σαφηνίζων οὐκ ἀληθεῖς εἶναι τάς ἀναγεγραμμένας τῶν ἁγίων ἀγγέλων μορφάς· οὔτε γάρ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τοιοῦτοί εἰσιν, οἵους αὐτούς ἡ ἱερά παραδίδωσι Γραφή, ἀλλ' ἵνα ἡμεῖς ἐφικώμεθα τῆς μεγαλειότητος αὐτῶν. Αὐτός δέ ὁ θεῖος ∆ιονύσιος πειρᾶται συμβάλλειν τά εἰρημένα περί αὐτῶν καί δεικνύειν, ὅτι δυνατόν δι' ἀναπτύξεως οὕτω νοεῖν τάς ἀγγελικάς διακοσμήσεις, ὡς εἴρηται.

Ἀΰλων ποσῶς: Ποσῶς ἀΰλων, τουτέστιν μερικῶς οὐ γάρ 14Ε_210 πάντῃ ἀΰλων· ὑπερκειμένας δέ οὐσίας οὐρανόν καί τά κατ' οὐρανόν λέγει, οἷον ἀστέρας· τό γάρ λεπτομερέστατον αὐτῶν καί μονοούσιον ἐγγύς ἐστί πως ἀϋλίας.

Θεοειδέσιν: Θεοειδεῖς ἁπλότητάς φησι τάς νοητάς οὐσίας· ἄϋλοι γάρ οὐσίαι καί ἀσύνθετοι πάντως εἰσίν, οὐκ οὖσαι κρᾶμα καί σύγκριμα τῶν στοιχείων· τά γάρ σώματα ἐκ τούτων, ἐκεῖνοι δέ ἀσώματοι.

Ἐνιζάνον: Ἐγκαθίζον καί ἐναπομένειν ποιοῦν. Λεοντείων: Αὕται αἱ μορφαί τῶν θείων καί ἁγίων χερουβίμ καί παρά τῷ θείῳ

Ἰεζεκιήλ καί παρά τῷ θεσπεσίῳ Ἰωάννῃ ἐν τῇ Ἀποκαλύψει ἀνεγράφησαν. Ἐσμῶν: Ἐσμός ἐστι τό συμπεπληρωμένον πλῆθος. Καί τό ὀρνιθείας. Οἷον ὀρνιθοειδοῦς μορφῆς καί ἐξ ὀρνίθων. Ζώων: Ζῶα ἄλλα φησίν, οἷον ἵππους, ἡμιόνους, καί τά τοιαῦτα, ὕλας δέ

ἀτιμοτέρας, οἷον θρόνους ὡς ἐκ ξύλων, καί τροχούς, καί ρομφαίας ἐκ σιδήρου, ὡς τήν ρομφαίαν τήν ἐξεσπασμένην ἐπί τόν Βαλαάμ, καί ἥν εἶδεν ὁ ∆αβίδ, ὡς ἐν ταῖς Βασιλείαις εἴρηται, βιβλίῳ β', καί ἅρματα ὡς ξύλινα.

Ἐμπαθές: Ἐμπαθές λέγει, ἐπειδή τό λεοντόμορφον θυμικόν τι σημαίνει, καί τό μόσχειον εἴδος ἐπιθυμητικόν, ἅτινα πάθη καί μεγάλα ὑπάρχουσιν. Ὁμοιότητας δέ φησι τάς ὁμοιωτικάς ὑπονοίας· τοιγαροῦν λέγει ὁ Ἰεζεκιήλ, ὡς ὁμοίωμα ἑωρακέναι τοῦ θρόνου· καί ὁμοίωμα λέοντος, ὅπερ δηλοῖ τήν πλασματώδη τῶν δοκούντων φαντασίαν· διό κἀνταῦθα εἴρηται, 'ἀνόμοιοι ὁμοιότητες'· οὐ γάρ πάντας ὁμοίους ὁρᾷ ὁ προφήτης, ἀλλά τούς μέν τοιώσδε, τούς δέ τοιώσδε· ἀλλά καί ἀνόμοιοί εἰσι παντελῶς, οἷς δοκοῦσιν εἶναι ὅμοιοι· οὐδέν γάρ λέοντος ἤ μόσχου ἤ τῶν ἑξῆς ἀληθῶς ἔχουσι· τί δέ δηλοῖ τό ἀνόμοιον, ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς εὑρήσεις.

14Ε_212 Ἀλλ' ἡ: Ἀπολογητικῶς. α'. Ὡς μήτε εἰς τά θείας: Ἐπαγγέλλεται διά τῆς ἰδίας ἑρμηνείας δεικνύειν

ἑκάτερον, ὡς μήτε δόξαι ὑβρίζεσθαι τά οὐράνια, μήτε ἡμᾶς εἰς χαμαιζήλους ταπεινότητας ἐμπαγῆναι περί τῶν ἐν ἀγγέλοις λεγομένων ζώων.