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the theologians have done, likening them to none of the intelligible things, but from the sensible, which he calls dishonorable, having taken their resemblance, having done this for their honor, so that their imitation might become fictitious and not true; for if the one called lion-formed and many-footed and many-winged is also rational and immaterial, how is it not clear that it has transcendently surpassed the material things and those conceived by us?

For into the more honorable things: Behold also another reasoning, for which Scripture used such likenesses concerning the heavenly beings; for if it had used more honorable images, such as saying the divine powers are golden or flashing, the hearers would certainly have been persuaded, taking what is credible from the more honorable things among men; but now it has inserted the incongruous and shameful images, so that, knowing precisely that they are not such things, we might seek the truth of the beings.

Harmlessly: For the so-called flames of fire, the divine substances, are not caustic, but life-giving.

Shameful: For how is it not shameful for the symbols of intelligible things to be from material things? 14Ε_218 Spectacles: The things seen with wonder are called spectacles. For also anger. That the irascible movement is not simply full of irrationality, but

in the case of the irrational nature. One must read the last discourse of the book, which he spoke concerning the vision of the holy cherubim; for there all these things have also been extensively treated.

That not one of the beings: Note that none of the beings is deprived of participation in the good; therefore it must be noted what anger is understood to be in irrational beings, and what in rational beings, and what is the desire of each.

Rationality: It should be noted that he speaks of rationality also in the case of angels; and inflexible, that is, unyielding and not loose.

Desire: That the desire of intelligible beings is an unrestrainable love for God, which he calls immateriality.

On account of the unmixed: He says "unmixed" means the pure and that which is occupied with nothing else; for he who is seized by divine love is entirely His, and is stretched out only toward the desirable, hindered by no transitional and bodily reason. And in saying that irrationality is in incorporeal substances, we do not insult them with mindlessness in speaking of the types and symbols of irrational beings—through lion-like, and calf-like, and bird-like forms, as in the case of the eagle—as fitting for the heavenly orders, but we mystically signify the difference of their rationality with respect to ours; for we represent the rational by means of the organ of the tongue and of phonetic types, striking the air with the dialectical, and with reason passing from us into the hearing of the listeners, from body into 14Ε_220 body, as the divine Basil also says in the discourse on "Attend to thyself"; but there it is not so, but being in incorporeality and moving into and out of one another, contemplating one another's thoughts more clearly than any speech, they converse with one another, as it were, communicating with one another through the silence of reason.

Inclination: Instead of 'turning away'. a. Of transitional: Our spoken reason is transitional, as from the

speaker it passes to the listener; and 'bodily' in contrast to the immanent reason; for this is neither bodily nor transitional.

b. Of matter: He calls the most dishonorable matter all corporeal nature, which was ordered by God into various forms, both animate and inanimate and the rest; but intellectual

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ἐποίησαν οἱ θεολόγοι, μηδενί τῶν νοητῶν αὐτάς ὁμοιώσαντες, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῶν αἰσθητῶν, ἅπερ καλεῖ ἄτιμα, τήν τούτων λαβόντες ἐμφέρειαν, τοῦτο πρός τιμήν αὐτῶν πεποιηκότες, ἵνα πλασματώδης καί οὐκ ἀληθής γένηται τούτων ἡ μίμησις εἰ γάρ ὁ λεοντόμορφος λεγόμενος καί πολύπους καί πολύπτερός ἐστι καί λογικός καί ἄϋλος, πῶς οὐ δῆλον, ὅτι ὑπερκοσμίως ὑπερβέβηκε τά ὑλικά καί παρ' ἡμῖν νοούμενα;

Εἰς μέν γάρ τάς τιμιωτέρας: Ἰδού καί ἕτερος λογισμός, δι' ὅν τοιαύταις ὁμοιότησιν ἡ Γραφή περί τῶν οὐρανίων ἐχρήσατο· εἰ γάρ τιμιωτέροις ἐχρήσατο πλάσμασιν, οἷον χρυσοειδεῖς ἤ ἐπαστράπτοντας λέγουσα εἶναι τάς θείας δυνάμεις, πάντως ἄν ἐπείσθησαν οἱ ἀκούοντες ἐκ τῶν παρά ἀνθρώποις τιμιωτέρων τό πιστόν λαμβάνοντες· νῦν δέ τά ἀπεμφαίνοντα καί αἰσχράς εἰκόνας παρενέβαλεν, ἵνα, ἀκριβῶς εἰδότες, ὅτι οὔκ εἰσι τά τοιαῦτα, ζητήσωμεν τήν ἀλήθειαν τῶν ὄντων.

Ἀβλαβῶς: Αἱ γάρ λεγόμεναι πυρός φλόγες θεῖαι οὐσίαι οὐ καυστικαί, ἀλλά ζωτικαί εἰσιν.

Αἰσχράς: Πῶς γάρ οὐκ αἰσχρόν τό ἐξ ὑλικῶν εἶναι τά σύμβολα τῶν νοητῶν; 14Ε_218 Θεάματα: Θεάματα λέγονται τά μετά θαύματος ὁρώμενα. Καί γάρ ὁ θυμός. Ὅτι οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἀλογίας ἔμπλεως ἡ θυμοειδής κινησις, ἀλλ'

ἐπί τῆς ἀλόγου φύσεως. Ἀναγνωστέον τόν τελευταῖον λόγον τοῦ βιβλίου, ὅν εἶπεν εἰς τήν ὀπτασίαν τῶν ἁγίων χερουβίμ· ἐκεῖ γάρ καί ταῦτα πάντα πλατέως διαγεγύμνασται.

Τό μηδέ ἕν τῶν ὄντων: Σημείωσαι, ὅτι οὐδέν τῶν ὄντων ἐστέρηται τῆς τοῦ καλοῦ μετουσίας· σημειωτέον οὖν τί νοεῖται ὁ θυμός ἐπί τῶν ἀλόγων, καί τί ἐπί τῶν λογικῶν, καί τί ἐπιθυμία ἑκατέρων.

Λογιότητα: Σημειωτέον, ὅτι καί ἐπί ἀγγέλων λογιότητα λέγει· ἀμείλικτον δέ, ἤτοι ἀνένδοτον καί ἀχαύνωτον.

Ἐπιθυμίαν: Ὅτι ἡ ἐπιθυμία τῶν νοητῶν ἔρως ἄσχετός ἐστι περί τόν Θεόν, ὅπερ καλεῖ ἀϋλίαν.

∆ιά τόν ἀμιγῆ: Ἀμιγῆ φησι τόν καθαρόν καί εἰς οὐδέν ἕτερον ἐσχολακότα· ὁ γάρ θείῳ ἔρωτι περιδεδραγμένος ὅλος ἐστίν αὐτοῦ, καί εἰς τό ἐφετόν μόνον ἀνατείνεται, παρά μηδενός κωλυόμενος μεταβατικοῦ καί σωματικοῦ λόγου. Ἀλογίαν δέ φάσκοντες εἶναι ἐν ταῖς ἀσωμάτοις οὐσίαις, οὐκ ἀνοησίαν αὐταῖς ἐνυβρίζομεν ἐν τῷ διά τῶν λεοντείων μορφῶν καί τῶν μοσχείων καί τῶν ὀρνιθείων, ὡς ἐπί τοῦ ἀετοῦ, ἀλόγων τύπους καί σύμβολα λέγειν, πρέπειν τοῖς οὐρανίοις τάγμασιν, ἀλλά μυστικῶς τό ἐξηλλαγμένον τοῦ κατ' ἐκείνους λογικοῦ πρός τό καθ' ἡμᾶς σημαίνομεν· ἡμεῖς γάρ τό λογικόν παριστῶμεν διά τοῦ τῆς γλώττης ὁργανικοῦ καί τῶν φωνητικῶν τύπων, τύπτοντες τόν ἀέρα τῷ διαλεκτικῷ καί τοῦ λόγου μεταβαίνοντος ἐξ ἡμῶν εἰς τάς τῶν ἀκροωμένων ἀκοάς ἐκ σώματος εἰς 14Ε_220 σῶμα, καθά φησι καί ὁ θεῖος Βασίλειος ἐν τῷ περί τοῦ, Πρόσεχε σεαυτῷ, λόγῳ· ἐκεῖ δέ οὐχ οὕτως, ἀλλ' ἐν ἀσωματίᾳ τυγχάνοντες καί εἰς ἀλλήλους χωροῦντες καί ἀποχωροῦντες, παντός λόγου τρανότερον τάς ἀλλήλων νοήσεις κατοπτεύοντες, ἀλλήλοις ὥσπερ διαλέγονται, διά σιγῆς τοῦ λόγου μεταδιδόντες ἀλλήλοις.

Ἀπόκλισιν: Ἀντί τοῦ ἀπόνευσιν. α'. Μεταβατικοῦ: Μεταβατικός ὁ ἡμέτερος λόγος ὁ προφορικός, ὡς ἀπό τοῦ

λέγοντος διαβαίνων πρός τόν ἀκούοντα· σωματικοῦ δέ πρός ἀντιδιαστολήν τοῦ ἐνδιαθέτου· οὗτος γάρ οὔτε σωματικός, οὔτε μεταβατικός.

β'. Ὕλης: Ἀτιμοτάτην ὕλην φησί τήν σωματοειδῆ ἅπασαν φύσιν, πρός ποικίλα εἴδη ἔμψυχά τε καί ἄψυχα καί λοιπά ὑπό Θεοῦ διακοσμηθεῖσαν· νοεράν δέ