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he gathers, And being very small, much more. And so I love a wedded wife, but not an adulterous one; And far better than painted children are those whom I begot, Even than stronger ones, who are in fact weaker. Remembering these things, you, keep your body as it was made, And do not wish to seem one thing in place of another. The Celts test their offspring in the streams of the Rhine, And hot coals are the test for pure gold. But I weigh your modest mind against the unadorned beauty of your form. May sooty Belias not paint you; For either he made it all ashes, or poured out smoke, Having so dishonored such great delight. 901 Not gold interwoven with gems, striking the eyes With airy gleams, is honorable for the well-born; A neck-fetter encircling the breast, dishonoring the ear, swinging about with the weight of a pearl; Nor all that is highest around the head, nor a very golden Robe, the intricate works of fine threads, Purple, golden, brilliant, glistening, Nor baleful paints for the cheeks, Is an adornment for women; not purple lips, Nor to bear a dark eyebrow above painted eyelids, and to roll the wanton pupils within, Not to lend a favorable ear to an affected voice, Nor hands and feet in a dear and sweet bond 902 bound with gold, to have a slavish boast, Nor with soft perfumes your body or your head To be anointed (vultures attend to corpses) Nor indeed in your mouth to soften uneaten food, Moving your jaw here and there, As one despising the modest; and then from the teeth and from the wet mouth to send foam. Do not delight in the glitter of chariots, nor show your form from parted, ornate double doors, Gazing at those who are looking; be not lifted up by a multitude of servants, nor by handmaids who are images of your heart. Swallows are the messengers of spring, the flower of autumn, a mistress's handmaids; and consider this for me. 903 For even if each of these is a light disorderliness, all of them together are a steadfast death. There is one lovely flower for women, a noble blush, Modesty. This our painter paints. We shall give, if you desire, a second also: you might draw a pallor over your beauty, wasting away with the toils of Christ, With prayers and groans and sleepless days and nights; These are remedies for the unmarried, and for the married. Colors we will leave to walls, and to those women for whom the mire of the young is a frenzy. Let them leap shamelessly and laugh, but for us it is not right even to look at wanton women. The honorable way for women is to remain at home 904 for the most part, and to speak to the divine oracles, And to the loom and distaff; for it is the privilege of women to assign tasks to the handmaids, to avoid the male servants, To wear fetters on their lips, and on their eyes and cheeks, And not often to have a foot outside the doorway; To rejoice with modest women, and with her husband alone, for whom, from God, you loosed your virgin girdle. And to him bear measures of your confidence, so that you may grant him faith that you remain far from the eyes of strangers. Who first colored God's creation? May he perish who first mixed shamelessness with colors. And as when shameless tumblers, unmanly men, an image of the form hidden within have set up outwardly, and there follow all the appropriate leaps, and the shameful loosening of shrill limbs, 905 pleasing to foolish men, so then these women, Having clothed themselves in an outward foreign form, a comical, not a holy, covering of modesty, from which then they are moved to things worthy of their artful form. For this they labor at doors, keys, mirrors, paints, paint-pots, not even a roof unshaken. These things are of vainglorious image-painting; but of unadornment nothing is more effortless than modest splendor. But if you exult so much in artificial beauty, you could never have a modest mind in an unfeigned one. Esther fashioned a lovely form; but what was the work of her great comeliness? A whole nation remained. Fierce-minded Jezebel once painted her harlot's eyes, for harlots But indeed she washed the harlots with her harlot's blood. 906 But for you it is not a task to avert a king's anger, nor do you have a part in Fate; therefore spare your modesty for me. Do you not tremble, bowing your head to the priests, a stage gleaming with put-on forms? Do not your hands shudder, when to the mystic food you stretch them, with which you paint a mournful splendor? And how can you, to the prize-winners, for whom he establishes

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συνάγει, Καὶ τυτθός περ ἐὼν, πολὺ πλείονος. Ὣς δὲ γυναῖκα Στέργω κουριδίην, οὐχὶ δὲ μοιχιδίην· Καὶ γραπτῶν παίδων πολὺ φέρτεροι, οὓς ἐφύτευσα, Καί περ ἀρειοτέρων, οἵ γε χερειότεροι. Τῶν σὺ μνωομένη τήρει δέμας, οἷον ἐτύχθη, Μηδ' ἐθέλειν δοκέειν ἀνθ' ἑτέρης ἑτέρη. Κελτοὶ μὲν κρίνουσι γόνον Ῥήνοιο ῥεέθροις, Καὶ χρυσοῦ καθαροῦ ἄνθρακές εἰσι κρίσις. Σὸν δὲ σαόφρονα θυμὸν ἀκαλλέϊ κάλλεϊ μορφῆς Σταθμῶμ'. Ἀσβολόεις μή σε γράφοι Βελίας· Ἢ γὰρ τέφραν ἔθηκαν ὅλην, ἢ καπνὸν ἔχευε, Τόσσον ἀεικίσσας τέρψιος ἀντὶ τόσης. 901 Οὐ χρυσὸς λιθάκεσσι διάπλοκος ὄμματα βάλλων Αὐγαῖς ἠερίαις, τίμιος εὐγενέταις· ∆ειροπέδη στήθεσσι περίτροχος, οὖας ἀτίζων Ἄχθεϊ μαργαρέῳ ἀμφιπερικραδάων· Οὐδ' ὅσος ἀμφὶ κάρηνον ὑπέρτατος, οὐ πολύχρυσος Ἐσθὴς, λεπταλέων δαίδαλα ἔργα μίτων, Πορφύρεα, χρύσεα, διαλαμπέα, σιγαλόεντα, Οὐδὲ παρειάων φάρμακα λευγαλέα, Κόσμος θηλυτέραις· οὐ χείλεα πορφυρόεντα, Οὐ γραπτῶν βλεφάρων ὀφρὺν ὕπερθε φέρειν Κυανέην, διεράς τε κόρας ἔντοσθεν ἑλίσσειν, Οὐκ ὀπὶ θρυπτομένῃ εὐμενὲς οὖας ἄγειν, Οὐδὲ χέρας τε πόδας τε φίλῳ καὶ ἡδέϊ δεσμῷ 902 Χρυσῷ σφιγγομένην, δούλιον εὖχος ἔχειν, Οὐδὲ μύροις μαλακοῖσι τεὸν δέμας, ἠὲ κάρηνον Χρίεσθαι (νεκροὺς ἀμφιέπουσι γύπες) Μηδὲ μὲν ἐν στομάτεσσι τεοῖς ἄβρωτον ἐδωδὴν Μαλθάσσειν, δονέουσ' ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα γένυν, Οἷα περιφρονέουσα σαόφρονας· ἐκ δ' ἄρ' ὀδόντων Πέμπειν καὶ διερῶν ἀφρὸν ἀπὸ στομάτων. Μηδὲ δίφρων στεροπῇσιν ἀγάλλεο, μὴ παραφαίνειν Εἶδος ἀπὸ σχιστῶν δαιδαλέων διθύρων, ∆ερκομένη λεύσσοντας· ἀείρεο μὴ θεραπόντων Πληθύϊ, μὴ δμωαῖς εἰκόσι σῆς κραδίης. Εἴαρος ἄγγελοί εἰσι χελιδόνες, ἄνθος ὀπώρης, ∆εσποίνης δμωαί· καὶ τόδε φράζεό μοι. 903 Τῶνδε γὰρ εἰ καὶ ἕκαστον ἀκοσμίη τις ἐλαφρὴ, Πάντα γ' ἄμ' ἀλλήλοις ἔμπεδός ἐστι μόρος. Ἄνθος ἕν ἐστι γυναιξὶν ἐράσμιον, ἐσθλὸν ἔρευθος, Αἰδώς. Τοῦτο γράφει ζωγράφος ἡμέτερος. ∆ώσομεν, εἰ ποθέεις, καὶ δεύτερον· ὦχρον ἐφέλκοις Κάλλεϊ σῷ, Χριστοῦ τηκομένη καμάτοις, Εὐχαῖς τε στοναχαῖς τε καὶ ἤμασι νυξί τ' ἀΰπνοις· Ταῦτα καὶ ἀζυγέων φάρμακα, καὶ ζυγίων. Χρώματα μὲν τοίχοισι παρήσομεν, ἠδὲ γυναιξὶ Ταῖς, ὁπόσαις λύσση βόρβορός ἐστι νέων. Κεῖναι καὶ σκιρτῷεν ἀναιδέα καὶ γελόῳεν, Ἡμῖν δ' οὐδ' ὁράαν μαχλάδας ἐστὶ θέμις. Ὁ τρόπος ἐστὶ γυναιξὶ τὸ τίμιον, οἴκαδε μίμνειν 904 Πλείονα, καὶ θείοις προσλαλέειν λογίοις, Ἱστῷ τ' ἠλακάτῃ τε· τὸ γὰρ γέρας ἐστὶ γυναικῶν ∆μωαῖς ἔργα νέμειν, δμῶας ἀλευέμεναι, Χείλεσι δεσμὰ φέρειν, καὶ ὄμμασιν ἠδὲ παρειαῖς, Μηδὲ πόδα προθύρων πολλάκις ἐκτὸς ἔχειν· Χαίρειν θηλυτέρῃσι σαόφροσιν, ἀνδρὶ δὲ μούνῳ, Τῷ μίτρην θεόθεν λύσαο παρθενικήν. Καὶ τῷ μέτρα φέρειν σύ γε θάρσεος, ὥς κεν ὀπάζοις Πίστιν, ὅτι ξείνων τῆλε μένεις φαέων. Τίς πρῶτος χροίησε Θεοῦ πλάσιν; ὣς ἀπόλοιτο Πρῶτος ἀναιδέην χρώμασιν ἐγκεράσας. Ὡς δ' ὁπότ' ἀρνευτῆρες ἀναιδέες, ἄνδρες ἄνανδροι, Εἴδωλον μορφῆς ἔνδοθι κευθομένης Ἔκτοθεν ἐστήσαντο, τὰ δ' ἕσπεται, ὅσσ' ἐπέοικεν Ἅλματα, καὶ λιγυρῶν αἰσχρὰ λύσις μελέων, 905 Ἀνδράσιν ἀφραδέεσσιν ἑαδότα, ὡς ἄρα ταί γε, Ἑσσάμεναι μορφὴν ἔκτοθεν ἀλλοτρίην, Κωμικὸν, οὐχ ἱερὸν αἰδοῦς σκέπας, ἔνθεν ἔπειτα Κίνυνται μορφῆς ἄξια δαιδαλέης. Τῇ περιμοχθίζουσι θύραι, κληῗδες, ἔσοπτρα, Φάρμακα, φαρμακίδες, ἄτρομον οὐδὲ τέγος. Ταῦτ' εἰδογραφίης κενεαυχέος· ἀκομίης δὲ Οὐδὲν ἀμοχθότερον σώφρονος ἀγλαΐης. Εἰ δὲ σὺ κάλλεϊ τόσσον ἐπιπλάστῳ βλεμεαίνεις, Οὔ ποτ' ἂν ἀπλάστῳ σώφρονα θυμὸν ἔχῃς. Ἑσθὴρ εἶδος ἔτευξεν ἐράσμιον· ἀλλὰ τί κείνης Ἔργον ἀριπρεπίης; ἔθνος ἔμεινεν ὅλον. Γράψε ποτ' ὄμματα πόρνης Ἰεζάβελ ἀγριόθυμος, πόρναις Λοῦσέ γε μὴν πόρνας αἵματι πορνιδίῳ. 906 Σοὶ δ' οὔτ' ἔργον ἄνακτος ἑλεῖν χόλον, οὔτ' ἐνὶ Μοῖραν ἔχεις· τῷ μοι φείδεο σωφροσύνης. Οὐ τρομέεις ἱερῆας ὑποκλίνουσα κάρηνον, Σκηνὴν ἀμφιθέτοις εἴδεσι λαμπομένην; Οὐδὲ χέρες φρίσσουσιν, ἐπὴν ἐς μύστιν ἐδωδὴν Τείνεις, αἷς σὺ γράφεις πένθιμον ἀγλαΐην; Πῶς δὲ σύ γ' ἀθλοφόροισιν, ὅσοις ἵστησι