John of Damascus, Sacred parallels

against the wickedness of a woman; the lot of a sinner will fall upon her. A sandy ascent for the feet of an old man, so is a talkative woman to a quiet man. From a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die. Do not give a wicked woman freedom of speech. A drunken woman is great wrath. The fornication of a woman is in her haughty eyes, and it will be known by her eyelids. Better is the wickedness of a man than a woman who does good. Upon a wicked woman a seal is good. The sins of women are the lack of discipline of men. A woman fond of wealth, living with a like-minded man, is a double sickness. For she both kindles luxuries and 95.1324 increases the love of pleasure, and injects goads into excessive desires, devising certain pearls, and emeralds, and jacinths, and gold; forging the one, weaving the other, and through all tastelessness increasing the sickness. For the concern for these things is no side-job, but both nights and days hold anxieties about them; and countless flatterers, running to serve their desires, gather together the flower-dyers, goldsmiths, perfume-makers, weavers, embroiderers; she gives her husband no time to breathe from her constant demands. No wealth is sufficient to serve female desires, not even if it flows in from rivers. Barbarian perfume is sought after by them as if it were oil from the marketplace, and the flowers of the sea, the purple-fish, the sea-pen, are valued more than wool from sheep. Gold, fastening the precious stones, becomes for them an ornament for the forehead, another for the neck, and another on girdles, and another binds their hands, and their feet. For gold-loving women rejoice in being bound with manacles, only if the binder is gold. When, then, will a man who serves female desires care for his soul? For just as storms and squalls sink the rotten parts of ships, so do the wicked dispositions of women submerge the weak souls of those who live with them. Intemperate women, having forgotten the fear of God, having despised the eternal fire, on such a day, when they ought to be sitting in their houses for the remembrance of the resurrection, and to be taking thought of that day, on which the heavens will be opened, and the judge will appear to us from the heavens, and the trumpets of God, and the resurrection of the dead, and a just judgment, and the recompense to each according to his work, instead of having these things in their thoughts, and cleansing their hearts from wicked imaginations, and wiping away their former sins with tears, and preparing themselves for the meeting of Christ on the great day of his appearing, having shaken off the yoke of the servitude of Christ, having thrown from their heads the coverings of their shamefulness, having despised God, having despised his angels, having shamed the sight of every male, tossing their hair, trailing their tunics, and at the same time playing with their feet, with a licentious eye, with dissolute laughter for dancing, inviting upon themselves all the intemperance of the young, having set up choirs in the martyria before the city, they have made the hallowed places a workshop of their own indecency; they have defiled the air with their whorish songs, they have defiled the earth with their unclean feet, which they have stamped in their dances, having set up for themselves a crowd of youths as a theater, truly strutting, and leaving no excess of utterly frantic madness undone. How shall I be silent about these things? How shall I lament them worthily? Wine 95.1325 has caused us the loss of these souls; wine, the gift from God given for the consolation of weakness to the temperate, but now become a weapon of intemperance for the licentious. Therefore, there is nothing to match a wicked woman. What is more terrible than a lion among quadrupeds? Nothing. And what is more savage than a dragon among reptiles? But nothing; except a wicked woman. Both lion and dragon happen to be less. The wisest Solomon bears witness to my word, saying: To dwell with

πρὸς κακίαν γυναικός· κλῆρος ἁμαρτωλοῦ ἐπιπεσεῖ ἐπ' αὐτήν. Ἀνάβασις ἀμμώδης ἐν ποσὶ πρεσβυτέρου, οὕτω γυνὴ γλωσσώδης ἀνδρὶ ἡσύχῳ. Ἀπὸ γυναικὸς ἀρχὴ ἁμαρτίας, καὶ δι' αὐτῆς ἀποθνήσκομεν πάντες. Μὴ δῷς γυναικὶ πονηρᾷ παῤῥησίαν. Ὀργὴ μεγάλη γυνὴ μέθυσος. Πορνεία γυναικὸς ἐν μετεώροις ὀφθαλμῶν, καὶ ἐν τοῖς βλεφάροις αὐτῆς γνωσθήσεται. Κρείσσων πονηρία ἀνδρὸς, ἢ ἀγαθοποιὸς γυνή. Ἐπὶ γυναικὶ πονηρᾷ καλὸν σφραγίς. Ἁμαρτήματα γυναικῶν, ἀνδρῶν ἀπαιδευσία. Γυνὴ φιλόπλουτος, συνοικοῦσα ἀνδρὶ ὁμόφρονι, διπλάσιος νόσος. Τάς τε γὰρ τρυφὰς ἀναφλέγει καὶ 95.1324 τὰς φιληδονίας αὔξει, καὶ κέντρα ταῖς περιέργοις ἐπιθυμίαις ἐνίησι, τινὰς ἐπινοοῦσα μαργαρίτας, καὶ σμαράγδους, καὶ ὑακίνθους, καὶ χρυσόν· τὸν μὲν χαλκεύουσα, τὸν δὲ ὑφαίνουσα, καὶ διὰ πάσης ἀπειροκαλίας τὴν νόσον αὔξουσα. Οὐ γὰρ ἐκ παρέργου ἡ περὶ ταῦτα σπουδὴ, ἀλλὰ καὶ νύκτες, καὶ ἡμέραι τὰς περὶ τούτων μερίμνας ἔχουσι· καὶ μυρίοι τινὲς κόλακες ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις αὐτῶν ὑποτρέχοντες, συνάγουσι τοὺς ἀνθοβαφεῖς, χρυσοχόους, τοὺς μυρεψοὺς, τοὺς ὑφάντας, τοὺς ποικιλτάς· οὐδένα καιρὸν ἀναπνεῖν τῷ ἀνδρὶ δίδωσιν ἐκ τῶν συνεχῶν αὐτῆς ἐπιταγμάτων. Οὐδεὶς ἐξαρκεῖ πλοῦτος ταῖς γυναικείαις ἐπιθυμίαις ὑπηρετούμενος, οὐδ' ἂν ἐκ ποταμῶν ἐπιῤῥέῃ. Σπουδάζεται μὲν παρ' αὐταῖς τὸ βαρβαρικὸν μῦρον, ὡς τὸ ἐξ ἀγορᾶς ἔλαιον, τὰ δὲ ἐκ θαλάσσης ἄνθη, ἡ κόχλος, ἡ πίννα, ὑπὲρ τὸ ἐκ τῶν προβάτων ἔριον. Χρυσὸς δὲ περισφίγγων τοὺς βαρυτίμους τῶν λίθων, ὁ μὲν αὐταῖς προμετώπιος γίνεται κόσμος, ὁ δὲ περιαυχένιος, καὶ ἄλλος ἐν ζώναις, καὶ ἄλλος τὰς χεῖρας δεσμεῖ, καὶ τοὺς πόδας. Χαίρουσι γὰρ αἱ φιλόχρυσοι δεδεμέναι ταῖς χειροπέδαις, μόνον ἐὰν χρυσὸς ὁ δεσμῶν αὐτὰς ᾖ. Πότε οὖν ψυχῆς ἐπιμελήσεται ὁ γυναικείαις ἐπιθυμίαις ὑπηρετούμενος; Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὰ ὑπόσαθρα τῶν πλοίων καταιγίδες καὶ ζάλαι, οὕτως αἱ πονηραὶ τῶν γυναικῶν διαθέσεις, τὰς ἀσθενεῖς ψυχὰς τῶν συνοικούντων καταβαπτίζουσιν. Γυναῖκες ἀκόλαστοι ἐπιλαθόμεναι τοῦ φόβου τοῦ Θεοῦ, τοῦ πυρὸς τοῦ αἰωνίου καταφρονήσασαι, ἐν ἡμέρᾳ τοιαύτῃ, ὅτε αὐτὰς ἐχρῆν διὰ τὴν ἀνάμνησιν τῆς ἀναστάσεως καθέζεσθαι ἐν τοῖς οἴκοις, καὶ ἔννοιαν λαμβάνειν τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης, καθ' ἣν ἀνοιγήσονται μὲν οἱ οὐρανοὶ, ἐπιφανήσεται δὲ ἡμῖν ὁ κριτὴς ἐξ οὐρανῶν, καὶ σάλπιγγες Θεοῦ, καὶ ἀνάστασις νεκρῶν, καὶ κρίσις δικαία, καὶ ἀνταπόδοσις ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὸ ἔργον αὐτοῦ, ἀντὶ τοῦ ταῦτα ἔχειν ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς, καὶ καθαίρειν μὲν ἑαυτῶν τὰς καρδίας ἀπὸ πονηρῶν ἐνθυμήσεων, ἐξαλείφειν δὲ τοῖς δάκρυσι τὰ προημαρτημένα, ἑτοιμάζεσθαι πρὸς τὴν ἀπάντησιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ κατὰ τὴν μεγάλην ἡμέραν τῆς ἐπιφανείας αὐτοῦ, ἀποσεισάμεναι τὸν ζυγὸν τῆς δουλείας τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ῥίψασαι ἀπὸ τῶν κεφαλῶν τὰ τῆς ἀσχημοσύνης καλύμματα, καταφρονήσασαι τοῦ Θεοῦ, καταφρονήσασαι τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ, καταναισχυντήσασαι πάσης ὄψεως ἄῤῥενος, σοβοῦσαι τὰς κόμας, σύρουσαι τοὺς χιτῶνας, καὶ τοῖς ποσὶν ἅμα παίζουσαι, ὀφθαλμῷ ἀσελγεῖ, γέλωτι ἐκκεχυμένῳ πρὸς ὄρχησιν, πᾶσαν νέων ἀκολάσιαν ἐφ' ἑαυτὰς προσκαλούμεναι, ἐν τοῖς πρὸ τῆς πόλεως μαρτυρίοις χοροὺς συστησάμεναι, ἐργαστήριον τῆς οἰκείας ἀσχημοσύνης, αὐτῶν τοὺς ἡγιασμένους τόπους πεποίηνται· ἐμίαναν μὲν τὸν ἀέρα τοῖς ᾄσμασι τοῖς πορνικοῖς, ἐμίαναν δὲ τὴν γῆν τοῖς ἀκαθάρτοις ποσὶν, ἣν ἐν ταῖς ὀρχήσεσιν κατεκρότησαν, θέατρον ἑαυταῖς νεανίσκων ὄχλον περιστησάμεναι, σοβάδες ὄντως, καὶ παραφόρου παντελῶς μανίας οὐδεμίαν ὑπερβολὴν καταλείπουσαι. Ταῦτα μὲν πῶς σιωπήσω; πῶς δὲ κατ' ἀξίαν ὀδύρωμαι; Οἶνος 95.1325 ἡμῖν τῶν ψυχῶν τούτων τὴν ζημίαν ἐποίησεν· οἶνος τὸ παρὰ Θεοῦ δῶρον εἰς παραμυθίαν τῆς ἀσθενείας δεδομένον τοῖς σωφρονοῦσιν, ὅπλον δὲ νῦν γενόμενον ἀκολασίας τοῖς ἀσελγαίνουσιν. Οὐδὲν τοίνυν ἐφάμιλλον γυναικὸς πονηρᾶς. Τί λέοντος δεινότερον ἐν τετράποσιν; οὐδέν. Τί δὲ ὠμότερον δράκοντος ἐν ἑρπετοῖς; ἀλλ' οὐδέν· πλὴν γυναικὸς πονηρᾶς. Καὶ λέων, καὶ δράκων ἐλάττω τυγχάνουσι. Μαρτυρεῖ μοι τῷ λόγῳ ὁ σοφώτατος Σολομὼν λέγων· Συνοικῆσαι