95

Paraclete and Faith, Paternal and Hope, Maternal and Love, Ever-mindful and Intelligence, Willed, who is also Light, and Blessedness, Ecclesiastic and Wisdom, Profound and Mixture, Ageless and Union, Self-begotten and Temperament, Only-begotten and Oneness, Immovable and Pleasure. And according to the number of succession and sequence from the highest unnameable Father and Depth, as he is named among them, to this our heaven, the number of the thirty is as follows: Depth, Silence, Mind, Truth, Word, Life, Man, Church, Paraclete, Faith, Paternal, Hope, Maternal, Love, Ever-mindful, Intelligence, Willed, who is also Light, Blessedness, Ecclesiastic, Wisdom, Profound, Mixture, Ageless, Union, Self-begotten, Temperament, Only-begotten, Oneness, Immovable, Pleasure. 3. And this is the tragedy of the thirty Aeons mythologized by them, and the empty talk of the so-called spiritual Pleroma according to syzygy; which if one were to compare and set beside that of Hesiod and Stesichorus and the other poets of the Greeks, he would find them to be the same things in parallel and nothing different, and from this he will know that the heresiarchs of these doctrines promise to say nothing wonderful in a mysterious way. For they have imitated nothing other than the fabricated poetic manner of the gentile myth's error and teaching, 1.387 having changed nothing except for the barbaric neologism reshaped among them. For so also say those around Hesiod: first of all comes Chaos, so that they may say Depth, then Night, Erebus, Earth, Aether, Day, Love, Counsel, Doom, Misery, Fate, Nemesis, Blame, Friendship, Death, Lawlessness, Old Age, Ruin, Desire, Forgetfulness, Sleep, Combat, Limb-relaxing, Hubris, Well-minded, Radiance, Care-ceasing, Deceit, Sweet-limbed, Strife. And this number, according to the male-female sequence, thus has its thirty. But if anyone should wish to see how these, fabricating, join one to the other, he would find them joined and yoked to one another just as it seemed to the poets, as they, having joined Depth to both Night and Silence, made Earth be born; and others, Heaven, whom they have also called Hyperion, and they say that he, joined to the Earth, begat males and females, and those in succession similarly until their whole creation, as the endless, nonsensical babbling of the myth has it. And one would find them thus joined and yoked and able to be so composed: Chaos Night, Erebus Earth, Aether Day, Love Counsel, Doom Misery, Fate Nemesis, Blame Friendship, Death Lawlessness, Old Age Ruin, Desire Forgetfulness, Sleep Combat, Limb-relaxing Hubris, Well-minded Radiance, Care-ceasing Deceit, Sweet-limbed Strife. But if anyone should pay attention to their fiction and wish to know how, from the worldly and Greek poets, from whom these were thunderstruck, being vainly inspired in things they ought not, into futile labor and useless toil, *, he would find them to be so much more deceived. 4. Whence also, investigating supposedly even more loftily, they thought to invent also a Deficiency by their own demon-possessed thought, which 1.388 Deficiency they also call All-ruler and Demiurge and creator of substances; from which again they say a later Ogdoad with seven heavens, likened to the first Ogdoad, was created, with him being in the Ogdoad and having made seven heavens after it. to which Deficiency they wish to join a certain unmixed and un-female Aeon, who came hither from the Pleroma in search of the soul that came from above from the mother Wisdom, whose name indeed they also wish to represent and fashion as Achamoth, whom indeed they call * Savior and Limit and Cross and Boundary-setter and Conductor and Jesus who passed through Mary as through a pipe. and that he is a light from the Christ above and for this reason 1.389 is called by his father's name

95

Παράκλητος καὶ Πίστις, Πατρικὸς καὶ Ἐλπίς, Μητρικὸς καὶ Ἀγάπη, Ἀείνους καὶ Σύνεσις, Θελητὸς ὁ καὶ Φῶς καὶ Μακαριότης, Ἐκκλησιαστικὸς καὶ Σοφία, Βύθιος καὶ Μῖξις, Ἀγήρατοςκαὶ Ἕνωσις, Αὐτοφυὴς καὶ Σύγκρασις, Μονογενὴς καὶ Ἑνότης, Ἀκίνητος καὶ Ἡδονή. κατὰ δὲ ἀριθμὸν διαδοχῆς καὶ ἀκολουθίας ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνωτάτου ἀκατονομάστου Πατρὸς καὶ Βυθοῦ παρ' αὐτοῖς ὀνομαζομένου ἕως τούτου τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς οὐρανοῦ ὁ τῶν τριάκοντα ἀριθμὸς οὕτως ἔχει· Βυθὸς Σιγὴ Νοῦς Ἀλήθεια Λόγος Ζωὴ Ἄνθρωπος Ἐκκλησία Παράκλητος Πίστις Πατρικὸς Ἐλπὶς Μητρικὸς Ἀγάπη Ἀείνους Σύνεσις Θελητὸς ὁ καὶ Φῶς Μακαριότης Ἐκκλησιαστικὸς Σοφία Βύθιος Μῖξις Ἀγήρατος Ἕνωσις Αὐτοφυὴς Σύγκρασις Μονογενὴς Ἑνότης Ἀκίνητος Ἡδονή. 3. Καὶ αὕτη μὲν ἡ τῶν τριάκοντα Αἰώνων παρ' αὐτοῖς μυθοποιουμένη τραγῳδία καὶ ἡ κατὰ συζυγίαν πνευματικοῦ δῆθεν Πληρώματος κενοφωνία· ἣν ἐάν τις συγκρίνων τῇ παρὰ Ἡσιόδῳ καὶ Στησιχόρῳ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ποιηταῖς τῶν Ἑλλήνων παραθῆται, εὕροι ἂν ἐκ παραλλήλου τὰ αὐτὰ ὄντα καὶ οὐδὲν ἕτερον, καὶ ἐκ τούτου γνώσεται ὡς οὐδὲν θαυμαστὸν οἱ τῶν δογμάτων αἱρεσιάρχαι μυστηριωδῶς ἐπαγγέλλονται λέγειν. οὐδὲν γὰρ ἄλλο ἢ Ἑλλήνων ἀπεμάξαντο τὴν ἐπίπλαστον ποιητικὴν ἕξιν τῆς ἐθνομύθου πλάνης καὶ διδασκαλίας, 1.387 οὐδὲν ἀλλοιώσαντες πλὴν τῆς παρ' αὐτοῖς μεταπεποιημένης βαρβαρικῆς ὀνοματοποιίας. οὕτω γάρ φασι καὶ οἱ περὶ Ἡσίοδον· πρῶτον πάντων γίνεται Χάος, ἵνα εἴπωσι Βυθόν, εἶτα Νὺξ Ἔρεβος Γῆ Αἰθὴρ Ἡμέρα Ἔρως Μῆτις Μόρος Ὀϊζὺς Πότμος Νέμεσις Μῶμος Φιλότης Θάνατος ∆υσνομία Γήρως Ἄτη Ἵμερος Λήθη Ὕπνος Ὑσμίνη ΛυσιμεληὝβρις Εὐφρόνιος Αἴγλη Παυσιμέριμνος Ἀπάτη Ἡδυμελὴς Ἔρις. καιοὗτος μὲν ὁ ἀριθμὸς κατὰ ἀκολουθίαν ἀρρενοθήλεος οὕτως ἔχει τὴν τριακοντάδα. εἰ δέ τις θελήσειεν ἰδεῖν πῶς πλαττόμενοι οὗτοι συνάπτουσιν ἓν πρὸς τὸ ἕν, εὕροι ἂν οὕτως συναπτόμενα καὶ συζευγνύμενα ἀλλήλοις ἃ τοῖς ποιηταῖς ἔδοξεν, ὡς τὸν μὲν Βυθὸν Νυκτί τε καὶ Σιγῇ συνάψαντες ἐποίησαν Γῆν γεννᾶσθαι· ἄλλοι δὲ Οὐρανόν, ὃν δὴ καὶ Ὑπερίονα κεκλήκασι, τὸν δὲ αὐτὸν τῇ Γῇ συναφθέντα φασὶ γεγεννηκέναι ἄρσενάς τε καὶ θηλείας, καὶ τοὺς καθεξῆς ὁμοίως ἕως τῆς πάσης αὐτῶν ποιήσεως, ὡς ἔχει ἡ ἀπέραντος τοῦ μύθου ληρώδης φλυαρία. εὕροι δ' ἂν οὕτως συναπτόμενά τε καὶ συζευγνύμενα καὶ δυνάμενα οὕτως συντίθεσθαι· Χάος Νύξ, Ἔρεβος Γῆ, Αἰθὴρ Ἡμέρα, Ἔρως Μῆτις, Μόρος Ὀϊζύς, Πότμος Νέμεσις, Μῶμο Φιλότης, Θάνατος ∆υσνομία, Γήρως Ἄτη, Ἵμερος Λήθη, ὝπνοὙσμίνη, Λυσιμελὴς Ὕβρις, Εὐφρόνιος Αἴγλη, Παυσιμέριμνος Ἀπάτη,Ἡδυμελὴς Ἔρις. εἰ δὲ προσέχοι τις τῷ αὐτῶν πλάσματι καὶ βουληθείη γνῶναι ὡς ἀπὸ τῶν κοσμικῶν καὶ Ἑλληνικῶν ποιητῶν, ἐξ ὧν οὗτοι ἐνεβροντήθησαν, μάτην ἐνθουσιῶντες εἰς ἃ μὴ δεῖ, εἰς ματαιοπονίαν τε καὶ κάματον ἀνωφελῆ, *, εὕροι ἂν αὐτοὺς τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον πεπλανημένους. 4. Ὅθεν καὶ ἔτι ὑψηλοτέρως δῆθεν ἐξερευνῶντες ᾠήθησαν καὶ Ὑστέρημα τῷ ἰδίῳ αὐτῶν δαιμονισθέντι διανοήματι ἐξευρεῖν, ὅπερ 1.388 Ὑστέρημα καὶ Παντοκράτορα καὶ ∆ημιουργὸν καλοῦσι καὶ κτιστὴν οὐσιῶν· ἀφ' οὗπερ πάλιν καὶ ὑστέραν Ὀγδοάδα μετὰ ἑπτὰ οὐρανῶν, κατὰ τὴν πρώτην Ὀγδοάδα ἀφομοιωθεῖσαν, ἐκτίσθαι λέγουσιν, αὐτοῦ ὄντος ἐν τῇ Ὀγδοάδι καὶ ἑπτὰ οὐρανοὺς μετ' αὐτὴν πεποιηκότος. ᾧπερ Ὑστερήματι βούλονται συνάπτειν μὲν ἀμιγῆ τινα Αἰῶνα καὶ ἀθήλυντον, ἀπὸ Πληρώματος δὲ ἐνταῦθα ἐλθόντα κατ' ἀναζήτησιν τῆς ψυχῆς τῆς ἄνωθεν ἀπὸ τῆς μητρὸς Σοφίας ἐλθούσης, ἧς δὴ καὶ Ἀχαμὼθ βούλονται τὸ ὄνομα ἀνατυποῦν τε καὶ πλάττειν, ὃν δὴ καὶ Σωτῆρα καλεῖν * καὶ Ὅρον καὶ Σταυρὸν καὶ Ὁροθέτην καὶ Μεταγωγέα καὶ Ἰησοῦν τὸν διὰ Μαρίας ὡς διὰ σωλῆνος παρελθόντα. εἶναι δὲ αὐτὸν φῶς ἀπὸ τοῦ ἄνω Χριστοῦ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο 1.389 πατρωνυμικῶς καλεῖσθαι