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having received and imitated the life, he succeeded in his wish to be born of them through the Spirit, a voluntary son born of voluntary parents, which is so much more honorable to God than the involuntary begetting of fathers and sons from the flesh, by as much as soul differs from flesh in superiority of essence.

This Zerubbabel is one of the young men standing by King Darius, by which I mean the natural law, and having described in two sayings the whole power of divine goods among men, and having scattered the rashness of the others, and having drawn to himself the reigning law of nature, which decrees release for the powers of the soul that are held in the slavery of the alteration of the passions. For there being two evil spirits presiding over the more material(8) body, through the very property of this number was signified that which is subject to passion and mortal. But the mind, which champions the soul, which is simple in its essence, being one, bore the semblance of the indivisible monad, which death is by nature unable to touch at all, since it is not subject to any division or cut.

For the one, that is, the first young man, introducing the passionate well-being of the body, says, "Wine is strongest," calling wine, by way of summary, all the delirium and drunkenness of the passions found in pleasures, as it distracts the intellect and debases the use of natural reasonings. For "their wine," he says, "is the fury (14G_020> of dragons, and the incurable fury of asps," calling the ferment of fleshly pleasures the wine of dragons, and calling the tyrannical and arrogant contempt of disobedience the wine of asps. For this beast, as they say, above all the beasts of the earth, stops its ears to incantations, tyrannizing over the enchanters out of arrogance.

The other, that is, the second, says, "The king is strongest," he too calling "king" all the vainglory found in wealth and power and other distinctions, which is the mother of ignorance, according to which the scattering of nature occurs, with everyone being ignorant of each other and all clashing with all for one thing, namely, the desire to be glorified more than others by power or wealth or luxury and the other ways by which those who are ignorant of the divine and abiding glory, and who despise the power associated with it, wish to be glorified. These men, having described, so to speak, all the slime from the depth of the unnatural passions in these two propositions, made King Darius the judge of their sayings, he who is, as I said, the reigning law of nature, hoping that he would incline to their opinions.

But the third, who is the mind that presides over virtue and knowledge, and who has willed for the soul to be deprived of the evil slavery of the passions, says, "Women are strongest, but truth prevails above all," by "women" meaning the deifying virtues, from which is constituted the unifying love of men for God and for one another, snatching the soul away from all things under generation and corruption and from the intelligible substances above them, and entwining it with God himself through a kind of erotic fusion, as far as is possible for human nature, and mystically creating an undefiled and divine co-existence, and by "truth" (14G_022> meaning the one and only cause of beings and the beginning and kingdom and power and glory, from which and through which all things have come to be and are, and are held together in being by it and through it, and for the sake of which is every effort and motion for the lovers of God. And to speak concisely, through "women" he indicated the end of the virtues, which is love, which is the unfailing pleasure and indivisible union of those who partake in the naturally good, according to their desire, and through "truth"(9) he signified the limit of all knowledge and of all knowable things themselves, to which, as to the beginning and end of all beings, the natural motions are drawn together by some general principle, all

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δεξάμενος καὶ μιμησάμενος τὸν βίον, τὸ ἐξ ἐκείνων γεννηθῆναι τῷ Πνεύματι θέλων κατώρθωσε, γονέων υἱὸς γεγενημένος αὐθαιρέτων αὐθαίρετος, ὅπερ τῶν παρὰ βούλησιν γινομένων ἀπὸ σαρκὸς πατέρων τε καὶ υἱῶν τοσοῦτόν ἐστι τῷ Θεῷ τιμιώτερον, ὅσον σαρκὸς ψυχὴ κατ᾽ οὐσίας ὑπεροχὴν διενήνοχεν.

Οὗτος ὁ Ζοροβάβελ εἷς ὑπάρχει τῶν παρισταμένων νεανίσκων ∆αρείῳ τῷ βασιλεῖ, τῷ φυσικῷ λέγω νόμῳ, καὶ πᾶσαν τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις θείων ἀγαθῶν δυσὶ περιγράψας λόγοις τὴν δύναμιν, καὶ τὴν τῶν ἄλλων διασκεδάσας προπέτειαν, καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἑλκύσας τὸν βασιλεύοντα νόμον τῆς φύσεως, ἄφεσιν θεσπίζοντα ταῖς κρατουμέναις εἰς δουλείαν τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἀλλοιώσεως τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεσιν. Τῶν γὰρ προϊσταμένων, ὡς ὑλικωτέρου(8) τοῦ σώματος, πονηρῶν πνευμάτων δύο τυγχανόντων, δι᾽ αὐτῆς τῆς τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ ἰδιότητος ἐδηλοῦτο τὸ ἐμπαθὲς καὶ ἐπίκηρον. Ὁ δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπερασπίζων νοῦς, ἁπλῆς οὔσης κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν, εἶς ὑπάρχων, τῆς ἀδιαιρέτου μονάδος ἔφερεν ἔμφασιν, ἧς καθοτιοῦν τὸ σύνολον οὐ πέφυκεν ἅπτεσθαι θάνατος, ὅτι μήτε διαιρέσεως καθόλου τομή.

Φησὶ γὰρ ὁ εἷς, ἤγουν ὁ πρῶτος νεανίσκος, τὴν ἐμπαθῆ τοῦ σώματος εἰσφέρων εὐζωΐαν, ὑπερισχύει ὁ οἶνος, οἶνον καλῶν πᾶσαν ὁμοῦ κατὰ περιγραφὴν τὴν ἐν ἡδοναῖς παθῶν παραφορὰν καὶ μέθην, ὡς ἐκστατικὴν τῆς διανοίας, καὶ τῶν κατὰ φύσιν λογισμῶν τὴν χρῆσιν παραχαράττουσαν, Θυμὸς (14Γ_020> γὰρ δρακόντων, φησίν, ὁ οἶνος αὐτῶν καὶ θυμὸς ἀσπίδων ἀνίατος, τὴν ζέσιν τῶν σαρκικῶν ἡδονῶν οἶνον δρακόντων φήσας, καὶ τῆς παρακοῆς τὴν τυραννικὴν καὶ ὑπερήφανον καταφρόνησιν καλέσας οἶνον ἀσπίδων. Τοῦτο γάρ, ὥς φασι, τὸ θηρίον παρὰ πάντα τὰ θηρία τῆς γῆς ἐμφράττει τὰ ὦτα πρὸς ἐπᾴσματα, ἐξ ὑπερηφανίας τυραννοῦν τοὺς ἐπᾴδοντας.

Ὁ ἕτερος ἤγουν ὁ δεύτερός φησιν ὑπερισχύει ὁ βασιλεύς, βασιλέα καὶ οὗτος καλῶν πᾶσαν ὁμοῦ τὴν ἐν πλούτῳ καὶ δυναστείᾳ καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις περιφανείαις κενὴν δόξαν, τὴν γεννητικὴν τῆς ἀγνοίας, καθ᾽ ἣν ὁ τῆς φύσεως γίνεται σκεδασμός, πάντων ἀγνοούντων ἀλλήλους καὶ πᾶσι πάντων προσρηγνυμένων ὑπὲρ ἑνός, τοῦ πλέον ἀλλήλων θέλειν δοξάζεσθαι δυνάμει ἢ πλούτῳ ἢ τρυφῇ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις τρόποις, οἷς δοξάζεσθαι θέλουσιν οἱ τὴν θείαν καὶ μένουσαν ἠγνοηκότες δόξαν καὶ τὸ κατ᾽ αὐτὴν κράτος περιφρονοῦντες. Οὗτοι μὲν πᾶσαν, ὡς εἰπεῖν, τὴν ἰλὺν τοῦ βυθοῦ τῶν παρὰ φύσιν παθῶν τοῖς δυσὶ τούτοις προβλήμασι περιγράψαντες, κριτὴν ἐποιοῦντο τῶν λεγομένων τὸν βασιλέα ∆αρεῖον, τόν, ὡς ἔφην, κρατοῦντα νόμον τῆς φύσεως, ἐπικλιθῆναι τοῖς αὐτῶν ἐλπίζοντες δόγμασιν.

Ὁ δὲ τρίτος, ὅς ἐστιν ὁ τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ τῆς γνώσεως προϊστάμενος νοῦς, καὶ τῆς κακῆς τῶν παθῶν δουλείας στερηθῆναι τὴν ψυχὴν βεβουλημένος, φησὶν ὑπερισχύουσιν αἱ γυναῖκες καὶ ὑπερνικᾷ ἡ ἀλήθεια, γυναῖκας μὲν εἰπὼν τὰς θεοποιοὺς ἀρετάς, ἐξ ὧν ἡ πρὸς Θεὸν καὶ ἀλλήλους τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἑνοποιὸς ἀγάπη συνέστηκε, πάντων τὴν ψυχὴν ἐξαρπάζουσα τῶν ὑπὸ γένεσιν καὶ φθορὰν καὶ τῶν ὑπὲρ αὐτὰ νοητῶν οὐσιῶν, καὶ αὐτῷ τῷ Θεῷ κατ᾽ ἐρωτικήν τινα σύγκρασιν περιπλέκουσα, καθ᾽ ὅσον ἐστὶ δυνατὸν ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει, καὶ τὴν ἄχραντον καὶ θείαν μυστικῶς δημιουργοῦσα συμβίωσιν, ἀλήθειαν (14Γ_022> δὲ φήσας τὴν μίαν καὶ μόνην αἰτίαν τῶν ὄντων καὶ ἀρχὴν καὶ βασιλείαν καὶ δύναμιν καὶ δόξαν, ἐξ ἧς καὶ δι᾽ ἣν πάντα γέγονέ τε καὶ γίνεται, καὶ πρὸς τὸ εἶναι ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς τε καὶ δι᾽ αὐτῆς συγκρατεῖται, καὶ ὑπὲρ ἧς πᾶσα τοῖς φιλοθέοις ἐστὶ σπουδή τε καὶ κίνησις. Καὶ συντόμως εἰπεῖν, διὰ μὲν τῶν γυναικῶν τὸ τέλος ἐνεδείξατο τῶν ἀρετῶν τὴν ἀγάπην, ὅπέρ ἐστι ἡ κατ᾽ ἔφεσιν τοῦ φύσει ἀγαθοῦ τῶν μετεχόντων ἀδιάπτωτος ἡδονὴ καὶ ἀδιαίρετος ἕνωσις, διὰ δὲ τῆς ἀληθείας(9) τὸ πέρας πασῶν ἐπεσήμανε τῶν γνώσεων καὶ αὐτῶν πάντων τῶν γινωσκομένων, εἰς ὅπερ, ὡς ἀρχὴν καὶ πέρας πάντων τῶν ὄντων, αἱ κατὰ φύσιν κινήσεις γενικῷ τινι λόγῳ συνέλκονται, πάντα