169

seas piled up with salty waters, and fencing it in with gates of finest sand; who at one time with winds crowns it to the size of mountains, at another time smooths it into a plain, and at one time maddens it with a storm, at another time calms it with a stillness so as to be easy for seagoing sailors for their journey; who girded the world made by You through Christ with rivers and flooded it with torrents and saturated it with ever-flowing springs, and bound it round with mountains for a most secure and unshaken foundation of the earth. For you filled Your world and adorned it with fragrant and healing herbs, with many and various animals, strong and weaker, for food and for work, tame and untamed, with the hissing of reptiles, the cries of various birds, with cycles of years, numbers of months and days, orders of solstices, courses of rain-bearing clouds, for the generation of fruits and the sustenance of animals, the station of winds, blowing when they are commanded by You, the multitude of plants and herbs. And not only did you create the world, but you also made man, the citizen of the world, in it, revealing him as the ornament of the world; for You said to Your Wisdom: "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heaven." Wherefore you have also made him of an immortal soul and a dissoluble body, the one out of nothing, the other out of the four elements; and you have given him, as to the soul, rational discernment, the distinction of piety and impiety, the observance of justice and injustice, and as to the body, you have granted the five senses and movement from place to place. For you, Almighty God, through Christ planted a paradise in Eden, in the east, adorned with every kind of edible plant, and into it, as into a sumptuous abode, you introduced him and in creating him you gave him an innate law, so that from home and from himself he might have the seeds of the knowledge of God. And having brought him into the paradise of delight, you gave him the authority to partake of all things, but of one only you forbade the taste in the hope of better things, so that, if he kept the commandment, he might receive immortality as a reward for it. But when he neglected the commandment and tasted of the forbidden fruit through the deceit of the serpent and the counsel of the woman, you justly cast him out of paradise, but in Your goodness you did not overlook him being utterly destroyed, for he was Your creation, but having subjected creation to him, you gave him the ability to provide food for himself by his own sweat and labors,

169

ἁλμυρῶν ὑδάτων σεσωρευμένα πελάγη, περιφράξας δὲ αὐτὴν πύλαις ἄμμου λεπτοτάτης· ὁ πνεύμασί ποτε μὲν αὐτὴν κορυφῶν εἰς ὀρέων μέγεθος, ποτὲ δὲ στρωννύων αὐτὴν εἰς πεδίον, καί ποτε μὲν ἐκμαίνων χειμῶνι, ποτὲ δὲ πραΰνων γαλήνῃ ὡς ναυσιπόροις πλωτῆρσιν εὔκολον εἶναι πρὸς πορείαν· ὁ ποταμοῖς διαζώσας τὸν ὑπὸ σοῦ διὰ Χριστοῦ γενόμενον κόσμον καὶ χειμάρροις ἐπικλύσας καὶ πηγαῖς ἀενάοις μεθύσας, ὄρεσιν δὲ περισφίγξας εἰς ἕδραν ἀτρεμῆ γῆς ἀσφαλεστάτην. Ἐπλήρωσας γάρ σου τὸν κόσμον καὶ διεκόσμησας αὐτὸν βοτάναις εὐόσμοις καὶ ἰασίμοις, ζóοις πολλοῖς καὶ διαφόροις, ἀλκίμοις καὶ ἀσθενεστέροις, ἐδωδί μοις καὶ ἐνεργοῖς, ἡμέροις καὶ ἀτιθάσσοις, ἑρπετῶν συριγμοῖς, πτηνῶν ποικίλων κλαγγαῖς, ἐνιαυτῶν κύκλοις, μηνῶν καὶ ἡμερῶν ἀριθμοῖς, τροπῶν τάξεσιν, νεφῶν ὀμβροτόκων δια δρομαῖς, εἰς καρπῶν γονὰς καὶ ζóων σύστασιν, σταθμὸν ἀνέμων· διαπνεόντων ὅτε προσταχθῶσιν παρὰ σοῦ, τῶν φυτῶν καὶ τῶν βοτανῶν τὸ πλῆθος. Καὶ οὐ μόνον τὸν κόσμον ἐδημιούργησας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν κοσμοπολίτην ἄνθρωπον ἐν αὐτῷ ἐποίησας, κόσμου κόσμον αὐτὸν ἀναδείξας· εἶπας γὰρ τῇ σῇ Σοφίᾳ· «Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν, καὶ ἀρχέ τωσαν τῶν ἰχθύων τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρα νοῦ.» ∆ιὸ καὶ πεποίηκας αὐτὸν ἐκ ψυχῆς ἀθανάτου καὶ σώματος σκεδαστοῦ, τῆς μὲν ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος, τοῦ δὲ ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων στοιχείων· καὶ δέδωκας αὐτῷ κατὰ μὲν τὴν ψυχὴν τὴν λογικὴν διάγνωσιν, εὐσεβείας καὶ ἀσεβείας διάκρισιν, δικαίου καὶ ἀδίκου παρατήρησιν, κατὰ δὲ τὸ σῶμα τὴν πέν ταθλον ἐχαρίσω αἴσθησιν καὶ τὴν μεταβατικὴν κίνησιν. Σὺ γάρ, Θεὲ παντοκράτορ, διὰ Χριστοῦ παράδεισον ἐν Ἐδὲμ κατὰ ἀνατολὰς ἐφύτευσας παντοίων φυτῶν ἐδωδίμων κόσμῳ, καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ, ὡς ἂν ἐν ἑστίᾳ πολυτελεῖ, εἰσήγαγες αὐτὸν καὶ ἐν τῷ ποιεῖν νόμον δέδωκας αὐτῷ ἔμφυτον, ὅπως οἴκοθεν καὶ παρ' ἑαυτοῦ ἔχοι τὰ σπέρματα τῆς θεογνωσίας. Eἰσαγαγὼν δὲ εἰς τὸν τῆς τρυφῆς παράδεισον, πάντων μὲν ἀνῆκας αὐτῷ τὴν ἐξουσίαν πρὸς μετάληψιν, ἑνὸς δὲ μόνου τὴν γεῦσιν ἀπεῖπας ἐπ' ἐλπίδι κρειττόνων, ἵνα, ἐὰν φυλάξῃ τὴν ἐντολήν, μισθὸν ταύτης τὴν ἀθανασίαν κομίσηται. Ἀμελήσαντα δὲ τῆς ἐντολῆς καὶ γευσάμενον ἀπηγο ρευμένου καρποῦ ἀπάτῃ ὄφεως καὶ συμβουλίᾳ γυναικὸς τοῦ μὲν παραδείσου δικαίως ἐξῶσας αὐτόν, ἀγαθότητι δὲ εἰς τὸ παντελὲς ἀπολλύμενον οὐχ ὑπερεῖδες, σὸν γὰρ ἦν δημιούρ γημα, ἀλλὰ καθυποτάξας αὐτῷ τὴν κτίσιν δέδωκας αὐτῷ οἰκείοις ἱδρῶσιν καὶ πόνοις πορίζειν ἑαυτῷ τὴν τροφήν,