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describing the power with words; and scattering the rashness of the others; and drawing to himself ( 513) the reigning law of nature, decreeing release for the powers of the soul that are held in slavery to the alteration of the passions.

For since there are two evil spirits presiding over the more material body, through the very property of the number, the passionate and mortal was indicated. But the mind, defending the soul, which is simple in its essence, being one, bore the semblance of the indivisible monad, the whole of which death is by nature unable to touch in any way, because it is not subject to the cut of division at all.

For the one, that is, the first young man, introducing the passionate well-being of the body, says, Wine is strongest; calling wine, comprehensively, the whole revolution of the passions in pleasures; and drunkenness, as causing ecstasy of the mind, and counterfeiting the use of natural reasonings. For their wine, he says, is the fury of dragons; and the incurable fury of asps he called the boiling of carnal pleasures, wine of dragons; and the tyrannical and arrogant contempt of disobedience, he called the wine of asps; for this beast, as they say, beyond all the beasts of the earth, stops its ears to incantations, tyrannizing [Fr. and it tyrannizes out of arrogance] over the charmers out of arrogance.

The other, that is, the second, says, The king is strongest; and by "king" he means all the vainglory in wealth and power and other distinctions, which is the begetter of ignorance; according to which the scattering of nature occurs; with everyone being ignorant of each other, and everyone clashing with everyone; for one thing, the desire to be glorified more than one another, by power or wealth or luxury, and by the other ways in which they wish to be glorified, those who are ignorant of the divine and abiding glory, and who despise the power that accords with it.

These men, having outlined, so to speak, all the slime from the depth of the unnatural passions with these two propositions, made King Darius the judge of their sayings; who, as I said, is the ruling law of nature, hoping he would be won over by their doctrines.

But the third, who is the mind that presides over virtue and knowledge, and who wished the soul to be deprived of the evil slavery of the passions, says, Women are strongest, and truth prevails; by "women" he meant the deifying virtues, from which unifying love for God and for one another is composed for men, snatching the soul away from all things under generation and corruption; and intertwining it with the intelligible substances beyond them, and with God himself in a certain loving union, insofar as is possible for human nature; and mystically creating an immaculate and divine cohabitation. And by "truth" he meant the one and only cause of beings, and principle and king and power and glory, (516) from which, and through which it has come to be and is; and is held together for being by it and through it; and for which is all zeal and motion for the lovers of God. And to speak concisely, through "women" he indicated love as the end of the virtues; which is the unbroken pleasure and indivisible union of those who partake of the naturally good according to their desire; and through "truth" he signified the limit of all knowledge; and of all things known, to which, as the beginning and end of all beings, the natural motions are drawn together by a certain general principle; naturally conquering all things, as truth is the principle and cause of beings; and drawing to itself the motion of things that have come to be.

The philosophical mind, having thus reasoned with the law of nature, repels all its delusion from the evil demons; persuading it to decree freedom for the thoughts and powers of the soul that are held in slavery to the passions and of the

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περιγράψας λόγοις τήν δύναμιν· καί τήν τῶν ἄλλων διασκεδάσας προπέτειαν· καί εἰς ἑαυτόν ἐλκύσας ( 513) τόν βασιλεύοντα νόμον τῆς φύσεως, ἄφεσιν θεσπίζοντα ταῖς κρατουμέναις εἰς δουλείαν τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἀλλοιώσεως τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεσι.

Τῶν γάρ προϊσταμένων, ὡς ὑλικωτέρου τοῦ σώματος, πονηρῶν πνευμάτων δύο τυγχανόντων, δι αὐτῆς τῆς τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ ἰδιότητος ἐδηλοῦτο τό ἐμπαθές καί ἐπίκηρον. Ὁ δέ τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπερασπίζων νοῦς, ἁπλῆς οὔσης κατά τήν οὐσίαν, εἷς ὑπάρχων, τῆς ἀδιαιρέτου μονάδος ἔφερεν ἔμφασιν, ἧς καθοτιοῦν τό σύνολον οὐ πέφυκεν ἅπτεσθαι θάνατος, ὅτι μήτε διαιρέσεως καθόλου τομή.

Φησί γάρ ὁ εἷς, ἤγουν ὁ πρῶτος νεανίσκος, τήν ἐμπαθῆ τοῦ σώματος εἰσφέρων εὐζωΐαν, Ὑπερισχύει ὁ οἶνος· οἶνον καλῶν, πᾶσαν ὁμοῦ κατά περιγραφήν τήν ἐν ἡδοναῖς παθῶν περιφοράν· καί μέθην, ὡς ἐκστατικήν τῆς διανοίας, καί τῶν κατά φύσιν λογισμῶν τήν χρῆσιν παραχαράττουσαν. Θυμός γάρ δρακόντων, φησίν, ὁ οἶνος αὐτῶν· καί θυμός ἀσπίδων ἀνίατος τήν ζέσιν τῶν σαρκικῶν ἡδονῶν, οἶνον δρακόντων, φήσας· καί τῆς παρακοῆς τήν τυραννικήν καί ὑπερήφανον καταφρόνησιν, καλέσας οἶνον ἀσπίδων· τοῦτο γάρ, ὥς φασι, τό θηρίον, παρά πάντα τά θηρία τῆς γῆς, ἐμφράττει τά ὦτα πρός ἐπᾴσματα, ἐξ ὑπερηφανίας τυραννοῦν [Fr. καί ἐξ ὑπερηφανίας τυραννεῖ] τούς ἐπᾴδοντας.

Ὁ ἕτερος, ἤγουν ὁ δεύτερος, φησίν, Ὑπερισχύει ὁ βασιλεύς· βασιλέα δέ οὗτος καλῶν, πᾶσαν ὁμοῦ τήν ἐν πλούτῳ καί δυναστείᾳ καί ταῖς ἄλλαις περιφανείαις κενήν δόξαν, τήν γεννητικήν τῆς ἀγνοίας· καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ τῆς φύσεως γίνεται σκεδασμός· πάντων ἀγνοούντων ἀλλήλους, καί πάντων πᾶσι προσρηγνυμένων· ὑπέρ ἑνός, τοῦ πλέον ἀλλήλων θέλειν δοξάζεσθαι, δυνάμει ἤ πλούτῳ ἤ τρυφῇ, καί τοῖς ἄλλοις τρόποις, οἷς δοξάζεσθαι θέλουσιν, οἱ τήν θείαν καί μένουσαν ἠγνοηκότες δόξαν, καί τό κατ᾿ αὐτήν κράτος περιφρονοῦντες.

Οὗτοι μέν πᾶσαν, ὡς εἰπεῖν, τήν ἰλύν τοῦ βυθοῦ τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν, τοῖς δυσί τούτοις προβλήμασι περιγράψαντες, κριτήν ἐποιοῦντο τῶν λεγομένων, τόν βασιλέα ∆αρεῖον· τόν, ὡς ἔφην, κρατοῦντα νόμον τῆς φύσεως, ἐπικληθῆναι τοῖς αὐτῶν ἐλπίζοντες δόγμασιν.

Ὁ δέ τρίτος, ὅς ἐστιν τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως προϊστάμενος νοῦς, καί τῆς κακῆς τῶν παθῶν δουλείας στερηθῆναι τήν ψυχήν βεβουλημένος, φησίν, Ὑπερισχύουσιν αἱ γυναῖκες, καί ὑπερνικᾷ ἡ ἀλήθεια· γυναῖκας μέν εἰπών, τάς θεοποιούς ἀρετάς, ἐξ ὧν ἡ πρός Θεόν καί ἀλλήλους τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἑνοποιός ἀγάπη συνέστηκε, πάντων τήν ψυχήν ἐξαρπάζουσα τῶν ὑπό γένεσιν καί φθοράν· καί τῶν ὑπέρ αὐτά νοητῶν οὐσιῶν, καί αὐτῷ τῷ Θεῷ κατ᾿ ἐρωτικήν τινα σύγκρασιν περιπλέκουσα, καθ᾿ ὅσον ἐστί δυνατόν ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει· καί τήν ἄχραντον καί θείαν μυστικῶς δημιουργοῦσα συμβίωσιν. Ἀλήθειαν δέ φήσας, τήν μίαν καί μόνην αἰτίαν τῶν ὄντων, καί ἀρχήν καί βασιλέα καί δύναμιν καί δόξαν, (516) ἐξ ἧς, καί δι᾿ ἥν γέγονέ τε καί γίνεται· καί πρός τό εἶναι ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς τε καί δι᾿ αὐτήν συγκρατεῖται· καί ὑπέρ ἦς πᾶσα τοῖς φιλοθέοις ἐστί σπουδή τε καί κίνησις. Καί συντόμως εἰπεῖν, διά μέν τῶν γυναικῶν, τό τέλος ἐνεδείξατο τῶν ἀρετῶν τήν ἀγάπην· ὅπερ ἐστί ἡ κατ᾿ ἔφεσιν τοῦ φύσει ἀγαθοῦ τῶν μετεχόντων ἀδιάσπαστος ἡδονή καί ἀδιαίρετος ἕνωσις· διά δέ τῆς ἀληθείας, τό πέρας πασῶν ἐπεσήμανε τῶν γνώσεων· καί αὐτῶν πάντων τῶν γινωσκομένων, εἰς ὅπερ ὡς ἀρχήν καί πέρας πάντων τῶν ὄντων, αἱ κατά φύσιν κινήσεις, γενικῷ τινι λόγῳ συνέλκονται· πάντα νικώσης κατά φύσιν, ὡς ἀληθείας τῆς τῶν ὄντων ἀρχῆς καί αἰτίας· καί πρός ἑαυτήν συνελκούσης τῶν γεγονότων τήν κίνησιν.

Οὕτω διαλεχθείς ὁ φιλόσοφος νοῦς τῷ κατά φύσιν νόμῳ, πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ τῶν πονηρῶν δαιμόνων ἀποκρούεται πλάνην· ψηφίσασθαι πείθων ἐλευθερίαν τοῖς πρός δουλείαν παθῶν κεκρατημένοις λογισμοῖς τε τῆς ψυχῆς καί δυνάμεσι καί τῶν τῆς