Oration XXXIX. Oration on the Holy Lights.

 I.  Again My Jesus, and again a mystery not deceitful nor disorderly, nor belonging to Greek error or drunkenness (for so I call their solemnities, a

 II.  Therefore listen to the Voice of God, which sounds so exceeding clearly to me, who am both disciple and master of these mysteries, as would to Go

 III.  Is there any such among the shadowy purifications of the Law, aiding as it did with temporary sprinklings, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling

 IV.  We are not concerned in these mysteries with birth of Zeus and thefts of the Cretan Tyrant (though the Greeks may be displeased at such a title f

 V.  And where will you place the butchery of Pelops, which feasted hungry gods, that bitter and inhuman hospitality?  Where the horrible and dark spec

 VI.  I pass over the honours they pay to reptiles, and their worship of vile things, each of which has its peculiar cultus and festival, and all share

 VII.  Well, let these things be the amusement of the children of the Greeks and of the demons to whom their folly is due, who turn aside the honour of

 VIII.  But since to us grace has been given to flee from superstitious error and to be joined to the truth and to serve the living and true God, and t

 IX.  Wherefore we must purify ourselves first, and then approach this converse with the Pure unless we would have the same experience as Israel, who

 X.  For the same Word is on the one hand terrible through its nature to those who are unworthy, and on the other through its loving kindness can be re

 XI.  And now, having purified the theatre by what has been said, let us discourse a little about the Festival, and join in celebrating this Feast with

 XII.  For to us there is but One God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and One Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things and One Holy Ghost, in Wh

 XIII.  Since then these things are so, or rather since This is so and His Adoration ought not to be rendered only by Beings above, but there ought to

 XIV.  At His birth we duly kept Festival, both I, the leader of the Feast, and you, and all that is in the world and above the world.  With the Star w

 XV.  But John baptizes, Jesus comes to Him …perhaps to sanctify the Baptist himself, but certainly to bury the whole of the old Adam in the water and

 XVI.  But further—Jesus goeth up out of the water…for with Himself He carries up the world…and sees the heaven opened which Adam had shut against hims

 XVII.  Now, since our Festival is of Baptism, and we must endure a little hardness with Him Who for our sake took form, and was baptized, and was cruc

 XVIII.  I, however, for I confess myself to be a man,—that is to say, an animal shifty and of a changeable nature,—both eagerly receive this Baptism,

 XIX.  But these sins were not after Baptism, you will say.  Where is your proof?  Either prove it—or refrain from condemning and if there be any doub

 XX.  But let us venerate to-day the Baptism of Christ and let us keep the feast well, not in pampering the belly, but rejoicing in spirit.  And how s

IV.  We are not concerned in these mysteries with birth of Zeus and thefts of the Cretan Tyrant9    I.e. Zeus, who was said by some to be a deified man, once tyrant of Crete, where his tomb was shown. (though the Greeks may be displeased at such a title for him), nor with the name of Curetes, and the armed dances, which were to hide the wailings of a weeping god, that he might escape from his father’s hate.  For indeed it would be a strange thing that he who was swallowed as a stone should be made to weep as a child.10    The allusion is to the birth of Zeus.  Kronos the Titan, father of the gods, was the husband of Rhea, who bore him children.  But an oracle having declared that Kronos should be dethroned by his children, he swallowed them immediately after they were born.  Rhea, however, on the birth of Zeus, aided by the Curetes, a wild band of Cretan Priests, concealed the child, and substituted a stone, which Kronos swallowed in his haste without perceiving the difference.  The stone made him very sick, and he vomited forth the children whom he had previously swallowed; and by them and Zeus the prophecy was fulfilled.  Kronos was deposed and imprisoned in Tartarus.  Nor are we concerned with Phrygian mutilations and flutes and Corybantes,11    There was a temple of Rhea in Phrygia, in which at her festivals people mutilated themselves to do her honour.  The flutes alluded to served to turn the thoughts of the sufferers from the pain of the operation.  The Corybantes were the ministers of the goddess, who led the wild orgies of her worship.  It is believed that there is an allusion to this practice of self-mutilation in Galat. v. 12.  So at least S. Jerome, S. Ambrose, and all the Greek Fathers take the passage.  S. Thomas Aquinas, understanding the word in the same sense, applies it mystically; and Estius, who here follows Erasmus, refers the “cutting off” merely to excommunication, a sense which he calls “Apostolico sensu dignior,” though why “dignior” it is not easy to see.  Yet he acknowledges that those who interpret it literally do so “non immerito.” and all the ravings of men concerning Rhea, consecrating people to the mother of the gods, and being initiated into such ceremonies as befit the mother of such gods as these.  Nor have we any carrying away of the Maiden,12    The mythus of the Rape of Persephone and its consequences. nor wandering of Demeter, nor her intimacy with Celei and Triptolemi and Dragons; nor her doings and sufferings…for I am ashamed to bring into daylight that ceremony of the night, and to make a sacred mystery of obscenity.  Eleusis knows these things, and so do those who are eyewitnesses of what is there guarded by silence, and well worthy of it.  Nor is our commemoration one of Dionysus, and the thigh that travailed with an incomplete birth, as before a head had travailed with another;13    Dionysus was said to have been born from the thigh of Zeus, as Athene to have sprung full-grown and armed at all points from his head. nor of the hermaphrodite god, nor a chorus of the drunken and enervated host; nor of the folly of the Thebans which honours him; nor the thunderbolt of Semele which they adore.  Nor is it the harlot mysteries of Aphrodite, who, as they themselves admit, was basely born and basely honoured; nor have we here Phalli and Ithyphalli,14    These myths and practices are too shameful to be described. shameful both in form and action; nor Taurian massacres of strangers;15    See the Iphigenia In Tauris of Euripides. nor blood of Laconian youths shed upon the altars, as they scourged themselves with the whips;16    It was a custom of the Spartans that at their great festival of Artemis the youths who were just coming of age (Ephebi) should scourge themselves cruelly on her altar in honour of the goddess, and to prove their manhood. and in this case alone use their courage badly, who honour a goddess, and her a virgin.  For these same people both honour effeminacy, and worship boldness.

Δʹ. Οὐ Διὸς ταῦτα γοναὶ καὶ κλοπαὶ, τοῦ Κρητῶν τυράννου, κἂν Ἕλληνες ἀπαρέσκωνται: οὐδὲ Κουρήτων ἦχοι, καὶ κρότοι, καὶ ὀρχήσεις ἔνοπλοι, Θεοῦ κλαίοντος ἠχὴν συγκαλύπτουσαι, ἵνα πατέρα λάθῃ μισότεκνον: δεινὸν γὰρ ἦν ὡς παιδίον κλαυθμυρίζεσθαι, τὸν ὡς λίθον καταποθέντα: οὐδὲ Φρυγῶν ἐκτομαὶ, καὶ αὐλοὶ, καὶ Κορύβαντες, καὶ ὅσα περὶ τὴν Ῥέαν ἄνθρωποι μαίνονται, τελοῦντες τῇ μητρὶ τῶν Θεῶν, καὶ τελούμενοι, ὅσα τῇ μητρὶ τῶν τοιούτων εἰκός: οὐδὲ κόρη τις ἡμῖν ἁρπάζεται, καὶ Δημήτηρ πλανᾶται, καὶ Κελεούς τινας ἐπεισάγει, καὶ Τριπτολέμους, καὶ δράκοντας, καὶ τὰ μὲν ποιεῖ, τὰ δὲ πάσχει. Αἰσχύνομαι γὰρ ἡμέρᾳ δοῦναι τὴν νυκτὸς τελετὴν, καὶ ποιεῖν τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην μυστήριον. Οἶδεν Ἐλευσὶς ταῦτα, καὶ οἱ τῶν σιωπωμένων, καὶ σιωπῆς ὄντως ἀξίων ἐπόπται. Οὐδὲ Διόνυσος ταῦτα, καὶ μηρὸς, ὠδίνων ἀτελὲς κύημα, ὥσπερ ἄλλο τι κεφαλὴ πρότερον: καὶ Θεὸς ἀνδρόγυνος, καὶ χορὸς μεθυόντων, καὶ στρατὸς ἔκλυτος, καὶ Θηβαίων ἄνοια τοῦτον τιμῶσα, καὶ Σεμέλης κεραυνὸς προσκυνούμενος. Οὐδὲ Ἀφροδίτης πορνικὰ μυστήρια, τῆς αἰσχρῶς, ὡς αὐτοὶ λέγουσι, καὶ γεννωμένης καὶ τιμωμένης. Οὐδὲ Φαλλοί τινες καὶ Ἰθύφαλλοι, αἰσχροὶ καὶ τοῖς σχήμασι καὶ τοῖς πράγμασιν: οὐδὲ Ταύρων ξενοκτονίαι, καὶ Λακωνικῶν ἐφήβων ἐπιβώμιον αἷμα, ξαινομένων ταῖς μάστιξι, καὶ τοῦτο μόνον κακῶς ἀνδριζομένων οἷς τιμᾶται θεὰ, καὶ ταῦτα παρθένος. Οἱ γὰρ αὐτοὶ, καὶ μαλακίαν ἐτίμησαν, καὶ θρασύτητα ἐσεβάσθησαν.