Scales cover shame; fins raise mind; uncovered vice
Cyril: ...let us live, we will do this or that, and now you boast in your arrogances.' So then as fishes we swim-through this broad and spacious sea, that is, the world; for somehow different is each one's life. For some have not altogether bent-away unto the needing to fault, but they know on the one hand, being weak sometimes, and being held by the greedinesses of the flesh, and they do not wish to stand-off from the other charges. 'For many things we all stumble,' (Proverbs 12:16) according to the having-been-written. Yet they shake-off somehow as unbeautiful the wishing nakedly to be shameful. And no one would persuade to practice the faulting manifest and unshadowed. And they care very much for the needing to escape-notice. 'For wise ones will hide their own shames,' (James 3:2) according to the having-been-written. This, I think, is the as in an order of a covering to have the scales. And they swim-up very often also unto the on-high, for they look, not unto the below through all, and they think also the above, and they flee-through easily those who would somehow choose to net unto destruction; this someone will say the as it were to have used fins intelligibly, and to make very hot the movement of the mind.
Palladius: Fitting things you spoke; for somehow the riddle carries-away toward thinking the word to hold thus.
Cyril: And some fault, not having drawn-under, but practicing as it were naked and altogether uncovered the worthlessness; and about them one would say well: 'Whose glory is in their shame.' (Philippians 3:19) For they have always bent toward uncleanness, and rolling-in the lowest muds, they are beasts according to the true, or some other beside this. And such would be altogether and wholly both strengthless and easy-to-catch, being tyrannized by the pleasures unto every whatever of the outlandish. Or is not somehow such the life of the having-been-despaired? For both women the lustful and courtesaning, and the all-shameful and most counterfeit race of the soft-males, and indeed also as many as shine-through in tents, and
Greek
ζήσωμεν, ποιήσομεν τοῦτο ἢ ἐκεῖνο, νῦν δὲ καυχᾶσθε ἐν ταῖς ἀλαζονείαις ὑμῶν.» Οὐκοῦν ἰχθύων διανηχόμεθα δίκην τὴν πλατεῖαν ταύτην καὶ εὐρύχωρον θάλασσαν, τοῦτ' ἔστι, τὸν κόσμον· διάφορος γάρ πως ὁ ἑκάστου βίος. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ εἰσάπαν ἀπονενεύκασιν ἐπὶ τὸ χρῆναι πλημμελεῖν, ἀλλ' ἴσασι μὲν, ἀῤῥωστοῦντες ἔσθ' ὅτε, καὶ ταῖς τῆς σαρκὸς ἐνεχόμενοι πλεονεξίαις, καὶ οὐκ ἀφεστάναι τῶν ἄλλων αἰτιαμάτων βούλονται. «Πολλὰ γὰρ πταίομεν ἅπαντες,» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον. Ἀποσείονται δ' οὖν ὅμως ὡς ἀκαλλὲς τὸ γυμνῶς ἐθέλειν ἀσχημονεῖν. Ἀναπείσειε δ' ἂν οὐδεὶς ἐμφανῆ τε καὶ ἀκατάσκιον ἐπιτηδεύειν τὴν πλημμέλειαν. Ἐπιμελοῦνται δὲ σφόδρα τοῦ χρῆναι λαθεῖν. «Σοφοὶ γὰρ κρύψουσι τὰς ἑαυτῶν αἰσχύνας,» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον. Τοῦτο, οἶμαι, ἐστὶ τὸ ὡς ἐν τάξει κατακαλύμματος τὰς λεπίδας ἔχειν. Ἀνανήχονται δὲ πλειστάκις καὶ εἰς τὸ ὑψοῦ, βλέπουσι γὰρ, οὐκ εἰς τὸ κάτω διὰ παντὸς, φρονοῦσι δὲ καὶ τὰ ἄνω, καὶ διαδιδράσκουσιν εὐπετῶς τοὺς οἵπερ ἂν ἕλοιντο σαγηνεύειν εἰς ὄλεθρον· τοῦτό τις ἐρεῖ τὸ οἱονεὶ πτερυγίοις κεχρῆσθαι νοητῶς, καὶ θερμὴν ἄγαν τὴν τῆς διανοίας ποιεῖσθαι κίνησιν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εἰκότα ἔφης· ἀποφέρει γάρ πως τὸ αἴνιγμα πρὸς τὸ τῇδε ἔχειν οἴεσθαι τὸν λόγον.
{ΚΥΡ.} Πλημμελοῦσι δέ τινες, οὐχ ὑπεσταλμένως, γυμνὴν δὲ ὥσπερ καὶ ἀκατακάλυπτον παντελῶς ἐπιτηδεύοντες τὴν φαυλότητα· καὶ περὶ αὐτῶν ἂν λέγοιτο καλῶς· «Ὧν ἡ δόξα ἐν τῇ αἰσχύνῃ αὐτῶν.» Νενεύκασι γὰρ ἀεὶ πρὸς ἀκαθαρσίαν, καὶ τοῖς κατωτάτω βορβόροις ἐγκαλινδούμενοι, κνώδαλα κατὰ τὸ ἀληθὲς, ἤγουν, ἕτερόν τι παρὰ τοῦτό εἰσιν. Εἶεν δ' ἂν οἱ τοιοίδε πάντη τε καὶ πάντως ἀδρανεῖς τε καὶ εὐάλωτοι, ταῖς εἰς πᾶν ὁτιοῦν τῶν ἐκτόπων ἡδοναῖς τυραννούμενοι. Ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ τοιουτοσί πώς ἐστι τῶν ἀπεγνωσμένων ὁ βίος; Γύναιά τε γὰρ τὰ μαχλῶντα καὶ ἑταιριζόμενα, καὶ τὸ πάναισχρόν τε καὶ κιβδηλότατον τῶν θηλυδρίων γένος, καὶ μὴν καὶ ὅσοι διαπρέπουσιν ἐν σκηναῖς, καὶ οἷς ἀκόρεστος ἡ φιλοσαρκία, καὶ τὸ πλανᾶσθαι φίλον εἰς βέβηλον εἰδωλολατρίαν, ἐπάρατον ἀληθῶς διαζῶσι βίον, καὶ τὸν εἰς αἰσχροτάτους ἥκοντα μολυσμούς. Οὐκοῦν καθαρίζει μὲν ὁ νόμος τοὺς ἠῤῥωστηκότας μὲν τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, μὴ μὴν ἔτι καὶ εἰσάπαν ἐκτετραμμένους, ἀνανηχομένους δὲ ὥσπερ εἰς τὸ ὑψοῦ, καὶ οὐχὶ τοῖς ἐπιγείοις ἐνιζήσαντας μόνοις, πεφρονηκότας δὲ καὶ τὰ ἄνω, καὶ μεμερισμένους ὥσπερ Θεῷ τε καὶ κόσμῳ. Καταμιαίνει δὲ αὐτοὺς ὅλῳ χωροῦντας τρόπῳ, πρὸς τὸ ἀκαταλήκτως ἑλέσθαι καὶ δρᾷν καὶ φρονεῖν τὰ σαρκός τε καὶ κόσμου, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις μὲν ἅπασαν ἀποδυσαμένους αἰδῶ, γυμνῶς δὲ καὶ ἀπημφιεσμένως ἀσχημονεῖν εἰωθότας. Ἐξίστησι δὲ χρησίμως τῆς πρὸς αὐτοὺς κοινωνίας, τὴν πρὸς ἐκείνους οὐκ ἀτιμάζων. Οὐ γάρ τοι τοῖς φαύλοις ἰέναι κατὰ ταυτὸν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 14 of a seventeen-book dialogue — not the whole work.
English follows Migne PG 68 (Aubert reprint). The PDF and a cleaned text of the same print were checked against each other. This page is Book 14 of seventeen. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition of the Greek.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 68 De adoratione Book 14 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 14)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 14)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.