Fate Fortune Genesis vs free will; Solon reductio
Cyril: Altogether so. For the matter is full of godlessness. And one would reasonably also range with these and number together the thinking that human things are administered by others’ nods, and that the authority of the things according to us has been hung not upon ourselves, but upon those whom the inventors of such unpersuasive doctrines should choose to myth-mold. For Fate and Fortune and Genesis, I do not know how, setting them as it were some steersmen over the life, they say each of us is not a willer or lord of the things to be done; yet to be led as from a necessary bond toward what seems to those ruling. Then what would ever become more irrational than such a thing? And how would Satan have done greater injustice to the race of humans, than when he disposed them to think and reason thus? For how would someone still counsel the useful things, and go willingly-working upon them ever? And having come to be also in the more shameful things, and having thought what one must not, how would he accuse himself and having melted with griefs change counsel to think and do the better things? For just as for those darting through the sea and having chosen to sail through there is somehow every necessity to be led by winds from the stern, and to be forced everywhere toward what seems to the pushing-together; so somewhere altogether also for us ourselves it is necessary to yield, unto whatever Fortune should choose to ferry, and the hard-to-flee winds of Fate according to them. Or will you yourself also think again that these things have been said rightly?
Palladius: For how not?
Cyril: Therefore it is altogether silly to crown the good and fair one with praises, and to count him worthy of honor, yet to count the wicked and unbridled one abominable and spat-upon.
Palladius: In what manner do you say?
Cyril: Because, O Palladius, Genesis and Fortune have conquered according to them, and unwillingly they carry off upon both the thrice-wretched race of those upon the earth. And nothing voluntary is beside us. Or is not what has been born to move something and is able, a cause of being moved for those moved from it?
Palladius: I say so.
Cyril: Come then through equal thoughts unto the human things, and measure the things according to us, and in order that you may look around well at what evil we are in, if not by our own voluntary leanings we go either this way or that way and hurry through, yet we have been overpowered as it were and have been carried under by others’ yokes able to lead and carry the things according to us, whichever way they should choose. For already thinking the likely things, we will still ascribe nothing of the things to be done to ourselves, yet rather we will hang the causes upon all upon those accustomed to helm unto whatever according to their judgment. Therefore just as the just one will stand off from every praise, so also the unjust from penalty, and from needing to be punished.
Palladius: You reason most rightly.
Cyril: In vain therefore the inventors of such doctrines admire Solon the one at Athens,
Greek
{ΚΥΡ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν. Ἀθεότητος γὰρ τὸ χρῆμα μεστόν. Συντάξαιτο δὲ τούτοις καὶ ἐπαριθμοῖτο ἂν εἰκότως, τὸ οἴεσθαι τὰ ἀνθρώπινα τοῖς ἑτέρων διοικεῖσθαι νεύμασιν, καὶ τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς ἀνῆφθαι τὴν ἐξουσίαν οὐχ ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς, ἀλλ' οὓς ἂν ἕλοιντο μυθοπλαστεῖν οἱ τῶν οὕτως ἀπιθάνων δογμάτων εὑρεταί. Εἱμαρμένην γὰρ καὶ Τύχην καὶ Γένεσιν, οὐκ οἶδα ὅπως οἰακοστρόφους ὥσπερ τινὰς ἐφιστάντες τῷ βίῳ, ἕκαστον μὲν ἡμῶν οὐκ εἶναί φασι τῶν πρακτέων θελητὴν ἢ κύριον· ἄγεσθαι δὲ καθάπερ ἐξ ἀναγκαίου δεσμοῦ πρὸς τὸ τοῖς κρατοῦσι δοκοῦν. Εἶτα τί ἂν γένοιτό ποτε τοῦ τοιοῦδε ἀλογώτερον; πῶς δ' ἂν μειζόνων ἠδίκησεν ὁ Σατανᾶς τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος, ἢ ὅτε προσῆκεν ὧδε φρονεῖν καὶ διαλογίζεσθαι διαθείς; πῶς γὰρ ἂν ἔτι βουλεύσαιτο τὰ χρηστὰ, καὶ ἐθελουργὸς ἐπ' αὐτά τις ἴοι ποτέ; Γεγονὼς δὲ καὶ ἐν τοῖς αἰσχίοσι, καὶ πεφρονηκὼς ἃ μὴ χρὴ, πῶς ἂν ἑαυτὸν αἰτιῷτο καὶ κατατήξας ταῖς λύπαις τὰ ἀμείνω μεταβουλεύσαιτο φρονεῖν τε καὶ δρᾷν; Ὥσπερ γὰρ τοῖς τὴν θάλατταν διᾴττουσι καὶ διαπλεῖν ᾑρημένοις πᾶσά πως τοῖς ἐκ πρύμνης ἄγεσθαι ἀνάγκη πνεύμασι, καὶ καταβιάζεσθαι πανταχῆ πρὸς τὸ τῷ συνωθοῦντι δοκοῦν· οὕτω που πάντως καὶ ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς παραχωρεῖν ἀναγκαῖον, ἐφ' ὅπερ ἂν ἕλοιτο διακομίζειν ἡ Τύχη, καὶ τὰ δυσδιάφυκτα κατ' ἐκείνους τῆς Εἰμαρμένης πνεύματα. Ἢ οὐκ ὀρθῶς εἰρῆσθαι ταυτὶ καὶ αὐτὸς οἰήσῃ πάλιν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς γὰρ οὔ;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν ἠλίθιον κομιδῆ, τὸν μὲν ἀγαθὸν καὶ ἐπιεικῆ στεφανοῦν ἐπαίνοις, καὶ τιμῆς ἀξιοῦν, τὸν δὲ πονηρὸν καὶ ἀκόλαστον βδελυρὸν ἡγεῖσθαι καὶ διεπτυσμένον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Τίνα φῂς τρόπον;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὅτι, ὦ Παλλάδιε, Γένεσίς τε καὶ Τύχη νενικήκασι κατ' αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἀνεθελήτως ἐπ' ἄμφω τὸ τρισάθλιον τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἀποφέρουσι γένος. Ἐθελούσιον δὲ παρ' ἡμῖν οὐδέν. Ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ τὸ πεφυκός τι κινεῖν καὶ δυνάμενον, αἴτιον ἂν εἴη τοῦ κινεῖσθαι τοῖς παρ' αὐτοῦ κινουμένοις;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φημί.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἴθι οὖν διά γε τῶν ἴσων ἐννοιῶν ἐπὶ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, καὶ ἀναμέτρει τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς, καὶ ἵν' ἐσμὲν κακοῦ περιαθρήσῃς εὖ μάλα, εἰ μὴ ταῖς ἑαυτῶν ἐθελουσίοις ῥοπαῖς, ἢ τὰν, ἢ ἐπὶ τὰν ἴμεν τε καὶ διασπεύδομεν, κεκρατήμεθα δὲ ὥσπερ καὶ ὑπενηνέγμεθα τοῖς ἑτέρων ζυγοῖς ἄγειν τε καὶ φέρειν τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς, ᾗπερ ἂν ἕλοιντο, δυναμένοις. Τὰ εἰκότα γὰρ ἤδη φρονοῦντες, ἑαυτοῖς μὲν ἔτι τῶν πρακτέων ἀναθήσομεν οὐδὲν, ἀνάψομεν δὲ μᾶλλον τὰς ἐφ' ἅπασιν αἰτίας, τοῖς ἐφ' ὁτιοῦν τῶν κατὰ γνώμην αὐτοῖς πηδαλιουχεῖν εἰωθόσιν. Ἀφεστήξει δὴ οὖν ὥσπερ ἐπαίνου παντὸς ὁ δίκαιος, οὕτω καὶ ποινῆς ὁ ἄδικος, καὶ τοῦ κολάζεσθαι δεῖν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὀρθότατα διανοῇ.
{ΚΥΡ.} Εἰκῆ τοιγαροῦν θαυμάζουσιν οἱ τῶν τοιούτων δογμάτων εὑρεταὶ Σόλωνά τε τὸν Ἀθήνῃσι,
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 6 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 6 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 5 (Aubert reprint) (Greek · Book 6)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 6)
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.