Bird-nest: take chicks, spare mother-virtue; return enemy’s ox
Cyril: …Deuteronomy: ‘And if you should meet a nest of birds before your face in the way, or upon every tree, or upon the earth, with chicks or eggs, and the mother should warm upon the chicks or upon the eggs, you will not take the mother with the children. Sending away you will send away the mother, and the young you will take for yourself, that it may become well for you, and you may be many-dayed.’
Palladius: And what then is this? For the riddle is not clear to me.
Cyril: Or do you not clearly understand? That if someone should take the bird still nesting, or sitting on eggs, let him make the things from her a benefit and a find; yet let him send her away—he has done no harm.
Palladius: Yes; for this would be the aim of the Writing.
Cyril: So observe the hidden, and as if having unfolded the shadow, look down intelligibly upon the truth. For each virtue is somehow a mother and generation of the goods from it—as if someone should say kindness, love of the poor, gentleness, long-suffering. For someone is kind not more for himself than for others; and those who have needed it would share love of the poor, and likewise gentleness and long-suffering. So each virtue would be understood as a mother, and somehow a beginning of the goods in it and from it. And nests as of virtues are the souls travailing them and having chosen them in themselves. So the law says then that those who happen upon men in whom virtues would be as gathered into a nest must make the gains from them, yet must not still love to damage virtue, the mother of the best right-doings; and virtue is wronged when shaken by someone, according at least to the modes already said.
Palladius: How deep the riddle!
Cyril: Yes; you speak uprightly. But, that we may say something agreeing with the voices of the blessed Paul, ‘Does God not care about the sparrows? Or does he speak altogether because of us?’ For the word of the commandment through Moses interprets for us types of matters, not the matters themselves clearly; and you would see how he also brings us up little by little already into modes of the uppermost mutual love. For he tries to persuade us to love even those who have struck against us, and to be seen better than grief unto enemies, not being conquered by the evil, but rather conquering the evil in the good. For he said again in Exodus: ‘And if you should meet the ox of your enemy, or his beast of burden, wandering in the way, having turned back you will give it back to him; and if you should see the beast of burden of your enemy fallen under its load, you will not pass it by, but you will raise it with him.’ And in Deuteronomy: ‘Having seen the calf of your brother, or his sheep, wandering in the way, do not overlook them; turning back you will turn them back to your brother; and if the
Greek
Δευτερονομίῳ· «Ἐὰν δὲ συναντήσῃς νοσσιᾷ ὀρνέων πρὸ προσώπου σου ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, ἢ ἐπὶ παντὶ δένδρῳ, ἢ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, νεοσσοῖς, ἢ ὠοῖς, καὶ ἡ μήτηρ θάλπῃ ἐπὶ τῶν νεοσσῶν, ἢ ἐπὶ τῶν ὠῶν, οὐ λήψῃ τὴν μητέρα μετὰ τῶν τέκνων. Ἀποστολῇ ἀποστελεῖς τὴν μητέρα, τὰ δὲ παιδία λήψῃ σεαυτῷ, ἵνα εὖ σοι γένηται, καὶ πολυήμερος ἔσῃ.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ τί δὴ τοῦτό ἐστιν; οὐ γάρ μοι σαφὲς τὸ αἴνιγμα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἢ οὐκ ἐναργῶς ἐπαΐεις; ὡς εἴπερ τις ἕλοι νεοττεύουσαν ἔτι τὴν ὄρνιν, ἤγουν ἐπωάζουσαν, ποιείσθω μὲν ὄνησίν τε καὶ εὕρημα τὰ ἐξ αὐτῆς· ἀποπεμπέτω γε μὴν, οὐδὲν ἐποίησε βλάβος.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ναί· ὁ γάρ τοι τοῦ Γράμματος οὗτος ἂν εἴη σκοπός.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν ἄθρει τὸ κεκρυμμένον, καὶ οἱονεὶ διαπτύξας τὴν σκιὰν, κατασκέπτου νοητῶς τὴν ἀλήθειαν. Ἑκάστη μὲν γὰρ ἀρετὴ, μήτηρ οἷά τίς ἐστι τῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀγαθῶν καὶ γένεσις, οἷον εἴ τις λέγοι τὴν χρηστότητα, τὴν φιλοπτωχείαν, τὴν πραότητα, τὴν μακροθυμίαν. Χρηστεύεται γάρ τις οὐχ ἑαυτῷ μᾶλλον ἢ ἑτέροις· μετάσχοιεν δ' αὖ τῆς φιλοπτωχείας, οἱ ταύτης δεδεημένοι, καὶ πραότητος ὁμοίως καὶ μακροθυμίας. Οὐκοῦν ἀρετὴ μὲν ἑκάστη μήτηρ ἂν νοοῖτο, καὶ οἱονεί τις ἀρχὴ τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ τε καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀγαθῶν. Νοσσιαὶ δὲ ὥσπερ ἀρετῶν, αἱ ταύτας ὠδίνουσαι, καὶ ἐν σφίσιν αὐταῖς ἑλοῦσαι ψυχαί. Χρῆναι δὴ οὖν ἄρα φησὶν ὁ νόμος, τοὺς ἀνδράσι περιτυγχάνοντας, ἐν οἷς ἂν εἶεν ἀρεταὶ καθάπερ εἰς νοσσιὰν συγκεκομισμέναι, ποιεῖσθαι μὲν κέρδη τὰ ἐξ αὐτῶν, μὴ μὴν ἔτι κατασίνεσθαι φιλεῖν ἀρετὴν, τὴν τῶν ἀρίστων κατορθωμάτων μητέρα· ἀδικεῖται δὲ ἀρετὴ, κατασειομένη πρός τινος, κατά γε τοὺς ἤδη προειρημένους τρόπους.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς βαθὺ τὸ αἴνιγμα!
{ΚΥΡ.} Ναί· λέγεις ὀρθῶς. Ἀλλ', ἵνα τι φῶμεν ταῖς τοῦ μακαρίου Παύλου συμβαῖνον φωναῖς, «Μὴ τῶν στρουθίων μέλει τῷ Θεῷ; ἢ δι' ἡμᾶς πάντως λέγει;» τύπους γὰρ ἡμῖν πραγμάτων, οὐκ αὐτὰ σαφῶς ἐξηγεῖται τὰ πράγματα, τῆς διὰ Μωσέως ἐντολῆς ὁ λόγος· ἴδοις δ' ἂν, ὅπως ἡμᾶς καὶ εἰς τρόπους ἤδη τῆς ἀνωτάτω φιλαλληλίας ἀνακομίζει κατὰ βραχύ. Πειρᾶται γὰρ ἀναπείθειν, καὶ αὐτοὺς ἀγαπᾷν τοὺς προσκεκρουκότας, καὶ λύπης ἀμείνους ὁρᾶσθαι τῆς εἰς ἐχθροὺς, μὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ κακοῦ νικωμένους, νικῶντας δὲ μᾶλλον ἐν τῷ ἀγαθῷ τὸ κακόν. Ἔφη γὰρ πάλιν ἐν μὲν τῇ Ἐξόδῳ· «Ἐὰν δὲ συναντήσῃς τῷ βοῒ τοῦ ἐχθροῦ σου, ἢ τῷ ὑποζυγίῳ αὐτοῦ, πλανωμένοις ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, ἀποστρέψας ἀποδώσεις αὐτῷ· ἐὰν δὲ ἴδῃς τὸ ὑποζύγιον τοῦ ἐχθροῦ σου πεπτωκὸς ὑπὸ τὸν γόμον αὐτοῦ, οὐ παρελεύσῃ αὐτὸ, ἀλλὰ συνεγερεῖς αὐτὸ μετ' αὐτοῦ.» Ἐν δὲ τῷ Δευτερονομίῳ· «Μὴ ἰδὼν τὸν μόσχον τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου, ἢ τὸ πρόβατον αὐτοῦ, πλανώμενα ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ, ὑπερίδῃς αὐτά· ἀποστροφῇ ἀποστρέψεις αὐτὰ τῷ ἀδελφῷ σου· ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἐγγίζῃ ὁ
About this text
Cyril continues the dialogue with Palladius. Book 8 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 8 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 8)
- Checked print PDF of PG 68 De adoratione (Greek · Book 8)
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.