If you do not know yourself — pasture goats
If you do not know yourself, O beautiful among women, go out and follow the tracks of the flocks, and pasture your goats. Knowledge of oneself is the way to God. She who does not know herself pastures among goats, not among sheep; she will not be on the right but on the left. Beautiful among women: the church among synagogues, or the soul among the world’s virtues.
Latin
Nisi cognoveris te, o pulchra inter mulieres, egredere et abi post vestigia gregum, et pasce haedos tuos. Cognitio sui via est ad Deum. Quae se nescit, inter haedos pascitur, non inter oves; a dextris non erit sed a sinistris. Pulchra inter mulieres: ecclesia inter synagogas, vel anima inter virtutes mundi.
About this text
Origen’s Commentary on the Song of Songs, Liber II (Rufinus’s Latin). Complete on this page: §§1–20.
English follows Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII (GCS 33, 1925), Rufinus’s Latin of Commentary Liber II. Lawson ACW 26 was not used as wording. This page is Liber II §§1–20 (closeout).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Baehrens, Origenes Werke VIII = GCS 33 (1925) (Latin · Commentary Liber II §§1–20)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.