The prostitute's wage and the price of a dog
Cyril: …woman who pays tribute among the daughters of Israel, and no man made to pay tribute among the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute or the price of a dog into the house of the Lord your God for any vow, for both are an abomination to the Lord your God’ (Deuteronomy 23:17–18).
Palladius: How severe the law is, and how very profitable!
Cyril: Well said, Palladius; you understand it rightly. And I think you would be still more astonished if you noticed that, by firmly checking the easy slide into pleasures, the law sends the lewd and unbridled man away. For see how it lays its charge both on those who wish to practice shameful defilement willingly and by their own choice, and also on those who are in the habit of bringing others down into it as if by compulsion. By what it says must not be done, it makes them safer, and leaves them hard put to find any word that could serve for their defense. For the charges are no longer charges of ignorance; from now on the indictment is one of carelessness and an unsubmissive mind.
Palladius: What do you mean?
Cyril: Do not some people go into fornication of their own accord? And do not women and youths who are willing to hire themselves out sell their bloom to the lusts of others?
Palladius: Yes.
Cyril: And again, are there not some who are overcome by shameful gain, who hand over to anyone who wants them their own maidservants, or such males as they may happen to have bought, and so the wretches collect money? Of them the prophet says: ‘And they sold the girls for wine, and drank’ (Joel 3:3). For it is true that some sink to such depths of wickedness and impurity that they impiously dare at times to levy tribute even on shameful things like these.
Palladius: I understand.
Cyril: So, then, those commit fornication willingly who, though they stand clear of the evil themselves, then go to it of their own judgment; but those who ‘pay tribute’ would be the ones who pay dues to others as if under compulsion, and gather the wages of lewdness for those who have bought them.
Palladius: You are right.
Cyril: The law, then, forbids the thing in every form. It declares unholy anyone convicted on this charge, shuts him out of the holy tent, and at once closes the divine altar to him, saying that his sacrifice will not be received and his vow will not be accepted. For it is true that vows paid from a prostitute’s hire are not pure (Proverbs 19:13, Septuagint). In the same way it makes the price of a dog hateful and most loathsome. By ‘dog’, I think, it means the man who is easily drawn into impurity and simply gives himself to anyone who approaches; and the ‘price of a dog’ is whatever may be offered to him in payment for himself. So let the law cry out: ‘There shall be no prostitute among the daughters of Israel, and no fornicator among the sons of Israel’ (Deuteronomy 23:17). And let the most wise Paul sound in harmony with it, crying aloud: ‘Flee… (1 Corinthians 6:18)
Greek
τελεσφόρος ἀπὸ θυγατέρων Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ οὐκ ἔσται τελισκόμενος ἀπὸ υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ· οὐ προσοίσεις μίσθωμα πόρνης, οὐδὲ ἄλλαγμα κυνὸς εἰς τὸν οἶκον Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ σου πρὸς πᾶσαν εὐχὴν, ὅτι βδέλυγμα Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ σού ἐστι καὶ ἀμφότερα.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς δριμὺς ὁ νόμος, καὶ τῶν ὅτι μάλιστα λυσιτελεστάτων!
{ΚΥΡ.} Εὖγε, ὦ Παλλάδιε· νοεῖς γὰρ ὀρθῶς. Κατατεθήποις γὰρ, οἶμαι, καὶ ἔτι μειζόνως, ἐννενοηκὼς ὅτι κατακωλύων εὖ μάλα τὸ λεῖον εἰς ἡδονὰς, τὸν ἀσελγῆ καὶ ἀκόλαστον ἀποπέμπεται. Θέα γὰρ ὅπως καὶ τοῖς ἑκούσιον καὶ αὐθαίρετον ἐπιτηδεύειν ἐθέλουσι τὸν ἐπ' αἰσχρότητι μολυσμὸν, καὶ μέν τοι καὶ τοῖς εἰς τοῦτο κατακομίζειν εἰωθόσιν ὡς ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἑτέρους, ἐπισκήπτων ὁρᾶται, καὶ δι' ὧν ἀποφάσκει τὸ χρῆναι δρᾷν, ἀσφαλεστέρους ἀποτελεῖ, καὶ δυσεύρετον αὐτοῖς τὸν ταῖς ἀπολογίαις ἐξαρκεῖν ἰσχύοντα λόγον κατασκευάζει. Οὐ γὰρ ἀγνοίας ἔτι τὰ ἐγκλήματα, ῥᾳθυμίας δὲ λοιπὸν καὶ ἀνυποτάκτου φρενὸς ἡ γραφή.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς ἔφης;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐ γὰρ αὐτόκλητοί τινες ἐπὶ τὸ πορνεύειν ἴασι, καὶ μισθαρνεῖν ἐθέλοντα γύναιά τε καὶ μειράκια, ταῖς τινων ἀκρασίαις καταπιπράσκει τὴν ὥραν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ναί.
{ΚΥΡ.} Τί δέ; οὐκ αἰσχρῶν λημμάτων ἡττῶνταί τινες, καὶ προσθέντες τοῖς ἐθέλουσι τὰς σφῶν θεραπαίνας, ἤγουν τῶν ἀῤῥένων, οὓς ἂν ἐκπρίαιντο τυχὸν, ἀργυρολογοῦσιν οἱ δείλαιοι; περὶ ὧν καὶ ὁ προφήτης φησίν· «Καὶ τὰ κοράσια ἐπώλουν ἀντὶ οἴνου, καὶ ἔπινον.» Ἀληθὲς γὰρ ὅτι πρὸς τοῦτο φαυλότητος καὶ ἀκαθαρσίας μέτρον καθικνοῦνταί τινες, ὡς ἀνοσίως ἀποτολμᾷν δασμολογεῖν ἔσθ' ὅτε καὶ τὰ τοιάδε τῶν αἰσχρῶν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Συνίημι.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν πορνεύουσι μὲν ἑκουσίως, οἱ μὲν, τὸ αὐτοὶ ἔξω φέρεσθαι τοῦ κακοῦ, εἶτα πρὸς τοῦτο ἰόντες ἰδιογνωμόνως· τελεσφόροι γε μὴν εἶεν ἂν, οἱ φόρους τελοῦντες ὡς ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἑτέροις, καὶ τὰ ἐκ τῆς ἀσελγείας μισθώματα τοῖς πριαμένοις συλλέγοντες.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὀρθῶς ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀποφάσκει δὴ οὖν ὁ νόμος τὸ χρῆμα πανταχῆ, καὶ ἀνόσιον ποιεῖται τὸν ἐναλόντα γραφῇ, ἔξω τε εἴργει σκηνῆς ἱερὰς, καὶ ἀπρόσιτον αὐτῷ τὸ θεῖον εὐθὺς ἀποφαίνει θυσιαστήριον, ἀπαράδεκτον ἔσεσθαι τὸ θύμα λέγων, καὶ ἀπρόσδεκτον τὴν εὐχήν. Ἀληθὲς γὰρ, ὅτι οὐχ ἁγναὶ εὐχαὶ ἀπὸ μισθώματος πόρνης. Ἐν ἴσῳ δὲ τρόπῳ στυγητὸν ποιεῖται καὶ βδελυρώτατον τὸ ἄλλαγμα τοῦ κυνός· κύνα δὲ, οἶμαι, φησὶ, τὸν εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν εὔκολον, καὶ τοῖς προσιοῦσιν ἁπλῶς ἐγκείμενον· ἄλλαγμα δὲ κυνὸς, τὸ αὐτῷ τυχὸν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ προσαγόμενον. Ἐπιφωνείτω δὴ οὖν ὁ νόμος· «Οὐκ ἔσται πόρνη ἀπὸ θυγατέρων Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ οὐκ ἔσται πορνεύων ἀπὸ Υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ.» Ὁ δέ γε σοφώτατος Παῦλος συνηχείτω βοῶν· «Φεύγετε