Keep clean company; unclean birds as manner-images
Cyril: ...more safely with the more fair ones. For it has been written: 'The one going-with wise ones will be wise; and the one going-with foolish ones will be known.' (Proverbs 13:20) And Paul also writes: 'If someone being named a brother is greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a plunderer, with such a one not even to eat-with.' (1 Corinthians 5:11)
Palladius: You spoke well; for at least the matter is not unbeneficial unto help.
Cyril: So then about swimming ones and the in the waters these things the law toward us riddlingly. And as it were widening for us the setting-beside of the examples, he brings-on upon the herds of winged ones saying: 'And these you will abominate from the birds, and it will not be eaten; an abomination it is; the eagle and the griffin, and the sea-eagle, and the vulture, and the kite, and the like to it, and sparrow, and owl, and gull, and the like to it, and every raven and the like to it, and hawk and the like to it, and night-raven, and diver, and ibis, and purple-gallinule, and pelican, and swan, and heron, and plover and the like to it, and hoopoe, and bat, and all the creeping of the winged ones which walk upon four, abominations they are for you. But these you will eat from the creeping of the winged ones which walk upon four, which have legs higher than their feet to leap in them upon the earth: the locust and the like, the bald-locust and the like, the serpent-fighter and the like, and the grasshopper and the like. Every creeping from the winged ones for which there are four feet, abominations they are for you, and in these you will be defiled. Everyone touching their carcasses will be unclean until evening.' (Leviticus 11:13–24) So then is the mind of the having-been-said clear for you?
Palladius: Least at least.
Cyril: Or do you not perceive thereafter that in equal to the others, images of customs and differences of manners would be the natural own things of each of the having-been-named?
Palladius: How did you speak?
Cyril: Do you wish we speak part by part, having distinguished each finely?
Palladius: Very much
Greek
ἐπιεικεστέροις ἀσφαλές. Γέγραπται γὰρ «Ὁ συμπορευόμενος σοφοῖς, σοφὸς ἔσται· ὁ δὲ συμπορευόμενος ἄφροσι, γνωσθήσεται.» Γράφει δὲ καὶ ὁ Παῦλος· «Ἐάν τις ἀδελφὸς ὀνομαζόμενος πλεονέκτης, ἢ εἰδωλολάτρης, ἢ λοίδορος, ἢ μέθυσος, ἢ ἅρπαξ, τῷ τοιούτῳ μηδὲ συνεσθίειν.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ ἔφης· τὸ γάρ τοι χρῆμά ἐστιν οὐκ ἀσυντελὲς εἰς ὄνησιν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Νηκτῶν μὲν δὴ πέρι καὶ τῶν ἐν τοῖς ὕδασι ταυτὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς αἰνιγματωδῶς ὁ νόμος. Κατευρύνων δὲ ὥσπερ τῶν παραδειγμάτων ἡμῖν τὴν παράθεσιν, ἐπὶ τὰς πτηνῶν ἀγέλας ἐπιφέρει λέγων· «Καὶ ταῦτα βδελύξεσθε ἀπὸ τῶν πετεινῶν, καὶ οὐ βρωθήσεται· βδέλυγμά ἐστι· τὸν ἀετὸν καὶ τὸν γρύπα, καὶ τὸν ἁλιαίετον, καὶ τὸν γύπα, καὶ τὸν ἰκτῖνον, καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ, καὶ στρουθὸν, καὶ γλαῦκα, καὶ λάρον, καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ, καὶ πάντα κόρακα καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ, καὶ ἱέρακα καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ, καὶ νυκτικόρακα, καὶ καταράκτην, καὶ ἴβιν, καὶ πορφυρίωνα, καὶ πελεκᾶνα, καὶ κύκνον, καὶ ἐρωδιὸν, καὶ χαράδριον καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ, καὶ ἔποπα, καὶ νυκτερίδα, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἑρπετὰ τῶν πετεινῶν, ἃ πορεύεται ἐπὶ τέσσαρα, βδελύγματά ἐστιν ὑμῖν. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα φάγεσθε ἀπὸ τῶν ἑρπετῶν τῶν πετεινῶν, ἃ πορεύεται ἐπὶ τέσσαρα, ἃ ἔχει σκέλη ἀνώτερον τῶν ποδῶν αὐτῶν, πηδᾷν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καὶ ταῦτα φάγεσθε ἀπ' αὐτῶν, τὸν βροῦχον καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ, καὶ τὸν ἀττάκην καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ, καὶ ὀφιομάχην καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ, καὶ τὴν ἀκρίδα καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῇ. Πᾶν ἑρπετὸν ἀπὸ τῶν πετεινῶν, οἷς εἰσι τέσσαρες πόδες, βδελύγματά ἐστιν ὑμῖν, καὶ ἐν τούτοις μιανθήσεσθε. Πᾶς ὁ ἁπτόμενος τῶν θνησιμαίων αὐτῶν, ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται ἕως ἑσπέρας.» Ἆρά σοι σαφὴς τῶν εἰρημένων ὁ νοῦς;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἥκιστά γε.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἢ οὐκ αἰσθάνῃ λοιπὸν, ὡς ἐν ἴσῳ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἠθῶν εἶεν ἂν εἰκόνες καὶ τρόπων διαφοραὶ, τὰ ἑκάστου τῶν ὠνομασμένων ἴδια φυσικῶς;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς ἔφης;
{ΚΥΡ.} Βούλει λέγωμεν ἀνὰ μέρος, ἕκαστα λεπτῶς διακρίναντες;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἀποφάσκει τοίνυν ὁ νόμος τὸν ἀετὸν καὶ τὸν γρύπα, καὶ τὸν ἁλιαίετον, καὶ μέντοι τὸν γύπα· διίπταται γὰρ τὰ τοιάδε ὑψοῦ, καὶ τοῖς ἀνωτάτω λίαν ἐναβρύνεσθαι φιλεῖ, καὶ μισεῖ τὰ κάτω· «Νεοσσοὶ γὰρ,» φησὶ, «γυπὸς τὰ ὑψηλὰ πέτονται.» Τοιουτοσί πως δὲ ὁ ἀλαζὼν καὶ ἐξωφρυωμένος ἄγαν, καὶ ἐπηρμένον ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸν νοῦν ἔχων, καὶ τοῦ μὲν ἐπιεικοῦς καὶ μετρίου φρονήματος ὑπερορᾷν εἰθισμένος, ἥκιστά γε ἀγαπῶν τοῖς ταπεινοῖς συναπάγεσθαι. Συγκαταψέγει δὲ τούτοις τὸν ἰκτῖνα, καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ, καὶ κόρακα καὶ τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ, δι' ὧν εὖ μάλα σημαίνεται, τό γε ἁρπάζειν εἰδὸς, καὶ δεινὸν εἰς κακουργίαν ἀνθρώπων γένος· καὶ τοῦ μὲν πρώτου τύπος ὁ ἰκτῖνος, θατέρου γε μὴν, ὁ μελάντατος καὶ βαθύς. Σκοτεινοὶ δέ πως καὶ οὐχ ἅπασιν ἐναργεῖς, οἱ δρι
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.