A pagan custom turned to good: hair as the fruit of the mind
Cyril: …prophet says: ‘For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their tendril from Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, theirs is a cluster of bitterness; their wine is the rage of dragons’ (Deuteronomy 32:32–33). And some others are said to give their neighbor a muddy draught that overturns him (Habakkuk 2:15). So the law shuts the mind of the consecrated away from everything apt to make it drunk. And it says, very rightly, that they must have no share in vinegar either; by vinegar, I think, it means pleasures that are against nature and perverted. It forbids the use of raisins and grape seeds, not allowing the mind to stoop in the least to the old remnants of the pleasures within us. Wine, then, and all that comes from it, has been condemned by the law for this reason, I think, and for no other. Next, what might the command to let the hair grow long for God mean? Come, let us explain it, once I have first stated one point ahead of the rest. The most senseless of the Greeks, following unnatural customs and living like irrational beasts, used to let their hair grow, claiming that they grew it for demons. One would cut it off for the mountain nymphs, another for a river, at set times; and this practice was a form of worship for them. But Moses in his great wisdom, or rather the all-wise God, the finest of craftsmen, through Moses, gave the Israelites laws of the same kind, since the error of Egypt was hard for them to wash away. He moved them little by little by means of their ancient habits and ways, so that they would no longer offer their reverence to demons, but to the God of all, by way of type and shadow. That is why he also laid down the laws about the sacrifices, and accepted the sacrifices of blood against his will. Indeed he said plainly through the voice of Isaiah: ‘For who required these things from your hands?’ (Isaiah 1:12). So among the Greeks the custom was utterly irrational; but the law teaches what is better, and by reason sets in good order even what seems pointless. Would you like us, as far as we can, to speak about each point in turn?
Palladius: Very much so.
Cyril: Or do you not know (for I will remind you) that the word made the head a type of the mind, as the mind’s dwelling place? For this is how the inspired Scripture takes it.
Palladius: I agree. What of it, then?
Cyril: This: hairs are the fruits of the head, and they spring up like shoots native to it; and thoughts, and all that comes from the mind, would in turn be the mind’s fruit, welling up in us in the same way, and adorning it, as it were, like a fine and flourishing head of hair. So we must not keep the mind within us bare and stripped of good thoughts, but rather teeming, as it were, and growing its hair long for God with an exact knowledge of every excellent thing. Through this knowledge it will search out the divine beauty itself, whatever it may be, and clearly survey the things hidden as in the depths, and grow rich in thoroughly sound reasoning, so as to be able to gain a wholly blameless knowledge of God and to walk a path entirely free from error: the path, I mean, toward all that is admirable. Or would you not say that such a person is already, in a way, speeding on to the portion…
Greek
προφήτης φησίν· «Ἐκ γὰρ ἀμπέλου Σοδόμων, ἡ ἄμπελος αὐτῶν, καὶ ἡ κληματὶς αὐτῶν ἐκ Γομόῤῥας, ἡ σταφυλὴ αὐτῶν, σταφυλὴ χολῆς, βότρυς πικρίας αὐτῶν, θυμὸς δρακόντων ὁ οἶνος αὐτῶν.» Ποτίζειν δὲ λέγονται καὶ ἕτεροί τινες τὸν πλησίον, ἀνατροπὴν θολεράν. Ἐξείργει δὴ οὖν παντὸς τοῦ καταμεθύσκειν εἰδότος τῶν ἡγιασμένων τὸν νοῦν. Καὶ μέν τοι καὶ ὄξους ἀμέτοχον εἶναι δεῖν εὖ μάλα φησὶν, ὄξος, οἶμαί που, τὰς παρὰ φύσιν τε καὶ ἐκτετραμμένας ὀνομάζων ἡδονάς. Σταφίδος δὲ καὶ γιγάρτων ἀπαγορεύει χρῆσιν, οὐδ' ὅσον εἰπεῖν εἰς ἀρχαῖα λείψανα τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν ἡδονῶν, καθικνεῖσθαί που τὸν νοῦν ἐφιείς. Οἶνος μὲν δὴ καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐξ αὐτοῦ διαβέβληνται νόμῳ, ταυτησὶ, καθάπερ ἐγᾦμαι, καὶ οὐχ ἑτέρας ἕνεκα τῆς αἰτίας. Τί δ' ἂν εἴη λοιπὸν καὶ τό γε δὴ χρῆναι μακρὰν τῷ Θεῷ καθεῖναι τὴν κόμην, φέρε δὴ λέγομεν, ἐκεῖνο τῶν ἄλλων προηγορευκότες. Ἑλλήνων μὲν γὰρ ἀνούστατοι παῖδες, ταῖς παρὰ φύσιν αὐτοῖς ἑπόμενοι συνηθείαις, καὶ κτηνῶν ἀλόγων διαβιοῦντες δίκην, ἀνίεσαν κόμην, δαιμονίοις αὐτὴν σκηπτόμενοι τρέφειν· καὶ ὁ μέν τις αὐτὴν νύμφαις ὀρειάσιν, ὁ δεῖνα δὲ αὖ ποταμῷ κατὰ καιροὺς ἀπεκείροντο· καὶ λατρείας ἦν τρόπος τὸ χρῆμα αὐτοῖς. Μωσῆς γε μὴν ὁ σοφώτατος, μᾶλλον δὲ διὰ Μωσέως ὁ πάνσοφός τε καὶ ἀριστοτέχνης Θεὸς, δυσαπόνιπτον ἔχουσι τοῖς ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ τὴν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ πλάνησιν, τὰ ἴσα νομοτεθεῖ, διὰ τῶν ἀρχαίων ἠθῶν τε καὶ τρόπων κατὰ βραχὺ μεθιστὰς, εἴς γε τὸ δαίμοσι μὲν οὐκέτι, Θεῷ δὲ τῷ πάντων, ὡς διὰ τύπου καὶ σκιᾶς, ἀνάπτειν τὸ σέβας. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ τοὺς περὶ τῶν θυσιῶν ἐτίθει νόμους, καὶ τὰς δι' αἵματος θυσίας ἀνεθελήτως ἐδέχετο. Καὶ γοῦν ἔφασκεν ἐναργῶς διὰ φωνῆς Ἡσαΐου, «Τίς γὰρ ἐξεζήτησε ταῦτα ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν ὑμῶν;» Οὐκοῦν συνήθεια μὲν ἀλογωτάτη παρ' Ἕλλησιν ἦν, διδάσκει δὲ τὰ ἀμείνω καὶ καταρυθμίζει λόγῳ πρὸς τὸ εὖ ἔχον ὁ νόμος, καὶ τὸ εἰκαῖον εἶναι δοκοῦν. Βούλει δὲ, ὡς ἔνι, καὶ τὰ ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ λέγωμεν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Μάλιστά γε.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἢ οὐκ οἶσθα, μεμνήσομαι γὰρ, εἰς νοῦ τύπον ὁ λόγος ἐτίθει τὴν κεφαλὴν, ὡς ἐνδιαίτημα νοῦ; Δέχεται γὰρ οὕτως ἡ θεόπνευστος Γραφή.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Σύμφημι· τί οὖν τοῦτό γε;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὅτι τρίχες μὲν, καρποὶ κεφαλῆς, καὶ ἐμφύτων βλαστημάτων ἀνίσχουσι δίκην· ἔννοιαί γε μὴν, καὶ τὰ ἐκ νοῦ πάντα, καρπὸς ἂν εἶεν αὖ νοῦ, νόμον ἡμῖν ἀναβρύουσαι, καὶ οἱονείπως αὐτῷ καλή τε καὶ εὐανθὴς ἐμπρέπουσα κόμη. Χρὴ τοιγαροῦν ἡμᾶς, οὐ γυμνὸν καὶ ἐψιλωμένον ἐννοιῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἔχειν τὸν νοῦν, ἀλλ' οἱονεὶ βρύοντα καὶ κομῶντα Θεῷ τὴν ὁτιοῦν τῶν ἀρίστων εἴδησιν ἀκριβῆ, δι' ἧς καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ θεῖον, ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστι, περιεργάσεται κάλλος, καὶ περιαθρήσει λαμπρῶς τὰ ὡς ἐν βάθει κεκρυμμένα, καὶ τοὺς τῆς ἄγαν ὀρθότητος καταπλουτήσει λόγους, ὡς ἀνυπαίτιον παντελῶς τὴν ἐπὶ Θεῷ δύνασθαι γνῶσιν ἑλεῖν, καὶ ἀπλανεστάτην ἰέναι τρίβον, τὴν ἐφ' ἅπασι λέγω τοῖς τεθαυμασμένοις. Ἢ οὐκ εἰς λῆξιν