Homily II — Not a goddess but the Mother of God
Come then, let us too keep today a feast of departure for the Mother of God. We do not bring flutes and Corybants, nor do we celebrate the rites of the mother of the falsely named gods, as they themselves call her, whom fools make out in their myths to be the mother of many children, but whom the word of truth shows to be childless. These are demons and shadowy phantoms, idly playing the part of what they are not by nature, who have found an ally in the folly of those who are led astray. For how does what is bodiless beget by coupling? In what way will it mingle? And how is that a god which did not exist before but is brought into being? For it is surely plain to everyone, even to those who are blind in the eyes of the mind, that the race of demons is bodiless.
For Homer said somewhere in his poems, describing the condition of the gods worthy of him: "They eat no wheat, they drink no gleaming wine; therefore they are bloodless, and are called immortals." They do not eat grain, he says, they do not drink wine that warms; for this reason they are bloodless, that is, they have no blood, and are named immortal. He was truly apt in saying "are called". For they are called immortal, but they are not what they are called: they have died the death of wickedness.
But we, for whom the one we worship is God, God who did not come into being out of what was not, but who always is, from him who always is, beyond cause and reason and thought, beyond time and nature, honour and revere the Mother of God. We do not ascribe to her the timeless birth of his Godhead, for the birth of God the Word is timeless and co-eternal with the Father; but we confess a second birth, by his voluntary incarnation, and we both know and declare its cause. For he who is without beginning and bodiless becomes flesh for us and for our salvation, so that he might save like by like; and becoming flesh from this holy Virgin, he is born without coupling, himself remaining wholly God and becoming wholly man, the same wholly God with his flesh and wholly man with his transcendent Godhead. So, knowing this Virgin to be Mother of God, we celebrate her falling asleep, not proclaiming her a goddess (away with such fables, the trickery of the pagans!), since we also proclaim her death, but knowing her to be the Mother of God made flesh.
Greek
Δεῦτε τοιγαροῦν, καὶ ἡμεῖς σήμερον ἑορτὴν ἐξόδιον τῇ Μητρὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἑορτάσωμεν, οὐκ αὐλούς τινας καὶ κορύβαντας φέροντες, καὶ τὰ τῆς μητρὸς τῶν ψευδωνύμων θεῶν, ὡς αὐτοὶ λέγουσι, θιασεύοντες ὄργια, ἣν πολύτεκνον μυθοπλαστοῦσιν οἱ ἄφρονες, ὁ δὲ τῆς ἀληθείας λόγος παρίστησιν ἄτεκνον. Οἷα δαίμονες ταῦτα καὶ σκιώδη φαντάσματα, ὃ μὴ πεφύκασιν εἰκαίως ὑποκρινόμενοι, τῶν πλανωμένων τὴν ἄνοιαν ἐσχηκότες ἐπίκουρον. Γεννᾷ γὰρ πῶς ἐκ συνδυασμοῦ τὸ ἀσώματον; καὶ τίνα τρόπον μιχθήσεται; καὶ πῶς Θεὸς τὸ μὴ ὂν μὲν πρότερον, πρὸς δὲ γένεσιν παραγόμενον; Ὅτι γὰρ ἀσώματον τὸ δαιμόνιον φῦλον, παντί που δῆλον, καὶ αὐτοῖς τοῖς τὰ νοητὰ τυφλώττουσιν ὄμματα. Ἔφη γάρ που τῶν ἑαυτοῦ λόγων ὁ Ὅμηρος, τῶν ἀξίων αὐτοῦ θεῶν ὑφηγούμενος τὴν κατάστασιν· Οὐ πυρὸν ἐσθίουσιν, οὐ πίνουσιν αἴθοπα οἶνον, Τοὔνεκ' ἀναίμονές εἰσι, καὶ ἀθάνατοι καλέονται. Οὐ σῖτον ἐσθίουσι, φησὶν, οὐ τὸν θερμαντικὸν οἶνον πίνουσι. Τούτου χάριν ἀναίμονές εἰσι, τουτέστιν αἷμα οὐκ ἔχουσι, καὶ ἀθάνατοι ὀνομάζονται. Καιρίως ὡς ἀληθῶς ἔφη τὸ, καλέονται. Ἀθάνατοι γὰρ καλοῦνται· οὐκ εἰσὶ δὲ τοῦθ' ὅπερ καλοῦνται· τὸν γὰρ τῆς κακίας τεθνήκασι θάνατον. Ἡμεῖς δὲ οἷς Θεός ἐστι τὸ λατρευόμενον, Θεὸς οὐκ ἐκ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι παραγενόμενος, ἀλλ' ἀεὶ ὢν ἐκ τοῦ ἀεὶ ὄντος ὑπὲρ αἰτίαν, καὶ λόγον, καὶ ἔννοιαν καὶ χρόνου, καὶ φύσεως, Μητέρα Θεοῦ τιμῶμεν καὶ σέβομεν, οὐ τῆς αὐτοῦ θεότητος ἐξ αὐτῆς τὴν ἄχρονον ὑπογράφοντες γέννησιν· ἡ γὰρ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου γέννησις ἄχρονός τε καὶ τῷ Πατρὶ συναΐδιος· δευτέραν δὲ καθομολογοῦμεν γέννησιν, καθ' ἑκούσιον σάρκωσιν, τὴν ταύτης αἰτίαν, καὶ εἰδότες, καὶ φάσκοντες. Σαρκοῦται γὰρ ὁ ὢν ἀνάρχως ἀσώματος, δι' ἡμᾶς, καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν, ἵνα τῷ ὁμοίῳ τὸν ὅμοιον διασώσηται· καὶ σαρκούμενος ἐκ ταύτης τῆς ἱερᾶς Παρθένου ἀσυνδυάστως τίκτεται, αὐτὸς μένων ὅλος Θεὸς, καὶ ὅλος γινόμενος ἄνθρωπος, αὐτὸς ὅλος Θεὸς μετὰ τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ ὅλος ἄνθρωπος μετὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ ὑπερθέου θεότητος. Οὕτω Θεοῦ Μητέρα τὴν Παρθένον ταύτην γινώσκοντες, τὴν ταύτης πανηγυρίζομεν κοίμησιν, οὐ Θεὸν ταύτην φημίζοντες· ἄπαγε, τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς τερθρείας τὰ τοιαῦτα μυθεύματα· ἐπεὶ καὶ θάνατον αὐτῆς καταγγέλλομεν· ἀλλὰ σαρκωθέντος Θεοῦ Μητέρα γινώσκοντες.