The Instructor (Paedagogus) 1 part 14/15

And to confess oneself less adorned and inferior to a nugget of Lydian gold—how is this not utterly absurd? Just as gold, too, is defiled by the filth of the swine when it stirs up the refuse with its snout, so the more luxurious women, lifted up by their abundance to be wanton, outrage true beauty with the defilements of lust.

He gives them, then, a ring of gold, and even this not for adornment, but for the sealing-up of the household things worth guarding, by reason of the care of housekeeping.

For if all were under instruction, there would be no need of seals at all, since the righteous, the servants, and the masters would be on an equal footing;

but since lack of instruction gives much impetus toward injustice, we have had need of seals.

But there is an occasion for slackening the tension.

For there are times when one must show indulgence to women who have not been fortunate in a chaste marriage and who adorn themselves for their husbands' sake, to please them.

But let this limit be set upon them: that their ambition be directed toward their own husbands alone.

I, for my part, would not have wished them to cultivate bodily comeliness, but rather to win over those who have married them by chaste love of their husbands—a forceful and just remedy;

but nevertheless, since they wish their souls to be ill-fated, let this be set before them, if at least they are willing to be self-controlled: gently to soothe the irrational impulses and desires of the men;

and they are to lead them gently toward simplicity, by little and little, by the habituation toward greater self-control.

For dignified deportment is achieved not by the addition of what is burdensome, but by the removal of what is superfluous.

Just as one clips wing-feathers, then, the luxurious wealth of women must be clipped—wealth that engenders unstable looseness and empty pleasures, lifted up and feathered by which they often fly away from their marriages.

Wherefore one must draw the women in with seemliness and gird them about with chaste modesty, lest they slip away from the truth through looseness.

It is well, then, for husbands who trust their wives to entrust to them the keeping of the house, since they have been given as helpers toward this.

But if it should be necessary for us also, while engaged in civic affairs and managing certain other matters in the country, and often being away from our wives, to seal up something for safety's sake, He gives to us also a signet for this purpose alone; but the other rings must be cast away, since, according to the Scripture, "a gold ornament is instruction to the prudent."

And the women who wear gold seem to me to be afraid lest, if anyone should take away their gold from them, they should be reckoned slaves, being unadorned.

But the nobility of truth, examined in the natural beauty according to the soul, has distinguished the slave not by buying and selling, but by the servile disposition; and it befits us not to appear free, but to be free, who are instructed by God and adopted as God's own.

Wherefore one must take up in standing and movement and gait and clothing, and in one's whole life in a word, that which is as free as can be.

But moreover the ring is not to be worn by men on the joint—for that is womanish—but on the little finger, and it should be let down to the very tip of this;

for thus will the hand be efficient in those things for which we need it;

and the signet will not easily fall off, being held in place by the greater girth of the joint.

And let our seals be a dove, or a fish, or a ship running before the wind, or a musical lyre, which Polycrates used, or a ship's anchor, which Seleucus had engraved on his graving, and if anyone be a fisherman, he will call to mind the apostle and the children drawn up out of the water;

for one must not engrave the faces of idols, on which to fix one's gaze is even forbidden, nor a sword or a bow for those who pursue peace, nor drinking-cups for those who are self-controlled.

...so that there might never be able to arise in them a forgetting of amorous passions, on account of the continual reminder of licentiousness.

Concerning hair, the matter seems to him thus:

let the head of men be close-cropped, unless one has curly hair, but let the chin be shaggy with beard; and let the curling locks of hair upon the head not come down too far, sliding into womanish tresses;

for a fine beard suffices for men.

And if anyone should trim somewhat of the beard, he must by no means shave it off entirely;

for the sight is shameful, and the cropping of the beard close to the skin is condemned, bordering on plucking and smoothness.

At any rate the Psalmist, delighting in the hair of the beard, says "like the ointment that comes down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron";

by the refrain of the "beard" he extolled the comely face, and with the ointment of the Lord he made it glisten.

And since the cutting of hair is to be undertaken not for the sake of beautification but on account of circumstance, the hairs of the head, lest, growing long, they should impede the eyes as they come down, and perhaps those upon the moustache, which become soiled at meals, must be cut round—not with a razor, for that is ignoble, but with the two barbers' scissors—while those of the beard, causing no annoyance, are not to be meddled with, since they engender in the face a dignity that is productive of awe;

and the very appearance keeps many in check, so that they do not sin, because of its readiness to be detected; whereas for those who wish to sin not openly, an appearance that is concealing and not conspicuous is most delightful, under which, having sunk out of sight, those who can err through obscurity, being assimilated to the many, reap the freedom of sinning fearlessly.

Not only, then, does the closely-cropped head show the man to be austere, but it also renders the skull resistant to suffering, accustoming it to commune with both cold and heat, and it wards off the harms that come from these, which the hair, taking up into itself after the manner of a sponge, fixes upon the brain as a lasting harm from the moisture.

For women it suffices to soften the hair and to bind up the locks simply with some plain pin at the nape, fostering with unaffected care the self-controlled tresses, increasing them toward genuine beauty.

For the harlot-like twistings of the hair and the bindings of the tresses, besides making the women hideous, cut the hair, plucking it out with the cunning braidings, on account of which they do not even touch their own heads, fearing to disorder the hair, and even sleep comes to them with dread, lest they should unawares spoil the arrangement of the braid.

And the adding-on of others' hair is to be utterly cast out, and to deck the head with alien tresses is most godless, clothing the skull with dead locks;

for upon whom shall the elder lay his hand? Whom shall he bless? Not the adorned woman, but the alien hair, and through it another head.

But if the head of the woman is the man, and of the man is Christ, how is it not impious for them to fall into a twofold sin? For they deceive the men, their husbands, through the substitution of the hair, and they shame the Lord—as far as in them lies—by adorning themselves like harlots, to the deceiving of truth, and they blaspheme that head which is truly the beautiful one.

Therefore neither is the hair to be dyed, nor are the grey hairs to be coloured over;

for it has not been permitted even to variegate one's clothing.

And especially the venerableness of age, and that which is worthy of trust, is not to be hidden, but the dignity is to be displayed beneath the rays of God, for the reverence of the young;

for indeed, at times when men are behaving shamelessly, the appearance of grey hair, standing by like an instructor, has transformed them toward self-control and has overawed the youthfulness of lust by the brightness of its aspect.

But neither must the faces be smeared by the women with the tricks of crafty cleverness;

rather, let us show them a self-controlled art of beautifying:

a soul inspired by the Holy Spirit and by the radiances breathed forth from Him—righteousness, prudence, courage, self-control, love of the good, and modesty—than which no more flowering colour has ever yet been beheld.

Then let bodily beauty also be cultivated—symmetry of limbs and parts together with good colour.

The art of beautifying that belongs to health is here well-placed, by which there comes about the transition from the false, plastered-on idol to the true, according to the form given by God.

And a powerful means of adorning according to nature is the good blending of drink and the due measure of food.

For from these the body gains not only health, but also a beauty that shines forth.

For from the fiery element come brightness and luster; from the moist, radiance and grace; from the dry, manliness and firmness; from the airy, ease of breathing and equilibrium—out of which this well-proportioned and beautiful statue of reason is fashioned.

Beauty is the free-born flower of health.

For health works within the body, while beauty, blossoming outward upon the body, displays a manifest good complexion.

The finest and most healthful regimens, by working hard upon the bodies, produce genuine and lasting beauty, the heat drawing to itself all the moisture and the cold breath.

The heat, fanned into a drawing power by motions, attracts to itself.

And when it has drawn it in, being gently warmed, it vaporizes through the very flesh the surplus that comes from food—the moisture being moderate, but the heat being in excess.

Thus also the earlier food is voided.

But in a motionless body the food eaten does not take hold, but falls away, as bread from a cold oven, either whole or with only the bottom crust remaining.

Reasonably, then, in such people the excretions—urine and excrement—abound; and their other waste matter likewise abounds, and sweat besides, since the nourishment is not distributed to the body but is poured out into the superfluities.

From this source also lusts arise, the surplus flowing toward the organs of generation.

Therefore this superfluity must be melted away by moderate exercise and diffused into digestion, through which beauty takes on its ruddy bloom.

But it is absurd that those made after the image and likeness of God should, as if dishonoring the archetype, bring in foreign arts of adornment, choosing human bad craftsmanship in preference to the divine workmanship.

The Instructor bids the women to come forward in orderly attire, to adorn themselves with modesty and self-control, being subject to their own husbands; so that even if some disobey the word, they may be won without a word through the conduct of the women, when they observe (he says) your chaste conduct in reverence.

Their adornment let it be not the outward braiding of hair and putting on of gold or wearing of fine clothing, but the hidden person of the heart in the incorruptibility of a meek and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.

And handiwork of their own most of all brings to women genuine beauty, exercising their bodies and adorning themselves by their own efforts—not presenting an adornment labored over by others, unseemly, ignoble, and meretricious, but the kind that every chaste woman fashions and weaves by her own hands, especially when there is need.

For it never befits women who order their life according to God to be seen adorned with things bought from the market, but with their own household works.

For a most beautiful work is a housekeeping woman who clothes herself and her husband in her own adornments, by which all rejoice—the children in their mother, the husband in his wife, she herself in these, and all in God.

Wisely and lawfully (does she live), whose children, rising up, called her blessed, as the holy Word says through Solomon, and her husband praised her.

For a godly woman is blessed; and let her praise the fear of the Lord.

A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband.

Most of all must their bearing and looks and gait and voices be corrected.

For not, as some women do—emulating the playacting of comedy and imitating the lewd movements of dancers—must they go play-acting in company, with those very soft motions and languid steps and affected voices, casting limp glances about, decked out as a bait for pleasure.

For honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season smooths your throat with flattering speech; but afterward you will find it more bitter than gall and sharper than a two-edged sword.

For the feet of folly lead those who consort with her down to Hades with death.

Samson, at any rate, that hero, the harlot overcame; and another woman shore off his hair.

But not so did another woman deceive Joseph; rather the Egyptian harlot was overcome, and self-control, receiving bonds, is shown to be mightier than unbound license.

That saying too might be applied here most aptly.

On the whole I do not know how to whisper, nor, twisting my neck sideways in an effeminate way, to walk about, as I see many others—catamites here in the city—do, smeared with pitch.

And womanish motions, soft luxuries, and daintiness must be utterly lopped off.

For the daintiness of motion in walking, and "to step mincingly," as Anacreon says, is altogether the mark of a harlot, as it seems to me.

Comedy says that the footprints of harlots leave behind their bloom and luxury.

But the footsteps of a harlot are not planted toward truth.

For she does not tread the ways of life; her tracks are slippery and not easily known.

Most of all must the eyes be guarded, since it is better to slip with the feet than with the eyes.

The Lord, at least, most concisely heals this affliction, saying, "If your eye causes you to stumble, cut it out," rooting out desire from its very foundations.

Loose glances and ogling—which is to blink through the eyes—are nothing other than to commit adultery through the eyes, desire shooting out its darts through them.

For before the whole body, the eyes are corrupted.

"The eye, beholding good things, gladdens the heart"—that is, having learned to behold rightly, it gladdens; but "he who winks the eye with deceit gathers griefs for men."

Such, somewhat, do they bring on the scene the effeminate Sardanapalus, king of the Assyrians, seated on a couch with legs drawn up, carding purple wool and rolling up the whites of his eyes.

Women who practice these things prostitute themselves by their very looks.

"For the eye is the lamp of the body," says the Scripture, through which the inner things are made manifest, illumined by the light that shines.

And a woman's whoredom is in the lifting up of the eyes.

"Put to death, then, your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which the wrath of God comes"—so the Apostle cries; but we rekindle the passions and are not ashamed.

Some of them, chewing mastic, go about grinning at passersby; others, as if they had no fingers, fuss over their heads with pins carried by their attendants, scratching themselves daintily, and they make a great to-do over whether these are made of tortoiseshell or ivory or some other dead animal.

Others, as if they had certain eruptions, for the sake of seemliness to onlookers, adorning themselves with floral-colored cosmetics, stain their own faces.

Such a woman, foolish and brazen, Solomon describes, who knows no shame.

(She calls) to those who pass by on the way, who make straight their own paths—evidently speaking through her appearance and her whole manner of life, saying:

"Whoever among you is most foolish, let him turn aside to me."

And to those lacking in understanding she gives this exhortation, saying:

"Touch hidden bread with delight, and the sweetness of stolen water"—by which she means this thievish Aphrodite.

Drawing from this, the Boeotian Pindar says, "something sweet, the stolen care of Cypris."

But the wretch does not know that earth-born ones perish in her house, and he meets at the very precipice of Hades.

"But leap away," he says—the Instructor—"do not linger in the place, nor fix your eye upon her."

"For so you will pass over alien water and cross beyond Acheron."

On account of this, thus says the Lord through Isaiah:

"Because the daughters of Zion walked with lofty neck and with winking of eyes, and as they went, trailing their tunics and playing with their feet, therefore God will humble the daughters of Zion and uncover their figure"—their unseemly figure.

For my part, I do not think it right even for the maidservants on the left of the ladies, or those who follow them, to use foul language or do foul deeds, but to be brought to chastity by their mistresses.

Very censoriously, at any rate, the comic poet Philemon says:

"Going out behind a freeborn woman, I see only a single fair maidservant following behind, and someone of the Plataean sort accompanying her, ogling her."

For the licentiousness of the maidservant rebounds upon the mistress, giving a foothold to those who make attempts—the lesser leading to no caution about the greater—since by condoning shameful things the mistress shows that she does not condemn them.

And not to be indignant at those who behave licentiously becomes a clear proof of a mind turning aside to the like.

"For as the mistress is," say the proverb-makers, "such also is the bitch."

We must reject also the frenzy of gait, and choose the dignified and unhurried—not the dawdling walk, nor swaggering in the streets and, throwing back the head, eyeing askance the passersby to see whether they are looking at one, as though parading on a stage and being pointed at with the finger.

Nor ought a healthy man to be turned about by his servants pushing him toward the upturned posture, as we see the more luxurious do, who think themselves robust but are in truth softened by spiritual effeminacy.

Of a noble man there should be no conspicuous sign of softness in the face, nor indeed in any other part of the body.

Let the unseemliness of unmanliness never, then, be found either in his motions or in his postures.

Nor indeed should the healthy man use his servants like beasts of burden.

For as it is enjoined upon them to be subject in all fear to their masters—not only to the good and gentle, but also to the perverse, as Peter says—so equity and longsuffering and kindness are fitting for the masters.

"For the end," he says, "(let all be) of one mind, sympathetic, loving the brethren, tenderhearted, humble-minded," and what follows upon these, "that you may inherit a blessing."

Zeno of Citium seems to sketch a certain fair and lovely image for a young man, and thus he sculpts him:

"Let the face," he says, "be clean, the brow neither lowered nor the eye wide open or languid; the neck not thrown back, nor the limbs of the body slack, but the upper parts like things taut; an upright keenness of mind toward reason, and a firm grasp of what is rightly said; and gestures and motions that give no hope to the licentious."

Let modesty and manliness bloom upon him.

Let there be banished, too, the idle lounging about perfume-shops and goldsmiths' and wool-shops, and the loafing about the other workshops, where, decked out like harlots, just as those who sit upon the rooftops, they pass their whole days.

Let those who waste their time in taverns chattering with idle babblers, prattling and hunting after the women who pass by, at last cease.

And many do not even cease from blaspheming so as to raise a laugh.

Moreover, the game played with dice must be forbidden, and likewise the practice of covetousness through knucklebones, which they love to handle.

Such things does the unmeasured indulgence of luxury devise for them, as they spend their idleness ill.

And one falls in love with vain things, which lie outside the truth.

For it is not possible in any other way to gain delight of soul without harm.

And the choice of life is an imitation of each man's disposition.

But, as it seems, only intercourse with good men is beneficial.

Conversely, then, recognizing as swinish the living together with base men, the all-wise Instructor, through Moses, forbade the elder people to partake of swine's flesh, signifying that those who call upon God must not mingle with unclean men, who, like swine, take pleasure in bodily and dirty pleasures, in foods, and in lewd titillations, itching toward Aphrodite and mischievous pleasure.

But neither the kite nor the swift-winged griffon-vulture nor the eagle is one to eat, he says—"You shall not draw near," meaning, to those who procure their living by rapine.

And the other things likewise are allegorized.

With whom, then, should one keep company? With the righteous, he says, again allegorizing.

"For everything that parts the hoof and chews the cud is clean"—because the parting of the hoof signifies the balanced righteousness which ruminates upon its own food proper to righteousness, namely the Word, which enters from outside, like food, through catechesis, and is sent up again from within, as from the belly of the understanding, unto rational recollection.

And the righteous man ruminates the spiritual food, having the Word in his mouth, and righteousness parts the hoof fittingly, here sanctifying and conveying us over into the age to come.

The Instructor, then, will not lead us even to the shows; and not unfittingly might one call the stadia and theaters "the seat of pestilences."

For there too the counsel is wicked, as also against the righteous one, wherefore the assembly that gathers against him is accursed.

These assemblies, at any rate, are full of much disorder and lawlessness, and the pretexts for the gathering are a cause of unseemliness, men and women coming together promiscuously to gaze upon one another.

Here at once the assembly grows insolent.

For when the sight grows greedy, the appetites are warmed, and the eyes, accustomed to look more boldly at those nearby because they have leisure granted them, inflame the erotic desires.

Let the shows, then, and the recitals, which are full of buffoonery and much idle gossip, be forbidden.

For what shameful deed is not displayed in the theaters? What shameless word do the jesters not bring forth? Those who have feasted on the vice in them clearly take impressions of it home, while, on the contrary, those who are unbewitched and unaffected by these things would never slip into easygoing pleasures.

For even if they say the shows are taken up in the way of play, for delight of soul, I would not say that those cities are sober-minded which take their play in earnest.

For ambitions, pitiless to the point of dealing death, are no longer mere play, nor are the empty zeals and unreasoning rivalries, and besides these the vain squandering of substance, nor indeed are the factions over these things any longer play.

And idleness should never be bought at the price of vain seriousness.

For the man who has sense would never choose the more pleasant in preference to the better.

"But not all of us," someone says, "are philosophers."

Do we not, then, all pursue life? What do you mean? How, then, have you believed? And how do you still love God and your neighbor, if you do not philosophize? And how do you love yourself, if you do not love life? "I have not learned letters," he says.

But if you have not learned to read, hearing is inexcusable, for it is not a thing to be taught.

And she is educated even without letters, and her own composition, at once unlettered and divine, is called love—a spiritual treatise.

And it is permitted to hear divine wisdom; nay more, it is permitted also to live as a citizen; nay, one is not even hindered from conducting the things in the world becomingly, according to God.

And let one who sells or buys anything never name two prices for what he buys or sells, but, naming a single one and practicing truthfulness, even if he does not obtain his price, by obtaining the truth he is rich in his upright disposition.

And let praise and oath about everything sold be absent; let the oath be absent also in other matters.

And in this way let the market-folk and hucksters philosophize.

"For you shall not take the name of the Lord in vain, for the Lord will not hold guiltless him who takes his name in vain."

But those who act contrary to these things—the lovers of money, the liars, the hypocrites, those who traffic in the truth—the Lord cast out of his Father's court, not willing that the house of God, the holy house, should be a house of unjust trade, whether of words or of material possessions.

And to the church both woman and man must be led, decently attired, with unaffected gait, embracing silence, possessing love unfeigned, pure in body, pure in heart, fit to pray to God.

Let the woman observe this still more.

Let her be entirely veiled, unless she happens to be at home.

For the figure is dignified and free from spying.

And she herself will never stumble, having set modesty and the veil before her eyes; nor will she, by baring her face, summon another into the slip of sin.

For this is what the Word wishes, since it is fitting for her to pray veiled.

And they say that the wife of Aeneas, through excess of dignity, even when Troy was being taken, did not, in her terror, unveil herself, but, though fleeing from the conflagration, remained veiled.

Such throughout their whole life ought those who are being perfected in Christ to appear and to mold themselves, as they fashion themselves in the churches toward greater dignity—and to be such, not merely to seem to be: so meek, so reverent, so loving.

But now, I know not how, they change both their figures and their manners along with the places—just as they say the octopuses, being made like to the rocks with which they consort, appear to be such even in their color.

Having laid aside, after their departure from here (the assembly), the inspired character of the congregation, they make themselves like to the many with whom they also live.

Or rather, they are exposed, having laid aside the counterfeit pretense of dignity, as being such as they had escaped notice of being.

And having reverenced the word about God, they have left it behind, inside the place where they heard it; but outside, they wander about with the godless, filled with strummings and amorous twitterings and pipings and clapping and drunkenness and all manner of rubbish.

Singing this, indeed, and singing it back, the very men who before were hymning immortality, at the end singing wickedly and with evil the most ruinous palinode:

"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

But these have, not tomorrow truly, but already died to God, burying their own dead—that is, burying themselves down into death.

But the Apostle sets himself against them very stoutly:

"Neither adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers," and whatever else chimes in with these, "shall inherit the kingdom of God."

But if we have indeed been called into the kingdom of God, let us live worthily of the kingdom, loving God and our neighbor.

But love is judged not by a kiss, but by goodwill.

But these do nothing but make the churches resound with kissing, not having the love within them.

For this very thing—the kiss—ought to be mystic; the Apostle has called it "holy." Let us, then, conducting ourselves worthily of the kingdom, manifest the goodwill of the soul through a chaste and closed mouth, by which most of all is shown a gentle disposition.

But there is also another unholy kiss, full of poison, feigning holiness.

Do you not know that spiders, merely by touching the mouth, afflict men with pains—and that kisses often inject the poison of licentiousness? It has therefore become clear to us that the kiss is not love.

"For love is of God."

"And this is the love of God," says John, "that we keep his commandments"—not that we fawn upon one another with the mouth—"and his commandments are not burdensome."