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Methodius
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Introductory Notice to Methodius.
[2494] [The idea, and some of the ideas borrowed from the Symposium of Plato, but designed to furnish a contrast as strong as possible between the swinish sensuality of false “philosophy” in its best estate, and the heavenly chastity of those whom the Gospel renders “pure in heart,” and whose life on earth is controlled by the promise, “they shall see God.”]
[2495] In Migne’s ed. Euboulion, but apparently with less authority; and probably because the name is connected with that of Gregorion. Euboulios is a man, and Gregorion a woman.
[2496] [Gregorion answers to the Diotima of Socrates in Plato’s Banquet, and talks like a philosopher on these delicate subjects.]
[2497] Hom., Il., iv. 3, 4.
[2498] A personification of virtue, the daughter of philosophy. [i.e., of philosophy not falsely so called.]
[2500] “A tall tree like the willow, the branches of which were strewn by matrons on their beds at the Thesmophoria, vitex agnuscastus. It was associated with the notion of chastity, from the likeness of its name to ἁγνός.”—Liddell and Scott.
[2501] [Much of this work suggests a comparison with the Hermas of vol. ii., and Minucius Felix seems not infrequently reflected.]
[2502] [Virtue presides, and “to the pure all things are pure;” but the freedoms of the converse must offend unless we bear in mind that these are allegorical beings, not women in flesh and blood.]
[2503] [See the oration on Simeon and Anna, cap. 10, infra.]
Chapter I.—The Difficulty and Excellence of Virginity; The Study of Doctrine Necessary for Virgins.
[2504] Lit. the udder.
[2506] [I think evidence abounds, in the course of this allegory, that it was designed to meet the painful discussions excited in the Church by the fanatical conduct of Origen, vol. iv. pp. 225–226.]
[2507] Lit. “leaps out.”
[2508] Ecclesiasticus 6.36.
[2510] Lev. ii. 13; Mark ix. 40.
[2513] Lev. xviii. 19; xx. 17.
[2514] [Contending with the worse than bestial sensuality of paganism, and inured to the sorrows of martyr-ages, when Christian families could not be reared in peace, let us not wonder at the high conceptions of these heroic believers, based on the words of Christ Himself, and on the promise, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”]
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