Hippolytus (975-1010)

nor in the confines of my dominion. For if I am tamely to submit to this treatment from such as thee, no more will Sinis,[*] robber of the Isthmus, bear me witness how I slew him, but say my boasts are idle, nor will those rocks Scironian, that fringe the sea,

call me the miscreants’ scourge.

I know not how to call happy any child of man; for that which was first has turned and now is last.

Father, thy wrath and the tension of thy mind are terrible; yet this charge, specious though its arguments appear,

becomes a calumny, if one lay it bare. Small skill have I in speaking to a crowd, but have a readier wit for comrades of mine own age and small companies. Yea, and this is as it should be; for they, whom the wise despise, are better qualified to speak before a mob.

Yet am I constrained under the present circumstances to break silence. And at the outset will I take the point which formed the basis of thy stealthy attack on me, designed to put me out of court unheard; dost see yon sun, this earth? These do not contain,

for all thou dost deny it, chastity surpassing mine. To reverence God I count the highest knowledge, and to adopt as friends not those who attempt injustice, but such as would blush to propose to their companions aught disgraceful or pleasure them by shameful services;

to mock at friends is not my way, father, but I am still the same behind their backs as to their face. The very crime thou thinkest to catch me in, is just the one I am untainted with, for to this day have I kept me pure from women. Nor know I aught thereof, save what I hear

or see in pictures, for I have no wish to look even on these, so pure my virgin soul. I grant my claim to chastity may not convince thee; well, ’tis then for thee to show the way I was corrupted. Did this woman exceed in beauty

all her sex? Did I aspire to fill the husband’s place after thee and succeed to thy house?[*] That surely would have made me out a fool, a creature void of sense. Thou wilt say, Your chaste man loves to lord it. No, no! say I, sovereignty pleases only those