The scene is the slave-market in Damascus, after a raid into the west. Some of the captives taken by the Saracens are being sold, the rest are to be killed as worthless. Among them, the dignified figure of the captive Italian monk Cosmas has drawn the attention of the father of John Damascene, who is still a child at that time.
* * * *
9. Cosmas explains his grief to John’s father. [1]
But John’s father, standing not far away and so seeing the man in tears, came up, to console him in his distress, and said, “Why, O man of God, do you weep over the loss of this world, having long ago renounced and become dead to it as I see from your manner of dress?”
Then the monk replied, “I do not lament the loss of this life; for I, as you have said, am dead to the world. But what does trouble me is that I have sought after all human wisdom, and laid down a general education[2] as a foundation. I have exercised my tongue in rhetoric; I have cultivated my reasoning through the methods and demonstrations of dialectic; I pursued [the study of] moral philosophy, as much of it as [Aristotle the] Stagirite, and as much as [Chrysippus] the disciple of Ariston, have handed down; I have examined carefully everything concerning natural philosophy, as far as humanly possible; I have learned the principles of arithmetic; I have mastered geometry to the highest degree; I have formally completed the disciplines of musical harmony and proportion[3]; and I did not pass over anything concerning movement of the heavens and the turning of the stars, so that, from the greatness and beauty of these created things, in accordance with my knowledge of them, I might possess a proportionate understanding of the Creator. For the one who has acquired a clearer knowledge of created things, understands more clearly and regards with greater wonder the one who created them. From there, I advanced into the mysteries of theology, which the sons of the Greeks have handed down, and which our own theologians have most accurately elucidated.
So I am filled with these sciences, but I have not yet been able to impart[4] to anyone else the benefit from them, nor to produce a disciple through philosophy in the manner of a father producing a son.[5] For just as most people want natural children to continue their family line, similarly those who have studied philosophy want, through teaching and initiation, to produce disciples[6] so that the golden line of philosophers may continue among the living for all time; and those who are the cause of this marvellous birth [of a disciple] inherit an immortal renown. Moreover it is a characteristic of goodness to share with others the good things that one has in abundance. Indeed anyone who is not like this, nor wishes to be, is not live in what is good, but in what is evil, as being full of pride and envy concerning those things which he does not want to share with others if he has received something good. Therefore, even what he seems to have is taken away from him, just as with that servant who did not deposit the talent with the bankers.[7] But I have chosen the good portion,[8] and I was very much inclined to become a sharer with others of the wisdom given to me. But since I did not attain what I desired, that I might be counted among those faithful servants who doubled their talents through their dealings with others,[9] and I did not produce a disciple through philosophy, I am, as some might say, childless and miserable, as you see: my face is downcast and I am deeply distressed.”
* * * *
Onward.
- [1]Heading by me.↩
- [2]ἐγκύκλιος, with παιδεία implicit: see LSJ: https://logeion.uchicago.edu/ἐγκύκλιος ↩
- [3]I had difficulty here. “ἁρμολογίας δὲ μουσικῆς καὶ ἀναλογίας εὐτάκτους σεμνοπρεπῶς κατώρθωκα.” “εὐτάκτους” is the accusative plural, so must be the object of the verb. A verb εὐτάκτέω is in LSJ, “to be orderly, behave well; reduce to order;” εὐτάκτημα: “act of orderly behaviour”, “well-ordered”. Lequien’s Latin, “Musices concentus proportionesque probe satis sum assequutus” paraphrases.↩
- [4]Or “ready to impart.”↩
- [5]Lit. “nor to beget, through philosophy, a disciple in the manner of a father.” But we really can’t use “beget” these days.↩
- [6]Lit. “father a child.”↩
- [7]Matt. 25:27.↩
- [8]Luke 10:42.↩
- [9]Matt. 25:14-30.↩