Letter 892

To Jonas the Monk. The saying, "The ant-lion perished for lack of prey" [Job 4:11, where the Septuagint reads myrmēkoleōn, a compound "ant-lion"], seems to signify something of this kind. For the blessed Job, wishing to show the insidious, ambush-laying character of the foul passion, devised for it a compound name, composing the word from the most audacious lion and from the most worthless of all creatures, the ant. For the assaults of the passions begin first from worthless imaginings, creeping up unnoticed after the manner of an ant; but in the end they swell to a great bulk, so as to present to whoever falls in their way a danger no less than that of a charging lion. Hence the contestant must wrestle against the passions at that very moment when they approach like ants, putting forward their worthlessness as a bait. For if they manage to come on to the strength of the lion, they become hard to fight against. One must, therefore, not supply them with prey. And their prey is the images of sensible things that enter in through the senses; for these nourish the passions, each phantom in succession arming itself against the soul.

Τὸ «λυρμηκολέων ὤλετο παρὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν βοράν,» τοιοῦτόν τι σημαίνειν ἔοικε. Τὸ γὰρ ἐνεδρευτικὸν τοῦ πάθους τοῦ μιαροῦ δεῖξαι θέλων ὁ μακάριος Ἰὼβ, σύνθετον ἐξεῦρεν αὐτοῦ τὴν προσηγορίαν, ἐκ τοῦ θρασυτάτου λέοντος, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ πάντων εὐτελεστάτου μύρμηκος συνθεὶς τοὔνομα. Αἱ μὲν γὰρ προσβολαὶ τῶν παθῶν ἀπὸ εὐτελῶν φαντασιῶν ἄρχονται πρῶτον, μύρμηκος δίκην λανθανόντως· προσέpπουσαι· τὰ δὲ τελευταῖα ἐπὶ μέγαν ἐξαίρεται ὄγκον ὡς οὐκ ἔλαττον λέοντος ἐπιδρομέως τῷ παρατυχόντι παρασχεῖν τὸν κίνδυνον. Ὅθεν χρὴ τὸν ἀγωνιστὴν τότε παλαίειν πρὸς τὰ πάθη, ὅταν ὡς μύρμηκες προσέρχωνται, δέλεαρ τὴν εὐτέλειαν προβαλλόμενα. Ἐὰν γὰρ ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ λέοντος φθάσωσιν ἰσχὺν ἐλθεῖν, δυσκαταγώνιστα γίνεται. Δεῖ τοίνυν αὐτοῖς βορὰν μὴ παρέχειν. Βορὰ δὲ τούτων εἰσὶν αἱ διὰ τῶν αἰσθήσεων εἰσερχόμεναι τῶν αἰσθητῶν εἰκόνες· αὗται γὰρ τρέφουσι τὰ πάθη, ἕκαστον εἴδωλον ἐκ διαδοχῆς ὁπλίζουσαι κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς.