Discourse VIII.—Thekla.
Chapter I.—Methodius’
Derivation of the Word Virginity:
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Wholly Divine; Virtue, in
Greek—
ἀρετή
, Whence So
Called.
Well, then, let us first say, beginning from the origin
of the name, for what cause this supreme and blessed pursuit was called
παρθενία
,
what it aims at, what power it has, and afterwards, what fruits it
gives forth. For almost all have been ignorant of this virtue as
being superior to ten thousand other advantages of virtue which we
cultivate for the purification and adornment of the soul. For
virginity
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is divine by the
change of one letter,
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as she alone makes him who has her, and is initiated by her
incorruptible rites like unto God, than which it is impossible to find
a greater good, removed, as it is, from pleasure and grief; and the
wing of the soul sprinkled by it becomes stronger and lighter,
accustomed daily to fly from human desires.
For since the children of the wise have said that
our life is a festival, and that we have come to exhibit in the theatre
the drama of truth, that is, righteousness, the devil and the demons
plotting and striving against us, it is necessary for us to look
upwards and to take our flight aloft, and to flee from the
blandishments of their tongues, and from their forms tinged with the
outward appearance of temperance, more than from the Sirens of
Homer. For many, bewitched by the pleasures of error, take their
flight downwards, and are weighed down when they come into this life,
their nerves being relaxed and unstrung, by means of which the power of
the wings of temperance is strengthened, lightening the downward
tendency of the corruption of the body. Whence, O Arete, whether
thou hast thy name,
signifying virtue
,
because thou art worthy of being
chosen
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for thyself, or
because thou raisest
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and liftest up to heaven, ever going in
the purest minds, come, give me thy help in my discourse, which thou
hast thyself appointed me to speak.
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παρθενία
.
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παρθενία
.
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παρθενία
…
παρθεΐα
.
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αἱρετή
.
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αἴρειν
.