Bede : But Noah, awakening from his wine, when he had learned what his younger son had done to him, said: Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. Awakening from wine, Noah curses his offspring by whom he was mocked; however, he rewards with due blessing those who honored him as their father; and the Lord, according to the voice of the psalm (Psalms 3:6), having slept in death and risen immortal, smote all who opposed him without cause, and shattered the teeth of sinners; but upon his own people he poured the blessing of eternal salvation. Not only is Canaan subjected to a curse, but also to the servitude of his brothers. For what else is that nation today, but a certain scribe of Christians, bearing the law and the prophets as testimony to the affirmation of the Church, so that we might honor through the sacrament what it announces through the letter. — Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron) Augustine of Hippo : CURSE OF CANAAN. —We may wonder why Cham, who sinned by offending his father, did not receive the curse in himself, but in his son Canaan. And the answer would be that this fact is in some way a prophecy concerning the Canaanites, who were expelled from the land of Canaan and defeated, gave way to the Israelites, coming from the lineage of Shem. [ — QUESTIONS ON GENESIS, Q. 16 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)