Letter 1009: While you speak of honeycombs and compose the honey of a liquid element with the nectar of eloquence through waxen...

9. Ennodius to Olybrius. While you speak of honeycombs and arrange honey of liquid substance throughout the waxen cells with the nectar of your eloquence, you have poured into my lips the foreign savor of a rich banquet, making mention of the Herculean contest and of the triumphal downfalls of Antaeus. In such fashion indeed does the wrestling-ground, well exercised in the schools of letters, show itself clearly; in such fashion do limbs steeped in the oil of studies submit themselves to the artifices of eloquent speech. But I would not have wished, I confess, to be stung by the recollection of that fight, as they call it. The old tale relates that Antaeus, lest he be crushed and conquered, lost the solace of his mother once he ceased to fall; he is said to have been overcome through the device of a cunning enemy while standing, and to have placed his life in the breast of his adversary. A matter assuredly worthy of remembrance, but unworthy of the purpose of friendships. We for our part remember that we have undertaken the contests of a covenant, but those by which we may conquer through the offices of mutual affection, so that, while we strive amid struggles of this kind, we may both wish both to be conquered and to conquer. We must live, rather than die, through the shared secrets of our hearts, joined together by the aid of our mother the Church, who (that we may speak truly) feeds both of us with the milk of faith from her nourishing breast. Let the inventions of the old wives' poets cease; let fabulous antiquity be repudiated; let our innocent condition by no means be mingled with the ruin of another. For us, if it please us to recall the examples of our forebears to a new use, it is rather fitting to remember the favor or the fidelity of Pylades and Orestes, of Nisus and Euryalus, of Pollux and Castor (if the obscenity of clandestine acts plucks nothing from these), whom an equality of minds so bound together in concord that the longed-for death of two of them aided their friends, while the other brought life to his friend at the price of his own death. These things are worthy of memory, as often as, amid the new bonds of concord, a noble offspring, joined with sturdy turfs, is wedded to the moist, so to speak, bark of our minds. Those minds promise the fruits of concord which recognize what labor of sweat there is in their cultivation. Yet I rejoice, because we are now joined in an indissoluble fellowship of character, and from the very doorway of affection we weigh out the increments of love through the balance of examination.

VIIII. OLVBRIO ENNODIVS. Dum fauos loqueris et per domos cereas eloquentiae nectare liquentis elementi mella conponis, peregrinum labiis meis saporem epuli diuitis infudisti, Herculei certaminis et triumphalium Antaei casuum faciens mentionem. sic se equidem exercita litterarum gymnasiis palaestra dilucidant, sic madefacta studiorum oleo loquendi se artificiis oris membra submittunt. sed noluissem fateor illius, ut aiunt, pugnae commemoratione morderi. Antaeum fabella senior, ne elisus uinceretur, matris solacium, postquam coepit non cadere, loquitur perdidisse: qui per callidi hostis fabricam fertur stando esse superatus et in pectore animam posuisse certantis. res scilicet digna memoratu, sed amicitiarum indigna proposito. nos nempe memini foederis certamina suscepisse, sed per quae mutuae uincamus caritatis officiis, ut dum inter huiusmodi luctamina nitimur, et uinci 1 eam B, ea TYb, et L, eum P epistola PT, epistulam BL V b nolis V corr. m. 1, nolis L 2 bonae B me om. B 3 per culiaribus B benificiis B 4 quo ex quem L in ras. corr. m. rtc . 5 attollat LPTV Vim. 7 olibrio T 8 fauos B corr. PT*, fauus B1LT1 Vb re loqris T re s. l. m. 2 pr L 9 linquentis B componis LT V 10 saporem V praeter I in ras. m. 1 aepuli B triumfalium V 11 anthei BLPTVb quidem L 12 gemnasiis BLV1 (e in i corr. m . 1), gignasiis PT palestra BLT 13 loquendi se scripn, loquendis TV, lequendis L, loquendi W- BPb artificis V corr. m. 1 15 orderi L antbeum BL PTV fauella B, fabula Sirm . uinceretur scripsi, uinceret BLPTVb 16 solatium L V cepit caderenon T 18 digna om . V (add. m. pavMo recentior), dedala B 20 cartamina federis T ambo optemus et uincere. nobis per communia pectorum secreta uiuendum potius quam obeundum est, matris ecclesiae ope sociatis, quae utrosque, ut uera loquamur, fidei ubere lacte pascit altrici. cessent anilium commenta poetarum: fabulosa repudietur antiquitas: status innocens ruinae nequaquam misceatur alterius. nobis, si placet in nouellum usum maiorum exempla reuocare, potius Pyladis et Orestis, Nisi et Euryali, Pollucis et Castoris, si nihil his clandestinorum actuum decerpit obscenitas, conuenit gratiae meminisse uel fidei quos inter se ita concors animorum deuinxit aequalitas, ut horum duos expetitus cum amicis iuuaret interitus, alter amico uitam pretio suae mortis adferret. ista sunt digna memoria, quotiens inter nouos concordiae nexus udo, ut ita dixerim, animorum libro cespitibus ualidis fetura nobilis iuncta maritatur. illae mentes promittunt poma concordiae, quae quid in cultura. sudoris sit opus agnoscunt. gaudeo tamen, quod iam indissolubili societate moribus iungimur et ab ostio affectionis per examinis lancem caritatis incrementa pensamus.