Letter 478

To the same person. If you disparage David for having had ten wives, know that he kept them not for the love of pleasure but for the begetting of children. And he showed this plainly after Absalom [David's son] the parricide had lain with them, when he chose no longer to go in to them, nor to any other woman. And afterward, when the Shunammite woman lay with him because he was exceedingly chilled and had need of warmth, he by no means consented to know her, which is the greatest proof of dispassion.

Εἰ τὸν Δαυῒδ διασύρεις δέκα ἐσχηκότα γυναῖκας, γίνωσκε, ὅτι οὐ διὰ φιληδονίαν, ἀλλὰ διὰ παιδο- ποιΐαν εἶχεν αὐτάς. Καὶ ἔδειξε γε τοῦτο μετὰ τὸ μιγῆναι ταύταις τὸν πατραλοίαν Ἀβεσσαλώμ, μη- κέτι εἰσελθεῖν πρὸς αὐτὰς ἑλόμενος, μηδὲ πρὸς ἄλλην τινά. Εἰς ὕστερον δὲ συγκοιμωμένης αὐτῷ τῆς Σωμανίτιδος, διὰ τὸ ἄγαν κατεψύχθαι αὐτόν, καὶ χρήζειν θερμότητος, οὐδόλως κατεδέξατο γνῶναι αὐτήν, ὅπερ μεγίστης ἀπαθείας ὑπάρχει δεῖγμα.