Letter 638

To Gigantius the Church-Advocate [ekklesiekdikos, the legal defender of a church]. If you suppose that you stand altogether above the pleasures of the flesh, and put on the pretense of practicing fasting, of what use to you is the old gold, treasured up by you from your forefathers with all that eagerness, unless indeed it now brings you pleasure, after the manner of the dragons in the fables, to lie sleeplessly on watch over a treasure of gold that has been buried away?

Εἰ ὅλως δοκεῖς ἐπάνω ἵστασθαι τῶν ἡδονῶν τῆς σαρκὸς, καὶ τὴν νηστείαν ἀξασκεῖν καθυποκριθῇς εἰς τί σοι χρησιμεύει τὰ χρυσίον τὸ παλαιὸν ἐκ τῶν προγόνων θησαυρισθὲν παρὰ σοῦ μετὰ σπουδῆς ἐκείνης, εἰ μὴ ἄρα ἡδονήν σοι τώρα φέρει κατὰ τοὺς δράκοντας τοὺς ἐν τοῖς μύθοις, ἐπαγρυπνεῖν καὶ κατακεχωσμένοις θησαυροῦ τοῦ χρυσίου;