Letter 998

To the Unnamed Recipient. And how has this final calamity now left you alone, and you alone drain the cup of the evils of captivity? Why was I treated mercifully and so escaped the trial of the sword? Why did neither a murderous right hand add me too to the other corpses, but instead I met with sparing as a trial of greater evils, grudged a swift release, and reaping over you a long and painful mourning? But since I see that you are sympathetic, I said, and disposed in no other way than as the very one who has suffered (for the straining intentness of your hearing has become proof of this to me, and the unceasing lamentations), I shall recount all my affairs in detail, just as they stand, not speaking at length to your leisure for listening-far from it-and let no necessity constrain you. It calls to one's own household. For a narration is burdensome to a soul that is distracted, when the hearing rather keeps its reasoning fixed upon the thing it is anxious about. But they, showing both by look and by voice that what tended toward the question was disagreeable to them, said, And what other leisure is more to be preferred than to tend the grieving heart, and to empty out the sorrow of a soul in pain? For just as a cloud lays aside the pure water it distills in showery drops, and little by little is cleared of its gloom as it is emptied of the mist of water, so a soul is lightened of its despondency by chanting out, like a tragedy, its own misfortunes, since in the narration of grievous things its distaste too is poured out along with them. For these things strike at a suffering that is kept silent, as a humor strikes when the affliction is inflamed and the pus is ever throbbing beneath, and has no road by which it may come to be emptied out. They seemed, then, to speak fittingly; and I begin my report here.

Καὶ πῶς νῦν ἐμόνωσέ σε ἡ τελευταία συμφορά, καὶ μόνος ἀντλεῖς τὰ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας κακά; ἵνα τί φιλανθρωπευθεὶς πεῖραν τοῦ ξίφους διέφυγον; ἵνα τί μὴ κἀμὲ προσέθηκε τοῖς ἄλλοις νεκροῖς ἢ φονία δεξιᾷ, ἀλλὰ φειδοὺς ἔτυχον πείρα μειζόνων κακῶν, συντόμου φθονηθεὶς ἀπαλλαγῆς, καὶ μακρὰν ἐπὶ σοὶ καὶ ὀδυνηρὸν πένθος καρπούμενος; Ἐπειδὴ δὲ συμπαθεῖς ὑμᾶς, ἔφην, ὁρῶ, καὶ οὐκ ἄλλως διακειμένους ἢ ὡς αὐτὸς ὁ παθὼν (τούτου γάρ μοι τεκμήριον γέγονε τὸ συντεταμένον τῆς ἀκοῆς, καὶ αἱ συνεχεῖς οἰμωγαὶ), πάντα κατὰ μέρος τὰ ἐμά, ὡς ἔχει διεξελεύσομαι, οὐ μακρηγορῶν εἰς σχολὴν πρὸς ἀκρόασιν, ἀπαγε, καὶ μή τις ὑμᾶς ἀνάγκη. πρὸς οἰκείαν (17) καλεῖ 58. Βαρὺ γὰρ διήγησις περισπωμένῃ ψυχῇ μᾶλλον τῆς ἀκροάσεως ἐχούσης 57 τὸν λογισμὸν περὶ τὸ μεριμνώμενον 51. Οἱ δὲ καὶ ὄψει καὶ φωνῇ τὸ πρὸς τὴν ἐρώτησιν ἐνδειξάμενοι ἀηδές, Καὶ τίς, ἔφασαν 58, ἄλλη σχολὴ προτιμοτέρα τοῦ θεραπεῦσαι τὴν ἀνιωμένην καρδίαν, καὶ κενῶσαι λύπην ὀδυνημένης ψυχῆς; Ὡς γὰρ νέφος ἀποτίθεται ζῶρον ἀποστάζον ὀμβρίους σταγόνας, καὶ κατ’ ὀλίγον 59 καθαίρεται τοῦ γνόφου κενούμενον, τῆς τοῦ ὕδατος ἀχλύος, οὕτως κουφίζεται τῆς ἀθυμίας ψυχὴ τὰς οἰκείας τραγῳδοῦσα συμφοράς, τῇ διηγήσει τῶν λυπηρῶν συνεχενουμένης ὥσπερ τῆς ἀηδείας. Πλήσσειν γὰρ οἵδε σιωπώμενον τὸ πάθος, ὡς ἂν ὑγρὸν φλεγμαίνοντος τοῦ πάθους (18) ὑπόσφυζοντος ἀεὶ 60 τοῦ πύου, καὶ ὁδὸν οὐκ ἔχοντος 61 ὅθεν κενωθῇ προσέλθῃ. Ἔδοξαν οὖν εἰκότα λέγειν· κἀγὼ τῆς ἀγγελίας ἄρχομαι ὧδε 59.