Letter 453

To Nikotychos the Deacon. The unseen demons of Midian [the Madianites, recalling Numbers 25] present their own daughters to the mind, that is, their monstrous offspring, namely shameful imaginings; and these provoke the mind and strongly urge it to bend toward the dishonorable, raging, and accursed deed. If, then, it happens that the spirit slips in the furnace of pleasure and accomplishes adultery within, in the invisible realm, just as Zambri [Zimri] once did in the visible realm in the days of Moses, then there is need of Phinehas, that is, of the priestly word that slays with the lance of the fearsome teaching and utterly destroys both the Hebrew [...] and the Midianite woman, that is, the lust-loving disposition, and the assault that has tickled and inflamed the soul toward passion.

Οἱ ἀφανεῖς Μαδινέοι δαίμονες, τὰς ἑαυτῶν θυγατέρας. τέρας, δηλαδὴ τὰς αἰσχρὰς ἐνθυμήσεις τῷ νῷ παραριστάνουσιν, ἐρεθιζούσας τοῦτον, καὶ λίαν παρακαλούσας καμφθῆναι πρὸς τὸ ἄτιμον, καὶ λυττῶδες, καὶ ἐπάρατον ἔργον. Ἂν γοῦν συμβῇ ὀλισθῆσαι τῷ πνεύματι ἐν τῇ καμίνῳ τῆς ἡδονῆς, καὶ τὴν ἔνδον μοιχείαν ἀποτελέσαι κατὰ τὸ ἀόρατον, ὥσπερ ποτὲ ὁ Ζάμβρι κατὰ τὸ φαινόμενον ἐπὶ τοῦ Μωϋσέως, χρεία λοιπὸν Φινεὲς, τουτέστι τοῦ ἱερέως λόγου κτείνοντος τῷ σειρομάστῃ τῆς φοβερᾶς διδαχῆς, καὶ ἐξολοθεύοντος τόν τε Ἑβραῖον τὸν ..., καὶ τὴν Μαδιανῖτιν, τουτέστι τὸν φιλόπορνον τρόπον, καὶ τὴν γαργαλίσασάν τε καὶ πρὸς τὸ πάθος πυρώσασαν προσβολήν.