Letter 473

Nilus of AncyraOrion|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted

To Orion the Defensor [ekdikos, a legal advocate and protector of the poor].

Woe to you, thrice-wretched and thrice-miserable man! For in exchange for a small pleasure, one that passes away the very moment it is consummated, you barter away the eternal flame. Woe to you, senseless and foolish man! For, doing the desires of the flesh, and through it falling prey to shameful passions and being enslaved to wicked things, you will be cast out from that immortal blessedness, and unendingly you will be scourged down in Hades with fiery scourges by the merciless angels. For some of the angels are gentle and kind to humankind, tender-hearted and compassionate; but others are austere and unsmiling, dreadful and weighty, harsh and merciless.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.

Latin / Greek Original

Οὐαί σοι, τρισταλαίπωρε ἄνθρωπε καὶ τρισάθλιε ! ὅτι μικρᾶς ἡδονῆς, καὶ ἅμα τῷ τελεσθῆναι παροδευούσης, τὴν αἰώνιον ἀνταλλάττῃ φλόγα. Οὐαί σοι,
ἀναίσθητε, ἠλίθιε, ὅτι τῆς σαρκὸς ποιῶν τὰ θελή-
ματα, καὶ δι᾿ αὐτῆς, τοῖς αἰσχροῖς ὑποπίπτων πά-
θεσι, καὶ καταδουλούμενος τοῖς πονηροῖς, ἐκβληθήσῃ
μὲν τῆς μακαριότητος ἐκείνης τῆς ἀθανάτου, ἀθέ-
νατα δὲ μαστιθήσῃ κατὰ τὸν ᾅδην, ταῖς πυρίναις
μάστιξιν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀγγέλων τῶν ἀνελεημόνων. Οἱ μὲν
γὰρ τῶν ἀγγέλων ἥμεροί τε καὶ φιλάνθρωποί εἰσιν,
εὔσπλαγχνοί τε καὶ συμπαθεῖς, οἱ δὲ αὐστηροὶ τε
καὶ ἀμείδεῖς, φρικτοί τε καὶ ἐμβριθεῖς, ἀπότομοί
τε καὶ ἀνελεήμονες.

Revision history

  1. 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import

    Initial corpus import from modern nilus ancyra workflow v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: project source import

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