Letter 976

To Demetrius. You have asked what the head of the coil [the serpent's coiled circle] might be, and remember the Lord commanding us to guard ourselves against the head of the serpent. The first flesh-loving and passion-loving thought, then, implanted in the mind by the enemy, sprouts much and gathers around itself many wicked thoughts. Let us therefore consider the first-conceived notion of wicked thoughts to be the head. Yet the devil himself also has, encircling him as bodyguards, the utterly worthless ranks of the demons, since he is reckoned the head of their wickedness.

Πρώτησας, τί ἂν εἴη τοῦ κυκλώματος ἡ κεφαλή, καὶ μέμνησο τοῦ Κυρίου προστάσσοντος τηρεῖν ἑαυτὸν τῇ τοῦ ὄφεως κεφαλῇ. Τὸ τοίνυν πρῶτον τῇ διανοίᾳ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐχθροῦ ἐντιθέμενον φιλόσαρκον καὶ φιλοπαθὲς ἐνθύμημα, πολλὰ βλαστάνει, καὶ συναθροίζεται περὶ ἑαυτὸ ἐνθυμήματα πονηρά. Τὴν πρωτόνοιαν τοίνυν τῶν πονηρῶν ἐνθυμημάτων κεφαλὴν ἡγησώμεθα εἶναι. Πλὴν ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ διάβολος κύκλῳ ἔχει δορυφοροῦντας αὐτὸν τὰ πάμφαυλα τάγματα τῶν δαιμόνων, κεφαλὴ χρηματίζων τῆς πονηρίας αὐτῶν.