Letter 62: Procopius says the season demands letters from his brothers and invokes Love's arrows.

Procopius of GazaZacharias and Philip, brothers of Procopius of Gaza|c. 515 AD|Procopius of Gaza|From Gaza, Palaestina Prima|AI-assisted
late antique Greek letters; brothers; longing; letters; Love; silence
The compact letter converts ordinary family correspondence into obedience to the law of Love.

Once again a season has come that demands letters to you, and once again I count myself fortunate. What sort of life could I have if I were deprived of speaking to you and writing to you?

If I should also receive the same from you, Heracles, how fortunate I will be. So do not delay putting longing into action. If you dishonor the law of Love, you may feel his arrows; that god is formidable when he moves his arrows, lifts his bow, and makes a target of those who dishonor a lover.

AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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

Τοῖς αὑτοῦ ἀδελφοῖς

Πάλιν ἥκει καιρὸς γράμματα πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἀπαιτῶν, καὶ πάλιν εὐτυχεῖν νενομίκαμεν. τίς γὰρ ἂν ἡμῖν γένοιτο βίος τοῦ λέγειν τι πρὸς ὑμᾶς καὶ γράφειν ἐστερημένοις; εἰ δὲ καὶ τῶν ὁμοίων τύχοιμεν παρ' ὑμῶν, Ἡράκλεις ὅσον ἡμεῖς εὐτυχήσομεν. οὐκοῦν μὴ μέλλετε πρὸς ἔργον ἄγειν τὸν πόθον, ἵνα μὴ νόμον Ἔρωτος ἀτιμάσαντες τῶν ἐκείνου βελῶν πειραθῆτε· δεινὸς γὰρ ὁ θεὸς καὶ βέλη κινεῖν καὶ τόξον αἴρειν, καὶ σκοπὸν ποιεῖται τοὺς ἀτιμάζοντας ἐραστήν.

Revision history

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

    Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch5 matia greek v1.

    Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.matia.gr/pisth/pdf/pg_migne/Procopius_of_Gaza_PG_87a-87c/Epistulae.pdf

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