On the Cave of the Nymphs

In establishing the Greek text, I have followed the best readings of the editions: nowhere, however, have I altered my author according to my own judgment.

Therefore, I think he signified here the ἐργαλεῖον ὑφαντικὸν weaving tool, just as Eustathius on Odyssey I explains the word, so named from the similarity to the nautical mast. Ovid, in book 6 of the Metamorphoses, calls this instrument a Yoke. "The web joined to the yoke." And it is cited by Seneca in epistle 90, where he explains the whole art in a wonderful way. It is the weaving timber, the yoke, or mast, on which the web is wound for weavers. Pollux, in book 6 of the Onomasticon, chapter 10, says that Κέλοντας Celontes are called the ἰσόποδας ἱσοῦ feet of the weaving Yoke. Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris: "Nor do I weave the pictured image of the Titans with the shuttle on the beautiful-sounding Yokes of Pallas of Cecrops." Hesiod, Days: "And let the woman stand by the Yoke and set forth the work." And Eustathius derives the notion of ἱσοῦ from to stand ἵσασθαι. Therefore, St. Proclus does not understand the Web, but the Yoke of the web. The interpreter of the sermons of St. Theodoret on Providence, sermon 4, also fell into the same error; I am pleased to transcribe this passage, because it sheds light on Proclus, since it explains the individual instruments of the weaving art and the manner of it: "For the wools, when they are shorn, washed in waters, and purged, are combed first, and broken into minute parts; then that which has been distracted is gathered again into a heap or ball. The wool-worker, taking this, separates from the rest what is sincere and pure in it, and what is, as it were, distinguished by straight fibers. Collecting the other part, she prepares the woof for the warp. But when the hands of the women have received the prepared wools, they draw out the finest threads: and these they extend first, as it were, like certain cords in order on the looms, and they separate what is destined for the woof, and divide the warp with shuttles, and of the attached threads, some they loosen, others they tighten, and at the same time, they push and compress the woof with instruments fashioned for this use, and in this way complete the whole texture." But how does he translate ἐν ἱσοῖς in the looms, if the web is not yet finished but is described as still being woven? He even inverts the sense. Therefore I would translate: "And these indeed they first extend like certain cords in order on the Yoke, and they cast the shuttle, and separate the warp with the woof." But more on this below, Oration 4.

Same page, verse 27, Ἐνώσεως χιτὼν Tunic of union. In certain papers of our Anton. Agellius, Bishop of Acerno, I found a part of this Oration described by his own hand, in which it is read thus: ἐν ᾧ ἀῤῥήτως ὁ τῆς σαρκώσεως ὑφάνθη χιτών. "In which the tunic of the Incarnation was ineffably woven." All the others have ἐνώσεως of union. The Latin Interpreter of the Vatican codex also reads σαρκώσεως of the incarnation, for he translates: "The tunic of the ineffable Incarnation is woven." St. Proclus explains this translation of the Incarnation too elegantly; and he seems to have borrowed it from St. Paul, who compares Christ to clothing and a garment. Romans 13: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Galatians 3:27: "You have put on Christ." And rightly indeed, for the human body, just like a web, is woven with nerves, arteries, and cartilages, as if by certain threads. Therefore Porphyry, in his Cave of the Nymphs, explains the purple webs woven by the Nymphs in the Cave as signifying bodies, saying: "For flesh is compounded in bones and around bones; these bones in animals are stones, and most similar to stone. Therefore, the weaving yokes were said to consist of no other material than stone, and the purple webs will plainly be the flesh from the blood, etc."