NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

To Eustathius the Philosopher.Letter I. 1737To Eustathius the Philosopher. 1738Much distressed as I was by the flouts of what is called fortune, who always seems to behindering my meeting you, I was wonderfully cheered and comforted by your letter, for Ihad already been turning over in my mind whether what so many people say is really true,that there is a certain Necessity or Fate which rules all the events of our lives both great andsmall, and that we human beings have control over nothing; or, that at all events, all humanlife is driven by a kind of luck. 1739 You will be very ready to forgive me for these reflexions,when you learn by what causes I was led to make them.On hearing of your philosophy, I entertained a feeling of contempt for the teachers ofAthens, and left it. The city on the Hellespont I passed by, more unmoved than any Ulysses,passing Sirens’ songs. 1740Asia 1741 I admired; but I hurried on to the capital of all that is best in it. When I arrivedhome, and did not find you,—the prize which I had sought so eagerly,—there began manyand various unexpected hindrances. First I must miss you because I fell ill; then when youwere setting out for the East I could not start with you; then, after endless trouble, I reachedSyria, but I missed the philosopher, who had set out for Egypt. Then I must set out forEgypt, a long and weary way, and even there I did not gain my end. But so passionate wasmy longing that I must either set out for Persia, and proceed with you to the farthest landsof barbarism, (you had got there; what an obstinate devil possessed me!) or settle here atAlexandria. This last I did. I really think that unless, like some tame beast, I had followeda bough held out to me till I was quite worn out, you would have been driven on and on1101737 Placed in 357.1738 Another ms. reading is “To Eustathius, Presbyter of Antioch.” The Benedictine note is “Eustathius wasnot a Presbyter, but a heathen, as is indicated by Basil’s words, ‘Are not these things work of fate,—of necessity,as you would say?’”1739 The word τύχη does not occur in the N.T.1740 ὡς ουδεὶς ᾽Οδυσσεύς. The Ben. translation is “citius quam quisquam Ulysses.” But the reason of the escapeof Ulysses was not his speed, but his stopping the ears of his crew with wax and tying himself to the mast. cf.Hom. Od. xii. 158. The “city on the Hellespont,” is, according to the Ben. note, Constantinople; but Constantinopleis more than 100 m. from the Dardanelles, and Basil could hardly write so loosely.1741 Apparently not the Roman Province of Asia, but what we call Asia Minor, a name which came into usein Basil’s century. The “metropolis” is supposed to mean Cæsarea.357