Letter 496

To the same person. What is the meaning of what the prophet says concerning the bodiless powers [the angels], that "Their legs were straight, and their feet were winged"? [Ezekiel 1:7, of the four living creatures.] For surely the heavenly and holy powers have no need whatever of any bodily things, nor indeed of the bending toward them that such things require; and for this reason they are said to have straight legs. And what would winged feet indicate, except altogether the swift-moving readiness of that nature toward the more divine objects of thought, since it is freed from every more lame and halting slackness?

Τί ἐστιν, ὅπερ λέγει ὁ προφήτης περὶ τῶν ἀσωμάτων δυνάμεων, ὅτι «Ἦν τὰ σκέλη αὐτῶν ὀρθὰ, καὶ πτερωτοὶ οἱ πόδες αὐτῶν;» Οὐ γὰρ δὴ προσδέονται τῶν σωματικῶν πάντων αἱ ἐπουράνιοι, καὶ ἅγιαι δυνάμεις τὸ καθόλου, οὐ δὲ μὴν τῆς πρὸς ταῦτα χρηζούσης ἐπινεύσεως· διὰ τοῦτο τὰ σκέλη ὀρθὰ εἴρηται ἔχειν. Τί δ’ ἂν δηλώσειαν πόδες ἐπτερῳμένοι, ἢ πάντως τὸ πρὸς τὰ θειότερα τῶν νοημάτων ὀξυκίνητον τῆς φύσεως ἐκείνης ἀπηλλαγμένης πάσης καταχωλωτέρας ὑφέσεως;