[240]Epicurus himself contended that by ἡδονή (pleasure) he meant not sensual enjoyments so much as freedom from pain of body and from disturbance of soul (ἀταραξία), the source of which was largely in the exercise of the mind and will: see Zeller, _Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics_, pp. 473 ff. [241]The words quoted (δωτῆρας ἐάων) are a Homeric phrase, e. g. _Od._ viii. 325 and 335. [242]The derivation from θέειν is proposed by Plato, _Cratyl._ 397 C: that from θεῖναι by Herod, ii. 52, and of the two the latter is the more likely (√θε) though Curtius suggests a root θες = to pray: see Peile, _Introd. to Philology_, p. 37 (3rd ed., 1875). [243]These are probably some sort of Gnostics who took over Manichean views of God and Matter, but not of the worst kind, for they recognized that God had the control and disposition of matter. [244]Some one, _i. e._ who could give them the property of being without beginning. [245]“Different from both,” because the being without beginning is not of the very essence of both. See further on. [246]A curious expression, for which one would have expected the opposite statement, viz. that the handicrafts can shape and form the materials they deal with rather than that the materials give the necessary methods and designs to the handicrafts which deal with them. Up to this point Dionysius has been combating the view with which the extract begins. The rest of the extract proceeds to show what amount of truth there is in it. [247]The reference here is to Manichean views of the worst kind, _i. e._ that matter is not only without beginning, but the source of evil and altogether independent of God. [248]_i. e._ Dionysius of Rome, to whom this treatise was addressed. This particular “other letter” does not seem to have been known to Eusebius, and when Athanasius quotes this extract in another of his treatises he omits the words “to thee.” [249]Athanasius himself was sparing in his use of the term, and the Synod of Antioch (A.D. 264) refused to accept it, as liable to misconstruction. [250]_i. e._ in the letter to Euphranor (about Sabellianism in Libya) which had given rise to the Bishop of Rome’s intervention. [251]It looks as if Dionysius was in exile when he wrote this. See above, p. 19. [252]_i. e._ each of the two is itself and not the other, as was said above in the case of parents and children. [253]i. e. they had gone or sent to Rome, in order to attack him. [254]Viz. about the plant and the ship, which he has already apologized for as not quite appropriate. [255]_i. e._ in Scripture, _e. g._ in such passage as Wisd. vii. 25, to which he refers in the next sentence.