---
title: "On Drunkenness"
author: "Philo of Alexandria"
translator: "C. D. Yonge"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Second Temple"
section: 3 of 18
url: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg011-yonge-ogl/3/
cite: "Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge, On Drunkenness, section 3. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg011-yonge-ogl/3/"
---

# On Drunkenness

*Philo of Alexandria, tr. C. D. Yonge*

## 3. Section 26

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg011-yonge-ogl/3/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/philo-tlg011-yonge-ogl/3/#p-N

[¶0] for, in truth, evil is a very manifold and very fertile thing in the souls of men, but good is but a contracted and rare thing. Again it is a most useful recommendation, not to join with many persons to do evil, but to unite with a few whose chief practise is to do justly.

### Section 27

[¶2] The fourth and greatest of the accusations, is that of drunkenness, not slight but excessive drunkenness. For devotion to crime is equivalent to devotion to swelling up, and kindling, and inflaming the poison which is the great cause of folly, namely ignorance, a thing which can never be extinguished, but which is at all times and in every case raising a conflagration and fury in the soul.

### Section 28

[¶4] Very naturally, therefore, justice will follow which purifies every evil disposition of the mind, for it is said, "Thou shalt utterly get rid of the wicked man," not out of the city, or out of the country, or out of the nation, but "out of yourselves." Deuteronomy xxi. 21. For there are many faulty and blameable thoughts lurking in us, and taking up their abode in the recesses of our hearts, which, since they are incurable, it is necessary to eradicate and destroy.

### Section 29

[¶6] Therefore it is just that this disobedient and contentious man, who is always advancing plausible reasons as a sort of offering and contribution on his part towards the destruction of what is good, and who is inflamed with strong wine, and raging in a drunken manner against virtue, and being absurdly excited to his own injury by wine, should have his allies for his accusers, his own father and mother, since he ought to receive every possible reproof and chastisement from those who can be saved;

### Section 30

[¶8] but of the father and mother the appellations are common, but their powers are different. Exodus xxiii. 2. Deuteronomy xxi. 21. At all events we shall speak with justice, if we say that the Creator of the universe is also the father of his creation; and that the mother was the knowledge of the Creator with whom God uniting, not as a man unites, became the father of creation. And this knowledge having received the seed of God, when the day of her travail arrived, brought forth her only and well-beloved son, perceptible by the external senses, namely this world.

### Section 31

[¶10] Accordingly wisdom is represented by some one of the beings of the divine company as speaking of herself in this manner: "God created me as the first of his works, and before the beginning of time did he establish me." For it was necessary that all the things which came under the head of the creation must be younger than the mother and nurse of the whole universe.

### Section 32

[¶12] Who then is able to encounter the accusation of these parents? No one can withstand even their moderate threats, or their very slightest reproach; for neither is any one able to contain the immeasurable multitude of their gifts, perhaps even the whole world is not; but like a shallow channel, when the great fountain of the bounties of God flows into it, it will be very speedily filled so as to overtop its bounds and overflow; but if we are unable to receive his benefits, how shall we endure his chastising powers when they come upon us?

### Section 33

[¶14] But these parents of the universe must be taken out of the present discussion; and for the present let us consider their pupils and acquaintances who have had assigned to them the care and superintendence of such souls as are not unwilling to learn and illiterate. Therefore we say that the father is masculine and perfect right reason, and that the mother is that middle and encyclical course of study, and instruction, and learning, which it is honourable and advantageous to obey as a child obeys his parents.

### Section 34

[¶16] The recommendation then of the father, that is of right reason, is to follow and obey reason, pursuing naked and undisguised truth; and the injunction of learning, the mother that is, is to obey the just customs, which ancient men who embraced opinion, as if it were truth, have established in cities, and nations, and countries.

### Section 35

[¶18] Now these parents have four classes of children. First of all comes that class which is obedient to them both, the second is that which attends to neither, being the opposite of the former one. Of the others, each is half perfect. For the one is exceedingly attached to its father, and attends to him, but disregards its mother and her injunctions. The other again appears to be attached to its mother, and obeys her in everything, but pays but little attention to its father. The first class, therefore, will carry off the prize of victory as superior to all the others; the second, which is the contrary of it, will meet with defeat and destruction at the same time; and as to each of the others they will claim, one the second prize, and the other the third. The one which is obedient to its father being the second in honour, and the one which obeys its mother being the third.

### Section 36

[¶20] Now of the soul attached to its mother, yielding to the opinions of the many and constantly changing its appearance in accordance with the various forms arising from the manifold and different ways of life, after the manner of the Egyptian Proteus, who was able to assume the likeness of anything in the whole world, and to conceal his real form so as to render it entirely invisible, the most visible image is Jothor, a compound of pride, who evidently represents a city and constitution of men from all quarters, and of all nations, carried away by vain opinions.

### Section 37

[¶22] For after the wise Moses had invited the whole people of the soul to observe piety and to pay the honour due to God, and had taught them the commandments and the most sacred laws, (for he says, "When there is a controversy among them and they come to me, I will decide between them all, and I will bring together to them the commandments of God and his law.") Exodus xviii. 16. then Jothor, wise in his own conceit, uninitiated in the divine blessings, but having principally lived among human and corruptible things, harangues the people, and proposes laws contrary to those of nature, having regard only to opinion, while those other laws are all referrible to the standard of reality and truth.

### Section 38

[¶24] And indeed the prophet, pitying this man and commiserating his exceeding error, thinks it fitting to endeavour to teach him better things, and to persuade him to change his ways, and to forsake vain opinions and steadily to follow the truth.