Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 12.djvu/53

] one's friend in ignorance, taking him for an enemy; and crime, to violate graves or commit sacrilege. Sinning arises from being unable to determine what ought to be done, or being unable to do it; as doubtless one falls into a ditch either through not knowing, or through inability to leap across through feebleness of body. But application to the training of ourselves, and subjection to the commandments, is in our own power; with which if we will have nothing to do, by abandoning ourselves wholly to lust, we shall sin, nay rather, wrong our own soul. For the noted Laius says in the tragedy:

i.e. his abandoning himself to passion. Medea, too, herself cries on the stage:

Further, not even Ajax is silent; but, when about to kill himself, cries:

Anger made these the subjects of tragedy, and lust made ten thousand others—Phædra, Anthia, Eriphyle,

For another play represents Thrasonides of the comic drama as saying:

Mistake is a sin contrary to calculation; and voluntary