This is the rehearsal of the Psychomachia, complete with sex and drink and lute girls

Once the established bond was overthrown,

the elements themselves transgressed the bounds

laid down for them, plundering and destroying

all, shaking the world with lawless might.

Battling winds shatter the shady groves;

forests, uprooted by the wild blasts,                                                           240                            

come crashing down, while over here the raging

river’s swollen waters leap across

the banks placed opposite to check its path,

and wandering far and wide, the river rules

the devastated fields. But the Creator

did not plant such rage in His new world:

rather, the world's freedom, without check                                   245

or moderation, disturbed the peaceful laws.

And is it any wonder if the world’s

parts are shaken and spun about, or if

the machinery of the universe, shaken

by its own faults, is struggling, or if rot

wears out the earth? Human life provides

the pattern for other creature’s sin—human life![1]                       250

Madness and Error attend man’s every action,[2]

causing wars to rage, and fleeting Pleasure

to spread, Lust to burn with filthy fire,

and voracious Greed to suck down heaps of coins

with gaping jaws. No limit of acquiring                              255

slows Greed from adding hope for more

to the money she’s amassed. To bring forth gold

makes hunger for gold grow greater. Hence a harvest

of evils and the sole root of woes, while Ornament,

a pimp for dissipated Modesty, pans                                                          260

for gold in rushing streams and digs for hidden

ores, and foolish Self-Interest scratches in

the veins of the dirty earth, clawing up

nature’s hidden secrets. Who knows? Poking

around in the cracks, she might find sparkling stones.[3]

NOW WOMAN, not content with her natural beauty,                   265

puts on a false appearance; she even binds

pearly stones from sea-shells in her gleaming

hair, plaiting her braids with golden chains,

as if the hand of God, the master craftsman,

had left her face unfinished, forcing her

to decorate her brow with woven sapphires,

wind blazing gems around her unstained neck,

and weight her ears with dangling emerald stones.

It would be dull to run in detail through

the sacrilegious efforts made by married

women, who stain with dye the gifts with which

God endowed their forms. Their skin, all smeared

with make-up, has lost the beauty it once had,

impossible to know beneath its coat of false                                 275

color. Typical of the weaker sex!

Within the confines of a woman’s breast a seething

tide of sins batters the fragile mind.

And what about the fact that Man--the head

of a woman’s body, the king who rules the small

and fragile segment cut from his own flesh,                                  280

he who governs the delicate vessel with his

authority--Man too dissipates himself

in luxury? Look at the aging muscle-men

softened by refinement, men to whom

the Maker gave tough bodies and strong limbs

reinforced by bones. But they are ashamed

of being men and chase whatever vanities                                   285

will make them beautiful, and foolishly 

dissolve their native strength. Flowing robes

delight them—robes made not of sheep’s wool but of

silk, culled from the spoils of Oriental trees--

and embroidered patterns ripple over

their muscles. They have learnt the art by which                                     290

threads steeped in distilled herbs trick out

shapes with different colored threads. Fleeces

from exotic beasts, the softest to the touch,

are spun for yarn. This man, on the hunt,

chases after sexy tunics, weaving

feathery boas (a new fabric made from                              295

many-colored birds), while that gay fellow

wafts clouds of womanly scent and aromatic

lotions and imported powder. The Creator

placed our vital powers in our five senses:

Self-indulgence now controls them all![4]

The use we make of ears and eyes, of nose                                               300

and palate, is ruined by vice: even touch,

which rules our whole body, goes about

looking for the sweet caress of dainty

ointments.

O shame! Nature’s laws lie low,

her dowry dragged captive behind the tyrant                              305

Lust. Perverted justice flourishes; all

that the Almighty gave to men to own

they twist to different ends. I ask you,

was it to pollute its vision with gross

pleasure, to watch eunuchs’ shameless bodies

twirling in the cesspool of the theatre,                               310

that the watchful pupil was set below

the eye’s smooth lid?[5] Does our breath pass

through the conjoined tunnels, leading down

from the center of the brain’s high citadel

to our twin nostrils just so Pleasure, basely

bought, can revel in the sweet enticement

of a sexy whore shaking her perfumed hair?                    315

Did God open our ears and make a passage

for sound to penetrate their vaulted maze

so we could hear the lute girls’ useless strumming,

the sound of strings, and wild drinking songs?

Does taste exist within the mouth’s moist palate              320

so over-spiced exotic entrees can snare

the gourmand’s jaded appetite and greedy

palate, and make him spend entire nights

eating meals composed of many courses

and every kind of flavor, until his belly,

stuffed with food and wine, can take no more?

God wanted us to learn what’s hard or soft,

what’s smooth, and what is rough, what’s hot or cold                              325

by using an interpreter: our sense of touch.

But we heap downy pillows (what delight)

and linen fabrics that soothe and smooth our skin

upon our couches when we dine or sleep.

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[1] Contrast this passage, in which the exemplum of man’s sin corrupts the universe, with the analogy of the sun earlier, in which the universe provides an exemplum to help man understand God. 

[2] In another example of enargeia, or writing that brings a visual image to the mind, Prudentius introduces a host of personified Vices, several of which appear later in the Psychomachia, a poem that is the first sustained personification allegory in Latin literature.

[3] After the troop of personified Vices, Prudentius turns to a stock theme from moral diatribes and satire:  the vices of women and homosexuals.  Women are attacked for their love of artifice, exemplified by make-up and ornament; effeminate men are accused of improperly abandoning their masculine qualities (self-control, strength) in their lust for luxury goods and feminine display.

[4] It was thought that the senses were gateways through which the soul could be attacked (cf. John Chrysostom On Vainglory and the Education of the Young 27; Prudentius here enumerates the assaults to which each sense is vulnerable.  Sight is by far the most dangerous of the senses, as it leaves the strongest impression on the mind.

[5] Prudentius describes the performance of a pantomime dancer.  The pantomime  (nothing like the comic modern pantomime tradition) was a wildly popular type of theatrical performance, from its beginning in the reign of Augustus through late antiquity.  The dancers were solo performers who acted out stories from mythology and tragedy, such as Orestes, Hippolytus, Herakles, and Medea, through gesture and dance, accompanied by a chorus of singers and musicians.  Christian writers perceived these performances as a particularly dangerous threat to the integrity of the Christian soul because of the pagan content, the gender slippage (males took on both male and female roles), and the strong emotions generated by the performances (see Webb 2007, a fascinating recreation and analysis of pantomime in late antiquity).