“... Therefore it is written in the poet (Homer, Odyssey 1.48-59), Odysseus sat on the island weeping and grieving and turning his face from the words of Calypso and from her tricks, longing to see his village and smoke coming forth from it. And had he not [received] help from heaven, [he would] not [have been able to return] to his village. Again [Helen] <... > saying (Odyssey 4.260-261), [My heart] turned itself from me. It is to my house that I want to return. For she sighed, saying (Odyssey 4.261-264), It is Aphrodite who deceived me and brought me out of my village. My only daughter I left behind me, and my good, understanding, handsome husband. For when the soul leaves her perfect husband because of the treachery of Aphrodite, who exists here in the act of begetting, then she will suffer harm. But if she sighs and repents, she will be restored to her house. ...”

“... After the story is told, the hortatory section (135,4ff.) twice says what is proper behavior (―It is fitting‖ 135,4–15; 136,16–27)—sighing, weeping, hating ourselves and this place of deception, repenting with sincerity—and offers assurance that the father hears the penitent. Chains of Scripture (136,25–137,11; 137,11–22) support both points. In the second instance the Scripture quotations also summarize the whole theme of repentance and deliverance, both in terms of narrative. One is from Homer‘s Odyssey (Helen and Odysseus are figures of the soul‘s perilous journey through this world to her true home) and the other is from Israel‘s exodus out of Egypt (to prooftext the groveling which is de rigueur in Exeg. Soul ‘s piety: ―Certainly Israel would not have been visited in the first place, to be brought out of the land of Egypt … if it had not sighed to God and wept …‖). There are also single texts from Scripture: at the end of the narrative didactic definitions are coupled with quotations (134,4–5.11–25.29–135,4). ...”