As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a beautiful woman who is without discretion.
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Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
Reason also forbids us to do violence to nature by piercing the lobes of the ear. Why not pierce the nostrils also? The Scriptures would then be accomplished indeed: “As a ring in the nose of the swine, so is beauty in a foolish woman.” To conclude, if anyone thinks he is decorated when he wears gold, then he is less than his gold, and he who is less than gold is not its master. .
Foolish. Beauty, without prudence, leads to ruin, as ornaments are ill bestowed on swine. The women in the east sometimes wore rings in their noses, (Genesis xxiv. 22.; Calmet) or hanging down upon them, Isaias iii. 21. (Menochius)
Let eagerness for virginity be put down as the foundation for the life of virtue, but let there be built upon this foundation all the products of virtue. If this is believed to be precious and befitting to God, as it is, but one’s whole life does not conform to it and is stained by the rest of the soul’s disorder, then this is “the golden ring in the swine’s snout” or the pearl trampled under the feet of the swine.
As for those who seem to have some semblance of knowledge and those who do not abandon the sins of the flesh even when they apply themselves diligently to the reading and memorizing of Scripture, Proverbs has the following wellput statement: “The beauty of a woman of evil ways is like a golden ring in the snout of a pig.” What use is it for a man to possess the jewel of heaven’s words and to give himself over to that most precious loveliness of Scripture if he himself is stuck fast in muddied works and thoughts? Conference
What is a holy appellation without merit but an ornament set in the mud? The holy Scriptures have testified to this in writing: “A golden ring in a swine’s snout, a woman fair and foolish.” And in us the appellation Christian is like a golden ornament. If we use it unworthily, we seem to be swine with an ornament.
