Hieromonk Patapios (Ed. Trans.), On Christian Morality by St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite, Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies: Belmont, MA, 2012, p.283.
That the Devil uses the eyes of the envious as his tools
And (4) because envy makes jealous men worse than any venomous snake. For snakes first wound a man, and then poison him by means of the wound. But envious men poison what is good by their eyes and words alone; not that poison comes out of their eyes and words - far from it! No, this is false; it is old wives' tales. Rather, on account of the baleful and malevolent disposition of their hearts, the envious Devil, who hates what is good, uses the eyes and words of the envious as his tools, and thus he withers the beautiful trees, kills fine-looking animals, and oftentimes even slays men. To put it simply, envy ruins and destroys all that is good, as Moses attests when he says: "He that is tender and very delicate within thee shall look with an evil eye upon his brother, and the wife of his bosom." [n.242 Deuteronomy 28:54] And Solomon says, "For the bewitching of wickedness doth obscure things that are good," [n.243 Wisdom of Solomon 4:12] just as many understand this verse in this sense. Sirach says: "The envious man hath a wicked eye." [n.244 Ecclesiasticus 14:8] St. Basil the Great testifies as follows:
"Even so, those afflicted with envy are supposed to be more pernicious than venomous animals, since whereas the latter inject their poison through wounds, and gradually the part which has been bitten is consumed by putrefaction, some people reckon that envious persons inflict harm merely through their eyes...with some destructive current, as it were, flowing through their eyes, causing damage and decay. For my part, I reject this explanation as crude and as old wives' tales; I maintain that whenever the demons, who hate what is good, find intentions congenial to themselves, they twist these for their own ends, so as to make the eyes of envious people subservient to their will." [n.245 "Homily XI, 'On Envy'," §4, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. XXXI, col. 380BC]