The Instructor 2.10.106 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 1:220–221

ὁ δὲ τῶν ἀρχόντων τούτων ζῆλος καὶ εἰς τοὺς ἄλλους Ἴωνας διικνεῖτο, οὓς Ὅμηρος ἐκθηλύνων »ἑλκεσιπέπλους« καλεῖ. εἴδωλον οὖν τοῦ καλοῦ τὴν φιλοκοσμίαν, οὐχὶ δὲ αὐτὸ τὸ καλὸν προστρεπομένους, διʼ ὀνόματος ὡραίου πάλιν εἰδωλολατροῦντας, πόρρω τῆς ἀληθείας ἀποικιστέον, δόξῃ, οὐκ ἐπιστήμῃ, ὀνειροπολοῦντας τοῦ καλοῦ τὴν φύσιν. καὶ ἔστιν αὐτοῖς ὁ τῇδε βίος ἀγνοίας ὕπνος βαθύς, οὗ χρὴ ἐξεγειρομένους ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ τὸ ὄντων καλὸν καὶ κόσμιον σπεύδειν καὶ τούτου μόνου ἐφάπτεσθαι γλίχεσθαι καταλείποντας τὰ τῇδε κόσμια αὐτῷ κόσμῳ χαίρειν πρὶν ἢ τέλεον καταδαρθεῖν. φημὶ τοίνυν οὐκ ἄλλου τινὸς ἕνεκα δεηθῆναι ὑφασμάτων τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἢ σκέπης σώματος, πρὸς ἀπαλέξησιν κρυμῶν τε ὑπερβολῆς καὶ καυμάτων ἐπιτάσεως, μή τι ἡμᾶς παραλυποίη τοῦ περιέχοντος ἡ ἀμετρία.

English · Claude translation

The emulation of these rulers spread to the other Ionians too, whom Homer, making them womanish, calls “trailing-robed.” Those who revere love of finery, an idol of the beautiful, instead of the beautiful itself, and so again commit idolatry under a lovely name, must be banished far from the truth, since they dream of the nature of the beautiful by opinion, not by knowledge. For them life here is a deep sleep of ignorance; we must wake from it and hasten to what is truly beautiful and orderly, and long to lay hold of this alone, leaving the ornaments here to the world itself, before we fall fast asleep. I say, then, that the human being needs clothing for nothing else than to cover the body, to ward off excessive cold and intense heat, so that the immoderation of the air may not harm us.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 1:220–221 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 1, Protrepticus und Paedagogus, GCS 12 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1905) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 1: Protrepticus und Paedagogus (GCS 12, 1905), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Stählin, GCS 12. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1905); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Extrabiblical texts

Homer, Il. 6.442 (Homer, Iliad) · quotation, medium confidence
Plato, Resp. 476c (Plato (works)) · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

The Homeric epithet is from Iliad 6.442 (of the Trojan women). The contrast between opinion and knowledge, and the image of dreaming, follow Plato, Republic 5.476c.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.106 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/106/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.106 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/106/).