Sophia Scriptura

The Instructor 2.10.86

Clement of Alexandria · The Instructor · ca. 190–200 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: The hyena's perversion is a picture of unnatural lust; Plato called pederasty beastly, and Paul condemns unnatural relations as dishonorable passions.

Greek text · Stählin 1:209–210

πόροι. τὸ δὲ αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἄρρενί τε καὶ θηλείᾳ προσπέφυκεν ὑαίνῃ διὰ τὸν ὑπερβάλλοντα πασχητιασμόν· ἀλληλίζει γὰρ καὶ ὁ ἄρρην, ὅθεν καὶ σπανιαίτατα θήλειαν ἔστιν ὕαιναν λαβεῖν· οὐ γὰρ συνεχεῖς αἱ κυήσεις τῷ ζῴῳ γίγνονται τούτῳ πλεοναζούσης ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀδεῶς τῆς παρὰ φύσιν σπορᾶς. ταύτῃ μοι δοκεῖ καὶ ὁ Πλάτων ἐν Φαίδρῳ τὴν παιδεραστίαν ἀποκρουόμενος θηρίον αὐτὴν προσειπεῖν, ὅτι »τὸν χαλινὸν ἐνδακόντες« οἱ ταῖς ἡδοναῖς ἔκδοτοι λάγνοι »τετραπόδων νόμῳ βαίνουσι καὶ παιδοσπορεῖν ἐπιχειροῦσιν«· τοὺς δὲ ἀθέους »παρέδωκεν ὁ θεός«, ὥς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, »εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας· αἵ τε γὰρ θήλειαι αὐτῶν μετήλλαξαν τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν εἰς τὴν παρὰ φύσιν, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ οἱ ἄρρενες αὐτῶν ἀφέντες τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν ἐξεκαύθησαν ἐν τῇ ὀρέξει αὐτῶν εἰς ἀλλήλους, ἄρρενες ἐν ἄρρεσι τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην κατεργαζόμενοι καὶ τὴν ἀντιμισθίαν, ἣν ἔδει, τῆς πλάνης

English · Claude translation

passages are turned away, occupied with bearing young. This same thing grows on both male and female hyena because of their excessive perversion; for the male too mounts the male, so that very rarely can one catch a female hyena; for pregnancies are not frequent in this animal, since unnatural sowing abounds unrestrainedly among them. That is why, it seems to me, Plato too, in the Phaedrus, rejecting pederasty, called it a beast, because the lustful, given up to pleasures, “taking the bit in their teeth, go after the manner of four-footed beasts and try to beget children.” And God “gave up” the godless, as the apostle says, “to dishonorable passions; for their women exchanged natural use for what is against nature, and likewise the men too, leaving the natural use of women, were inflamed in their desire for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 1:209–210 · 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)
Scripture
Extrabiblical texts
  • Plato, Phaedr. 250e (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Plato, Phaedrus 250e and 254d (loosely), and Rom 1:26–27.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.86 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/86/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.86 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/86/).

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