Sophia Scriptura

The Instructor 2.10.88

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

Summary: The hare's constant mating was read as a symbol; the prohibition of eating it teaches abstinence from excessive intercourse, intercourse with pregnant women, homosexual acts, pederasty, and adultery.

Greek text · Stählin 1:210–211

Πάλιν ὁ Μωσῆς καὶ τὸν λαγὼ ἐσθίειν ἀπαγορεύει· ὀχεύει πᾶσαν τὴν ὥραν ὁ λαγώς, καὶ ἐπιβαίνει συγκαθεσθείσης τῆς θηλείας κατόπιν ἐπιών· ἔστι γὰρ ὀπισθοβατικόν· κυεῖ δὲ κατὰ μῆνα καὶ ἐπικυΐσκεται· ὀχεύεται δὲ καὶ τίκτει, τεκοῦσα δὲ εὐθὺς ὀχεύεται ὑφʼ οὗ ἂν τύχῃ λαγωοῦ· οὐ γὰρ ἑνὶ ἀρκεῖται γάμῳ. καὶ συλλαμβάνει πάλιν ἔτι θηλαζομένη· ἔχει γὰρ τὴν ὑστέραν δικρόαν. καὶ οὐχὶ τὸ κένωμα μόνον τῆς ὑστέρας ἱκανὸν αὐτῇ γίνεται συνουσίας ὁρμητήριον· τὸ γὰρ κενὸν πᾶν ἐπιθυμεῖ πληρώσεως· συμβαίνει δʼ, ὅταν κυῶσι, θάτερον μέρος τῆς ὑστέρας κατέχεσθαι τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ καὶ ὀργᾶν. διὰ τοῦτο ἐπικυήσεις γίνονται αὐτοῖς. ἀπέχεσθαι τοίνυν σφοδρῶν τε ὀρέξεων καὶ ἐπαλλήλων συνουσιῶν καὶ τῆς πρὸς τὰς ἐγκύους ὁμιλίας καὶ ἀλληλοβασίας καὶ παιδοφθορίας καὶ μοιχείας καὶ λαγνείας ἡ τοῦ αἰνίγματος τοῦδε ἀπαγόρευσις παρῄνεσεν.

English · Claude translation

Again, Moses forbids eating the hare. The hare mates at every season, and mounts the female from behind as she crouches; for it mates from behind. It conceives every month and conceives again while pregnant; it mates and gives birth, and as soon as it has given birth it mates with whatever hare it happens on; for it is not content with one mate. And it conceives again while still suckling, for it has a double womb. Not only is the emptiness of the womb a spur to intercourse (for everything empty desires filling), but when they are pregnant, the other part of the womb is gripped by desire and in heat; that is why they conceive again while pregnant. The prohibition in this riddle, then, advised abstaining from violent desires, from repeated intercourse, from intercourse with pregnant women, from homosexual acts, from the corruption of boys, from adultery, and from lust.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 1:210–211 · 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
Topics
Marriage, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusion is Lev 11:6 (Deut 14:7). The natural history follows Aristotle (History of Animals 5.9) and Herodotus 3.108.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.88 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/88/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.10.88 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/10/88/).

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