The Instructor 3.5.31
Summary: Rich women's baths are furnished with luxury and gold vessels, where they dine and drink and display their wealth to attract lovers.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Stählin 1:254
Οἷα δὲ καὶ τὰ λουτρὰ αὐταῖς· οἶκοι τεχνητοί, συμπαγεῖς καὶ περιφορητοί, διαφανεῖ σινδόνι καλυπτόμενοι, καθέδραι τε ἐπίχρυσοι, ἀργυροῖ * * καὶ σκεύη μυρία χρυσοῦ τε καὶ ἀργύρου, τὰ μὲν εἰς προπόσεις, τὰ δὲ εἰς τροφάς, τὰ δὲ εἰς τὸ λούσασθαι περιφερόμενα· ναὶ μὴν καὶ ἐσχαρίδες ἀνθράκων· εἰς τοσοῦτον γὰρ ἀκρασίας ἥκουσιν ὡς δειπνεῖν καὶ μεθύειν ἔτι λουομένας· τά τε ἀργυρώματα, μεθʼ ὧν ἐμπομπεύουσιν, ἀπειροκάλως ἐν τοῖς βαλανείοις προτιθέασι· τάχα μέν που καὶ τὸν πλοῦτον διʼ ἀλαζονείαν περιττήν, μάλιστα δὲ τὴν αὐτεξούσιον ἀπαιδευσίαν, καθʼ ἣν κατηγοροῦσιν ἀνάνδρων ἀνδρῶν πρὸς γυναικῶν κεκρατημένων, ἐπιδεικνύμεναι ἐλέγχουσαί τε ἁμῇ γέ πῃ σφᾶς αὐτὰς μὴ οἵας τε εἶναι [συνεῖναι] καὶ δίχα τῶν σκευῶν τῶν πολλῶν ἱδροῦν [δύνασθαι]· καὶ γὰρ αἱ πενόμεναι τῆς πομπῆς μὴ μεταλαμβάνουσαι τῶν ἴσων κοινωνοῦσι λουτρῶν. ἔχει δὲ ἄρα ὁ ῥύπος τῆς περιουσίας βλασφημίας περιβολὴν πολλήν. τούτῳ καθάπερ δελέατι ἀγκιστρεύουσιν τοὺς ἀθλίους κεχηνότας ἐπὶ τὰς μαρμαρυγὰς τοῦ χρυσίου· καὶ γὰρ ἐκπλήττουσαι τούτῳ τοὺς ἀπειροκάλους θαυμάζειν σφᾶς τεχνῶνται τοὺς ἐραστάς, οἳ μετʼ ὀλίγον αὐταῖς ἐνυβρίζουσι
English · Claude translation
And what baths they have! Artificial rooms, compact and portable, covered with transparent linen, gilded chairs, silver … and countless vessels of gold and silver, carried around, some for drinking, some for food, some for bathing; and even braziers of coals; for they have come to such incontinence as to dine and get drunk while still bathing. They tastelessly display in the baths the silver plate with which they parade, perhaps partly from superfluous pretension about their wealth, but chiefly showing their self-willed lack of education, by which they accuse unmanly men of being ruled by women, and prove at the same time that they cannot even sweat without their many vessels; for poor women, who have no share in the pomp, share the same baths. The filth of wealth has a great covering of blasphemy. With this, as with bait, they hook the wretches who gape at the glitter of the gold; for by dazzling the tasteless with it they contrive to make their lovers admire them, who shortly insult them when they are
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The asterisks mark a gap in the manuscript; the bracketed words are marked by the editor as spurious (to be deleted). The sentence continues in the next section.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 3.5.31 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/3/5/31/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 3.5.31 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/3/5/31/).
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