Exhortation to the Greeks 7.73

Greek text · Stählin 1:55–56

Ἴτω δὲ ἡμῖν (οὐ γὰρ αὐταρκεῖ μόνον ἡ φιλοσοφία) ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ ποιητικὴ ἡ περὶ τὸ ψεῦδος τὰ πάντα ἠσχολημένη, μόλις ποτὲ ἤδη ἀλήθειαν μαρτυρήσουσα, μᾶλλον δὲ ἐξομολογουμένη τῷ θεῷ τὴν μυθώδη παρέκβασιν· παρίτω δὴ ὅστις καὶ βούλεται ποιητὴς πρῶτος. Ἄρατος μὲν οὖν διὰ πάντων τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ θεοῦ διήκειν νοεῖ, ὄφρʼ ἔμπεδα πάντα φύωνται, τῷ μιν ἀεὶ πρῶτόν τε καὶ ὕστατον ἱλάσκονται· χαῖρε, πάτερ, μέγα θαῦμα, μέγʼ ἀνθρώποισιν ὄνειαρ. ταύτῃ τοι καὶ ὁ Ἀσκραῖος αἰνίττεται Ἡσίοδος τὸν θεόν· αὐτὸς γὰρ πάντων βασιλεὺς καὶ κοίρανός ἐστιν, ἀθανάτων τέο δʼ οὔτις ἐρήρισται κράτος ἄλλος.

English · Claude translation

Let poetry too come to us (for philosophy alone is not enough), poetry, which is wholly occupied with falsehood, now at last bearing witness, however reluctantly, to the truth, or rather confessing to God its departure into myth. Let any poet who wishes come forward first. Aratus understands that the power of God pervades all things: “so that all things may grow steadfast; therefore they always propitiate him first and last: hail, Father, great wonder, great blessing to humankind.” In the same way Hesiod of Ascra too hints at God: “For he is king and lord of all; no other of the immortals has contended with his might.”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 1:55–56 · 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

Aratus, Phaen. 13–15 (Aratus, Phaenomena) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

Aratus, Phaenomena 13–15 (the same poem Paul quotes in Acts 17:28). The Hesiod lines are a fragment (195 Rzach).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 7.73 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/7/73/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 7.73 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/7/73/).