Miscellanies 1.21.102
Summary: Greek history begins with Inachus of Argos; the Exodus under Amosis falls in Inachus' time, long before the Trojan War and the other Greek genealogies.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Stählin 2:65–66
παλαίτατα δὲ τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν τὰ Ἀργολικά, τὰ ἀπὸ Ἰνάχου λέγω, ὡς Διονύσιος ὁ Ἁλικαρνασσεὺς ἐν τοῖς Χρόνοις διδάσκει, τούτων δὲ † τεσσαράκοντα μὲν γενεαῖς νεώτερα τὰ Ἀττικὰ τὰ ἀπὸ Κέκροπος τοῦ διφυοῦς δὴ καὶ αὐτόχθονος, ὥς φησι κατὰ λέξιν ὁ Τατιανός, ἐννέα δὲ τὰ Ἀρκαδικὰ τὰ ἀπὸ Πελασγοῦ· λέγεται δὲ καὶ οὗτος αὐτόχθων. τούτων δὲ ἄλλαιν δυοῖν νεώτερα τὰ Φθιωτικὰ τὰ ἀπὸ Δευκαλίωνος. εἰς δὲ τὸν χρόνον τῶν Τρωϊκῶν ἀπὸ Ἰνάχου γενεαὶ μὲν εἴκοσι ἢ μιᾷ πλείους διαριθμοῦνται, ἔτη δέ, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, τετρακόσια καὶ πρόσω. εἰ δὲ τὰ Ἀσσυρίων πολλοῖς ἔτεσι πρεσβύτερα τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν ἀφʼ ὧν Κτησίας λέγει, φανήσεται τῷ δευτέρῳ καὶ τετρακοσιοστῷ ἔτει τῆς Ἀσσυρίων ἀρχῆς, τῆς δὲ Βηλούχου τοῦ ὀγδόου δυναστείας τῷ δευτέρῳ καὶ τριακοστῷ ἡ Μωυσέως κατὰ Ἄμωσιν τὸν Αἰγύπτιον καὶ κατὰ Ἴναχον τὸν Ἀργεῖον ἐξ Αἰγύπτου κίνησις. ἦν δὲ κατὰ τὴν Ἑλλάδα κατὰ μὲν Φορωνέα τὸν μετὰ Ἴναχον ὁ ἐπὶ Ὠγύγου κατακλυσμὸς καὶ ἡ ἐν Σικυῶνι βασιλεία, πρώτου μὲν Αἰγιαλέως, εἶτα Εὔρωπος, εἶτα Τελχῖνος, καὶ ἡ Κρητὸς ἐν Κρήτῃ. Ἀκουσίλαος γὰρ Φορωνέα πρῶτον ἄνθρωπον γενέσθαι λέγει· ὅθεν καὶ ὁ τῆς Φορωνίδος ποιητὴς εἶναι αὐτὸν ἔφη πατέρα θνητῶν ἀνθρώπων.
English · Claude translation
The oldest of Greek history is that of Argos, I mean from Inachus, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches in his Chronicles; the Attic, from Cecrops, the two-natured and earthborn, is younger than these by … forty generations, as Tatian says word for word, and the Arcadian, from Pelasgus, by nine (he too is said to be earthborn). Younger than these by two more is the Phthiotic, from Deucalion. From Inachus to the time of the Trojan War, twenty generations or one more are counted, and roughly four hundred years or more. If the Assyrian history is many years older than the Greek, from what Ctesias says, it will appear that the departure of Moses from Egypt, in the time of Amosis the Egyptian and Inachus the Argive, was in the four hundred and second year of the Assyrian empire and the thirty-second of the reign of Beluchus the eighth. In Greece, in the time of Phoroneus, who came after Inachus, there was the flood in the time of Ogyges and the kingdom in Sicyon, first of Aegialeus, then of Europs, then of Telchis, and that of Cres in Crete. For Acusilaus says that Phoroneus was the first man; hence the poet of the Phoronis too said that he was “father of mortal men.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The number of generations is corrupt (dagger). Compare Tatian, Or. 39.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.21.102 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/21/102/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.21.102 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/21/102/).
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