Miscellanies 1.21.107
Summary: Leto, Apollo, the first musicians, Homer and Hesiod, the lawgivers, and the sages all came after Moses, who is older even than most Greek gods.
Greek text · Stählin 2:68–69
Ἆπις δὲ τρίτος ἐστὶν ἀπὸ Ἰνάχου. ναὶ μὴν ἡ Λητὼ κατὰ Τιτυὸν γίνεται, Λητὼ γὰρ ἥλκησε, Διὸς κυδρὴν παράκοιτιν, Τιτυὸς δὲ συνεχρόνισεν Ταντάλῳ. εἰκότως ἄρα καὶ ὁ Βοιώτιος Πίνδαρος γράφει· ἐν χρόνῳ δὲ γένετʼ Ἀπόλλων, καὶ οὐδὲν θαυμαστόν, ὅπου γε καὶ Ἀδμήτῳ θητεύων εὑρίσκεται σὺν καὶ Ἡρακλεῖ μέγαν εἰς ἐνιαυτόν. Ζῆθος δὲ καὶ Ἀμφίων οἱ μουσικῆς εὑρεταὶ περὶ τὴν Κάδμου γεγόνασιν ἡλικίαν. κἄν τις ἡμῖν λέγῃ Φημονόην πρώτην χρησμῳδῆσαι Ἀκρισίῳ, ἀλλʼ ἴστω γε ὅτι μετὰ Φημονόην ἔτεσιν ὕστερον εἴκοσι ἑπτὰ οἱ περὶ Ὀρφέα καὶ Μουσαῖον καὶ Λίνον τὸν Ἡρακλέους διδάσκαλον. Ὅμηρος δὲ καὶ Ἡσίοδος πολλῷ νεώτεροι τῶν Ἰλιακῶν, μεθʼ οὓς μακρῷ νεώτεροι οἱ παρʼ Ἕλλησι νομοθέται, Λυκοῦργός τε καὶ Σόλων, καὶ οἱ ἑπτὰ σοφοί, οἵ τε ἀμφὶ τὸν Σύριον Φερεκύδην καὶ Πυθαγόραν τὸν μέγαν κάτω που περὶ τὰς ὀλυμπιάδας γενόμενοι, ὡς παρεστήσαμεν. καὶ θεῶν ἄρα τῶν πλείστων παρʼ Ἕλλησιν, οὐ μόνον τῶν λεγομένων σοφῶν τε καὶ ποιητῶν, ὁ Μωυσῆς ἡμῖν ἀποδέδεικται πρεσβύτερος.
English · Claude translation
Apis is third from Inachus. Leto too lived in the time of Tityus, for “he assaulted Leto, the glorious consort of Zeus,” and Tityus was contemporary with Tantalus. Fittingly, then, does Pindar the Boeotian write: “In time was Apollo born”; and it is no wonder, since he is found serving Admetus along with Heracles “for a great year.” Zethus and Amphion, the inventors of music, lived about the age of Cadmus. And if anyone tells us that Phemonoe first gave oracles to Acrisius, let him know that twenty-seven years after Phemonoe came Orpheus, Musaeus, and Linus, the teacher of Heracles. Homer and Hesiod are much younger than the Trojan War, and much younger again than they are the Greek lawgivers, Lycurgus and Solon, and the Seven Wise Men, and Pherecydes of Syros and the great Pythagoras, who lived somewhere about the Olympiads, as we have shown. So Moses has been shown to be older than most of the gods among the Greeks, not only than their so-called wise men and poets.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Homer, Odyssey 11.580, Pindar (fragment 147), and an unknown poet on Apollo serving Admetus.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (wrong accent on the relative οὓς): τῶν Ἰλιακῶν, μεθʼ οὕς μακρῷ → τῶν Ἰλιακῶν, μεθʼ οὓς μακρῷ.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.21.107 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/21/107/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.21.107 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/21/107/).
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