Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 2.23.143

Clement of Alexandria · Miscellanies · ca. 198–203 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: Homer prays for a husband and home with like-mindedness; Christian marriage seeks rational concord, adorns character not appearance, treats the wife as life's helper, and must be purged of all impurity, since human seed is more precious than grain.

Greek text · Stählin 2:191–192

πατέρα δὲ γάμος ποιεῖ ὡς μητέρα ἀνήρ. εὐχὴν οὖν μεγίστην καὶ Ὅμηρος τίθεται ἄνδρα τε καὶ οἶκον, ἀλλʼ οὐχ ἁπλῶς, μετὰ ὁμοφροσύνης δὲ τῆς ἐσθλῆς· ὁ μὲν γὰρ τῶν ἄλλων γάμος ἐφʼ ἡδυπαθείᾳ ὁμονοεῖ, ὁ δὲ τῶν φιλοσοφούντων ἐπὶ τὴν κατὰ λόγον ὁμόνοιαν ἄγει, ὁ μὴ τὸ εἶδος, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἦθος ἐπιτρέπων ταῖς γυναιξὶ κοσμεῖσθαι μηδʼ ὡς ἐρωμέναις χρῆσθαι ταῖς γαμεταῖς προστάττων τοῖς ἀνδράσι σκοπὸν πεποιημένοις τὴν τῶν σωμάτων ὕβριν, ἀλλʼ εἰς βοήθειαν παντὸς τοῦ βίου καὶ τὴν ἀρίστην σωφροσύνην περιποιεῖσθαι τὸν γάμον. πυρῶν γὰρ οἶμαι καὶ κριθῶν τε αὖ κατὰ τοὺς οἰκείους καιροὺς καταβαλλομένων σπερμάτων τιμιώτερός ἐστιν ὁ σπειρόμενος ἄνθρωπος, ᾧ πάντα φύεται, κἀκεῖνά γε καὶ νήφοντες καταβάλλουσι τὰ σπέρματα οἱ γεωργοί. πᾶν οὖν εἴ τι ῥυπαρὸν καὶ μεμολυσμένον ἐπιτήδευμα ἀφαγνιστέον τοῦ γάμου, ὡς μὴ ὀνειδισθείημεν τὴν τῶν ἀλόγων ζῴων σύνοδον τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης συζυγίας συνᾴδουσαν τῇ φύσει μᾶλλον κατὰ τὸν ὁμολογούμενον ὅρον.

English · Claude translation

Marriage makes a father, as a husband makes a mother. Homer too sets as the greatest prayer “a husband and a home,” but not simply, rather “with noble like-mindedness.” For the marriage of others agrees in self-indulgence, but that of those who philosophize leads to the like-mindedness that is according to reason; it bids wives adorn not their appearance but their character, and commands husbands not to treat their wives as mistresses, making bodily wantonness their aim, but to make marriage a help for the whole of life and a means of the best self-restraint. For more precious, I think, than wheat and barley sown in their proper seasons is the human being who is sown, for whom all things grow; and farmers sow those seeds when sober. Every filthy and polluted practice, then, must be purged from marriage, so that we may not be reproached that the union of irrational animals agrees with nature better than human wedlock, according to the accepted definition.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:191–192 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 2, Stromata Buch I–VI, GCS 15 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1906); vol. 3, Stromata Buch VII und VIII, GCS 17 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 2–3 (GCS 15, 17, 1906–1909), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Stählin, GCS 15, 17. 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), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1906–1909); 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) · Book 3 is left partly untranslated (in Latin) there.
Scripture
Extrabiblical texts
  • Homer, Od. 6.181–182 (Homer, Odyssey) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Marriage

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is Homer, Odyssey 6.181–182. The allusions are 1 Pet 3:3–4 and 1 Tim 2:9–10.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (accent: acute before a full stop): τὰ σπέρματα οἱ γεωργοὶ. → τὰ σπέρματα οἱ γεωργοί..

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.23.143 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/23/143/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.23.143 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/23/143/).

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