Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.18.115

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

Summary: Clement tells of King Bocchoris, who, when a courtesan demanded pay for a youth's dream of her, had her take the shadow of the purse: an image of payment for an image of union.

Greek text · Stählin 2:298–299

λέγουσιν οὖν οἱ τὰς ἱστορίας συνταξάμενοι Βοκχόριδος τοῦ δικαίου κρίσιν τοιάνδε. ἐρῶν ἑταίρας νεανίας πείθει μισθῷ τινι ὡρισμένῳ τὴν παῖδα ἀφικέσθαι τῇ ὑστεραίᾳ πρὸς αὐτόν. προλαβούσης ὄναρ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας τὴν παῖδα παρʼ ἐλπίδα κορεσθεὶς ἥκουσαν τὴν ἐρωμένην κατὰ τὸ τεταγμένον εἴργει τῆς εἰσόδου, ἣ δὲ ἐκμαθοῦσα τὸ γεγονὸς ἀπῄτει τὸν μισθόν, καὶ τῇδέ πως αὐτὴ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν τῷ ἐραστῇ πεπληρωκέναι λέγουσα. ἧκον οὖν ἐπὶ τὸν κριτήν. τὸ βαλλάντιον οὗτος τοῦ μισθώματος τὸν νεανίσκον προτείνειν κελεύσας, ἐν ἡλίῳ δέ, τὴν ἑταίραν λαβέσθαι προσέταξεν τῆς σκιᾶς, χαριέντως εἴδωλον μισθώματος ἀποδιδόναι κελεύσας εἰδώλου συμπλοκῆς.

English · Claude translation

The historians tell of a judgment of Bocchoris the just. A young man in love with a courtesan persuaded the girl, for a fixed fee, to come to him the next day. His desire, anticipating the girl in a dream, sated him unexpectedly; and when his beloved came as arranged, he barred her from entering. She, learning what had happened, demanded her fee, saying that she had in a way fulfilled her lover's desire. They came, then, to the judge. He ordered the young man to hold out the purse with the fee, but in the sun, and told the courtesan to take hold of its shadow, wittily ordering the image of a fee to be paid for the image of an embrace.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:298–299 · 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.
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The story is also in Plutarch, Demetrius 27.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.18.115 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/18/115/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.18.115 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/18/115/).

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