Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.8.62

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

Summary: Women of some nations fight and labor like men, and even female dogs work as males do; so women must philosophize like men, though men hold the first place.

Greek text · Stählin 2:276–277

ἀκούω δʼ ἔγωγε καὶ Σαυρομάτιδας γυναῖκας πολέμῳ χρωμένας ἀνδρῶν οὐκ ἔλαττον, καὶ Σακίδας ἄλλας, αἳ τοξεύουσιν εἰς τοὐπίσω φεύγειν προσποιούμεναι τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἐπʼ ἴσης. οἶδα καὶ τὰς πλησίον τῆς Ἰβηρίας γυναῖκας ἔργῳ καὶ πόνῳ χρωμένας ἀνδρικῷ, κἂν πρὸς τὸ ἀποκυεῖν γένωνται οὐδὲν ἀνιείσας τῶν πρακτέων, ἀλλʼ ἐν αὐτῇ πολλάκις τῇ ἁμίλλῃ τῶν πόνων ἡ γυνὴ ἀποκυήσασα τὸ βρέφος ἀνελομένη οἴκαδε φέρει. ἤδη γοῦν αἱ κύνες οὐδὲν ἔλαττον τῶν ἀρρένων καὶ οἰκουροῦσι καὶ θηρεύουσι καὶ τὰς ποίμνας φυλάττουσι. Κρῆσσα κύων ἐλάφοιο κατʼ ἴχνιον ἔδραμε Γοργώ. φιλοσοφητέον οὖν καὶ ταῖς γυναιξὶν ἐμφερῶς τοῖς ἀνδράσι, κἂν βελτίους οἱ ἄρρενες τά τε πρῶτα ἐν πᾶσι φερόμενοι τυγχάνωσιν, ἐκτὸς εἰ μὴ καταμαλακισθεῖεν.

English · Claude translation

I hear that the Sarmatian women too make war no less than men, and the Sacian women too, who shoot backward while pretending to flee, equally with the men. I know too that the women near Iberia do men's work and labor, and even when they are about to give birth they neglect nothing of what must be done; often, in the very contest of labor, the woman gives birth, takes up the baby, and carries it home. Indeed female dogs, no less than male, guard the house, hunt, and watch the flocks: “Gorgo, the Cretan hound, ran on the track of the deer.” Women, then, must philosophize like men, even if men are better and hold the first place in all things, unless they have become effeminate.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:276–277 · 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.
Extrabiblical texts
  • Herodotus, Hist. 4.116 (Herodotus, Histories) · allusion, medium confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is from an unknown epigram. The reports about Sarmatian and Iberian women are in Herodotus 4.116 and Strabo 3.4.17.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.8.62 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/8/62/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.8.62 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/8/62/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage