Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.14.110

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

Summary: Bacchylides says the gods are free from human ills, and Cleanthes the Stoic lists the qualities of the good.

Greek text · Stählin 2:400

Ἀκούσωμεν οὖν πάλιν Βακχυλίδου τοῦ μελοποιοῦ περὶ τοῦ θείου λέγοντος· οἳ μὲν ἀδμῆτες ἀεικελιᾶν νούσων εἰσὶν καὶ ἄνατοι, οὐδὲν ἀνθρώποις ἴκελοι· Κλεάνθους τε τοῦ Στωϊκοῦ ἔν τινι ποιήματι περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ταῦτα γεγραφότος· τἀγαθὸν ἐρωτᾷς με οἷόν ἐστʼ; ἄκουε δή· τεταγμένον, δίκαιον, ὅσιον, εὐσεβές, κρατοῦν ἑαυτοῦ, χρήσιμον, καλόν, δέον, αὐστηρόν, αὐθέκαστον, ἀεὶ συμφέρον, ἄφοβον, ἄλυπον, λυσιτελές, ἀνώδυνον, ὠφέλιμον, εὐάρεστον, ἀσφαλές, φίλον, ἔντιμον, ὁμολογούμενον, εὐκλεές, ἄτυφον, ἐπιμελές, πρᾶον, σφοδρόν, χρονιζόμενον, ἄμεμπτον, ἀεὶ διαμένον.

English · Claude translation

Let us hear again Bacchylides the lyric poet speaking about the divine: “They are unsubdued by shameful diseases and unharmed, in no way like men.” And Cleanthes the Stoic, who wrote this about God in a certain poem: “You ask me what the good is like? Listen, then: ordered, just, holy, pious, master of itself, useful, noble, fitting, austere, straightforward, always advantageous, fearless, painless, profitable, without grief, helpful, well-pleasing, safe, friendly, honored, consistent, glorious, without conceit, caring, gentle, strong, enduring, blameless, ever-abiding.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:400 · 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
  • Bacchylides (Bacchylides (fragments)) · quotation, medium confidence
  • Cleanthes (Cleanthes (fragments)) · quotation, medium confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Bacchylides, fragment 23 (Snell–Maehler), and Cleanthes, fragment 557 in Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, volume 1.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.110 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/110/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.110 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/110/).

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