Miscellanies 5.14.112 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:402

Ὁ μελοποιὸς δὲ Μελανιππίδης ᾄδων φησίν· κλῦθί μοί, ὦ πάτερ, θαῦμα βροτῶν, τᾶς ἀειζώου ψυχᾶς μεδέων. Παρμενίδης δὲ ὁ μέγας, ὥς φησιν ἐν Σοφιστῇ Πλάτων, ὧδέ πως περὶ τοῦ θείου γράφει· πολλὰ μάλʼ, ὡς ἀγένητον ἐὸν καὶ ἀνώλεθρόν ἐστιν, οὖλον μουνογενές τε καὶ ἀτρεμὲς ἠδʼ ἀγένητον. ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ Ἡσίοδος αὐτὸς γὰρ πάντων φησὶ βασιλεὺς καὶ κοίρανός ἐστιν ἀθανάτων· σέο δʼ οὔτις ἐρήρισται κράτος ἄλλος. Ναὶ μὴν καὶ ἡ τραγῳδία ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων ἀποσπῶσα εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀναβλέπειν διδάσκει.

English · Claude translation

And the lyric poet Melanippides says in song: “Hear me, O father, wonder of mortals, ruler of the ever-living soul.” And the great Parmenides, as Plato calls him in the Sophist, writes about the divine thus: “Very many are the signs that, being unbegotten, it is also imperishable, whole, only-begotten, unshaken, and without beginning.” And Hesiod too says: “For he himself is king and lord of all the immortals; no other has vied with your might.” Yes, and tragedy too, drawing people away from idols, teaches them to look up to heaven.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:402 · 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

Plato, Soph. 237a (Plato (works)) · allusion, medium confidence
Parmenides (Parmenides (fragments)) · quotation, medium confidence

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are Melanippides (fragment 762 in Page, Poetae Melici Graeci), Parmenides, fragment 8.3–4 (Diels–Kranz; “the great Parmenides” is from Plato, Sophist 237a), and lines ascribed to Hesiod that are not in his surviving works (the change from “he” to “your” suggests a hymn; unidentified).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.112 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/112/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.112 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/112/).