Miscellanies 5.14.137 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:418–419

Πίνδαρος δὲ ἄντικρυς καὶ σωτῆρα Δία συνοικοῦντα Θέμιδι εἰσάγει, βασιλέα, σωτῆρα δίκαιον, ἑρμηνεύων ὧδέ πως· πρῶτα μὲν εὔβουλον Θέμιν οὐρανίαν, χρυσέαισιν ἵπποισιν Ὠκεανοῦ παρὰ παγᾶν Μοῖραι ποτὶ κλίμακα σεμνὰν ἆγον Ὀλύμπου λιπαρὰν καθʼ ὁδόν, σωτῆρος ἀρχαίαν ἄλοχον Διὸς ἔμμεν· ἁ δὲ τὰς χρυσάμπυκας ἀγλαοκάρπους τίκτεν ἀλαθέας Ὥρας. ὁ τοίνυν μὴ πειθόμενος τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, διδασκαλίᾳ δὲ ἀνθρωπίνῃ τετυφωμένος, δυσδαίμων, ἄθλιός τε καὶ κατὰ τὸν Εὐριπίδην, ὃς τάδε λεύσσων θεὸν οὐχὶ νοεῖ, μετεωρολόγων δʼ ἑκὰς ἔρριψεν σκολιὰς ἀπάτας, ὧν ἀτηρὰ γλῶσσα εἰκοβολεῖ περὶ τῶν ἀφανῶν, οὐδὲν γνώμης μετέχουσα.

English · Claude translation

And Pindar plainly brings in Zeus the Savior living with Themis, interpreting him as King, a righteous Savior, thus: “First the Fates led heavenly Themis of good counsel, with golden horses, from the springs of Ocean up the holy stair along the shining road of Olympus, to be the ancient wife of Zeus the Savior; and she bore the golden-crowned, glorious-fruited, truthful Seasons.” He, then, who does not obey the truth, but is puffed up by human teaching, is ill-fated and wretched, and, according to Euripides, is one “who, seeing these things, does not perceive God and cast far away the crooked deceits of the star-gazers, whose baneful tongue shoots at random about things unseen, having no share of understanding.”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:418–419 · 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

Zech 9:9 · echo, low confidence

Extrabiblical texts

Euripides, fragment 913 (Euripides (plays and fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
Pindar (Pindar (odes and fragments)) · quotation, medium confidence

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are Pindar, fragment 30 (Snell–Maehler), and Euripides, fragment 913 (Nauck), where the lines are a question (“Who, seeing these things, does not perceive God…?”); Clement turns it into a statement. “King, a righteous Savior” echoes Zech 9:9.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.137 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/137/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.137 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/137/).