Miscellanies 5.7.41 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:354

Ὅθεν καὶ Αἰγύπτιοι οὐ τοῖς ἐπιτυχοῦσι τὰ παρὰ σφίσιν ἀνετίθεντο μυστήρια οὐδὲ μὴν βεβήλοις τὴν τῶν θείων εἴδησιν ἐξέφερον, ἀλλʼ ἢ μόνοις γε τοῖς μέλλουσιν ἐπὶ βασιλείαν προϊέναι καὶ τῶν ἱερέων τοῖς κριθεῖσιν εἶναι δοκιμωτάτοις ἀπό τε τῆς τροφῆς καὶ τῆς παιδείας καὶ τοῦ γένους. Ὅμοια γοῦν τοῖς Ἑβραϊκοῖς κατά γε τὴν ἐπίκρυψιν καὶ τὰ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων αἰνίγματα. Αἰγυπτίων οἳ μὲν ἐπὶ πλοίου, οἳ δὲ ἐπὶ κροκοδείλου τὸν ἥλιον δεικνύουσι. σημαίνουσι δὲ ὅτι ὁ ἥλιος, διʼ ἀέρος γλυκεροῦ καὶ ὑγροῦ τὴν πορείαν ποιούμενος, γεννᾷ τὸν χρόνον, ὃν αἰνίσσεται ὁ κροκόδειλος διά τινα ἄλλην ἱερατικὴν ἱστορίαν. ναὶ μὴν καὶ ἐν Διοσπόλει τῆς Αἰγύπτου ἐπὶ τοῦ ἱεροῦ καλουμένου πυλῶνος διατετύπωται παιδίον μὲν γενέσεως σύμβολον, φθορᾶς δὲ ὁ γέρων, θεοῦ τε αὖ ὁ ἱέραξ, ὡς ὁ ἰχθὺς μίσους, καὶ κατʼ ἄλλο πάλιν σημαινόμενον ὁ κροκόδειλος ἀναιδείας.

English · Claude translation

Hence the Egyptians too did not entrust their mysteries to anyone at all, nor reveal the knowledge of divine things to the profane, but only to those who were going to proceed to kingship and to those of the priests judged most approved by nurture, education, and birth. The riddles of the Egyptians, at any rate, are like those of the Hebrews in concealment. Some of the Egyptians show the sun on a ship, others on a crocodile. And they signify that the sun, making its journey through sweet and moist air, begets time, which the crocodile hints at because of some other sacred story. Indeed in Diospolis in Egypt, on the gateway of the temple called the sacred one, there are carved a child, a symbol of birth, and an old man, of decay, and a hawk, of God, as the fish is of hatred; and, with another meaning again, the crocodile of shamelessness.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:354 · 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

Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

The Diospolis (Thebes) inscription is also described by Plutarch, Isis and Osiris 32.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (stray period in the digital text): θεοῦ τε αὖ ὁ ἱέραξ. ὡς ὁ ἰχθὺς μίσους → θεοῦ τε αὖ ὁ ἱέραξ, ὡς ὁ ἰχθὺς μίσους.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.7.41 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/7/41/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.7.41 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/7/41/).