Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 5.8.47

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

Summary: Greek writers explain the obscure words of the old primer: bedy is air or water, zaps the sea, chthōn the earth, plēktron the pole or air.

Greek text · Stählin 2:357–358

συνομόλογος τῆς τοιᾶσδε δόξης καὶ ὁ Κυζικηνὸς Νεάνθης γράφων τοὺς Μακεδόνων ἱερεῖς ἐν ταῖς κατευχαῖς βέδυ κατακαλεῖν ἵλεω αὐτοῖς τε καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις, ὅπερ ἑρμηνεύουσιν ἀέρα. ζὰψ δὲ τὸ πῦρ οἳ μὲν παρὰ τὴν ζέσιν ἀμαθῶς ἐδέξαντο· καλεῖται δʼ οὕτως ἡ θάλασσα, ὡς Εὐφορίων ἐν ταῖς πρὸς Θεοδωρίδαν ἀντιγραφαῖς· ζὰψ δὲ ποτὶ σπιλάδεσσι νεῶν ὀλέτειρα κακύνει. Διονύσιός τε ὁ Ἴαμβος ὁμοίως· πόντου μαινομένοιο περιστείνει ἁλυκὴ ζάψ. ὁμοίως δὲ Κρατῖνος ὁ νεώτερος κωμικός· καρῖδας ἡ ζὰψ ἐκφέρει κἰχθύδια. καὶ Σιμμίας ὁ Ῥόδιος· ἀμμὰς Ἰγνήτων καὶ Τελχίνων ἔφυ ἡ ἁλυκὴ ζάψ. χθὼν δὲ ἡ γῆ εἰς μέγεθος κεχυμένη. καὶ πλῆκτρον οἳ μὲν τὸν πόλον, οἳ δὲ τὸν ἀέρα τὸν πάντα πλήσσοντα καὶ κινοῦντα εἰς φύσιν τε καὶ αὔξησιν ἢ τὸν πάντων πληρωτικόν.

English · Claude translation

Neanthes of Cyzicus too agrees with this opinion, writing that the priests of the Macedonians in their prayers invoke bedy to be propitious to them and their children, which they interpret as air. Some have ignorantly taken zaps for fire, from zesis (“boiling”); but the sea is so called, as Euphorion says in his Replies to Theodoridas: “And zaps, destroyer of ships, rages by the rocks.” Likewise Dionysius Iambus: “The briny zaps of the raging sea groans around.” And likewise Cratinus the younger comic poet: “The zaps brings out shrimps and little fish.” And Simmias of Rhodes: “The briny zaps was the mother of the Ignetes and the Telchines.” Chthōn is the earth, spread out in size. And plēktron some take as the pole, others as the air, which strikes (plēssōn) and moves all things to nature and growth, or as what fills (plērōtikon) all things.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:357–358 · 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 quotations are Neanthes, Euphorion, Dionysius Iambus, Cratinus the younger, and Simmias of Rhodes (all fragments).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.8.47 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/8/47/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.8.47 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/8/47/).

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