Miscellanies 6.16.139
Summary: The number six is perfect: the embryo is formed in six months, the Pythagoreans call six “marriage” as the product of male three and female two, and there are six directions of motion.
Greek text · Stählin 2:502–503
φασὶ δὲ καὶ τὸ ἔμβρυον ἀπαρτίζεσθαι πρὸς ἀκρίβειαν μηνὶ τῷ ἕκτῳ, τουτέστιν ἑκατὸν ἡμέραις καὶ ὀγδοήκοντα πρὸς ταῖς δύο καὶ ἡμίσει, ὡς ἱστορεῖ Πόλυβος μὲν ὁ ἰατρὸς ἐν τῷ Περὶ ὀκταμήνων, Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ ὁ φιλόσοφος ἐν τῷ Περὶ φύσεως· οἵ τε Πυθαγόρειοι ἐντεῦθεν, οἶμαι, ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου κατὰ τὸν προφήτην γενέσεως, τὸν ἓξ ἀριθμὸν τέλειον νομίζουσι καὶ μεσευθὺν καλοῦσι τοῦτον καὶ γάμον διὰ τὸ μέσον αὐτὸν εἶναι τοῦ εὐθέος, τουτέστι τοῦ δέκα καὶ τοῦ δύο· φαίνεται γὰρ ἴσον ἀμφοῖν ἀπέχων. ὡς δʼ ὁ γάμος ἐξ ἄρρενος καὶ θηλείας γεννᾷ, οὕτως ὁ ἓξ ἐκ περισσοῦ μὲν τοῦ τρία, ἄρρενος ἀριθμοῦ λεγομένου, ἀρτίου δὲ τοῦ δύο, θήλεος νομιζομένου, γεννᾶται· δὶς γὰρ τὰ τρία γίνεται ὁ ἕξ. τοσαῦται πάλιν αἱ γενικώταται κινήσεις, καθʼ ἃς ἡ πᾶσα γένεσις φέρεται, ἄνω κάτω, εἰς δεξιὰ εἰς ἀριστερά, πρόσω ὀπίσω.
English · Claude translation
They say too that the embryo is completed precisely in the sixth month, that is, in one hundred and eighty-two and a half days, as Polybus the physician relates in his work On the Eighth-Month Child, and Aristotle the philosopher in his work On Nature. And the Pythagoreans, I think, taking their start from here, from the creation of the world according to the prophet, consider six a perfect number and call it “mid-straight” and “marriage,” because it is in the middle of the straight line, that is, of ten and two; for it appears equally distant from both. And as marriage generates from male and female, so six is generated from three, the odd number, called male, and two, the even number, considered female; for twice three makes six. So many again are the most general motions, according to which all generation moves: up and down, to the right and to the left, forward and backward.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Polybus is the Hippocratic writer to whom the treatise On the Eight-Month Child was attributed; the Aristotle reference is not identified with certainty. The six days of creation are Gen 1.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.16.139 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/16/139/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.16.139 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/16/139/).
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