Miscellanies 6.16.143
Summary: The number seven runs through creation: seven chief angels, seven planets, the Pleiades and the Bears, and the moon's seven-day phases and seven shapes.
Greek text · Stählin 2:504–505
ἑπτὰ μέν εἰσιν οἱ τὴν μεγίστην δύναμιν ἔχοντες πρωτόγονοι ἀγγέλων ἄρχοντες, ἑπτὰ δὲ καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ τῶν μαθημάτων τοὺς πλανήτας εἶναί φασιν ἀστέρας τὴν περίγειον διοίκησιν ἐπιτελοῦντας, ὑφʼ ὧν κατὰ συμπάθειαν οἱ Χαλδαῖοι πάντα γίνεσθαι νομίζουσι τὰ περὶ τὸν θνητὸν βίον, παρʼ ὃ καὶ περὶ τῶν μελλόντων λέγειν τινὰ ὑπισχνοῦνται, τῶν δὲ ἀπλανῶν ἑπτὰ μὲν αἱ πλειάδες, ἑπτάστεροι δὲ αἱ ἄρκτοι, καθʼ ἃς αἱ γεωργίαι καὶ ναυτιλίαι συμπεραιοῦνται, ἡ σελήνη τε διʼ ἑπτὰ ἡμερῶν λαμβάνει τοὺς μετασχηματισμούς. κατὰ μὲν οὖν τὴν πρώτην ἑβδομάδα διχότομος γίνεται, κατὰ δὲ τὴν δευτέραν πανσέληνος, τρίτῃ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ἀποκρούσεως αὖθις διχότομος, καὶ τετάρτῃ ἀφανίζεται. ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτή, καθάπερ Σέλευκος ὁ μαθηματικὸς παραδίδωσιν, ἑπτάκις μετασχηματίζεται. γίνεται γὰρ ἐξ ἀφεγγοῦς μηνοειδής, εἶτα διχότομος, εἶτα ἀμφίκυρτος πανσέληνός τε καὶ κατὰ ἀπόκρουσιν πάλιν ἀμφίκυρτος διχότομός τε ὁμοίως καὶ μηνοειδής.
English · Claude translation
Seven are the first-born rulers of the angels, who have the greatest power; seven too, say the mathematicians, are the planets, stars that carry out the government of the region around the earth, by which the Chaldeans think everything in mortal life comes about through sympathy, and on that ground they also promise to foretell something of the future. Of the fixed stars, the Pleiades are seven, and the Bears have seven stars each, by which agriculture and navigation are carried out; and the moon undergoes its changes of shape in periods of seven days. In the first week it becomes a half-moon, in the second full, in the third, after waning, half again, and in the fourth it disappears. Moreover, as Seleucus the mathematician relates, it changes its shape seven times. For from being without light it becomes crescent, then half, then gibbous and full; and in waning, gibbous again, and likewise half and crescent.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The seven chief angels appear in Tob 12:15, 1 En. 20, and Rev 8:2. Seleucus is probably the astronomer Seleucus of Seleucia (second century BC). The Chaldeans are astrologers.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.16.143 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/16/143/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.16.143 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/16/143/).
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