Miscellanies 6.2.14
Summary: Further parallels on the gods' unpredictability, a happy old age, ill-matched marriages, and the power of Love.
Greek text · Stählin 2:433–434
Ἔτι τοῦ Εὐριπίδου εἰπόντος· πολλαὶ μορφαὶ τῶν δαιμονίων, πολλὰ δʼ ἀέλπτως κραίνουσι θεοί, ὁ τραγικὸς ὁμοίως Θεοδέκτης γράφει· τὸ μὴ βεβαίους τὰς βροτῶν εἶναι τύχας. Βακχυλίδου τε εἰρηκότος· παύροισι δὲ θνητῶν τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον δαίμων ἔδωκεν πράσσοντας ἐν καιρῷ πολιοκρόταφον γῆρας ἱκνεῖσθαι, πρὶν ἐγκῦρσαι δύᾳ, Μοσχίων ὁ κωμικὸς γράφει· κεῖνος δʼ ἁπάντων ἐστὶ μακαριώτατος. ὃς διὰ τέλους ζῶν ὁμαλὸν ἤσκησεν βίον. Εὕροις δʼ ἂν καὶ Θεόγνιδος εἰπόντος· οὔτοι χρήσιμόν ἐστι νέα γυνὴ ἀνδρὶ γέροντι· οὐ γὰρ πηδαλίῳ πείθεται ὡς ἄκατος, Ἀριστοφάνη τὸν κωμικὸν γράφοντα· αἰσχρὸν νέᾳ γυναικὶ πρεσβύτης ἀνήρ. Ἀνακρέοντος γὰρ ποιήσαντος· Ἔρωτα γὰρ τὸν ἁβρὸν μέλπομαι βρύοντα μίτραις πολυανθέμοις ἀείδειν· ὅδε καὶ θεῶν δυνάστης, ὅδε καὶ βροτοὺς δαμάζει, Εὐριπίδης γράφει· Ἔρως γὰρ ἄνδρας οὐ μόνους ἐπέρχεται οὐδʼ αὖ γυναῖκας, ἀλλὰ καὶ θεῶν ἄνω ψυχὰς ταράσσει κἀπὶ πόντον ἔρχεται.
English · Claude translation
Further, when Euripides said: “Many are the forms of divine things, and many things the gods bring to pass unexpectedly,” the tragic poet Theodectes likewise writes: “that the fortunes of mortals are not secure.” And when Bacchylides had said: “To few mortals has a god granted to fare well in due season all their time and to reach grey-templed old age before meeting with misery,” Moschion the comic poet writes: “That man is the most blessed of all who, living to the end, has practiced an even life.” And you would find that when Theognis had said: “A young wife is no use to an old husband; for she does not obey the rudder like a boat,” Aristophanes the comic poet writes: “An old man is a disgrace to a young wife.” For when Anacreon composed: “I sing of tender Love, teeming with garlands of many flowers; he is lord of the gods, he subdues mortals too,” Euripides writes: “For Love comes not upon men alone, nor again on women, but troubles the souls of the gods above and goes over the sea.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The first line is the closing formula of several plays of Euripides (e.g. Alcestis, Andromache, Bacchae, Helen). The Theognis lines are 457–458. The others are fragments of Theodectes, Bacchylides, Moschion (elsewhere known as a tragic poet), Aristophanes, Anacreon, and Euripides.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/14/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/14/).
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