Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.2.15

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

Summary: The sophist Hippias openly admits composing his work by gathering from Orpheus, Musaeus, Hesiod, Homer, and others.

Greek text · Stählin 2:434–435

Ἀλλʼ ἵνα μὴ ἐπὶ πλέον προΐῃ ὁ λόγος φιλοτιμουμένων ἡμῶν τὸ εὐεπίφορον εἰς κλοπὴν τῶν Ἑλλήνων κατὰ τοὺς λόγους τε καὶ τὰ δόγματα ἐπιδεικνύναι, φέρε ἄντικρυς μαρτυροῦντα ἡμῖν Ἱππίαν τὸν σοφιστὴν τὸν Ἠλεῖον, ὃς εἰς τὸν αὐτὸν περὶ τοῦ προκειμένου μοι σκέμματος ἥκει λόγον, παραστησώμεθα ὧδέ πως λέγοντα· τούτων ἴσως εἴρηται τὰ μὲν Ὀρφεῖ, τὰ δὲ Μουσαίῳ, κατὰ βραχὺ ἄλλῳ ἀλλαχοῦ τὰ δὲ Ἡσιόδῳ, τὰ δὲ Ὁμήρῳ, τὰ δὲ τοῖς ἄλλοις τῶν ποιητῶν. τὰ δὲ ἐν συγγραφαῖς τὰ μὲν Ἕλλησι, τὰ δὲ βαρβάροις· ἐγὼ δὲ ἐκ πάντων τούτων τὰ μάλιστα καὶ ὁμόφυλα συνθεὶς τοῦτον καινὸν καὶ πολυειδῆ τὸν λόγον ποιήσομαι.

English · Claude translation

But so that our discourse may not run on further as we eagerly show the Greeks' readiness for theft in both words and doctrines, come, let us bring forward as a direct witness for us Hippias the sophist of Elis, who arrives at the same account on the question before me, speaking thus: “Of these things some perhaps have been said by Orpheus, some by Musaeus, briefly, one here and another there; some by Hesiod, some by Homer, some by the other poets; and some in prose writings, some by Greeks and some by barbarians. But I, putting together from all of these the most important and kindred things, will make this discourse new and of many kinds.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:434–435 · 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.

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is Hippias of Elis, fragment 6 (Diels–Kranz).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/15/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/15/).

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