Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.2.16

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

Summary: Borrowing is found in philosophy, history, and oratory too: Sophocles and Xenophon echo Alcmaeon on false friends, and Thrasymachus echoes Euripides.

Greek text · Stählin 2:435

Ὡς δὲ μὴ ἄμοιρον τήν τε φιλοσοφίαν τήν τε ἱστορίαν, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ τὴν ῥητορικὴν τοῦ ὁμοίου ἐλέγχου περιίδωμεν, καὶ τούτων ὀλίγα παραθέσθαι εὔλογον. Ἀλκμαίωνος γὰρ τοῦ Κροτωνιάτου λέγοντος ἐχθρὸν ἄνδρα ῥᾷον φυλάξασθαι ἢ φίλον ὁ μὲν Σοφοκλῆς ἐποίησεν ἐν τῇ Ἀντιγόνῃ· τί γὰρ γένοιτʼ ἂν ἕλκος μεῖζον ἢ φίλος κακός; Ξενοφῶν δὲ εἴρηκεν· οὐκ ἂν ἐχθροὺς ἄλλως πως βλάψειεν ἄν τις ἢ φίλος δοκῶν εἶναι. Καὶ μὴν ἐν Τηλέφῳ εἰπόντος Εὐριπίδου· Ἕλληνες ὄντες βαρβάροις δουλεύσομεν; Θρασύμαχος ἐν τῷ ὑπὲρ Λαρισαίων λέγει· Ἀρχελάῳ δουλεύσομεν Ἕλληνες ὄντες βαρβάρῳ;

English · Claude translation

So that we may not overlook philosophy and history, nor even rhetoric, as having no share in the same exposure, it is reasonable to set out a few examples of these too. When Alcmaeon of Croton said that it is easier to guard against an enemy than against a friend, Sophocles composed in the Antigone: “For what wound could be greater than a bad friend?” and Xenophon said: “One could not harm enemies in any other way than by seeming to be a friend.” And when Euripides said in the Telephus: “Shall we, being Greeks, be slaves to barbarians?” Thrasymachus says in his speech For the Larissaeans: “Shall we, being Greeks, be slaves to Archelaus, a barbarian?”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:435 · 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.
Extrabiblical texts
  • Sophocles, Antigone 651–652 (Sophocles (plays and fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Euripides, fragment (Telephus) (Euripides (plays and fragments)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The sources are Sophocles, Antigone 651–652, and fragments of Alcmaeon, Euripides (Telephus), and Thrasymachus. The Xenophon passage is uncertain (compare Hipparchicus 5.9–11).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/16/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/16/).

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