Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.2.24

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

Summary: Ephorus echoes Plato on early training, Euripides echoes Empedocles and Plato, and Epicurus echoes Euripides and Aristophanes on self-sufficiency and justice.

Greek text · Stählin 2:441

Εὕροις δʼ ἂν καὶ Πλάτωνος εἰπόντος παντὸς γὰρ φυτοῦ ἡ πρώτη βλάστη, καλῶς ὁρμηθεῖσα πρὸς ἀρετήν, τῆς ἑαυτοῦ φύσεως κυριωτάτη τέλος ἐπιθεῖναι τὸ πρόσφορον Ἔφορον τὸν ἱστορικὸν γράφοντα· ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἀγρίων φυτῶν οὐθὲν ἡμεροῦσθαι πέφυκεν, ὅταν παραλλάξωσιν τὴν νεωτέραν ἡλικίαν. Κἀκεῖνο τὸ Ἐμπεδοκλέους· ἤδη γάρ ποτʼ ἐγὼ γενόμην κοῦρός τε κόρη τε θάμνος τʼ οἰωνός τε καὶ εἰν ἁλὶ ἔλλοπος ἰχθύς, Εὐριπίδης ἐν Χρυσίππῳ μεταγράφει· θνῄσκει δὲ οὐδὲν τῶν γινομένων, διακρινόμενον δʼ ἄλλο πρὸς ἄλλο μορφὴν ἑτέραν ἐπέδειξεν. Πλάτωνός τε ἐν Πολιτείᾳ εἰπόντος κοινὰς εἶναι τὰς γυναῖκας Εὐριπίδης ἐν Πρωτεσιλάῳ γράφει· κοινὸν γὰρ εἶναι χρῆν γυναικεῖον λέχος. Ἀλλʼ Εὐριπίδου γράφοντος· ἐπεὶ τά γʼ ἀρκοῦντα ἱκανὰ τοῖς γε σώφροσιν, Ἐπίκουρος ἄντικρύς φησι· πλουσιώτατον αὐτάρκεια πάντων. Αὖθίς τε Ἀριστοφάνους γράφοντος· βέβαιον ἕξεις τὸν βίον δίκαιος ὤν, χωρίς τε θορύβου καὶ φόβου ζήσεις καλῶς, ὁ Ἐπίκουρος λέγει· δικαιοσύνης καρπὸς μέγιστος ἀταραξία.

English · Claude translation

You would also find that when Plato said: “For of every plant the first shoot, if it has made a good start toward excellence, is the most decisive in bringing its own nature to its fitting end,” Ephorus the historian writes: “But none even of wild plants is naturally tamed once they have passed their youthful age.” And that saying of Empedocles: “For already I have once been a boy and a girl, a bush and a bird, and a mute fish in the sea,” Euripides rewrites in the Chrysippus: “Nothing of what comes to be dies, but, separated one thing from another, shows another form.” And when Plato in the Republic said that wives should be held in common, Euripides writes in the Protesilaus: “For the marriage bed of women ought to be common.” But when Euripides writes: “Since what suffices is enough for those who are self-restrained,” Epicurus says outright: “Self-sufficiency is the greatest wealth of all.” And again, when Aristophanes writes: “You will have a secure life if you are just, and you will live well, without tumult and fear,” Epicurus says: “The greatest fruit of justice is freedom from disturbance.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:441 · 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
  • Plato, Laws 6.765e; Republic 5.457c (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Empedocles, fragment 117 (Empedocles (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Euripides, fragments (Chrysippus, Protesilaus) (Euripides (plays and fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Epicurus (Epicurus (sayings and fragments)) · quotation, medium confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The sources are Plato, Laws 6.765e, and Republic 5.457c, Empedocles (fragment 117 Diels–Kranz), and fragments of Ephorus, Euripides (Chrysippus, Protesilaus, and another play), Aristophanes, and Epicurus.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.24 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/24/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.24 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/24/).

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