Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 6.3.29

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

Summary: Samuel's prayer for rain shows that the one God answers the prayers of the righteous; the Greeks tell similar stories of Aristaeus and of the Delphians' sacrifice to the winds.

Greek text · Stählin 2:444–445

καὶ ἐπεκαλέσατο, φησί, Σαμουὴλ τὸν κύριον καὶ ἔδωκεν κύριος φωνὰς καὶ ὑετὸν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ θερισμοῦ. ὁρᾷς ὅτι ὁ βρέχων ἐπὶ δικαίους καὶ ἀδίκους διὰ τῶν ὑποτεταγμένων δυνάμεων εἷς ἐστι θεός; πλήρης δὲ ἡ γραφὴ πᾶσα ἡ καθʼ ἡμᾶς κατὰ τὰς τῶν δικαίων εὐχὰς ἐπακούοντός τε καὶ ἐπιτελοῦντος τοῦ θεοῦ ἕκαστον τῶν αἰτημάτων. Πάλιν ἱστοροῦσιν Ἕλληνες ἐκλειπόντων ποτὲ τῶν ἐτησίων ἀνέμων Ἀρισταῖον ἐν Κέῳ θῦσαι Ἰκμαίῳ Διί· πολλὴ γὰρ ἦν φθορά, φλογμῷ διαπιμπραμένων πάντων καὶ δὴ καὶ τῶν ἀναψύχειν τοὺς καρποὺς εἰωθότων ἀνέμων μὴ πνεόντων· ὃ δὲ ῥᾳδίως αὐτοὺς ἀνεκαλέσατο. Δελφοὶ δὲ Ξέρξου ἐπὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα στρατεύσαντος, ἀνειπούσης τῆς Πυθίας· ὦ Δελφοί, λίσσεσθʼ ἀνέμους καὶ λώιον ἔσται, βωμὸν καὶ θυσίαν ποιήσαντες τοῖς ἀνέμοις, ἀρωγοὺς αὐτοὺς ἔσχον· πνεύσαντες γὰρ ἐρρωμένως περὶ τὴν Σηπιάδα ἄκραν συνέτριψαν πᾶσαν τὴν παρασκευὴν τοῦ Περσικοῦ στόλου.

English · Claude translation

“And Samuel,” it says, “called on the Lord, and the Lord gave thunder and rain in the day of harvest.” Do you see that he who sends rain on the just and the unjust through the powers subject to him is the one God? And the whole of our Scripture is full of God hearing and fulfilling each request at the prayers of the righteous. Again, the Greeks relate that once, when the Etesian winds failed, Aristaeus sacrificed in Ceos to Zeus Icmaeus; for there was great destruction, everything being scorched by the heat, and in particular the winds that usually cool the crops were not blowing; and he easily called them back. And the Delphians, when Xerxes marched against Greece and the Pythia proclaimed, “O Delphians, pray to the winds, and it will be better,” built an altar and offered sacrifice to the winds and had them as helpers; for they blew violently around Cape Sepias and shattered the whole armament of the Persian fleet.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:444–445 · 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.
Scripture
Extrabiblical texts
  • Herodotus, Hist. 7.178, 188–191 (Herodotus, Histories) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Prayer, Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations and allusions are 1 Sam 12:18 and Matt 5:45. The Delphic oracle and the wreck of the Persian fleet are in Herodotus 7.178 and 7.188–191.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.3.29 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/3/29/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.3.29 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/3/29/).

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