Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 7.4.23

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

Summary: Gods who can be offended like irritable old women, as Artemis was with Oeneus or Athena with Auge, show that the Greeks liken the divine to the worst of human beings.

Greek text · Stählin 2

ὅσον δὲ ἐπισημήνασθαι κατὰ τὸν τόπον γενομένους ὀλίγα ἐκ πολλῶν. ἀπόχρη καὶ τάδε εἰς ἔνδειξιν τοῦ ἀθέους παραστῆσαι τοὺς τοῖς κακίστοις ἀνθρώποις τὸ θεῖον ἀπεικάζοντας. ἤτοι γὰρ βλάπτονται πρὸς ἀνθρώπων αὐτοῖς οἱ θεοὶ καὶ χείρους τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὑφʼ ἡμῶν βλαπτόμενοι δείκνυνται, ἢ εἰ μὴ τοῦτο, πῶς ἐφʼ οἷς οὐ βλάπτονται. καθάπερ ὀξύχολον γραΐδιον εἰς ὀργὴν ἐρεθιζόμενον, ἐκπικραίνονται, ᾗ φασι τὴν Ἄρτεμιν διʼ Οἰνέα Αἰτωλοῖς ὀργισθῆναι. πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἐλογίσατο θεὸς οὖσα ὡς οὐ καταφρονήσας ὁ Οἰνεύς, ἀλλʼ ἤτοι λαθόμενος ἢ ὡς τεθυκὼς ἠμέλησεν; εὖ δὲ καὶ ἡ Αὔγη δικαιολογουμένη πρὸς τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν ἐπὶ τῷ χαλεπαίνειν αὐτῇ τετοκυίᾳ ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ λέγει· σκῦλα μὲν βροτοφθόρα χαίρεις ὁρῶσα καὶ νεκρῶν ἐρείπια, καὶ οὐ μιαρά σοι ταῦτʼ ἔστιν· εἰ δʼ ἐγὼ τεκον, δεινὸν τόδʼ ἡγῇ· καίτοι καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ζῷα ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς τίκτοντα οὐδὲν ἀδικεῖ.

English · Claude translation

Having come to this topic, just to point out a few things out of many, these are enough to show that those who liken the divine to the worst of human beings are godless. For either their gods are harmed by human beings, and so, being harmed by us, are shown to be worse than human beings; or, if not, how is it that they grow bitter over things by which they are not harmed, like an irritable old woman provoked to anger, as they say Artemis was angry with the Aetolians because of Oeneus? For how did she, a goddess, not reckon that Oeneus neglected her not out of contempt but either through forgetting or thinking he had already sacrificed? And Auge too speaks well, pleading her case against Athena, who was angry with her for giving birth in the temple: “Spoils that destroy mortals you delight to see, and the wreckage of the dead, and these are not polluted in your eyes; but if I gave birth, you think this dreadful.” And yet the other animals too give birth in temples and do no wrong.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2 · 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
  • Homer, Il. 9.533–549 (Homer, Iliad) · allusion, high confidence
  • Euripides, fragment 266 (Euripides (plays and fragments)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The story of Oeneus is in Homer, Iliad 9.533–549. The verses are Euripides, Auge (fragment 266 Nauck).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.4.23 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/4/23/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.4.23 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/4/23/).

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