Miscellanies 7.4.25 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2

Εὖ γοῦν καὶ Διογένης πρὸς τὸν θαυμάζοντα, ὅτι εὗρεν τὸν ὄφιν ἐν τῷ ὑπέρῳ περιειλημένον. »μὴ θαύμαζε« ἔφη· »ἦν γὰρ παραδοξότερον ἐκεῖνο, εἰ τὸ ὕπερον περὶ ὀρθῷ τῷ ὄφει κατειλημένον ἐθεάσω.« Δεῖ γὰρ καὶ τὰ ἄλογα τῶν ζῴων τρέχειν καὶ θεῖν καὶ μάχεσθαι καὶ τίκτειν καὶ ἀποθνῄσκειν, ἃ δή, ἐκείνοις ὄντα κατὰ φύσιν, οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἡμῖν γένοιτο παρὰ φύσιν· ὄρνιθες δέ τε πολλοὶ ὑπʼ αὐγὰς ἠελίοιο φοιτῶσιν. Ὁ κωμικὸς δὲ Φιλήμων καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα κωμῳδεῖ· ὅταν ἴδω (φησί) παρατηροῦντα, τίς ἔπταρεν ἢ τίς ἐλάλησεν. ἤ, τίς ἐστιν ὁ προϊών. σκοποῦντα, πωλῶ τοῦτον εὐθὺς ἐν ἀγορᾷ. αὑτῷ βαδίζει καὶ λαλεῖ καὶ πτάρνυται ἕκαστος ἡμῶν. οὐχὶ τοῖς ἐν τῇ πόλει. τὰ πράγματα ὡς πέφυκεν, οὕτως γίγνεται. Εἶτα νήφοντες μὲν ὑγείαν αἰτοῦνται. ὑπερεμπιπλάμενοι δὲ καὶ μέθαις ἐγκυλιόμενοι κατὰ τὰς ἑορτὰς νόσους ἐπισπῶνται.

English · Claude translation

Diogenes too spoke well to someone who was amazed at finding a snake coiled around a pestle: “Don't be amazed,” he said; “it would have been more surprising if you had seen the pestle coiled around an upright snake.” For irrational animals too must run and race and fight and give birth and die; and these things, being natural to them, could never be against nature for us. “And many birds wander beneath the rays of the sun.” The comic poet Philemon also mocks such things: “When I see someone watching,” he says, “who sneezed or who spoke, or looking to see who is walking ahead, I sell him at once in the market. Each of us walks and talks and sneezes for himself, not for those in the city; things happen as their nature is.” Then, when sober, they ask for health; but gorging themselves and wallowing in drunkenness at the festivals, they bring diseases on themselves.

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, Od. 2.181–182 (Homer, Odyssey) · quotation, high confidence
Philemon (Philemon (fragments)) · quotation, medium confidence

Notes

Translation notes

The line is Homer, Odyssey 2.181–182. The verses are Philemon (fragment 100 Kock). Proposed new extrabiblical entry: Philemon (comic poet).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (stray period in the digital text; word repeated in the digital text): καὶ θεῖν καὶ θεῖν → καὶ θεῖν; ἃ δή. ἐκείνοις → ἃ δή, ἐκείνοις; πρὸς τὸν θαυμάζοντα. ὅτι → πρὸς τὸν θαυμάζοντα, ὅτι.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.4.25 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/4/25/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 7.4.25 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/7/4/25/).