1 Clement 25.2

Clement of Rome · 1 Clement · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Rome · Read in context

Summary: The phoenix dies in a nest of spices.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:52

ὄρνεον γάρ ἐστιν, ὃ προσονομάζεται φοῖνιξ· τοῦτο μονογενὲς ὑπάρχον ζῇ ἔτη πεντακόσια, γενόμενόν τε ἤδη πρὸς ἀπόλυσιν τοῦ ἀποθανεῖν αὐτό, σηκὸν ἑαυτῷ ποιεῖ ἐκ λιβάνου καὶ σμύρνης καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ἀρωμάτων, εἰς ὃν πληρωθέντος τοῦ χρόνου εἰσέρχεται καὶ τελευτᾷ.

English · Claude translation

There is a bird called the phoenix. It is the only one of its kind and lives five hundred years; and when it comes near its dissolution and death, it makes itself a nest of frankincense and myrrh and other spices, and when its time is fulfilled it enters it and dies.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 24:52 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 8–121 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text: As printed in Lake, LCL 24. 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), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · That translation lacks 57.7–63.4 (a missing leaf in its manuscript); vol. 9 (1896) translates the complete text.
Topics: Eschatology

Cite this passage

1 Clem. 25.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/1-clement/25/2/).

Plain text

1 Clem. 25.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/1-clement/25/2/).

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