The Instructor 3.2.6
Summary: Women who spend the day on cosmetics destroy their natural beauty and health and dishonor the Creator, as even the comic poet Menander said.
Greek text · Stählin 1:239
προσκαθεζόμεναι ἀργυρωνήτοις σχολάζουσιν ἀνδραπόδοις. καθάπερ οὖν ὄψον πονηρὸν ἡδύνουσι τὴν σάρκα καὶ τὴν μὲν ἡμέραν κομμωτικῇ προστετήκασι θαλαμευόμεναι, μὴ ἐλεγχθῶσιν ξανθιζόμεναι, ἑσπέρας δὲ καθάπερ ἐκ φωλεοῦ πρὸς τὸν λύχνον τὸ νόθον τοῦτο προσέρπει κάλλος· συνεργεῖ γὰρ καὶ ἡ μέθη καὶ τὸ ἀμυδρὸν τοῦ φωτὸς πρὸς τὴν ἐπίθεσιν αὐτῶν. καὶ τὴν μὲν ξανθίζουσαν τοὺς πλοκάμους ὁ κωμικὸς Μένανδρος εἴργει τῆς οἰκίας· νῦν δʼ ἕρπε ἀπʼ οἴκων τῶνδε· τὴν γυναῖκα γὰρ τὴν σώφρονα οὐ δεῖ τὰς τρίχας ξανθὰς ποιεῖν, ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ τὰς παρειὰς φυκοῦν οὐδὲ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ὑπογράφεσθαι. λελήθασι δὲ σφᾶς αἱ κακοδαίμονες τὸ οἰκεῖον ἀπολλύουσαι κάλλος τοῦ ὀθνείου τῇ ἐπεισαγωγῇ· ἅμα γοῦν ἡμέρᾳ σπαρασσόμεναι καὶ ἀποτριβόμεναι καὶ φυράμασί τισι καταπλαττόμεναι ψήχουσι μὲν τὸν χρῶτα, θρύπτουσι δὲ τὴν σάρκα τοῖς φαρμάκοις καὶ τῇ περιεργίᾳ τῶν ῥυμμάτων τὸ οἰκεῖον μαραίνουσιν ἄνθος. διὰ τοῦτό τοι ὠχραὶ μὲν ἐκ καταπλασμάτων καταφαίνονται, εὐάλωτοι δὲ ὑπὸ νόσων γίνονται τακερὰν ἤδη τὴν σάρκα φαρμάκοις τὴν ἐσκιαγραφημένην ἔχουσαι, τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὸν δημιουργὸν ἀτιμάζουσαι, ὡς οὐ κατʼ ἀξίαν δεδωρημένον τὸ κάλλος.
English · Claude translation
they spend their time with slaves bought with money. Like bad cooks seasoning a dish, they season the flesh; they waste the day at the dressing table, shut up in their rooms, lest they be caught dyeing their hair; and in the evening this counterfeit beauty creeps out, as from a den, into the lamplight; for drunkenness and the dim light help their scheme. The comic poet Menander drives the woman who dyes her hair blond out of the house: “Now creep out of this house; for a self-controlled wife should not make her hair blond,” nor rouge her cheeks, nor paint her eyes. The wretched women do not see that they destroy their own beauty by bringing in a foreign one. From daybreak they are torn, rubbed, and plastered with some concoctions; they chafe their skin, soften their flesh with drugs, and wither their natural bloom with elaborate washes. So they appear pale from plasters and are easily caught by diseases, having their flesh, painted with drugs, already wasted, dishonoring the Creator of human beings, as though he had not given them beauty as it deserved.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Menander, fragment 610 (Kock).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 3.2.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/3/2/6/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 3.2.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/3/2/6/).
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