Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 1.21.105

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

Summary: Moses preceded the deification of Dionysus by 604 years and the other Greek heroes and gods by even more.

Greek text · Stählin 2:67–68

Προτερεῖν ἄρα Μωυσῆς ἀποδείκνυται τῆς μὲν Διονύσου ἀποθεώσεως ἔτη ἑξακόσια τέσσαρα, εἴ γε τῆς Περσέως βασιλείας τῷ τριακοστῷ δευτέρῳ ἔτει ἐκθεοῦται, ὥς φησιν Ἀπολλόδωρος ἐν τοῖς Χρονικοῖς. ἀπὸ δὲ Διονύσου ἐπὶ Ἡρακλέα καὶ τοὺς περὶ Ἰάσονα ἀριστεῖς τοὺς ἐν τῇ Ἀργοῖ πλεύσαντας συνάγεται ἔτη ἑξήκοντα τρία· Ἀσκληπιός τε καὶ Διόσκουροι συνέπλεον αὐτοῖς, ὡς μαρτυρεῖ ὁ Ῥόδιος Ἀπολλώνιος ἐν τοῖς Ἀργοναυτικοῖς. ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς Ἡρακλέους ἐν Ἄργει βασιλείας ἐπὶ τὴν Ἡρακλέους αὐτοῦ καὶ Ἀσκληπιοῦ ἀποθέωσιν ἔτη συνάγεται τριάκοντα ὀκτὼ κατὰ τὸν χρονογράφον Ἀπολλόδωρον. ἐντεῦθεν δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν Κάστορος καὶ Πολυδεύκους ἀποθέωσιν ἔτη πεντήκοντα τρία. ἐνταῦθά που καὶ ἡ Ἰλίου κατάληψις. εἰ δὲ χρὴ πείθεσθαι καὶ Ἡσιόδῳ τῷ ποιητῇ, ἀκούσωμεν αὐτοῦ· Ζηνὶ δʼ ἄρα Ἀτλαντὶς Μαίη τέκε κύδιμον Ἑρμῆν, κήρυκʼ ἀθανάτων, ἱερὸν λέχος εἰσαναβᾶσα· Καδμείη δʼ ἄρα οἱ Σεμέλη τέκε φαίδιμον υἱόν, μιχθεῖσʼ ἐν φιλότητι, Διώνυσον πολυγηθῆ.

English · Claude translation

Moses, then, is shown to precede the deification of Dionysus by six hundred and four years, if he is deified in the thirty-second year of the reign of Perseus, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles. From Dionysus to Heracles and the heroes with Jason who sailed in the Argo, sixty-three years are reckoned; Asclepius and the Dioscuri sailed with them, as Apollonius of Rhodes testifies in the Argonautica. From the reign of Heracles at Argos to the deification of Heracles himself and Asclepius, thirty-eight years are reckoned, according to the chronographer Apollodorus; from then to the deification of Castor and Pollux, fifty-three years. About this time too was the capture of Ilium. And if we must believe Hesiod the poet too, let us hear him: “To Zeus, Maia, daughter of Atlas, bore glorious Hermes, herald of the immortals, having gone up into his holy bed; and Cadmean Semele, joined in love, bore him a splendid son, Dionysus of many joys.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:67–68 · 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
  • Hesiod, Theog. 938–941 (Hesiod, Theogony) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • The Hesiod quotation is Theogony 938–941.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.21.105 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/21/105/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.21.105 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/21/105/).

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