Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 2.15.63

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

Summary: Giving ourselves up to anger and desire wrongs our own soul, as the tragic figures Laius, Medea, and Ajax confess.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Greek text · Stählin 2:146–147

ὧν εἰ μὴ μετέχειν βουληθείημεν θυμῷ τε καὶ ἐπιθυμίᾳ ἐκδότους σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐπιδόντες, ἁμαρτησόμεθα, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀδικήσομεν τὴν ἑαυτῶν ψυχήν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ Λάιος ἐκεῖνος κατὰ τὴν τραγῳδίαν φησίν· λέληθεν δέ με οὐθὲν τῶνδε ὧν σὺ νουθετεῖς, γνώμην δʼ ἔχοντά με ἡ φύσις βιάζεται· τουτέστι τὸ ἔκδοτον γεγενῆσθαι τῷ πάθει. ἡ Μήδεια δὲ καὶ αὐτὴ ὁμοίως ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς βοᾷ· καὶ μανθάνω μὲν οἶα δρᾶν μέλλω κακά, θυμὸς δὲ κρείσσων τῶν ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων. ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ Αἴας σιωπᾷ, μέλλων δὲ ἑαυτὸν ἀποσφάττειν κέκραγεν· οὐδὲν οὖν ἦν πῆμα ἐλευθέρου ψυχὴν δάκνον οὕτως ἀνδρὸς ὡς ἀτιμία· οὕτως πέπονθα καί με † συμφοροῦσα βαθεῖα κηλὶς ἐκ βυθῶν ἀναστρέφει λύσσης πικροῖς κέντροισιν ἠρεθισμένον.

English · Claude translation

If we are unwilling to take part in these, giving ourselves up to anger and desire, we will sin, or rather we will wrong our own soul. For that famous Laius, according to the tragedy, says: “None of these things you warn me of escapes me; but though I have judgment, nature forces me”; that is, he has become given over to passion. And Medea likewise cries out on the stage: “I understand what evils I am about to do, but anger is stronger than my plans.” Nor is Ajax silent, but, about to slay himself, he cries out: “No pain, then, so bites the soul of a free man as dishonor. So I have suffered, and a deep stain … stirs me up from the depths, provoked by the bitter goads of madness.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:146–147 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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
  • Euripides, Chrysippus frag. 840; Medea 1078–79 (Euripides (plays and fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Euripides, Chrysippus (fragment 840 Nauck), Medea 1078–79, and an unknown tragedy on Ajax (the text is corrupt; dagger).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.15.63 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/15/63/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.15.63 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/15/63/).

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