Miscellanies 2.20.121 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:178–179

καὶ Ἀντισθένης δὲ μανῆναι μᾶλλον ἢ ἡσθῆναι αἱρεῖται, ὅ τε Θηβαῖος Κράτης τῶν δὲ (φησὶ) κράτει ψυχῆς ἤθει ἀγαλλομένη· οὔθʼ ὑπὸ χρυσείων δουλουμένη οὔθʼ ὑπʼ ἐρώτων τηξιπόθων, οὐδʼ εἴ τι συνέμπορόν ἐστι φίλυβρι. καὶ τὸ ὅλον ἐπιλέγει· ἡδονῇ ἀνδραποδώδει ἀδούλωτοι καὶ ἄκναπτοι ἀθάνατον βασιλείαν ἐλευθερίαν τʼ ἀγαπῶσιν. οὗτος ἐν ἄλλοις εὐθυρημόνως γράφει τῆς εἰς τὰ ἀφροδίσια ἀκατασχέτου ὁρμῆς κατάπλασμα εἶναι λιμόν, εἰ δὲ μή, βρόχον. Ζήνωνι δὲ τῷ Στωϊκῷ τὴν διδασκαλίαν μαρτυροῦσι καίτοι διασύροντες οἱ κωμικοὶ ὧδέ πως· φιλοσοφίαν καινὴν γὰρ οὗτος φιλοσοφεῖ· πεινῆν διδάσκει καὶ μαθητὰς λαμβάνει· εἷς ἄρτος, ὄψον ἰσχάς, ἐπιπιεῖν ὕδωρ.

English · Claude translation

And Antisthenes chooses to go mad rather than to feel pleasure; and Crates of Thebes says, “Master these things, a soul rejoicing in character, neither enslaved by gold nor by loves that melt with longing, nor by anything that goes with insolence.” And he concludes the whole: “Unenslaved and unbent by slavish pleasure, they love an immortal kingdom and freedom.” He writes elsewhere, plainly, that the plaster for an uncontrollable urge toward sexual pleasures is hunger, and if not, the noose. And the comic poets bear witness to the teaching of Zeno the Stoic, though mocking him, in this way: “For this man philosophizes a new philosophy: he teaches hunger and gets disciples; one loaf, a dried fig for relish, water to drink after.”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:178–179 · 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.

Topics

Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are Antisthenes (fragment), Crates (fragments of his elegies), and Philemon (fragment 85 Kock) on Zeno.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (wrong breathing on οὐδʼ): ούδʼ εἴ τι συνέμπορόν → οὐδʼ εἴ τι συνέμπορόν.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.20.121 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/20/121/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.20.121 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/20/121/).