Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.7.50

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

Summary: The Indian sages defied Alexander, despising fire; Heraclitus chose one glory over all things, leaving the many to their bodily toils.

Greek text · Stählin 2:271

Ἰνδῶν οἱ φιλόσοφοι Ἀλεξάνδρῳ λέγουσι τῷ Μακεδόνι· σώματα μὲν μετάξεις ἐκ τόπου εἰς τόπον, ψυχὰς δʼ ἡμετέρας οὐκ ἀναγκάσεις ποιεῖν ἃ μὴ βουλόμεθα. πῦρ ἀνθρώποις μέγιστον κολαστήριον· τούτου ἡμεῖς καταφρονοῦμεν. κἀντεῦθεν Ἡράκλειτος ἓν ἀντὶ πάντων κλέος ᾑρεῖτο τοῖς δὲ πολλοῖς παραχωρεῖν ὁμολογεῖ κεκορῆσθαι ὅκωσπερ κτήνεσι. τοῦ σώματος γὰρ οὕνεκα οἱ πολλοὶ πόνοι, τοῦδʼ οὕνεκα οἶκον στεγανὸν ἐξευρήκαμεν λευκόν τε ὀρύττειν ἄργυρον σπείρειν τε γῆν, τά τε ἄλλα ὅσα ἡμεῖς ὀνόμασιν γινώσκομεν.

English · Claude translation

The philosophers of the Indians say to Alexander of Macedon: “You will move our bodies from place to place, but you will not force our souls to do what we do not wish. Fire is the greatest punishment for men; we despise it.” And from this Heraclitus chose “one glory instead of all things,” and confesses that he leaves the many to be glutted like cattle. “For because of the body are the many toils; for its sake we have discovered the roofed house, and to dig white silver and sow the earth,” and all the other things we know by name.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:271 · 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
Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are the Indian sages (from an Alexander tradition), Heraclitus (fragment 29), and Euripides or another poet (fragment).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.7.50 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/7/50/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.7.50 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/7/50/).

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