Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.8.63

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

Summary: All humanity needs education and virtue; Euripides speaks both ill and well of wives, and Homer praises like-minded spouses; as Christ is head of man, the husband is head of his wife, being God's image and glory.

Greek text · Stählin 2:277

ἀναγκαῖον οὖν σύμπαντι τῷ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένει παιδεία τε καὶ ἀρετή, εἴ γε ἐπὶ τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν σπεύδοιεν. καί πως οὐ μάτην Εὐριπίδης ποικίλως γράφει· ποτὲ μὲν πᾶσα γὰρ ἀνδρὸς κακίων ἄλοχος, κἂν ὁ κάκιστος γήμῃ τὴν εὐδοκιμοῦσαν· ποτὲ δὲ πᾶσα γὰρ δούλη ἐστὶν ἀνδρὸς ἡ σώφρων γυνή, ἡ δὲ μὴ σώφρων ἀνοίᾳ τὸν ξυνόντα ὑπερφέρει. οὐ μὲν γὰρ κρεῖσσον καὶ ἄρειον ἢ ὅθʼ ὁμοφρονέοντε νοήμασιν οἶκον ἔχητον ἀνὴρ ἠδὲ γυνή. κεφαλὴ τοίνυν τὸ ἡγεμονικόν. εἰ δὲ κύριος κεφαλὴ τοῦ ἀνδρός, κεφαλὴ δὲ γυναικὸς ὁ ἀνήρ, κύριος ὁ ἀνὴρ τῆς γυναικός, εἰκὼν καὶ δόξα θεοῦ ὑπάρχων.

English · Claude translation

Education and virtue, then, are necessary for the whole human race, if they hasten toward happiness. And Euripides, not in vain, writes variously: at one time, “Every wife is worse than her husband, even if the worst man marries a woman of good repute”; at another, “Every self-restrained wife is her husband's slave, but the one who is not self-restrained, in her folly, surpasses her partner.” “For nothing is stronger and better than when a man and a woman keep house with like minds.” The head, then, is the ruling part. And if the Lord is the head of the man, and the man is the head of the woman, the man is lord of the woman, being the image and glory of God.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:277 · 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.
Scripture
Extrabiblical texts
  • Euripides, fragments 545–546 (Euripides (plays and fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Homer, Od. 6.182–184 (Homer, Odyssey) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Marriage

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Euripides (fragments 546, 545 Nauck), Homer, Odyssey 6.182–184, and 1 Cor 11:3, 7.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.8.63 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/8/63/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.8.63 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/8/63/).

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