Miscellanies 5.14.101
Summary: A lyric poet, Aratus, and Homer all speak of the supreme God who rules day and night, fills all things, makes us his offspring, and made heaven and earth; the “Zeus” of the poets points the mind toward God.
Greek text · Stählin 2:393–394
ὁ μελοποιὸς δέ· θεῷ δὲ δυνατὸν ἐκ μελαίνας νυκτὸς ἀμίαντον ὄρσαι φάος, κελαινεφέι δὲ σκότει καλύψαι καθαρὸν ἁμέρας σέλας (ὁ μόνος ἡμέρας ἐνεστώσης νύκτα ποιῆσαι δυνάμενος ποιῆσαι, φησίν, θεὸς οὗτός ἐστιν), ἔν τε τοῖς Φαινομένοις ἐπιγραφομένοις Ἄρατος, ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα εἰπών, τὸν οὐδέποτʼ, ἄνδρες, ἐῶμεν ἄρρητον· μεσταὶ δὲ Διὸς πᾶσαι μὲν ἀγυιαί, πᾶσαι δʼ ἀνθρώπων ἀγοραί, μεστὴ δὲ θάλασσα καὶ λιμένες· πάντῃ δὲ Διὸς κεχρήμεθα πάντες· ἐπιφέρει· τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμέν, οἷον δημιουργία, ὁ δʼ ἤπιος ἀνθρώποισιν δεξιὰ σημαίνει, λαοὺς δʼ ἐπὶ ἔργα ἀγείρει· αὐτὰρ τάδε σήματʼ ἐν οὐρανῷ ἐστήριξεν, ἄστρα διακρίνας· ἐσκέψατο δʼ εἰς ἐνιαυτὸν ἀστέρας, οἵ κε μάλιστα τετυγμένα σημαίνοιεν ἀνδράσιν Ὡράων, ὄφρʼ ἔμπεδα πάντα φύηται· καί μιν ἀεὶ πρῶτόν τε καὶ ὕστατον ἱλάσκονται· χαῖρε, πάτερ, μέγα θαῦμα, μέγʼ ἀνθρώποισιν ὄνειαρ. καὶ πρὸ τούτου δὲ Ὅμηρος ἐπὶ τῆς ἡφαιστοτεύκτου ἀσπίδος κοσμοποιῶν κατὰ Μωυσέα ἐν μὲν γαῖαν ἔτευξʼ, ἐν δʼ οὐρανόν, ἐν δὲ θάλασσαν φησίν, ἐν δὲ τὰ τείρεα πάντα, τά τʼ οὐρανὸς ἐστεφάνωται. ὁ γὰρ διὰ τῶν ποιημάτων καὶ καταλογάδην συγγραμμάτων ᾀδόμενος Ζεὺς τὴν ἔννοιαν ἐπὶ τὸν θεὸν ἀναφέρει.
English · Claude translation
and the lyric poet: “But it is possible for God to raise up undefiled light out of black night, and to cover the pure radiance of day with dark-clouded darkness” (he alone who can make night while it is day, he says, is God). And Aratus, in the work entitled Phaenomena, having said, “From Zeus let us begin, whom we men never leave unspoken; full of Zeus are all the streets, all the marketplaces of men, and full the sea and the harbors; and everywhere we all have need of Zeus,” adds: “For we are also his offspring” (that is, by creation), “and he, kindly to men, gives favorable signs and rouses the peoples to work. … For he himself fixed these signs in heaven, distinguishing the constellations, and planned for the year stars that would most of all give men well-ordered signs of the seasons, so that all things might grow steadily. Therefore they always propitiate him first and last: Hail, Father, great wonder, great blessing to men.” And before him Homer, on the shield made by Hephaestus, describing the making of the world as Moses does, says: “On it he made the earth, on it the heaven, on it the sea, and on it all the constellations with which heaven is crowned.” For the Zeus celebrated in poems and prose writings lifts the thought up to God.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are the lyric poet, probably Pindar (fragment 108b Snell–Maehler; the identification is uncertain), Aratus, Phaenomena 1–15 (with omissions; line 5 is quoted in Acts 17:28), and Homer, Il. 18.483–485. The creation account is Gen 1:1–18. Corrected ἀν to ἐν (“in heaven”), as in Aratus' text.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misreading in the digital text (ἐν)): σήματʼ ἀν οὐρανῷ → σήματʼ ἐν οὐρανῷ.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.101 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/101/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.14.101 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/14/101/).
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