Miscellanies 5.8.50 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The Pythagoreans and many philosophers and poets wrote enigmatically; Heraclitus was called “the Obscure,” and difficult poets like Callimachus and Lycophron are exercises for students.

Greek text · Stählin 2:360–361

Τοιαῦτα καὶ οἱ Πυθαγόρειοι ᾐνίσσοντο, Φερσεφόνης μὲν κύνας τοὺς πλανήτας, Κρόνου δὲ δάκρυον τὴν θάλασσαν ἀλληγοροῦντες. καὶ μυρία ἐπὶ μυρίοις εὕροιμεν ἂν ὑπό τε φιλοσόφων ὑπό τε ποιητῶν αἰνιγματωδῶς εἰρημένα, ὅπου γε καὶ ὅλα βιβλία ἐπικεκρυμμένην τὴν τοῦ συγγραφέως βούλησιν ἐπιδείκνυται, ὡς καὶ τὸ Ἡρακλείτου περὶ φύσεως, ὃς καὶ διʼ αὐτὸ τοῦτο Σκοτεινὸς προσηγόρευται. ὁμοία τούτῳ τῷ βιβλίῳ καὶ ἡ Φερεκύδους θεολογία τοῦ Συρίου. Εὐφορίων γὰρ ὁ ποιητὴς καὶ τὰ Καλλιμάχου Αἴτια καὶ ἡ Λυκόφρονος Ἀλεξάνδρα καὶ τὰ τούτοις παραπλήσια γυμνάσιον εἰς ἐξήγησιν γραμματικῶν ἔκκειται παισίν.

English · Claude translation

The Pythagoreans hinted at such things too, allegorizing the planets as the dogs of Persephone and the sea as the tear of Cronus. And we would find countless things upon countless spoken enigmatically by philosophers and poets, since whole books too display the writer's intention concealed, such as that of Heraclitus On Nature, who for this very reason is called “the Obscure.” Like this book is the theology of Pherecydes of Syros too. For Euphorion the poet, the Aetia of Callimachus, Lycophron's Alexandra, and the like are set before the children of grammarians as an exercise in interpretation.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:360–361 · 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.

Extrabiblical texts

Callimachus, Aetia (Callimachus (hymns and fragments)) · allusion, medium confidence

Topics

Scripture and canon

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.8.50 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/8/50/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 5.8.50 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/5/8/50/).