Miscellanies 6.2.18
Summary: Orators echo Euripides on judging the unseen by proofs, and Euripides and Hyperides echo Theognis: counterfeit gold can be detected, but a false friend cannot.
Greek text · Stählin 2:436–437
Εὐριπίδου δὲ ἐν μὲν τῷ Οἰνομάῳ γράφοντος· τεκμαιρόμεσθα τοῖς παροῦσι τὰ ἀφανῆ, ἐν δὲ τῷ Φοίνικι· τὰ ἀφανῆ τεκμηρίοισιν εἰκότως ἁλίσκεται, Ὑπερείδης λέγει· ἃ δʼ ἐστὶν ἀφανῆ, ἀνάγκη τοὺς διδάσκοντας τεκμηρίοις καὶ τοῖς εἰκόσι ζητεῖν. Ἰσοκράτους τε αὖ εἰπόντος δεῖ δὲ τὰ μέλλοντα τοῖς προγεγενημένοις τεκμαίρεσθαι Ἀνδοκίδης οὐκ ὀκνεῖ λέγειν· χρὴ γὰρ τεκμηρίοις χρῆσθαι τοῖς πρότερον γενομένοις περὶ τῶν μελλόντων ἔσεσθαι. Ἔτι Θεόγνιδος ποιήσαντος· χρυσοῦ κιβδήλοιο καὶ ἀργύρου ἄνσχετος ἄτη, Κύρνε, καὶ ἐξευρεῖν ῥᾴδιον ἀνδρὶ σοφῷ· εἰ δὲ φίλου νόος ἀνδρὸς ἐνὶ στήθεσσι λέληθεν ψυδρὸς ἐών, δόλιον δʼ ἐν φρεσὶν ἦτορ ἔχει, τοῦτο θεὸς κιβδηλότατον ποίησε βροτοῖσι, καὶ γνῶναι πάντων τοῦτʼ ἀνιαρότερον, Εὐριπίδης μὲν γὰρ γράφει· ὦ Ζεῦ, τί δὴ χρυσοῦ μὲν ὃς κίβδηλος ἦν, τεκμήρια ἀνθρώποισιν ὤπασας σαφῆ, ἀνδρῶν δὲ ὅτῳ χρὴ τὸν κακὸν διειδέναι, οὐδεὶς χαρακτὴρ ἐμπέφυκε σώματι; Ὑπερείδης δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς λέγει· χαρακτὴρ οὐδεὶς ἔπεστιν ἐπὶ τοῦ προσώπου τῆς διανοίας τοῖς ἀνθρώποις.
English · Claude translation
When Euripides writes in the Oenomaus: “We judge the unseen by what is present,” and in the Phoenix: “Things unseen are rightly caught by proofs,” Hyperides says: “What is unseen, those who teach must seek by proofs and probabilities.” And again, when Isocrates said: “One must judge the future by what has happened before,” Andocides does not hesitate to say: “For one must use what has happened before as proofs about what is going to be.” Further, when Theognis composed: “The ruin of counterfeit gold and silver is bearable, Cyrnus, and easy for a wise man to find out; but if the mind of a friend lies hidden in his breast, being false, and he has a deceitful heart within, this is the most counterfeit thing a god has made for mortals, and the most painful of all to discover,” Euripides writes: “O Zeus, why have you given men clear signs for gold that is counterfeit, but in men's bodies there grows no mark by which one must discern the bad man?” And Hyperides himself says: “There is no mark of the mind set on the face of men.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The sources are Theognis 119–124, Euripides, Medea 516–519, fragments of Euripides (Oenomaus, Phoenix) and Hyperides, Isocrates (compare To Demonicus 34), and Andocides (compare On the Peace 3.2); the orators' passages are uncertain.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (accent: circumflex on τοῖς; final sigma inside a word in the digital text): στήθεςςι → στήθεσσι; τοὶς πρότερον → τοῖς πρότερον.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/18/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/18/).
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