Miscellanies 6.2.19 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:437–438

Πάλιν Στασίνου ποιήσαντος· νήπιος ὃς πατέρα κτείνων παῖδας καταλείπει, Ξενοφῶν λέγει· ὁμοίως γάρ μοι νῦν φαίνομαι πεποιηκέναι, ὡς εἴ τις πατέρα ἀποκτείνας τῶν παίδων αὐτοῦ φείσαιτο. Σοφοκλέους τε ἐν Ἀντιγόνῃ ποιήσαντος· μητρός τε ἐν Ἅιδου καὶ πατρὸς τετευχότων, οὐκ ἔστʼ ἀδελφὸς ὅστις ἄν βλάστοι ποτέ, Ἡρόδοτος λέγει· μητρὸς καὶ πατρὸς οὐκ ἔτʼ ὄντων, ἀδελφὸν ἄλλον οὐχ ἕξω. Πρὸς τούτοις Θεοπόμπου ποιήσαντος· δὶς παῖδες οἱ γέροντες ὀρθῷ τῷ λόγῳ, καὶ πρό γε τούτου Σοφοκλέους ἐν τῷ Πηλεῖ· Πηλέα τὸν Αἰάκειον οἰκουρὸς μόνη γερονταγωγῶ καὶ ἀναπαιδεύω πάλιν· πάλιν γὰρ αὖθις παῖς ὁ γηράσκων ἀνήρ, Ἀντιφῶν ὁ ῥήτωρ λέγει· γηροτροφία γὰρ προσέοικεν παιδοτροφίᾳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ φιλόσοφος Πλάτων· ἄρʼ, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὁ γέρων δὶς παῖς γένοιτʼ ἄν.

English · Claude translation

Again, when Stasinus composed: “Foolish is he who kills the father and leaves the children,” Xenophon says: “For I seem to myself now to have acted as if someone who had killed a father were to spare his children.” And when Sophocles composed in the Antigone: “With mother and father lying in Hades, there is no brother who could ever be born,” Herodotus says: “With mother and father no longer living, I shall have no other brother.” Besides these, when Theopompus composed: “Old men are children twice, by right reasoning,” and before him Sophocles in the Peleus: “Alone, keeping house, I tend Peleus son of Aeacus in his old age and bring him up again; for again the aging man becomes a child,” Antiphon the orator says: “For caring for the old is like caring for children,” and Plato the philosopher too: “So, it seems, the old man would become a child twice.”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:437–438 · 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

Sophocles, Antigone 911–912; fragment (Peleus) (Sophocles (plays and fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
Herodotus, Hist. 3.119 (Herodotus, Histories) · quotation, high confidence
Plato, Laws 1.646a (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

The sources are Stasinus (Cypria, fragment), Sophocles, Antigone 911–912, Herodotus 3.119, Plato, Laws 1.646a, and fragments of Theopompus the comic poet, Sophocles (Peleus), and Antiphon. The Xenophon passage is uncertain.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/19/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/19/).