Miscellanies 6.2.27 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The philosophers too borrowed: Heraclitus from Orpheus, Plato from Pythagoras and he from Egypt, the Stoics and Aristotle from Plato, Epicurus from Democritus, and all ultimately from the Scriptures.

Greek text · Stählin 2:443–444

σιωπῶ δὲ Ἡράκλειτον τὸν Ἐφέσιον, ὃς παρʼ Ὀρφέως τὰ πλεῖστα εἴληφεν. παρὰ Πυθαγόρου δὲ καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἀθάνατον εἶναι Πλάτων ἔσπακεν, ὃ δὲ παρʼ Αἰγυπτίων. πολλοί τε τῶν ἀπὸ Πλάτωνος συγγραφὰς πεποίηνται, καθʼ ἃς ἀποδεικνύουσι τούς τε Στωικούς, ὡς ἐν ἀρχῇ εἰρήκαμεν, τόν τε Ἀριστοτέλη τὰ πλεῖστα καὶ κυριώτατα τῶν δογμάτων παρὰ Πλάτωνος εἰληφέναι. ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἐπίκουρος παρὰ Δημοκρίτου τὰ προηγούμενα ἐσκευώρηται δόγματα. Ταυτὶ μὲν οὖν ταύτῃ· ἐπιλείψει γάρ με ὁ βίος, εἰ καθʼ ἕκαστον ἐπεξιέναι αἱροίμην τὴν Ἑλληνικὴν διελέγχων φίλαυτον κλοπήν, καὶ ὡς σφετερίζονται τὴν εὕρεσιν τῶν παρʼ αὐτοῖς καλλίστων δογμάτων, ἣν παρʼ ἡμῶν εἰλήφασιν.

English · Claude translation

I say nothing of Heraclitus of Ephesus, who took most of his ideas from Orpheus. Plato drew from Pythagoras the teaching that the soul is immortal, and Pythagoras from the Egyptians. And many of Plato's followers have written treatises in which they show that the Stoics, as we said at the beginning, and Aristotle took most, and the most important, of their doctrines from Plato. Epicurus too contrived his leading doctrines from Democritus. So much for that. For life would fail me if I chose to go through each case, exposing the self-serving theft of the Greeks and how they claim for themselves the discovery of the finest of their doctrines, which they have received from us.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:443–444 · 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.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/27/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/27/).