Miscellanies 6.2.9 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Stählin 2:428–429

Πάλιν Εὐριπίδου ποιήσαντος· ἐκ γὰρ πατρὸς καὶ μητρὸς ἐκπονουμένων σκληρὰς διαίτας οἱ γόνοι βελτίονες, Κριτίας γράφει· ἄρχομαι δέ τοι ἀπὸ γενετῆς ἀνθρώπου· πῶς ἂν βέλτιστος τὸ σῶμα γένοιτο καὶ ἰσχυρότατος; εἰ ὁ φυτεύων γυμνάζοιτο καὶ ἐσθίοι ἐρρωμένως καὶ ταλαιπωροίη τὸ σῶμα καὶ ἡ μήτηρ τοῦ παιδίου τοῦ μέλλοντος ἔσεσθαι ἰσχύοι τὸ σῶμα καὶ γυμνάζοιτο. Αὖθίς τε Ὁμήρου ἐπὶ τῆς ἡφαιστοτεύκτου ἀσπίδος εἰπόντος· ἐν μὲν γαῖαν ἔτευξʼ, ἐν δʼ οὐρανόν, ἐν δὲ θάλασσαν· ἐν δʼ ἐτίθει ποταμοῖο μέγα σθένος Ὠκεανοῖο. Φερεκύδης ὁ Σύριος λέγει· Ζᾶς ποιεῖ φᾶρος μέγα τε καὶ καλὸν καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ ποικίλλει γῆν καὶ Ὠγηνὸν καὶ τὰ Ὠγηνοῦ δώματα. Ὁμήρου τε εἰπόντος· αἰδώς, ἥτʼ ἄνδρας μέγα σίνεται ἠδʼ ὀνίνησιν, Εὐριπίδης ἐν Ἐρεχθεῖ γράφει· αἰδοῦς δὲ καὐτὸς δυσκρίτως ἔχω πέρι· καὶ δεῖ γὰρ αὐτῆς κἄστιν αὖ κακὸν μέγα.

English · Claude translation

Again, when Euripides composed: “For of a father and mother who toil at hard regimens the offspring are better,” Critias writes: “I begin with a man's birth: how would he become best and strongest in body? If the one who begets him should exercise and eat heartily and harden his body, and the mother of the child who is to be should be strong in body and exercise.” Again, when Homer said of the shield wrought by Hephaestus: “On it he made the earth, on it the sky, on it the sea … on it he set the great might of the river Ocean,” Pherecydes of Syros says: “Zas makes a robe, great and beautiful, and on it he embroiders Earth and Ogenus and the halls of Ogenus.” And when Homer said: “Shame, which greatly harms men and also profits them,” Euripides writes in the Erechtheus: “About shame I myself am hard put to judge; for there is need of it, and again it is a great evil.”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 2:428–429 · 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

Homer, Il. 18.483, 607; 24.45 (Homer, Iliad) · quotation, high confidence
Euripides, fragment (Erechtheus) (Euripides (plays and fragments)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

The Homeric lines are Il. 18.483 and 18.607 and Il. 24.45 (compare Hesiod, Works and Days 318). The Euripides, Critias, and Pherecydes lines are fragments; Zas and Ogenus are Pherecydes' names for Zeus and Ocean.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/9/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 6.2.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/6/2/9/).