Miscellanies 8.9.27
Summary: Many conditions lead to an event, as the building of the Argo led at last to Medea's killing of her children, but only the agent, Medea, is the cause; what merely fails to prevent something is not a cause.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Greek text · Stählin 2
Καὶ τὸν οἰκοδόμον οἰκοδομεὶν λέγομεν κατὰ τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ γενησόμενον ἀναφοράν. οὕτως φαμὲν χλαμύδα ὑφαίνεσθαι **· τὸ γὰρ ποιοῦν ἐνεργείας δηλωτικὸν ὑπάρχει. οὐκ ἔστι δὲ ἑτέρου μὲν τὸ ποιοῦν, ἑτέρου δὲ τὸ αἴτιον, ἀλλὰ ταὐτοῦ [τῆς χλαμύδος καὶ τῆς οἰκίας]· καθʼ ὃ γὰρ αἴτιος τοῦ γίνεσθαι, κατὰ τοῦτο καὶ ποιητικός ἐστι τοῦ γίνεσθαι. τὸ [δὲ] αὐτὸ ἄρα αἴτιον καὶ ποιητικόν [καὶ διʼ ὅ]. καὶ εἰ μέν τί ἐστιν αἴτιον καὶ ποιητικόν, τοῦτο πάντως ἐστὶ καὶ διʼ ὅ, εἰ δέ τί ἐστι διʼ ὅ, οὐ πάντως τοῦτο καὶ αἴτιον. πολλὰ γοῦν ἐφʼ ἓν ἀποτέλεσμα συντρέχει, διʼ ἃ γίνεται τὸ τέλος, ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἔστι πάντα αἴτια. οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἐτεκνοκτόνησεν Μήδεια, εἰ μὴ ὠργίσθη, οὐδʼ ἂν ὠργίσθη. εἰ μὴ ἐζήλωσεν, οὐδὲ τοῦτο, εἰ μὴ ἠράσθη, οὐδὲ τοῦτο, εἰ μὴ Ἰάσων ἔπλευσεν εἰς Κόλχους, οὐδὲ τοῦτο, εἰ μὴ Ἀργὼ κατεσκευάσθη. οὐδὲ τοῦτο, εἰ μὴ τὰ ξύλα ἐκ τοῦ Πηλίου ἐτμήθη. ἐν τούτοις γὰρ ἅπασιν τοῦ ›διʼ ὃ‹ τυγχάνοντος οὐ πάντα τῆς τεκνοκτονίας αἴτια τυγχάνει, μόνη δὲ ἡ Μήδεια. [Διὸ] τὸ μὴ κωλῦον ἀνενέργητόν ἐστιν, διὸ οὐκ ἔστιν αἴτιον τὸ μὴ κωλῦον, ἀλλὰ τὸ κωλῦον. ἐν γὰρ τῷ ἐνεργεῖν καὶ δρᾶν τι τὸ αἴτιον νοεῖται.
English · Claude translation
And we say that the builder builds, with reference to what will come to be. So we say that a cloak is being woven … ; for “making” indicates activity. The maker and the cause are not of different things, but of the same; for insofar as he is the cause of coming to be, in that respect he is also productive of coming to be. The cause and the productive, then, are the same. And if something is a cause and productive, it is certainly also that through which; but if something is that through which, it is not certainly also a cause. Many things, at any rate, concur toward one effect, and through them the end comes about, but not all are causes. For Medea would not have killed her children if she had not been angry, nor been angry if she had not been jealous, nor this if she had not loved, nor this if Jason had not sailed to Colchis, nor this if the Argo had not been built, nor this if the timbers had not been cut from Pelion. In all these, though each is a “that through which,” not all are causes of the killing of the children, but only Medea. What does not hinder is inactive; therefore what does not hinder is not a cause, but what hinders is. For the cause is understood in acting and doing something.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The chain of events echoes the opening of Euripides' Medea (lines 1–8). The text has a gap (marked by Stählin) after “a cloak is being woven”. Stählin brackets several words (“of the cloak and the house,” “and that through which”) as spurious; they are not translated.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.9.27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/9/27/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.9.27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/9/27/).
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