Miscellanies 8.9.30
Summary: Two things can be causes to each other of some effect without causing each other, as the stones of an arch hold each other up; so the law of “eye for eye” is not a cause of wrong but brings justice to one and correction to the other.
Greek text · Stählin 2
Ἀλλήλων οὐκ ἔστι τὰ αἴτια, ἀλλήλοις δὲ αἴτια. ἡ γὰρ σπληνικὴ διάθεσις προϋποκειμένη οὐ πυρετοῦ αἴτιος. ἀλλὰ τοῦ γίνεσθαι τὸν πυρετόν· καὶ ὁ πυρετὸς προϋποκείμενος οὐ σπληνός, ἀλλὰ τοῦ αὔξεσθαι τὴν διάθεσιν. οὕτως καὶ αἱ ἀρεταὶ ἀλλήλαις αἴτιαι τοῦ μὴ χωρίζεσθαι διὰ τὴν ἀντακολουθίαν, καὶ οἱ ἐπὶ τῆς ψαλίδος λίθοι ἀλλήλοις εἰσὶν αἴτιοι τοῦ μένειν κατηγορήματος, ἀλλήλων δὲ οὐκ εἰσὶν αἴτιοι, καὶ ὁ διδάσκαλος δὲ καὶ ὁ μανθάνων ἀλλήλοις εἰσὶν αἴτιοι τοῦ προκόπτειν κατηγορήματος. λέγεται δὲ ἀλλήλοις αἴτια ποτὲ μὲν τῶν αὐτῶν, ὡς ὁ ἔμπορος καὶ ὁ κάπηλος ἀλλήλοις εἰσὶν αἴτιοι τοῦ κερδαίνειν, ποτὲ δὲ ἄλλου καὶ ἄλλου, καθάπερ ἡ μάχαιρα καὶ ἡ σάρξ· ἣ μὲν γὰρ τῇ σαρκὶ τοῦ τέμνεσθαι, ἡ σὰρξ δὲ τῇ μαχαίρᾳ τοῦ τέμνειν. Τὸ »ὀφθαλμὸν ἀντὶ ὀφθαλμοῦ« καὶ »ψυχὴν ἀντὶ ψυχῆς«. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ πλήξας τινὰ θανασίμως αἴτιός ἐστιν αὐτῷ τοῦ θανάτου ἢ τοῦ γίνεσθαι τὸν θάνατον, ἀντιπληγεὶς δὲ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ θανασίμως ἔσχεν αὐτὸν ἀνταίτιον, οὐ καθὸ ἐγένετο αὐτῷ αἴτιος, καθʼ ἕτερον δέ. αἴτιος μὲν γὰρ αὐτῷ θανάτου ἐγένετο, οὐχ ὁ θάνατος δὲ τούτῳ πάλιν τὴν θανασίμην ἀντεπέθηκεν πληγήν, ἀλλʼ αὐτὸς ὁ τρωθείς, ὥστʼ ἄλλου μὲν αὐτὸς γέγονεν αἴτιος. ἄλλον δὲ ἔσχεν αἴτιον. καὶ ὁ ἀδικήσας ἄλλῳ μὲν αἴτιος καθίσταται τοῦ ἀδικηθέντος, ὁ δὲ ἀντιτιμωρεῖσθαι κελεύων νόμος οὐκ ἀδικήματος, ἀλλὰ τῷ μὲν ἐκδικίας, τῷ δὲ παιδείας. ὥστε οὐκ ἀλλήλων τὰ αἴτια ὡς αἴτια, ἀλλήλοις δέ ἐστιν αἴτια.
English · Claude translation
Causes are not causes of one another, but causes to one another. For a pre-existing condition of the spleen is not the cause of fever, but of the fever's coming about; and a pre-existing fever is not the cause of the spleen, but of the condition's increasing. So also the virtues are causes to one another of not being separated, because they imply one another; and the stones in an arch are causes to one another of the predicate “remaining in place,” but are not causes of one another; and the teacher and the learner are causes to one another of the predicate “making progress.” Things are said to be causes to one another sometimes of the same thing, as the merchant and the retailer are causes to one another of making a profit, and sometimes of different things, as the knife and the flesh: the one is cause to the flesh of being cut, the flesh to the knife of cutting. “Eye for eye” and “life for life.” For one who has struck another a mortal blow is the cause to him of death, or of death's coming about; and being struck back mortally by him, he has him as a cause in return, not in the respect in which he became a cause to him, but in another. For he became a cause of death to him; but it was not the death that in turn inflicted the mortal blow on him, but the wounded man himself; so that he became the cause of one thing and had another as his cause. And the one who has done wrong becomes the cause to another of being wronged; but the law that commands retaliation is not the cause of a wrong, but of vengeance for the one, and of correction for the other. So causes are not causes of one another as causes, but they are causes to one another.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The distinction is between the genitive (ἀλλήλων αἴτια, “causes of one another”) and the dative (ἀλλήλοις αἴτια, “causes to one another”): each is a cause for the other of some predicate, not of the other itself. The quotations “eye for eye” and “life for life” are Exod 21:23–24 (compare Lev 24:20; Deut 19:21). “Correction” renders παιδεία.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.9.30 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/9/30/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.9.30 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/9/30/).
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