Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies

Now, as the Greeks represent the gods as possessing human forms, so also do they as possessing human passions. And as each of them depict their forms similar to themselves, as Xenophanes says, “Ethiopians as black and apes, the Thracians ruddy and tawny;” so also they assimilate their souls to those who form them: the Barbarians, for instance, who make them savage and wild; and the Greeks, who make them more civilized, yet subject to passion.

Wherefore it stands to reason, that the ideas entertained of God by wicked men must be bad, and those by good men most excellent. And therefore he who is in soul truly kingly and gnostic, being likewise pious and free from superstition, is persuaded that He who alone is God is honourable, venerable, august, beneficent, the doer of good, the author of all good things, but not the cause of evil. And respecting the Hellenic superstition we have, as I think, shown enough in the book entitled by us The Exhortation, availing ourselves abundantly of the history bearing on the point. There is no need, then, again to make a long story of what has already been clearly stated. But in as far as necessity requires to be pointed out on coming to the topic, suffice it to adduce a few out of many considerations in proof of the impiety of those who make the Divinity resemble the worst men. For either those Gods of theirs are injured by men, and are shown to be inferior to men on being injured by us; or, if not so, how is it that they are incensed at those by whom they are not injured, like a testy old wife roused to wrath?

As they say that Artemis was enraged at the Ætolians on account of Œneus.1715 Iliad, ix. 533, etc. [The young student must be on his guard as to the philosophical scepticism here treated, which is not the habit of unbelief commonly so called.] For how, being a goddess, did she not consider that he had neglected to sacrifice, not through contempt, but out of inadvertence, or under the idea that he had sacrificed?

And Latona,1716 The text has Ἡ αὐτή, which is plainly unsuitable; hence the suggestion ἡ Αητώ. arguing her case with Athene, on account of the latter being incensed at her for having brought forth in the temple, says:—

“Man-slaying spoils

Torn from the dead you love to see. And these

To you are not unclean. But you regard

My parturition here a horrid thing,

Though other creatures in the temple do

No harm by bringing forth their young.”

It is natural, then, that having a superstitious dread of those irascible [gods], they imagine that all events are signs and causes of evils. If a mouse bore through an altar built of clay, and for want of something else gnaw through an oil flask; if a cock that is being fattened crow in the evening, they determine this to be a sign of something.

Of such a one Menander gives a comic description in The Superstitious Man:—

“A. Good luck be mine, ye honoured gods!

Tying my right shoe’s string,

I broke it.”

“B. Most likely, silly fool,

For it was rotten, and you, niggard, you

Would not buy new ones.”1717 These lines are quoted by Theodoret, and have been amended and arranged by Sylburgius and Grotius. The text has Ἀγαθόν τι; Theodoret and Grotius omit τί as above.

It was a clever remark of Antiphon, who (when one regarded it as an ill omen that the sow had eaten her pigs), on seeing her emaciated through the niggardliness of the person that kept her, said, Congratulate yourself on the omen that, being so hungry, she did not eat your own children.

“And what wonder is it,” says Bion, “if the mouse, finding nothing to eat, gnaws the bag?” For it were wonderful if (as Arcesilaus argued in fun) “the bag had eaten the mouse.”

Diogenes accordingly remarked well to one who wondered at finding a serpent coiled round a pestle: “Don’t wonder; for it would have been more surprising if you had seen the pestle coiled round the serpent, and the serpent straight.”

For the irrational creatures must run, and scamper, and fight, and breed, and die; and these things being natural to them, can never be unnatural to us.

“And many birds beneath the sunbeams walk.”

And the comic poet Philemon treats such points in comedy:—

“When I see one who watches who has sneezed,

Or who has spoke; or looking, who goes on,

I straightway in the market sell him off.

Each one of us walks, talks, and sneezes too,

For his own self, not for the citizens:

According to their nature things turn out.”

Then by the practice of temperance men seek health: and by cramming themselves, and wallowing in potations at feasts, they attract diseases.

There are many, too, that dread inscriptions set up. Very cleverly Diogenes, on finding in the house of a bad man the inscription, “Hercules, for victory famed, dwells here; let nothing bad enter,” remarked, “And how shall the master of the house go in?”

The same people, who worship every stick and greasy stone, as the saying is, dreads tufts of tawny wool, and lumps of salt, and torches, and squills, and sulphur, bewitched by sorcerers, in certain impure rites of expiation. But God, the true God, recognises as holy only the character of the righteous man,—as unholy, wrong and wickedness.

You may see the eggs,1718 Which were used in lustrations, ὧτα. The text has ᾥά. taken from those who have been purified, hatched if subjected to the necessary warmth. But this could not take place if they had had transferred to them the sins of the man that had undergone purification. Accordingly the comic poet Diphilus facetiously writes, in comedy, of sorcerers, in the following words:—

“Purifying Prœtus’ daughters, and their father

Prœtus Abantades, and fifth, an old wife to boot,

So many people’s persons with one torch, one squill,

With sulphur and asphalt of the loud-sounding sea,

From the placid-flowing, deep-flowing ocean.

But blest air through the clouds send Anticyra

That I may make this bug into a drone.”

For well Menander remarks:1719 Translated as arranged and amended by Grotius.—

“Had you, O Phidias, any real ill,

You needs must seek for it a real cure;

Now ’tis not so. And for the unreal ill

I’ve found an unreal cure. Believe that it

Will do thee good. Let women in a ring

Wipe thee, and from three fountains water bring.

Add salt and lentils; sprinkle then thyself.

Each one is pure, who’s conscious of no sin.”

For instance, the tragedy says:—

Menelaus. “What disease, Orestes, is destroying thee?”

Orestes. “Conscience. For horrid deeds I know I’ve done.”1720 Euripides, Orestes, 395, 396.

For in reality there is no other purity but abstinence from sins. Excellently then Epicharmus says:—

“If a pure mind thou hast,

In thy whole body thou art pure.”

Now also we say that it is requisite to purify the soul from corrupt and bad doctrines by right reason; and so thereafter to the recollection of the principal heads of doctrine. Since also before the communication of the mysteries they think it right to apply certain purifications to those who are to be initiated; so it is requisite for men to abandon impious opinion, and thus turn to the true tradition.

Ἕλληνες δὲ ὥσπερ ἀνθρωπομόρφους οὕτως καὶ ἀνθρωποπαθεῖς τοὺς θεοὺς ὑποτίθενται, καὶ καθάπερ τὰς μορφὰς αὐτῶν ὁμοίας ἑαυτοῖς ἕκαστοι διαζωγραφοῦσιν, ὥς φησιν ὁ Ξενοφάνης, Αἰθίοπές τε μέλανας σιμούς τε Θρᾷκές τε πυρροὺς καὶ γλαυκούς, οὕτως καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς ὁμοίους ἑαυτοῖς αὐτοὺς ἀναπλάττουσιν, αὐτίκα βάρβαροι οἱ μὲν θηριώδεις καὶ ἀγρίους τὰ ἤθη, ἡμερωτέρους δὲ Ἕλληνες, πλὴν ἐμπαθεῖς. διὸ εὐλόγως τοῖς μὲν μοχθηροῖς φαύλας ἔχειν τὰς περὶ θεοῦ διανοήσεις ἀνάγκη, τοῖς δὲ σπουδαίοις ἀρίστας, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ὁ τῷ ὄντι βασιλικὸς τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ γνωστικὸς οὗτος καὶ θεοσεβὴς καὶ ἀδεισιδαίμων ὤν, τίμιον, σεμνόν, μεγαλοπρεπῆ, εὐποιητικόν, εὐεργετικόν, ἁπάντων ἀρχηγὸν ἀγαθῶν, κακῶν δὲ ἀναίτιον μόνον εἶναι τὸν μόνον θεὸν πεπεισμένος. καὶ περὶ μὲν τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς δεισιδαιμονίας ἱκανῶς, οἶμαι, ἐν τῷ Προτρεπτικῷ ἐπιγραφομένῳ ἡμῖν λόγῳ παρεστήσαμεν κατακόρως τῇ κατεπειγούσῃ συγκαταχρώμενοι ἱστορίᾳ. οὔκουν χρὴ αὖθις τὰ ἀριδήλως εἰρημένα μυθολογεῖν. ὅσον δὲ ἐπισημήνασθαι κατὰ τὸν τόπον γενομένους ὀλίγα ἐκ πολλῶν, ἀπόχρη καὶ τάδε εἰς ἔνδειξιν τοῦ ἀθέους παραστῆσαι τοὺς τοῖς κακίστοις ἀνθρώποις τὸ θεῖον ἀπεικάζοντας. ἤτοι γὰρ βλάπτονται πρὸς ἀνθρώπων αὐτοῖς οἱ θεοὶ καὶ χείρους τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὑφ' ἡμῶν βλαπτόμενοι δείκνυνται, ἢ εἰ μὴ τοῦτο, πῶς ἐφ' οἷς οὐ βλάπτονται, καθάπερ ὀξύχολον γραΐδιον εἰς ὀργὴν ἐρεθιζόμενον, ἐκπικραίνονται, ᾗ φασι τὴν Ἄρτεμιν δι' Οἰνέα Αἰτωλοῖς ὀργισθῆναι. πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἐλογίσατο θεὸς οὖσα ὡς οὐ καταφρονήσας ὁ Οἰνεύς, ἀλλ' ἤτοι λαθόμενος ἢ ὡς τεθυκὼς ἠμέλησεν; εὖ δὲ καὶ ἡ Αὔγη δικαιολογουμένη πρὸς τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν ἐπὶ τῷ χαλεπαίνειν αὐτῇ τετοκυίᾳ ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ λέγει· σκῦλα μὲν βροτοφθόρα χαίρεις ὁρῶσα καὶ νεκρῶν ἐρείπια, καὶ οὐ μιαρά σοι ταῦτ' ἔστιν· εἰ δ' ἐγὼ τεκον, δεινὸν τόδ' ἡγῇ· καίτοι καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ζῷα ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς τίκτοντα οὐδὲν ἀδικεῖ. Εἰκότως τοίνυν δεισιδαίμονες περὶ τοὺς εὐοργήτους γινόμενοι πάντα σημεῖα ἡγοῦνται εἶναι τὰ συμβαίνοντα καὶ κακῶν αἴτια· ἐὰν μῦς διορύξῃ βωμὸν ὄντα πήλινον κἂν μηδὲν ἄλλο ἔχων διατράγῃ θύλακον, ἀλεκτρυὼν τρεφόμενος ἐὰν ἀπὸ ἑσπέρας ᾄσῃ, τιθέμενοι τοῦτο σημεῖόν τινος. Τοιοῦτόν τινα ἐν τῷ ∆εισιδαίμονι ὁ Μένανδρος διακωμῳδεῖ· ἀγαθόν τι γένοιτό μοι, ὦ πολυτίμητοι θεοί, ὑποδούμενος τὸν ἱμάντα [γὰρ] τῆς δεξιᾶς ἐμβάδος διέρρηξα. Εἰκότως, ὦ φλήναφε· σαπρὸς γὰρ ἦν, σὺ δὲ σμικρολόγος οὐ θέλων καινὰς πρίασθαι. Χαρίεν τὸ τοῦ Ἀντιφῶντος· οἰωνισαμένου τινός, ὅτι κατέφαγεν ὗς τὰ δελφάκια, θεασάμενος αὐτὴν ὑπὸ λιμοῦ διὰ μικροψυχίαν τοῦ τρέφοντος κατισχναμένην, χαῖρε, εἶπεν, ἐπὶ τῷ σημείῳ, ὅτι οὕτω πεινῶσα τὰ σὰ οὐκ ἔφαγεν τέκνα. Τί δὲ καὶ θαυμαστόν, εἰ ὁ μῦς, φησὶν ὁ Βίων, τὸν θύλακον διέτραγεν, οὐχ εὑρὼν ὅ τι φάγῃ; τοῦτο γὰρ ἦν θαυμαστόν, εἰ, ὥσπερ Ἀρκεσίλαος παίζων ἐνεχείρει, τὸν μῦν ὁ θῦλαξ κατέφαγεν. Εὖ γοῦν καὶ ∆ιογένης πρὸς τὸν θαυμάζοντα, ὅτι εὗρεν τὸν ὄφιν ἐν τῷ ὑπέρῳ περιειλημένον, μὴ θαύμαζε ἔφη· ἦν γὰρ παραδοξότερον ἐκεῖνο, εἰ τὸ ὕπερον περὶ ὀρθῷ τῷ ὄφει κατειλημένον ἐθεάσω. ∆εῖ γὰρ καὶ τὰ ἄλογα τῶν ζῴων τρέχειν καὶ θεῖν καὶ μάχεσθαι καὶ τίκτειν καὶ ἀποθνῄσκειν, ἃ δή, ἐκείνοις ὄντα κατὰ φύσιν, οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἡμῖν γένοιτο παρὰ φύσιν· ὄρνιθες δέ τε πολλοὶ ὑπ' αὐγὰς ἠελίοιο φοιτῶσιν. Ὁ κωμικὸς δὲ Φιλήμων καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα κωμῳδεῖ· ὅταν ἴδω (φησί) παρατηροῦντα, τίς ἔπταρεν ἢ τίς ἐλάλησεν, ἤ, τίς ἐστιν ὁ προϊών, σκοποῦντα, πωλῶ τοῦτον εὐθὺς ἐν ἀγορᾷ. αὑτῷ βαδίζει καὶ λαλεῖ καὶ πτάρνυται ἕκαστος ἡμῶν, οὐχὶ τοῖς ἐν τῇ πόλει. τὰ πράγματα ὡς πέφυκεν, οὕτως γίγνεται. Εἶτα νήφοντες μὲν ὑγείαν αἰτοῦνται, ὑπερεμπιπλάμενοι δὲ καὶ μέθαις ἐγκυλιόμενοι κατὰ τὰς ἑορτὰς νόσους ἐπισπῶνται. Πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ τὰς γραφὰς δεδίασι τὰς ἀνακειμένας. ἀστείως πάνυ ὁ ∆ιογένης, ἐπὶ οἰκίᾳ μοχθηροῦ τινος εὑρὼν ἐπιγεγραμμένον· ὁ καλλίνικος Ἡρακλῆς ἐνθάδε κατοικεῖ· μηδὲν εἰσίτω κακόν, καὶ πῶς ἔφη ὁ κύριος εἰσελεύσεται τῆς οἰκίας; Οἱ αὐτοὶ δ' οὗτοι πᾶν ξύλον καὶ πάντα λίθον, τὸ δὴ λεγόμενον, λιπαρὸν προσκυνοῦντες, ἔρια πυρρὰ καὶ ἁλῶν χόνδρους καὶ δᾷδας σκίλλαν τε καὶ θεῖον δεδίασι, πρὸς τῶν γοήτων καταγοητευθέντες κατά τινας ἀκαθάρτους καθαρμούς. θεὸς δέ, ὁ τῷ ὄντι θεός, ἅγιον μόνον οἶδεν τὸ τοῦ δικαίου ἦθος, ὥσπερ ἐναγὲς τὸ ἄδικον καὶ μοχθηρόν. ὁρᾶν γοῦν ἔστι τὰ ὠὰ τὰ ἀπὸ τῶν περικαθαρθέντων, εἰ θαλφθείη, ζωογονούμενα. οὐκ ἂν δὲ τοῦτο ἐγίνετο, εἰ ἀνελάμβανεν τὰ τοῦ περικαθαρθέντος κακά. Χαριέντως γοῦν καὶ ὁ κωμικὸς ∆ίφιλος κωμῳδεῖ τοὺς γόητας διὰ τῶνδε· Προιτίδας ἁγνίζων κούρας καὶ τὸν πατέρα αὐτῶν Προῖτον Ἀβαντιάδην καὶ γραῦν πέμπτην ἐπὶ τοῖσδε δᾳδὶ μιᾷ σκίλλῃ τε μιᾷ, τόσα σώματα φωτῶν, θείῳ τε ἀσφάλτῳ τε πολυφλοίσβῳ τε θαλάσσῃ ἐξ ἀκαλαρρείταο βαθυρρόου Ὠκεανοῖο. ἀλλὰ μάκαρ Ἀὴρ διὰ τῶν νεφέων διάπεμψον Ἀντικύραν, ἵνα τόνδε κόριν κηφῆνα ποιήσω. Εὖ γὰρ καὶ ὁ Μένανδρος· εἰ μέν τι κακὸν ἀληθὲς εἶχες, Φειδία, ζητεῖν ἀληθὲς φάρμακον τούτου σ' ἔδει. νῦν δ' οὐκ ἔχεις· κενὸν εὑρὲ καὶ τὸ φάρμακον πρὸς τὸ κενόν· οἰήθητι δὲ ὠφελεῖν τί σε. περιμαξάτωσάν σε αἱ γυναῖκες ἐν κύκλῳ καὶ περιθεωσάτωσαν· ἀπὸ κρουνῶν τριῶν ὕδατι περίρραναι ἐμβαλὼν ἅλας, φακούς. πᾶς ἁγνός ἐστιν ὁ μηδὲν ἑαυτῷ κακὸν συνειδώς. Αὐτίκα ἡ τραγῳδία λέγει· Ὀρέστα, τίς σε ἀπόλλυσι[ν] νόσος; Ἡ σύνεσις, ὅτι σύνοιδα δεινὰ εἰργασμένος. τῷ γὰρ ὄντι ἡ ἁγνεία οὐκ ἄλλη τίς ἐστιν πλὴν ἡ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἀποχή. Καλῶς ἄρα καὶ Ἐπίχαρμός φησι· καθαρὸν ἂν τὸν νοῦν ἔχῃς, ἅπαν τὸ σῶμα καθαρὸς εἶ. Αὐτίκα καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς προκαθαίρειν χρεών φαμεν ἀπὸ τῶν φαύλων καὶ μοχθηρῶν δογμάτων διὰ τοῦ λόγου τοῦ ὀρθοῦ, καὶ τότε οὕτως ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν προηγουμένων κεφαλαίων ὑπόμνησιν τρέπεσθαι, ἐπεὶ καὶ πρὸ τῆς τῶν μυστηρίων παραδόσεως καθαρμούς τινας προσάγειν τοῖς μυεῖσθαι μέλλουσιν ἀξιοῦσιν, ὡς δέον τὴν ἄθεον ἀποθεμένους δόξαν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀληθῆ τρέπεσθαι παράδοσιν.