Protrepticus

 raging for corruptions, celebrating insolence, deifying sorrows, the first to lead men by the hand to idols, yes, indeed, to stones and wood, that is,

 may inspire, and which may receive the 1.5.4 Lord. Yes, indeed, David the king, the harpist, whom we mentioned a little before, was exhorting towards

 and to statues and to certain such images having bound them fast with the wretched bond of superstition, that which is indeed said, bringing living me

 Let her who does not give birth hear let her who does not travail break forth with a cry, for the children of the desolate are more than of her who

 breathing roughly is interpreted as the female serpent But Deo and Kore have already become a mystic drama, and Eleusis holds torches for their wande

 a herdsman, the goad, calling the narthex a herdsman's goad, I suppose, which the Bacchants indeed wreathe. 2.17.1 Do you wish that I should narrate t

 and the swineherd Eubouleus from whom sprang the hierophantic family of the Eumolpidae and Kerykes, 2.20.3 this very one at Athens. And indeed (for I

 a teacher of the woman's 2.24.2 disease to the other Scythians. For which reason (for it must by no means be concealed), it comes over me to wonder in

 they have fabricated certain saviors, the Dioscuri and Heracles, averter of evil, and Asclepius the physician. 2.27.1 These are the slippery and harmf

 Apollodorus says, and Callimachus, Phoebus is appointed over the sacrifices of asses among the Hyperboreans. And the same poet elsewhere says, Fat sac

 and of gods. He was so poured out in matters of love, as to desire all, and to fulfill his desire upon all. At any rate, he was filled with women no

 is fashioned in the manner of a member and sits upon the branch, fulfilling the promise to the dead man. A mystical memorial of this passion, phalli a

 is taught to be prudent. The myth is laid bare for you Leda died, the swan died, the eagle died. You seek your Zeus? do not meddle with the sky, but

 2.39.8 they acclaimed. But Heraclides in *Foundations of Temples* says that in Acarnania, where the Actium promontory is and the temple of Actian Apol

 he records 3.42.7 to have offered a whole burnt-offering. And Erechtheus the Attic and Marius the Roman sacrificed their own daughters of whom the on

 In Athens, on the acropolis, is that of Cecrops, as Antiochus says in the ninth book of his Histories. And what of Erichthonius? Was he not buried in

 the so-called Palladium, fallen from heaven, which Diomedes and Odysseus are said to have stolen from Ilium, and to have entrusted to Demophon, was ma

 Nor insult the blooming youth keep it pure, that it may be beautiful. Become a king of beauty, not a tyrant let it remain free then I will recogniz

 worshippers of stones, having learned by deed not to worship senseless matter, being overcome by the need itself, are destroyed by superstition But t

 And private individuals dignified themselves with divine titles, as Menecrates the physician, who was surnamed Zeus. Why must I list Alexarchus (he wa

 4.56.4 offspring of the earth, all these things that you see? Why then, O foolish and empty-minded ones (for I will say it again), having blasphemed t

 they boast, having enrolled them as their own household slaves, having made them compelled slaves by their incantations. Therefore, the remembered mar

 you shall make, says the prophet, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above and that is in the 4.62.3 earth beneath. Would we, then, still s

 those who worship it have suffered for others named this fire Hephaestus. 5.65.1 But the Magi of the Persians have honored fire, as have many of the

 of truth, do you show that those who have trusted in you are subjected to a flow and current and disorderly eddies? And why do you fill my life with i

 by counsel but indeed they raise pure arms to heaven, rising early from bed, always cleansing their skin with water, and they honor only the one who

 a comfort of the gods, images of stone, or bronze or gold-wrought or ivory figures and allotting sacrifices to them and empty festivals, thus we thin

 you will empty injustice. 8.77.1 Now that the other things have been duly completed by us in order, it is time to turn to the prophetic writings for

 I swear by myself. But he is vexed with the idolaters, saying to whom have you likened the Lord? or to what likeness have you likened him? Did a car

 For how is it permitted for the foreigner to enter? But when, I suppose, he is enrolled and made a citizen and receives the father, then he will be i

 the wanderers of the Hebrews for they are said not to have entered into the rest because of unbelief, until, having followed the successor of Moses,

 10.89.1 But to overturn a custom handed down to us from our fathers, you say, is not reasonable. And why, then, do we not use our first food, milk, to

 demands repentance. But I want to ask you, if it does not seem absurd to you that you, men, having been born a creation of God and having received you

 punishment? Why do we not accept the gift? Why do we not choose the better things, God instead of the wicked one, and prefer wisdom to idolatry, and e

 10.98.3 promised? Who has promised immortality? Only the Creator of all things, the father, the master-craftsman, fashioned us, man, such a living s

 to wipe away the hindrances to salvation, both pride and wealth and fear, uttering this very poetic saying: Where, indeed, do I carry these many posse

 they inhumanly attempt to slaughter him who teaches humanely, who calls them to righteousness, neither awaiting the grace from above nor shunning the

 a portion to those who have turned to any part of life, and to consider wisdom the same waveless harbor of salvation 10.107.3 through which those who

 He who also was, through what He taught and showed, having presented himself, our truce-bearer and reconciler and savior, the Word, a life-giving, pea

 since you were not ashamed of your brother. 11.114.1 Let us then take away, let us take away the forgetfulness of the truth having cast down the igno

 The trumpet with its great blast sounded, gathered soldiers, and announced war but Christ, having breathed a peaceful melody to the ends of the earth

 bound, you shall be loosed from all corruption, the Word of God will steer you, and the Holy Spirit will bring you to anchor in the harbors of the hea

 12.121.1 Let us hasten, let us run, O God-loving and God-like images of the Word [men] let us hasten, let us run, let us take up His yoke, let us mou

Protrepticus

OF CLEMENT STROMATEUS

EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS

Amphion the Theban and Arion of Methymna, "both were skilled in song, and both are a myth" (and this song is still sung by the choir of the Hellenes), with the art of music, the one having lured a fish, the other having walled Thebes. And another sophist, a Thracian (this is another Hellenic myth), tamed the wild beasts with his bare song, and indeed the trees, the oaks, he transplanted with his music. I could relate to you another myth and singer, a brother to these, Eunomus the Locrian and the Pythian cicada; a Hellenic festival was being held at Pytho over a dead serpent, with Eunomus singing a funeral ode for the reptile; the song was a hymn or a dirge for a snake, I cannot say. And there was a contest and Eunomus was playing the cithara in the heat of midday, when the cicadas were singing under the leaves on the mountains, warmed by the sun. But they were singing, it seems, not to the dead serpent, the Pythian one, but to the all-wise God a song of their own law, better than the measures of Eunomus. A string breaks for the Locrian; the cicada flies to the yoke; it chirped on the instrument as on a branch; and the singer, harmonizing with the cicada's song, filled in for the missing string. The cicada, therefore, is not drawn by the song of Eunomus, as the myth would have it, which set up a bronze statue at Pytho of Eunomus with his cithara and the Locrian's fellow-competitor; but it flies willingly and sings willingly. But to the Greeks it seemed to have become a musical performer. How then have you believed in empty myths, supposing that animals are charmed by music? But the bright face of Truth alone, it seems, appears to you to be a counterfeit and has fallen under the eyes of disbelief. Cithaeron then, and Helicon, and the mountains of the Odrysians, and the initiatory rites of the Thracians, the mysteries of error, have been deified and celebrated in hymns. I for one, even if they are a myth, am indignant at so many calamities being made into tragedies; but for you even the records of evils have become dramas, and the actors of the dramas spectacles for your delight. But come, let us confine the dramas and the Lenaean poets—now completely drunken, having crowned them somewhere with ivy, behaving senselessly in Bacchic rite—with the satyrs themselves and the mad thiasus, along with the rest of the choir of demons, to Helicon and Cithaeron, which have grown old, and let us bring down from heaven above Truth, along with most radiant Wisdom, to the holy mountain of God and the holy prophetic choir. And may she, flashing forth a light as far-shining as possible, shine down everywhere on those who are wallowing in darkness and deliver men from error, stretching forth her supreme right hand, understanding, for their salvation; and may they, looking up and raising their heads, leave Helicon and Cithaeron, and dwell in Zion; "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," a heavenly word, the true champion being crowned in the theater of the whole world. And my Eunomus sings not the strain of Terpander nor that of Capion, nor indeed the Phrygian, or Lydian, or Dorian, but the eternal strain of the new harmony, that which bears the name of God, the new song, the Levitical, "banishing sorrow and anger, making one forget all ills;" a certain sweet and true medicine of persuasion has been mixed into the song. To me, therefore, that Thracian Orpheus and the Theban and the Methymnaean seem to have been certain men, yet not men, deceivers, who under the pretext of music corrupted life, by a certain artful sorcery

Protrepticus

ΚΛΗΜΕΝΤΟΣ ΣΤΡΩΜΑΤΕΩΣ

ΠΡΟΤΡΕΠΤΙΚΟΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΑΣ

Ἀμφίων ὁ Θηβαῖος καὶ Ἀρίων ὁ Μηθυμναῖος "ἄμφω μὲν ἤστην ᾠδικώ, μῦθος δὲ ἄμφω" (καὶ τὸ ᾆσμα εἰσέτι τοῦτο Ἑλλήνων ᾄδεται χορῷ), τέχνῃ τῇ μουσικῇ ὃ μὲν ἰχθὺν δελεάσας, ὃ δὲ Θήβας τειχίσας. Θρᾴκιος δὲ ἄλλος σοφιστὴς (ἄλλος οὗτος μῦθος Ἑλληνικός) ἐτιθάσευε τὰ θηρία γυμνῇ τῇ ᾠδῇ καὶ δὴ τὰ δένδρα, τὰς φηγούς, μετεφύτευε τῇ 1.1.2 μουσικῇ. Ἔχοιμ' ἄν σοι καὶ ἄλλον τούτοις ἀδελφὸν διηγή σασθαι μῦθον καὶ ᾠδόν, Εὔνομον τὸν Λοκρὸν καὶ τέττιγα τὸν Πυθικόν· πανήγυρις Ἑλληνικὴ ἐπὶ νεκρῷ δράκοντι συνεκροτεῖτο Πυθοῖ, ἐπιτάφιον ἑρπετοῦ ᾄδοντος Εὐνόμου· ὕμνος ἢ θρῆνος ὄφεως ἦν ἡ ᾠδή, οὐκ ἔχω λέγειν. Ἀγὼν δὲ ἦν καὶ ἐκιθάριζεν ὥρᾳ καύματος Εὔνομος, ὁπηνίκα οἱ τέττιγες ὑπὸ τοῖς πετάλοις ᾖδον ἀνὰ τὰ ὄρη θερόμενοι ἡλίῳ. Ἦιδον δὲ ἄρα οὐ τῷ δράκοντι τῷ νεκρῷ, τῷ Πυθικῷ, ἀλλὰ τῷ θεῷ τῷ πανσόφῳ αὐτόνομον ᾠδήν, τῶν Εὐνόμου βελτίονα νόμων. Ῥήγνυται χορδὴ τῷ Λοκρῷ· ἐφίπταται ὁ τέττιξ τῷ ζυγῷ· ἐτερέτιζεν ὡς ἐπὶ κλάδῳ τῷ ὀργάνῳ· καὶ τοῦ τέττιγος τῷ ᾄσματι ἁρμοσάμενος ὁ ᾠδὸς τὴν 1.1.3 λείπουσαν ἀνεπλήρωσε χορδήν. Οὔκουν ᾠδῇ τῇ Εὐνόμου ἄγεται ὁ τέττιξ, ὡς ὁ μῦθος βούλεται, χαλκοῦν ἀναστήσας Πυθοῖ τὸν Εὔνομον αὐτῇ τῇ κιθάρᾳ καὶ τὸν συναγωνιστὴν τοῦ Λοκροῦ· ὃ δὲ ἑκὼν ἐφίπταται καὶ ᾄδει ἑκών. Ἕλλησι δ' ἐδόκει ὑποκριτὴς γεγονέναι μουσικῆς. 1.2.1 Πῇ δὴ οὖν μύθοις κενοῖς πεπιστεύκατε, θέλγεσθαι μουσικῇ τὰ ζῷα ὑπολαμβάνοντες; Ἀληθείας δὲ ὑμῖν τὸ πρόσωπον τὸ φαιδρὸν μόνον, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἐπίπλαστον εἶναι δοκεῖ καὶ τοῖς ἀπιστίας ὑποπέπτωκεν ὀφθαλμοῖς. Κιθαιρὼν δὲ ἄρα καὶ Ἑλικὼν καὶ τὰ Ὀδρυσῶν ὄρη καὶ Θρᾳκῶν τελεστήρια, τῆς πλάνης τὰ μυστήρια, τεθείασται καὶ 1.2.2 καθύμνηται. Ἐγὼ μέν, εἰ καὶ μῦθός εἰσι, δυσανασχετῶ τοσαύταις ἐκτραγῳδουμέναις συμφοραῖς· ὑμῖν δὲ καὶ τῶν κακῶν αἱ ἀναγραφαὶ γεγόνασι δράματα καὶ τῶν δραμάτων οἱ ὑποκριταὶ θυμηδίας θεάματα. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ τὰ μὲν δράματα καὶ τοὺς ληναΐζοντας ποιητάς, τέλεον ἤδη παροινοῦντας, κιττῷ που ἀναδήσαντες, ἀφραίνοντας ἐκτόπως τελετῇ βακχικῇ, αὐτοῖς σατύροις καὶ θιάσῳ μαινόλῃ, σὺν καὶ τῷ ἄλλῳ δαιμόνων χορῷ, Ἑλικῶνι καὶ Κιθαιρῶνι κατακλείσωμεν γεγηρακόσιν, κατάγωμεν δὲ ἄνωθεν ἐξ οὐρανῶν ἀλήθειαν ἅμα φανοτάτῃ φρονήσει εἰς ὄρος ἅγιον 1.2.3 θεοῦ καὶ χορὸν τὸν ἅγιον τὸν προφητικόν. Ἣ δὲ ὡς ὅτι μάλιστα τηλαυγὲς ἀποστίλβουσα φῶς καταυγαζέτω πάντῃ τοὺς ἐν σκότει κυλινδουμένους καὶ τῆς πλάνης τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἀπαλλαττέτω, τὴν ὑπερτάτην ὀρέγουσα δεξιάν, τὴν σύνεσιν, εἰς σωτηρίαν· οἳ δὲ ἀνανεύσαντες καὶ ἀνακύψαντες Ἑλικῶνα μὲν καὶ Κιθαιρῶνα καταλειπόντων, οἰκούντων δὲ Σιών· "ἐκ γὰρ Σιὼν ἐξελεύσεται νόμος, καὶ λόγος κυρίου ἐξ Ἱερου σαλήμ", λόγος οὐράνιος, ὁ γνήσιος ἀγωνιστὴς ἐπὶ τῷ 1.2.4 παντὸς κόσμου θεάτρῳ στεφανούμενος. Αἴδει δέ γε ὁ Εὔνομος ὁ ἐμὸς οὐ τὸν Τερπάνδρου νόμον οὐδὲ τὸν Κηπίωνος, οὐδὲ μὴν Φρύγιον ἢ Λύδιον ἢ ∆ώριον, ἀλλὰ τῆς καινῆς ἁρμονίας τὸν ἀίδιον νόμον, τὸν φερώνυμον τοῦ θεοῦ, τὸ ᾆσμα τὸ καινόν, τὸ Λευιτικόν, "νηπενθές τ' ἄχολόν τε, κακῶν ἐπίληθες ἁπάντων"· γλυκύ τι καὶ ἀληθινὸν φάρμα κον πειθοῦς ἐγκέκραται τῷ ᾄσματι. 1.3.1 Ἐμοὶ μὲν οὖν δοκοῦσιν ὁ Θρᾴκιος ἐκεῖνος Ὀρφεὺς καὶ ὁ Θηβαῖος καὶ ὁ Μηθυμναῖος, ἄνδρες τινὲς οὐκ ἄνδρες, ἀπατηλοὶ γεγονέναι, προσχήματι μουσικῆς λυμηνάμενοι τὸν βίον, ἐντέχνῳ τινὶ γοητείᾳ