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The Stromata, or Miscellanies
Clement of Alexandria
Book 6 · Chapter 2 About this work A wide-ranging collection on faith, knowledge, philosophy, Scripture, ethics, and Christian maturity that intentionally mixes subjects while portraying the ideal Christian knower formed through disciplined inquiry.
Author Clement of Alexandria
Date c. AD 195–215
Origin Alexandria
Genre Theological Treatise Chapter II.—The Subject of Plagiarisms Resumed. The Greeks Plagiarized from One Another. Before handling the point proposed , we must
‹ Book 6 · Chapter 1 Book 6 · Chapter 3 ›,
by
way
of
preface
,
add
to
the
close
of
the
fifth
book
what
is
wanting
.
For
since
we
have
shown
that
the
symbolical
style
was
ancient
,
and
was
employed
not
only
by
our
prophets
,
but
also
by
the
majority
of
the
ancient
Greeks
,
and
by
not
a
few
of
the
rest
of
the
Gentile
Barbarians
,
it
was
requisite
to
proceed
to
the
mysteries
of
the
initiated
.
I
postpone
the
elucidation
of
these
till
we
advance
to
the
confutation
of
what
is
said
by
the
Greeks
on
first
principles
;
for
we
shall
show
that
the
mysteries
belong
to
the
same
branch
of
speculation
.
And
having
proved
that
the
declaration
of
Hellenic
thought
is
illuminated
all
round
by
the
truth
,
bestowed
on
us
in
the
Scriptures
,
taking
it
according
to
the
sense
,
we
have
proved
,
not
to
say
what
is
invidious
,
that
the
theft
of
the
truth
passed
to
them
.
Come , and let us adduce the Greeks as witnesses against themselves to the theft . For , inasmuch as they pilfer from one another , they establish the fact that they are thieves ; and although against their will , they are detected , clandestinely appropriating to those of their own race the truth which belongs to us . For if they do not keep their hands from each other , they will hardly do it from our authors . I shall say nothing of philosophic dogmas , since the very persons who are the authors of the divisions into sects , confess in writing , so as not to be convicted of ingratitude , that they have received from Socrates the most important of their dogmas . But after availing myself of a few testimonies of men most talked of , and of repute among the Greeks , and exposing their plagiarizing style , and selecting them from various periods , I shall turn to what follows .
Orpheus , then , having composed the line : —
“ Since nothing else is more shameless and wretched than woman , ”
“ Since nothing else is more dreadful and shameless than a woman . ”
And Musæus having written : —
“ Since art is greatly superior to strength , ” —
“ By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior . ”
Again , Musæus having composed the lines : —
“ And as the fruitful field produceth leaves , And on the ash trees some fade , others grow , So whirls the race of man its leaf , ” —
“ Some of the leaves the wind strews on the ground . The budding wood bears some ; in time of spring , They come . So springs one race of men , and one departs . ”
Again , Homer having said : —
“ It is unholy to exult over dead men , ”
Archilochus and Cratinus write , the former : —
“ It is not noble at dead men to sneer ; ”
and Cratinus in the Lacones : —
“ For men ’ tis dreadful to exult Much o’er the stalwart dead . ”
Again , Archilochus , transferring that Homeric line : —
“ I erred , nor say I nay : instead of many ” —
“ I erred , and this mischief hath somehow seized another . ”
As certainly also that line : —
“ Even - handed war the slayer slays . ”
He also , altering , has given forth thus : —
“ I will do it . For Mars to men in truth is evenhanded . ”
Also , translating the following : —
“ The issues of victory among men depend on the gods , ”
he openly encourages youth , in the following iambic : —
“ Victory’s issues on the gods depend . ”
Again , Homer having said : —
“ With feet unwashed sleeping on the ground , ”
Euripides writes in Erechtheus : —
“ Upon the plain spread with no couch they sleep , Nor in the streams of water lave their feet . ”
Archilochus having likewise said : —
“ But one with this and one with that His heart delights , ” —
in correspondence with the Homeric line : —
“ For one in these deeds , one in those delights , ” —
Euripides says in Œneus : —
“ But one in these ways , one in those , has more delight . ”
And I have heard Æschylus saying : —
“ He who is happy ought to stay at home ; There should he also stay , who speeds not well . ”
And Euripides , too , shouting the like on the stage : —
“ Happy the man who , prosperous , stays at home . ”
Menander , too , on comedy , saying : —
“ He ought at home to stay , and free remain , Or be no longer rightly happy . ”
Again , Theognis having said : —
“ The exile has no comrade dear and true , ” —
“ Far from the poor flies every friend . ”
“ Daughter , woe worth the day ! Thee who art old I marry to a youth ; ”
“ For the young husband takes some other girl , And for another husband longs the wife , ” —
“ ’ Tis bad to yoke an old wife to a youth ; For he desires to share another’s bed , And she , by him deserted , mischief plots . ”
Euripides having , besides , said in the Medea : —
“ For no good do a bad man’s gifts , ” —
Sophocles in Ajax Flagellifer utters this iambic : —
“ For foes ’ gifts are no gifts , nor any boon . ”
“ For surfeit insolence begets , When store of wealth attends . ”
Theognis writes in the same way : —
“ For surfeit insolence begets , When store of wealth attends the bad . ”
Whence also Thucydides , in the Histories , says : “ Many men , to whom in a great degree , and in a short time , unlooked - for prosperity comes , are wont to turn to insolence . ” And Philistus likewise imitates the same sentiment , expressing himself thus : “ And the many things which turn out prosperously to men , in accordance with reason , have an incredibly dangerous tendency to misfortune . For those who meet with unlooked success beyond their expectations , are for the most part wont to turn to insolence . ” Again , Euripides having written : —
“ For children sprung of parents who have led A hard and toilsome life , superior are ; ”
Critias writes : “ For I begin with a man’s origin : how far the best and strongest in body will he be , if his father exercises himself , and eats in a hardy way , and subjects his body to toilsome labour ; and if the mother of the future child be strong in body , and give herself exercise . ”
Again , Homer having said of the Hephæstus - made shield : —
“ Upon it earth and heaven and sea he made , And Ocean’s rivers ’ mighty strength portrayed , ”
Pherecydes of Syros says : — “ Zas makes a cloak large and beautiful , and works on it earth and Ogenus , and the palace of Ogenus . ”
“ Shame , which greatly hurts a man or helps , ” —
Euripides writes in Erechtheus : —
“ Of shame I find it hard to judge ; ’ Tis needed . ’ Tis at times a great mischief . ”
Take , by way of parallel , such plagiarisms as the following , from those who flourished together , and were rivals of each other . From the Orestes of Euripides : —
“ Dear charm of sleep , aid in disease . ”
From the Eriphyle of Sophocles : —
“ Hie thee to sleep , healer of that disease . ”
And from the Antigone of Sophocles : —
“ Bastardy is opprobrious in name ; but the nature is equal ; ”
And from the Aleuades of Sophocles : —
“ Each good thing has its nature equal . ”
Again , in the Ctimenus of Euripides : —
“ For him who toils , God helps ; ”
And in the Minos of Sophocles ;
“ To those who act not , fortune is no ally ; ”
And from the Alexander of Euripides : —
“ But time will show ; and learning , by that test , I shall know whether thou art good or bad ; ”
And from the Hipponos of Sophocles : —
“ Besides , conceal thou nought ; since Time , That sees all , hears all , all things will unfold . ”
But let us similarly run over the following ; for Eumelus having composed the line ,
“ Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the daughters nine , ”
Solon thus begins the elegy : —
“ Of Memory and Olympian Zeus the children bright . ”
Again , Euripides , paraphrasing the Homeric line : —
“ What , whence art thou ? Thy city and thy parents , where ? ”
employs the following iambics in Ægeus : —
Notes 6 Odyss., xi. 427.
7 Homer, Iliad, xxiii. 315: μέγ᾽ ἀμείνων is found in the Iliad as in Musæus. In the text occurs instead περιγίνεται, which is taken from line 318. “By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior; By art the helmsman on the dark sea Guides the swift ship when driven by winds; By art one charioteer excels (περιγίνεται) another. Iliad, xxiii. 315–318.
8 φύλλον, for which Sylburg, suggests φῦλον.
9 Iliad, vi. 147–149.
10 Odyss., xxii. 412.
11 Iliad, ix. 116.
12 Ξυνός. So Livy, “communis Mars;” and Cicero, “cum omnis belli Mars comunis.”
13 Iliad, xviii. 309.
14 Ξυνός. So Livy, “communis Mars;” and Cicero, “cum omnis belli Mars comunis.”
15
The text has: Νίκης ἀνθρώποισι θεῶν ἐκ πείρατα κεῖται. In Iliad, vii. 101, 102, we read: αὐτὰρ ϋὕερθεν Νίκης πείρατ᾽ ἔχονται ἐν ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν.
18 The text is corrupt and unintelligible. It has been restored as above.
20 Said by Ajax of the sword received from Hector, with which he killed himself.
21 The imitator of Thucydides, said to be weaker but clearer than his model. He is not specially clear here.
22 The text has, ἀσφαλέστερα παρὰ δόξαν καὶ κακοπραγίαν: for which Lowth reads, ἐπισφαλέστερα πρὸς κακοπραγίαν, as translated above.
23 Iliad, xxiv. 44, 45. Clement’s quotation differs somewhat from the passage as it stands in Homer.
24 The text has δοίη, which Stobæus has changed into δ᾽ ἰ´ση, as above. Stobæus gives this quotation as follows:— “The bastard has equal strength with the legitimate; Each good thing has its nature legitimate.”
25 As no play bearing this name is mentioned by any one else, various conjectures have been made as to the true reading; among which are Clymene Temenos or Temenides.
