The Instructor 1.7.55
Summary: The famous tutors of antiquity failed to form their pupils' character; the Persian princes learned only archery and grew up in incest and license.
Greek text · Stählin 1:122–123
παρέρχεται, ἡ δὲ ἀγωγὴ ἡ θεία κτῆμά ἐστιν εἰς ἀεὶ παραμένον. Ἀχιλλέως μὲν οὖν παιδαγωγὸν τὸν Φοίνικά φασι γεγονέναι καὶ τῶν Κροίσου παίδων Ἄδραστον, Ἀλεξάνδρου δὲ Λεωνίδην καὶ Φιλίππου Ναυσίθοον. ἀλλʼ ὃ μὲν γυναικομανής, ὁ Φοῖνιξ, ἦν, ὃ δὲ φυγάς, ὁ Ἄδραστος, ἦν, Λεωνίδης δὲ οὐ περιεῖλεν τὸν τῦφον τοῦ Μακεδόνος οὐδὲ Ναυσίθοος μεθύοντα τὸν ἐκ Πέλλης ἰάσατο· Ἀλκιβιάδου δὲ τὴν πορνείαν ὁ Θρᾷξ ἐπισχεῖν οὐκ ἴσχυσεν Ζώπυρος, ἀλλʼ ὠνητὸν ἀνδράποδον ὁ Ζώπυρος ἦν, καὶ τῶν Θεμιστοκλέους παίδων ὁ παιδαγωγὸς Σίκιννος οἰκέτης ῥᾴθυμος ἦν· ὀρχεῖσθαί φασιν αὐτὸν καὶ σικιννίζειν εὑρηκέναι. οὐκ ἔλαθον ἡμᾶς οἱ παρὰ Πέρσαις βασίλειοι καλούμενοι παιδαγωγοί, οὓς τέτταρας τὸν ἀριθμὸν ἀριστίνδην ἐκλέγοντες ἐκ πάντων Περσῶν οἱ βασιλεῖς Περσῶν τοῖς σφῶν αὐτῶν ἐφίστων παισίν· ἀλλὰ τοξεύειν μόνον οἱ παῖδες αὐτοῖς μανθάνουσιν, ἡβήσαντες δὲ ἀδελφαῖς καὶ μητράσιν καὶ γυναιξὶν γαμεταῖς τε ἅμα καὶ παλλακίσιν ἀναρίθμοις ἐπιμίσγονται, καθάπερ οἱ κάπροι εἰς συνουσίαν ἠσκημένοι.
English · Claude translation
is all but passing away, but divine guidance is a possession that remains forever. They say that Phoenix was the tutor of Achilles, Adrastus of the sons of Croesus, Leonidas of Alexander, and Nausithous of Philip. But Phoenix was mad for women, Adrastus was an exile; Leonidas did not remove the Macedonian's arrogance, nor did Nausithous cure the man from Pella of drunkenness. The Thracian Zopyrus could not restrain the sexual immorality of Alcibiades; but Zopyrus was a bought slave. And Sicinnus, the tutor of Themistocles's children, was a lazy servant; they say he invented dancing, and the sikinnis dance. We are not unaware of the so-called royal tutors among the Persians: the Persian kings chose four of them, the best from all the Persians, and set them over their own sons. But the boys learned from them only to shoot the bow; and when they came of age they had intercourse with sisters and mothers, with wedded wives and countless concubines at once, like boars trained for mating.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The Persian royal tutors are described in Plato, Alcibiades I 121e–122a. The charge of incest against the Persians was a Greek commonplace.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.7.55 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/7/55/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.7.55 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/1/7/55/).
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