The Instructor 2.1.2
Summary: Food is for life, not pleasure; simple food gives health and strength, while elaborate cookery breeds disease.
Greek text · Stählin 1:154–155
οὔτε γὰρ ἔργον ἡμῖν ἡ τροφὴ οὔτε σκοπὸς ἡδονή, ὑπὲρ δὲ τῆς ἐνταῦθα διαμονῆς, ἣν ὁ λόγος εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν παιδαγωγεῖ, ἐγκρίνεται ἡ τροφή. ἁπλῆ δὲ αὕτη καὶ ἀπερίεργος, ἀληθείᾳ κατάλληλος, ἁπλοῖς καὶ ἀπεριέργοις ἁρμόζουσα παιδίοις, ὡσὰν εἰς τὸ ζῆν, οὐκ εἰς τρυφὴν ἐπιτήδειος· τὸ δὲ ἐκ δυεῖν, τὸ ζῆν τοῦτο, ὑγείας τε καὶ ἰσχύος σύγκειται, οἷς μάλιστα κατάλληλον τῆς τροφῆς τὸ εὔκολον, εἴς τε τὰς ἀναδόσεις καὶ τοῦ σώματος τὴν κουφότητα χρησιμεῦον, ἐξ ὧν αὔξησίς τε καὶ ὑγεία καὶ ἰσχὺς δικαία, οὐχὶ δὲ ἄδικος ἢ σφαλερὰ καὶ ἀθλία ὡς ἡ τῶν ἀθλητῶν ἐξ ἀναγκοφαγίας, περιγίνεται. αἱ μὲν οὖν πολυειδεῖς ποιότητες ἀποπτυστέαι, ποικίλας ἐντίκτουσαι βλάβας, καχεξίας σωμάτων, ἀνατροπὰς στομάχων, ἐκπορνευούσης τῆς γεύσεως διά τινος κακοδαίμονος τέχνης τῆς ὀψαρτυτικῆς καὶ τῆς ἀμφὶ τὰ πέμματα ματαιοτεχνίας. τροφὴν γὰρ τολμῶσιν καλεῖν τὴν ἐν τρυφαῖς ἐπιτήδευσιν εἰς ἡδονὰς ἐπιβλαβεῖς ὀλισθαίνουσαν. Ἀντιφάνης δὲ ὁ Δήλιος ἰατρὸς καὶ μίαν τῶν νόσου αἰτιῶν ταύτην εἴρηκεν τῶν ἐδεσμάτων τὴν πολυειδίαν, τῶν περὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν δυσαρεστούντων κενοδοξίᾳ ποικίλῃ τὸ σῶφρον τῆς διαίτης ἐξομνυμένων καὶ τὰς διαποντίους
English · Claude translation
For food is not our business, nor pleasure our aim; food is admitted for the sake of our continuance here, which the Word is training for incorruption. This food is simple and plain, suited to truth, fitting for simple and plain children, as being suited to living, not to luxury. And this living is made up of two things, health and strength, to which easy food is most suited, useful for digestion and for lightness of body; from it come growth, health, and strength that is right, not wrong or precarious and wretched like that of athletes from forced feeding. The many kinds of dishes are to be spat out, since they breed various harms: bad condition of the body, upset stomachs, the taste being debauched by an ill-starred art of cookery and the vain art of pastry. For they dare to call food the pursuit of luxuries that slides into harmful pleasures. Antiphanes, the physician of Delos, said that this variety of dishes is one of the causes of disease, when people, dissatisfied with the truth, forswear moderation in diet out of varied vanity, and go searching for foods from across the sea.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The sentence runs into the next section; the translation completes it here.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.1.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/1/2/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.1.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/2/1/2/).
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