Exhortation to the Greeks 10.97

Greek text · Stählin 1:70–71

ἤλεγξε νεκρόν.« ἄγαμαι τοίνυν τὸν Χῖον σοφιστήν, Θεόκριτος ὄνομα αὐτῷ· μετὰ τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου τελευτὴν ἐπισκώπτων ὁ Θεόκριτος τὰς δόξας τὰς κενὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἃς εἶχον περὶ θεῶν, πρὸς τοὺς πολίτας »ἄνδρες,« εἶπεν, »θαρρεῖτε ἄχρις ἂν ὁρᾶτε τοὺς θεοὺς πρότερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀποθνῄσκοντας.« θεοὺς δὲ δὴ τοὺς ὁρατοὺς καὶ τὸν σύγκλυδα τῶν γενητῶν τούτων ὄχλον ὁ προσκυνῶν καὶ προσεταιριζόμενος, αὐτῶν ἐκείνων τῶν δαιμόνων ἀθλιώτερος μακρῷ. θεὸς γὰρ οὐδαμῇ οὐδαμῶς ἄδικος ὥσπερ οἱ δαίμονες, ἀλλʼ ὡς οἷόν τε δικαιότατος, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτῷ ὁμοιότερον οὐδὲν ἢ ὃς ἂν ἡμῶν γένηται ὅτι δικαιότατος.

English · Claude translation

… proved to be dead.” So I admire the sophist of Chios, Theocritus by name. After Alexander's death, mocking the empty opinions people had about gods, Theocritus said to his fellow citizens: “Men, take heart, as long as you see the gods dying before the men.” But whoever worships and makes a companion of visible gods and of the motley crowd of these created things is far more wretched than the daemons themselves. For God is in no way unjust, as the daemons are, but most just in every possible way; and there is nothing more like him than whoever of us becomes as just as possible.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 1:70–71 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 1, Protrepticus und Paedagogus, GCS 12 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1905) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 1: Protrepticus und Paedagogus (GCS 12, 1905), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1905); made independently of existing English translations.

Extrabiblical texts

Plato, Theaet. 176b–c (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

The last sentence is from Plato, Theaetetus 176b–c.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (stray space before the closing quotation mark): δρες, « → δρες,«.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 10.97 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/10/97/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 10.97 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/10/97/).