Exhortation to the Greeks 2.28

Summary: The mythographers count several Zeuses, Athenas, and Apollos, which shows they were many different men.

Greek text · Stählin 1:20–21

Αὐτίκα γοῦν εἰσὶν οἳ τρεῖς τοὺς Ζῆνας ἀναγράφουσιν, τὸν μὲν Αἰθέρος ἐν Ἀρκαδίᾳ, τὼ δὲ λοιπὼ τοῦ Κρόνου παῖδε, τούτοιν τὸν μὲν ἐν Κρήτῃ, θάτερον δὲ ἐν Ἀρκαδίᾳ πάλιν. εἰσὶ δὲ οἳ πέντε Ἀθηνᾶς ὑποτίθενται, τὴν μὲν Ἡφαίστου, τὴν Ἀθηναίαν· τὴν δὲ Νείλου, τὴν Αἰγυπτίαν· τρίτην τὴν τοῦ Κρόνου, τὴν πολέμου εὑρέτιν· τετάρτην τὴν Διός, ἣν Μεσσήνιοι Κορυφασίαν ἀπὸ τῆς μητρὸς ἐπικεκλήκασιν· ἐπὶ πᾶσι τὴν Πάλλαντος καὶ Τιτανίδος τῆς Ὠκεανοῦ, ἣ τὸν πατέρα δυσσεβῶς καταθύσασα τῷ πατρῴῳ κεκόσμηται δέρματι ὥσπερ κῳδίῳ. ναὶ μὴν Ἀπόλλωνα ὁ μὲν Ἀριστοτέλης πρῶτον Ἡφαίστου καὶ Ἀθηνᾶς (ἐνταῦθα δὴ οὐκέτι παρθένος ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ), δεύτερον ἐν Κρήτῃ τὸν Κύρβαντος, τρίτον τὸν Διὸς καὶ τέταρτον τὸν Ἀρκάδα τὸν Σιληνοῦ· Νόμιος οὗτος κέκληται παρὰ Ἀρκάσιν· ἐπὶ τούτοις τὸν Λίβυν καταλέγει τὸν Ἄμμωνος· ὁ δὲ Δίδυμος ὁ γραμματικὸς τούτοις ἕκτον ἐπιφέρει τὸν Μάγνητος.

English · Claude translation

For example, there are those who record three Zeuses: one the son of Aether in Arcadia, and two sons of Kronos, one of them in Crete and the other, again, in Arcadia. Some suppose there are five Athenas: one the daughter of Hephaestus, the Athenian; one the daughter of the Nile, the Egyptian; a third, the daughter of Kronos, the inventor of war; a fourth, the daughter of Zeus, whom the Messenians call Coryphasia after her mother; and last of all the daughter of Pallas and Titanis, the daughter of Ocean, who impiously sacrificed her father and adorned herself with her father's skin as with a fleece. Aristotle counts first an Apollo who was the son of Hephaestus and Athena (so here Athena is no longer a virgin); second, the son of Cyrbas in Crete; third, the son of Zeus; and fourth, the Arcadian, the son of Silenus, who is called Nomius among the Arcadians; besides these he lists the Libyan, the son of Ammon; and Didymus the grammarian adds a sixth, the son of Magnes.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 1:20–21 · 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.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 2.28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/2/28/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 2.28 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/2/28/).