Exhortation to the Greeks 2.34
Summary: The great Greek games are funeral rites for dead men and a serpent, and the phallic processions of Dionysus commemorate an obscene myth.
Greek text · Stählin 1:25–26
Ἴθι δὴ καὶ τοὺς ἀγῶνας ἐν βραχεῖ περιοδεύσωμεν καὶ τὰς ἐπιτυμβίους ταυτασὶ πανηγύρεις καταλύσωμεν, Ἰσθμιά τε καὶ Νέμεα καὶ Πύθια καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τούτοις Ὀλύμπια. Πυθοῖ μὲν οὖν ὁ δράκων ὁ Πύθιος θρῃσκεύεται καὶ τοῦ ὄφεως ἡ πανήγυρις καταγγέλλεται Πύθια· Ἰσθμοῖ δὲ σκύβαλον προσέπτυσεν ἐλεεινὸν ἡ θάλαττα καὶ Μελικέρτην ὀδύρεται τὰ Ἴσθμια· Νεμέασι δὲ ἄλλο παιδίον Ἀρχέμορος κεκήδευται καὶ τοῦ παιδίου ὁ ἐπιτάφιος προσαγορεύεται Νέμεα· Πῖσα δὲ ὑμῖν τάφος ἐστίν, ὦ Πανέλληνες, ἡνιόχου Φρυγός, καὶ τοῦ Πέλοπος τὰς χοάς, τὰ Ὀλύμπια, ὁ Φειδίου σφετερίζεται Ζεύς. μυστήρια ἦσαν ἄρα, ὡς ἔοικεν, οἱ ἀγῶνες ἐπὶ νεκροῖς διαθλούμενοι, ὥσπερ καὶ τὰ λόγια, καὶ δεδήμευνται ἄμφω. ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν ἐπὶ Ἄγρᾳ μυστήρια καὶ τὰ ἐν Ἁλιμοῦντι τῆς Ἀττικῆς Ἀθήνησι περιώρισται· αἶσχος δὲ ἤδη κοσμικὸν οἵ τε ἀγῶνες καὶ οἱ φαλλοὶ οἱ Διονύσῳ ἐπιτελούμενοι, κακῶς ἐπινενεμημένοι τὸν βίον. Διόνυσος γὰρ κατελθεῖν εἰς Ἅιδου γλιχόμενος ἠγνόει τὴν ὁδόν, ὑπισχνεῖται δʼ αὐτῷ φράσειν τις, Πρόσυμνος τοὔνομα, οὐκ ἀμισθί· ὁ δὲ μισθὸς οὐ καλός, ἀλλὰ Διονύσῳ καλός· καὶ ἀφροδίσιος ἦν ἡ χάρις, ὁ μισθός, ὃν ᾐτεῖτο, Διόνυσος· βουλομένῳ δὲ τῷ θεῷ γέγονεν ἡ αἴτησις, καὶ δὴ ὑπισχνεῖται παρέξειν αὐτῷ, εἰ ἀναζεύξοι, ὅρκῳ πιστωσάμενος τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν. μαθὼν ἀπῆρεν· ἐπανῆλθεν αὖθις· οὐ καταλαμβάνει τὸν Πρόσυμνον (ἐτεθνήκει γάρ)· ἀφοσιούμενος τῷ ἐραστῇ ὁ Διόνυσος ἐπὶ τὸ μνημεῖον ὁρμᾷ καὶ πασχητιᾷ. κλάδον οὖν συκῆς, ὡς ἔτυχεν, ἐκτεμὼν ἀνδρείου μορίου σκευάζεται τρόπον ἐφέζεταί τε τῷ κλάδῳ, τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν ἐκτελῶν τῷ νεκρῷ. ὑπόμνημα τοῦ πάθους τούτου μυστικὸν φαλλοὶ κατὰ πόλεις ἀνίστανται Διονύσῳ· »εἰ μὴ γὰρ Διονύσῳ πομπὴν ἐποιοῦντο καὶ ὕμνεον ᾄσματα αἰδοίοισιν ἀναιδέστατα, εἴργασται«, φησὶν Ἡράκλειτος, »ωὐτὸς δὲ Ἅιδης καὶ Διόνυσος, ὅτεῳ μαίνονται καὶ ληναΐζουσιν«, οὐ διὰ τὴν μέθην τοῦ σώματος, ὡς ἐγὼ οἶμαι, τοσοῦτον ὅσον διὰ τὴν ἐπονείδιστον τῆς ἀσελγείας ἱεροφαντίαν.
English · Claude translation
Come now, let us also survey the games briefly, and put an end to these funeral festivals, the Isthmian, the Nemean, the Pythian, and besides these the Olympian. At Pytho the Pythian serpent is worshiped, and the festival of the snake is proclaimed as the Pythian games. At the Isthmus the sea spat out a pitiful piece of refuse, and the Isthmian games lament Melicertes. At Nemea another child, Archemorus, was buried, and the child's funeral rite is called the Nemean games. And Pisa, you Panhellenes, is the tomb of a Phrygian charioteer, and the Zeus of Phidias claims for himself the libations for Pelops, the Olympian games. The games, then, it seems, were mysteries celebrated over the dead, like the oracles, and both have been made public. The mysteries at Agra and at Halimus in Attica are confined to Athens; but the games, and the phalluses carried in procession for Dionysus, have become a disgrace to the whole world, wickedly spread through human life. For Dionysus, eager to go down to Hades, did not know the way; a man named Prosymnus promised to tell him, but not without payment. The payment was not a decent one, though decent enough to Dionysus: the favor was a sexual one, and the payment he asked for was Dionysus himself. The god was willing, and promised to grant it if he came back, confirming the promise with an oath. Having learned the way, he went off, and then came back again; he did not find Prosymnus, for he had died. To discharge his debt to his lover, Dionysus rushed to the tomb in his lust; and cutting a fig branch that was at hand, he shaped it like the male member and sat on it, fulfilling his promise to the dead man. As a mystic memorial of this passion, phalluses are set up in the cities to Dionysus. “For if it were not for Dionysus that they held the procession and sang the hymn to the shameful parts, it would be a most shameless deed,” says Heraclitus; “but Hades and Dionysus are the same, for whom they rave and keep the Lenaea”; not so much, I think, because of the body's drunkenness as because of the disgraceful priestly display of licentiousness.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Heraclitus, fragment 15 (Diels–Kranz).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (accent: τῆς): ἐπονείδιστον τὴς ἀσελγείας → ἐπονείδιστον τῆς ἀσελγείας.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 2.34 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/2/34/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 2.34 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/2/34/).
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