Miscellanies 1.21.133
Summary: Many Greeks practiced divination, from Mopsus and Pythagoras to Socrates, who spoke of his divine sign.
Greek text · Stählin 2:82–83
φασὶ δὲ τὴν Μόψου καλουμένην Μαντικὴν συντάξαι τὸν Κυρηναῖον Βάττον, Δωρόθεός τε ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ πανδέκτῃ ἀλκυόνος καὶ κορώνης ἐπακοῦσαι τὸν Μόψον ἱστορεῖ. προγνώσει δὲ καὶ Πυθαγόρας ὁ μέγας προσανεῖχεν αἰεὶ Ἄβαρίς τε ὁ Ὑπερβόρειος καὶ Ἀριστέας ὁ Προκοννήσιος Ἐπιμενίδης τε ὁ Κρής, ὅστις εἰς Σπάρτην ἀφίκετο, καὶ Ζωροάστρης ὁ Μῆδος Ἐμπεδοκλῆς τε ὁ Ἀκραγαντῖνος καὶ Φορμίων ὁ Λάκων, ναὶ μὴν Πολυάρατος ὁ Θάσιος Ἐμπεδότιμός τε ὁ Συρακούσιος ἐπί τε τούτοις Σωκράτης ὁ Ἀθηναῖος μάλιστα· ἔστι γάρ μοι, φησὶν ἐν τῷ Θεάγει, ἐκ παιδὸς ἀρξάμενον θείᾳ μοίρᾳ παραγινόμενον δαιμόνιον σημεῖον, τοῦτο δέ ἐστι φωνή, ἣ ὅταν γένηται, ἐπίσχει τοῦτο ὃ μέλλω πράττειν, προτρέπει δὲ οὐδέποτε. Ἐξήκεστός τε ὁ Φωκέων τύραννος δύο δακτυλίους φορῶν γεγοητευμένους τῷ ψόφῳ τῷ πρὸς ἀλλήλους διῃσθάνετο τοὺς καιροὺς τῶν πράξεων, ἀπέθανεν δὲ ὅμως δολοφονηθείς, καίτοι προσημήναντος τοῦ ψόφου, ὥς φησιν Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν τῇ Φωκέων πολιτείᾳ.
English · Claude translation
They say that Battus of Cyrene composed the so-called Divination of Mopsus, and Dorotheus, in the first book of his Pandects, relates that Mopsus understood the kingfisher and the crow. The great Pythagoras always devoted himself to foreknowledge, and Abaris the Hyperborean, Aristeas of Proconnesus, Epimenides the Cretan, who came to Sparta, Zoroaster the Mede, Empedocles of Acragas, Phormion the Spartan, and indeed Polyaratus of Thasos and Empedotimus of Syracuse, and besides these especially Socrates of Athens. “For I have,” he says in the Theages, “from childhood, by divine fate, a certain daemonic sign; this is a voice, which, when it comes, stops what I am about to do, but never urges me on.” And Execestus, tyrant of the Phocians, wearing two enchanted rings, perceived the right times for actions by the sound they made against each other; yet he died murdered by treachery, though the sound had warned him, as Aristotle says in his Constitution of the Phocians.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Plato, Theages 128d.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.21.133 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/21/133/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.21.133 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/21/133/).
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