Miscellanies 2.20.113
Summary: The Basilidian man is like a Trojan horse full of spirits; even Isidore, Basilides' son, warns that the doctrine gives the wicked an excuse to say they were forced.
Greek text · Stählin 2:174
ἔτι δὲ καὶ ἕξεως ἰδιώματα, οἷον ἀδάμαντος σκληρίαν. Ἀλλὰ πρὸς μὲν τὸ δόγμα τοῦτο διαλεξόμεθα ὕστερον, ὁπηνίκα περὶ ψυχῆς διαλαμβάνομεν· νῦν δὲ τοῦτο μόνον παρασημειωτέον, ὡς δουρείου τινὸς ἵππου κατὰ τὸν ποιητικὸν μῦθον εἰκόνα σῴζει ὁ κατὰ Βασιλείδην ἄνθρωπος, ἐν ἑνὶ σώματι τοσούτων πνευμάτων διαφόρων στρατὸν ἐγκεκολπισμένος. αὐτὸς γοῦν ὁ τοῦ Βασιλείδου υἱὸς Ἰσίδωρος ἐν τῷ Περὶ προσφυοῦς ψυχῆς συναισθόμενος τοῦ δόγματος οἷον ἑαυτοῦ κατηγορῶν γράφει κατὰ λέξιν· ἐὰν γάρ τινι πεῖσμα δῷς, ὅτι μὴ ἔστιν ἡ ψυχὴ μονομερής, τῇ δὲ τῶν προσαρτημάτων βίᾳ τὰ τῶν χειρόνων γίνεται πάθη, πρόφασιν οὐ τὴν τυχοῦσαν ἕξουσιν οἱ μοχθηροὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων λέγειν· ›ἐβιάσθην, ἀπηνέχθην, ἄκων ἔδρασα, μὴ βουλόμενος ἐνήργησα, τῆς τῶν κακῶν ἐπιθυμίας αὐτοὶ ἡγησάμενοι καὶ οὐ μαχεσάμενοι ταῖς τῶν προσαρτημάτων βίαις.
English · Claude translation
and also characteristics of cohesion, such as the hardness of adamant. But we will argue against this doctrine later, when we treat of the soul. For now only this must be noted: that the man according to Basilides preserves the image of a Trojan horse, as in the poetic myth, holding in the fold of one body an army of so many different spirits. At any rate Isidore himself, the son of Basilides, in his work On the Attached Soul, perceiving the problem with the doctrine, writes word for word as though accusing himself: “For if you persuade anyone that the soul is not undivided, but that the passions of the worse come about by the force of the appendages, the wicked among men will have no small excuse to say: ‘I was forced, I was carried away, I did it unwillingly, I acted without wishing to,’ though they themselves led the desire for evil and did not fight against the forces of the appendages.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Isidore, On the Attached Soul, a lost work preserved only here. Clement's promised treatment of the soul does not survive.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (wrong breathing on οἷον): οἶον ἀδάμαντος σκληρίαν → οἷον ἀδάμαντος σκληρίαν.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.20.113 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/20/113/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.20.113 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/20/113/).
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