Miscellanies 2.23.142
Summary: Refusing marriage is impious and unmanly; since losing children is a great evil, having them is good, and so marriage is good; a child needs both father and mother.
Greek text · Stählin 2:191
τὸ δὲ τοιοῦτον ἀσεβὲς θείαν γένεσιν καταλυόντων. ἤδη δὲ ἄνανδρον καὶ ἀσθενὲς τὴν μετὰ γυναικὸς καὶ τέκνων φεύγειν συμβίωσιν. οὗ γὰρ ἡ ἀποβολὴ κακόν ἐστι, τούτου πάντως ἡ κτῆσις ἀγαθόν· ἔχει δʼ οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν λοιπῶν. ἀλλὰ μὴν ἡ τῶν τέκνων ἀποβολὴ τῶν ἀνωτάτω κακῶν ἐστι, φασίν. ἡ οὖν τῶν τέκνων κτῆσις ἀγαθόν. εἰ δὲ τοῦτο, καὶ ὁ γάμος. ἄνευ δὲ πατρὸς (φησὶ) τέκνον οὐκ εἴη ποτʼ ἄν, ἄνευ δὲ μητρὸς οὐδὲ συλλαβὴ τέκνου.
English · Claude translation
And such conduct is impious, since it destroys divine generation. It is also unmanly and weak to flee a shared life with wife and children. For that whose loss is an evil, its possession is certainly a good; and so with the rest. But the loss of children is among the greatest evils, they say; so the possession of children is a good; and if so, marriage too. “Without a father,” it says, “there could never be a child, and without a mother not even the conception of a child.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is from an unknown poet.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.23.142 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/23/142/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.23.142 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/23/142/).
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