Miscellanies 2.23.144
Summary: Animals mate in season and depart; Polyxena, even when slain, fell modestly; yielding to the passions is the worst slavery and mastering them the only freedom; transgressors are sold to foreign sins until they repent.
Greek text · Stählin 2:192
θορόντα γοῦν ἔνια αὐτῶν ᾧ κελεύεται καιρῷ εὐθέως ἀπαλλάττεται καταλιπόντα τὴν δημιουργίαν τῇ διοικήσει. τοῖς τραγῳδοποιοῖς δὲ ἡ Πολυξένη καίτοι ἀποσφαττομένη ἀναγέγραπται, ἀλλὰ καὶ θνῄσκουσα ὅμως πολλὴν πρόνοιαν πεποιῆσθαι τοῦ εὐσχημόνως πεσεῖν, κρύπτουσʼ ἃ κρύπτειν ὄμματα ἀρρένων ἐχρῆν. ἦν δὲ κἀκείνῃ γάμος ἡ συμφορά. τὸ ὑποπεσεῖν οὖν καὶ παραχωρῆσαι τοῖς πάθεσιν ἐσχάτη δουλεία, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει τὸ κρατεῖν τούτων ἐλευθερία μόνη. ἡ γοῦν θεία γραφὴ τοὺς παραβάντας τὰς ἐντολὰς πεπρᾶσθαι λέγει τοῖς ἀλλογενέσι, τουτέστιν ἁμαρτίαις ἀνοικείαις τῇ φύσει, ἄχρις ἂν ἐπιστρέψαντες μετανοήσωσι.
English · Claude translation
Some of them, at any rate, having mated at the appointed season, at once go away, leaving the fashioning to providence. And in the tragic poets Polyxena, though being slain, is recorded, even while dying, to have taken great care to fall decently, “hiding what should be hidden from the eyes of men.” And for her the calamity was a marriage. To fall under and yield to the passions, then, is the worst slavery, as indeed to master them is the only freedom. The divine Scripture, at any rate, says that those who transgress the commandments are sold to foreigners, that is, to sins alien to nature, until they turn back and repent.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is Euripides, Hecuba 569–570. The allusion is Judg 2:14 (and often).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (final sigma before elision): κρύπτουςʼ ἃ κρύπτειν → κρύπτουσʼ ἃ κρύπτειν.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.23.144 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/23/144/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 2.23.144 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/2/23/144/).
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