Miscellanies 4.26.172
Summary: Euripides longs for golden wings to reach Zeus; Clement prays for the Spirit of Christ to lift him to his Jerusalem; the Stoics call heaven the true city, and the church, governed by the Word, is God's city on earth, of which the poets' and Plato's ideal cities are images.
Greek text · Stählin 2:324–326
ὁ μὲν οὖν Εὐριπίδης χρύσεαι δή μοι πτέρυγες περὶ νώτῳ φησὶ καὶ τὰ Σειρήνων ἐρόεντα πέδιλα ἁρμόζεται, βάσομαί τʼ ἐς αἰθέρα πολὺν ἀερθεὶς Ζηνὶ προσμίξων. ἐγὼ δὲ ἂν εὐξαίμην τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ πτερῶσαί με εἰς τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ τὴν ἐμήν· λέγουσι γὰρ καὶ οἱ Στωϊκοὶ τὸν μὲν οὐρανὸν κυρίως πόλιν, τὰ δὲ ἐπὶ γῆς ἐνταῦθα οὐκέτι πόλεις· λέγεσθαι μὲν γάρ, οὐκ εἶναι δέ· σπουδαῖον γὰρ ἡ πόλις καὶ ὁ δῆμος ἀστεῖόν τι σύστημα καὶ πλῆθος ἀνθρώπων ὑπὸ νόμου διοικούμενον, καθάπερ ἡ ἐκκλησία ὑπὸ λόγου, ἀπολιόρκητος ἀτυράννητος πόλις ἐπὶ γῆς, θέλημα θεῖον ἐπὶ γῆς ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ. εἰκόνας τῆσδε τῆς πόλεως καὶ οἱ ποιηταὶ κτίζουσι γράφοντες· αἱ γὰρ Ὑπερβόρεοι καὶ Ἀριμάσπειοι πόλεις καὶ τὰ Ἠλύσια πεδία δικαίων πολιτεύματα· ἴσμεν δὲ καὶ τὴν Πλάτωνος πόλιν παράδειγμα ἐν οὐρανῷ κειμένην.
English · Claude translation
Euripides says: “Golden wings are about my back, and the lovely sandals of the Sirens are fitted on; I will go into the wide ether, lifted up, to join Zeus.” But I would pray that the Spirit of Christ would give me wings to my Jerusalem. For the Stoics too say that heaven is properly a city, but the things here on earth are no longer cities; for they are called so, but are not. For a city is something good, and the people a refined body and multitude of men governed by law, as the church is by the Word, a city on earth impregnable and free from tyranny, the divine will on earth as in heaven. The poets too build images of this city in their writings; for the Hyperborean and Arimaspian cities and the Elysian fields are commonwealths of the righteous. And we know Plato's city too, laid up as a pattern in heaven.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations and allusions are Euripides (fragment 911), Gal 4:26, Matt 6:10, and Plato, Republic 9.592b. This ends Book 4.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.26.172 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/26/172/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.26.172 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/26/172/).
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