Miscellanies 4.7.50
Summary: The Indian sages defied Alexander, despising fire; Heraclitus chose one glory over all things, leaving the many to their bodily toils.
Greek text · Stählin 2:271
Ἰνδῶν οἱ φιλόσοφοι Ἀλεξάνδρῳ λέγουσι τῷ Μακεδόνι· σώματα μὲν μετάξεις ἐκ τόπου εἰς τόπον, ψυχὰς δʼ ἡμετέρας οὐκ ἀναγκάσεις ποιεῖν ἃ μὴ βουλόμεθα. πῦρ ἀνθρώποις μέγιστον κολαστήριον· τούτου ἡμεῖς καταφρονοῦμεν. κἀντεῦθεν Ἡράκλειτος ἓν ἀντὶ πάντων κλέος ᾑρεῖτο τοῖς δὲ πολλοῖς παραχωρεῖν ὁμολογεῖ κεκορῆσθαι ὅκωσπερ κτήνεσι. τοῦ σώματος γὰρ οὕνεκα οἱ πολλοὶ πόνοι, τοῦδʼ οὕνεκα οἶκον στεγανὸν ἐξευρήκαμεν λευκόν τε ὀρύττειν ἄργυρον σπείρειν τε γῆν, τά τε ἄλλα ὅσα ἡμεῖς ὀνόμασιν γινώσκομεν.
English · Claude translation
The philosophers of the Indians say to Alexander of Macedon: “You will move our bodies from place to place, but you will not force our souls to do what we do not wish. Fire is the greatest punishment for men; we despise it.” And from this Heraclitus chose “one glory instead of all things,” and confesses that he leaves the many to be glutted like cattle. “For because of the body are the many toils; for its sake we have discovered the roofed house, and to dig white silver and sow the earth,” and all the other things we know by name.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are the Indian sages (from an Alexander tradition), Heraclitus (fragment 29), and Euripides or another poet (fragment).
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.7.50 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/7/50/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.7.50 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/7/50/).
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