Clement of Alexandria — Stromata 2

Before handling the point proposed, we must, by way of preface, add to the close of the fifth book what is wanting. For since we have shown that the symbolic style was ancient, and was employed not only by our prophets , but also by the majority of the ancient Greeks, and by not a few of the rest of the Gentile Barbarians, it was requisite to proceed to the mysteries of the initiated. I postpone the elucidation of these till we advance to the confutation of what is said by the Greeks on first principles; for we shall show that the mysteries belong to the same branch of speculation. And having proved that the declaration of Hellenic thought is illuminated all round by the truth , bestowed on us in the Scriptures , taking it according to the sense, we have proved , not to say what is invidious, that the theft of the truth passed to them.

Come, and let us adduce the Greeks as witnesses against themselves to the theft. For, inasmuch as they pilfer from one another, they establish the fact that they are thieves; and although against their will, they are detected, clandestinely appropriating to those of their own race the truth which belongs to us. For if they do not keep their hands from each other, they will hardly do it from our authors. I shall say nothing of philosophic dogmas , since the very persons who are the authors of the divisions into sects , confess in writing, so as not to be convicted of ingratitude, that they have received from Socrates the most important of their dogmas .

But after availing myself of a few testimonies of men most talked of, and of repute among the Greeks, and exposing their plagiarizing style, and selecting them from various periods, I shall turn to what follows. Orpheus, then, having composed the line:— Since nothing else is more shameless and wretched than woman , Homer plainly says:— Since nothing else is more dreadful and shameless than a woman . And Musæus having written:— Since art is greatly superior to strength, — Homer says:— By art rather than strength is the woodcutter greatly superior. Again, Musæus having composed the lines:— And as the fruitful field produces leaves, And on the ash trees some fade, others grow, So whirls the race of man its leaf, — Homer transcribes:— Some of the leaves the wind scatters on the ground. The budding wood bears some; in time of spring, They come.

So springs one race of men , and one departs. Again, Homer having said:— It is unholy to exult over dead men, Archilochus and Cratinus write, the former:— It is not noble at dead men to sneer; and Cratinus in the Lacones: — For men 'tis dreadful to exult Much o'er the stalwart dead. Again, Archilochus, transferring that Homeric line:— I erred, nor say I nay: instead of many — writes thus:— I erred, and this mischief has somehow seized another. As certainly also that line:— Even-handed war the slayer slays. He also, altering, has given forth thus:— I will do it. For Mars to men in truth is evenhanded. Also, translating the following:— The issues of victory among men depend on the gods, he openly encourages youth, in the following iambic: — Victory's issues on the gods depend.