Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, or Miscellanies

Let these notes of ours, as we have often said for the sake of those that consult them carelessly and unskilfully, be of varied character—and as the name itself indicates, patched together—passing constantly from one thing to another, and in the series of discussions hinting at one thing and demonstrating another. “For those who seek for gold,” says Heraclitus, “dig much earth and find little gold.” But those who are of the truly golden race, in mining for what is allied to them, will find the much in little. For the word will find one to understand it. The Miscellanies of notes contribute, then, to the recollection and expression of truth in the case of him who is able to investigate with reason. And you must prosecute, in addition to these, other labours and researches; since, in the case of people who are setting out on a road with which they are unacquainted, it is sufficient merely to point out the direction. After this they must walk and find out the rest for themselves. As, they say, when a certain slave once asked at the oracle what he should do to please his master, the Pythian priestess replied, “You will find if you seek.” It is truly a difficult matter, then, as turns out, to find out latent good; since

“Before virtue is placed exertion,

And long and steep is the way to it,

And rough at first; but when the summit is reached,

Then is it easy, though difficult [before].”

“For narrow,” in truth, “and strait is the way” of the Lord. And it is to the “violent that the kingdom of God belongs.”864 [Most important as defining Clement’s system, and his use of this word, “philosophy.”] Matt. vii. 14, xi. 12, vii. 7.

Whence, “Seek, and ye shall find,” holding on by the truly royal road, and not deviating. As we might expect, then, the generative power of the seeds of the doctrines comprehended in this treatise is great in small space, as the “universal herbage of the field,”865 Something seems wanting to complete the sense. Job v. 25. as Scripture saith. Thus the Miscellanies of notes have their proper title, wonderfully like that ancient oblation culled from all sorts of things of which Sophocles writes:—

“For there was a sheep’s fleece, and there was a vine,

And a libation, and grapes well stored;

And there was mixed with it fruit of all kinds,

And the fat of the olive, and the most curious

Wax-formed work of the yellow bee.”

Just so our Stromata, according to the husbandman of the comic poet Timocles, produce “figs, olives, dried figs, honey, as from an all-fruitful field;” on account of which exuberance he adds:—

“Thou speakest of a harvest-wreath not of husbandry.”

For the Athenians were wont to cry:—

“The harvest-wreath bears figs and fat loaves,

And honey in a cup, and olive oil to anoint you.”

We must then often, as in winnowing sieves, shake and toss up this the great mixture of seeds, in order to separate the wheat.

Ἔστω δὲ ἡμῖν τὰ ὑπομνήματα, ὡς πολλάκις εἴπομεν, διὰ τοὺς ἀνέδην ἀπείρως ἐντυγχάνοντας ποικίλως, ὡς αὐτό που τοὔνομά φησι, διεστρωμένα, ἀπ' ἄλλου εἰς ἄλλο συνεχὲς μετιόντα, καὶ ἕτερον μέν τι κατὰ τὸν εἱρμὸν τῶν λόγων μηνύοντα, ἐνδεικνύμενα δὲ ἄλλο τι. χρυσὸν γὰρ οἱ διζήμενοι, φησὶν Ἡράκλειτος, γῆν πολλὴν ὀρύσσουσι καὶ εὑρίσκουσιν ὀλίγον, οἱ δὲ τοῦ χρυσοῦ ὄντως γένους τὸ συγγενὲς μεταλλεύοντες εὑρήσουσι τὸ πολὺ ἐν ὀλίγῳ· εὑρήσει γὰρ τὸν συνήσοντα ἕνα ἡ γραφή. συλλαμβάνουσι μὲν οὖν πρός τε ἀνάμνησιν πρός τε ἔμφασιν ἀληθείας τῷ οἵῳ τε ζητεῖν μετὰ λόγου οἱ τῶν ὑπομνημάτων Στρωματεῖς. δεῖ δὲ καὶ ἡμᾶς τούτοις προσεκπονεῖν καὶ προσεφευρίσκειν ἕτερα, ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῖς ὁδὸν ἀπιοῦσιν ἣν οὐκ ἴσασιν ἀρκεῖ τὴν φέρουσαν ὑποσημῆναι μόνον, βαδιστέον δὲ τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο ἤδη καὶ τὴν λοιπὴν ἑαυτοῖς ἐξευρετέον, ὥσπερ φασὶ καὶ δούλῳ τινὶ χρωμένῳ ποτὲ τί ἂν ποιῶν τὸν δεσπότην ἀρέσαιτο ἀνειπεῖν τὴν Πυθίαν, εὑρήσεις ἐὰν ζητήσῃς. χαλεπὸν οὖν τῷ ὄντι ὡς ἔοικεν λανθάνον καλὸν ἐξευρεῖν, ἐπεὶ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἱδρὼς πρόκειται, μακρὸς δὲ καὶ ὄρθιος οἶμος ἐς αὐτὴν καὶ τρηχὺς τὸ πρῶτον· ἐπὴν δ' εἰς ἄκρον ἵκηται, ῥηιδίη δὴ 'πειτα πέλει, χαλεπή περ ἐοῦσα. στενὴ γὰρ τῷ ὄντι καὶ τεθλιμμένη ἡ ὁδὸς κυρίου, καὶ βιαστῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅθεν ζήτει φησὶ καὶ εὑρήσεις, τῆς βασιλικῆς ὄντως ἐχόμενος ὁδοῦ καὶ μὴ παρεκτρέχων. εἰκότως οὖν πολὺ τὸ γόνιμον ἐν ὀλίγῳ σπέρμα[τι] τῶν ἐμπεριεχομένων τῇδε τῇ πραγματείᾳ δογμάτων, ὥσπερ τὸ παμβότανον τοῦ ἀγροῦ, φησὶν ἡ γραφή. ᾗ καὶ τὴν ἐπιγραφὴν κυρίαν ἔχουσιν οἱ τῶν ὑπομνημάτων Στρωματεῖς ἀτεχνῶς κατὰ τὴν παλαιὰν ἐκείνην ἀπηνθισμένοι προσφοράν, περὶ ἧς ὁ Σοφοκλῆς γράφει· ἦν μὲν γὰρ οἰὸς μαλλός, ἦν δ' [ἀπ'] ἀμπέλων σπονδή [τε] καὶ ῥὰξ εὖ τεθησαυρισμένη, ἐνῆν δὲ παγκάρπεια συμμιγὴς ὀλαῖς λίπος τ' ἐλαίου καὶ τὸ ποικιλώτατον ξανθῆς μελίσσης κηρόπλαστον ὄργανον. αὐτίκα οἱ Στρωματεῖς ἡμῶν κατὰ τὸν γεωργὸν Τιμοκλέους τοῦ κωμικοῦ σῦκα, ἔλαιον, ἰσχάδας, μέλι προσοδεύουσι, καθάπερ ἐκ παμφόρου χωρίου. δι' ἣν εὐκαρπίαν ἐπιφέρει· σὺ μὲν εἰρεσιώνην, οὐ γεωργίαν λέγεις, ἐπιφωνεῖν γὰρ εἰώθεσαν Ἀθηναῖοι· εἰρεσιώνη σῦκα φέρει καὶ πίονας ἄρτους καὶ μέλι ἐν κοτύλῃ καὶ ἔλαιον ἀναψήσασθαι. χρὴ τοίνυν πολλάκις ὡς ἐν τοῖς πλοκάνοις διασείοντας καὶ ἀναρριπτοῦντας τὴν πολυμιγίαν τῶν σπερμάτων τὸν πυρὸν ἐκλέγειν.