Stromateis 1 part 29/42

for it is needful, and yet it is also again a great evil.

You might also take, by way of comparison, instances of this theft even among those who flourished at the same time and vied with one another — from Euripides' Orestes:

'O sweet charm of sleep, helper in sickness' ... and from Sophocles' Eriphyle:

'You stir sleep, the physician of sickness' ... and from Euripides' Antigone:

'The bastard is blameworthy only in name, but his nature is equal' ... and from Sophocles' Aleadae:

'Everything that is good possesses an equal nature' ... again, from Euripides' Temenus:

'For God also lends a hand to the one who toils' ... and Sophocles, in the Minos:

'Fortune is no ally to those who do not act' ... indeed, and from Euripides' Alexander:

'By this proof, once I have learned it, I shall know whether you are good or bad' ... and from Sophocles' Hipponous:

In view of this, hide nothing, since Time, who sees all and hears all, uncovers all.

But let us likewise run through the following as well:

'Nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Olympian Zeus' ... Solon begins his elegy thus:

Splendid children of Mnemosyne and Olympian Zeus,

Again, Euripides, paraphrasing the Homeric line:

'Who are you, and whence, among men? Where is your city, and your parents?' ... uses these iambic lines in the Aegeus:

'From what land shall we say you have departed, to be a stranger in this city? What is the boundary of your fatherland? Who is your begetter? Whose son are you proclaimed to be?' What then? Did not Theognis say:

Wine, drunk in great quantity, is an evil;

'but if one uses it with knowledge, it is not evil but good' ... Panyassis writes:

Wine is, for mortals, the best gift from the gods, when drunk in measure, but worse when beyond measure.

'But to you, in exchange for fire, I shall give an evil in which all will take delight' ... Euripides composes:

For in exchange for fire, women have sprung up as another fire, greater and harder to fight.

In addition to these, since Homer says:

There is no way to satisfy the ravening belly, that accursed thing, which gives men many evils.

But necessity overpowers me — this belly, which will perish miserably, from which indeed all evils arise.

Again, since Callias the comic poet writes:

'They say that among madmen all alike must go mad' ... Menander, in the Women Sold, matches this, saying:

Prudence is not fitting to have present everywhere;

and in some things one must also join in the madness.

And since Antimachus of Teos says:

'For from gifts many evils come upon men' ... Agias composed:

For gifts deceive both the mind and the deeds of men.

For a man carries off no better prize than a good wife;

but again, nothing is more chilling than a bad one ... Simonides said:

A man carries off no possession better than a noble wife, nor any more chilling than a bad one.

Again, since Epicharmus says:

'Think as one who will live a long time, and also as one who will live but a short time' ... Euripides writes:

'Why, then, though standing on wealth that is not secure, do we not live as pleasantly as possible, free from grief?' ... Likewise, since the comic poet Diphilus says:

'The life of men is subject to easy change' ... Posidippus:

No man, being human, has passed through life free of grief, nor again has anyone remained unfortunate all the way to the end.

And in agreement with this, Plato speaks of man as a creature subject to easy change.

Again, since Euripides says:

'O toilsome life for mortals, how precarious you lie in all things! You cause some things to grow, and cause others to waste away, and no fixed boundary is set for mortals to reach, until the chill end of death, sent from Zeus, comes upon them' ... Diphilus writes:

There is no life that does not possess its evils — griefs, anxieties, plunderings, torments, sicknesses.

From these, death, appearing like a physician, has given rest to those who bear them, granting them rest in sleep.

Again, since Euripides says:

Many are the forms of the divine, and many things do the gods bring to pass beyond expectation.

The tragedian Theodectes likewise writes:

That the fortunes of mortals are not secure—

but to few mortals throughout their whole span has a god granted, in prospering the while, to attain to hoary old age before encountering calamity, … The comic poet Moschion writes:

That man is of all most blessed who, living to the end, has practiced an even-tenored life.

You may also find Theognis saying:

A young wife is surely of no use to an old husband;

for she does not obey the rudder as a skiff does, … as Aristophanes the comic poet writes:

Shameful is an old husband to a young wife.

For when Anacreon composed:

I sing to celebrate tender Love, who teems with many-flowered garlands—

this one is also the master of the gods, this one also subdues mortals, … Euripides writes:

For Love assails not men alone, nor again women only, but also troubles the souls of the gods above, and goes even upon the sea.

But that the argument may not proceed further, while we are eager to demonstrate the readiness of the Greeks for theft, both in their words and their doctrines, come, let us set forth Hippias the sophist of Elis, who bears witness for us directly, arriving at the very same account concerning the matter now before me, speaking somewhat as follows:

Of these things, perhaps some have been said by Orpheus, some by Musaeus, briefly here by one, there by another, some by Hesiod, some by Homer, some by the other poets, and some in prose writings, some by Greeks, some by barbarians:

but I, having gathered together from all these the greatest and kindred elements, shall compose this discourse, new and of many forms.

But that we may not overlook philosophy and history as exempt from the like charge, nor yet rhetoric either, it is reasonable to set forth a few instances of these as well.

For when Alcmaeon of Croton said that it is easier to guard against an enemy than against a friend, Sophocles composed in the Antigone:

One could not harm one's enemies in any way other than by appearing to be their friend.

And indeed, when Euripides said in the Telephus:

'Shall we, being Greeks, be enslaved to barbarians?' … Thrasymachus says in his speech On Behalf of the Larisaeans:

'Shall we, being Greeks, be enslaved to Archelaus, a barbarian?' … And when Orpheus composed:

For the soul, water is death, and death is an exchange for waters; and from water comes earth, and from earth again, water:

and from this, in turn, soul arises, exchanging the whole aether—

Heraclitus, forming his sayings out of these, writes somewhat as follows:

For souls it is death to become water, and for water it is death to become earth; but from earth water comes to be, and from water, soul.

Yes indeed, when Athamas the Pythagorean said as follows: the origin of all things is unbegotten, and there are four roots—fire, water, air, earth:

for from these come the origins of all things that come to be … Empedocles of Acragas composed:

Hear first the four roots of all things:

Fire and water and earth and the boundless height of aether:

for from these come whatever was, whatever will be, and whatever now is.

And whereas Plato says that for this very reason the gods too, being knowing about human affairs, release from life more quickly those whom they hold in greatest esteem, Menander has composed:

He whom the gods love dies young.

And whereas Euripides writes in the Oenomaus:

'We infer things unseen from things present,' … and in the Phoenix:

'Things unseen are, with good reason, apprehended by evidences,' … Hyperides says:

but as for things unseen, those who would teach must of necessity seek them out by evidences and probabilities.

And again, when Isocrates said that things to come must be inferred from things already past, Andocides does not hesitate to say:

for one must use, as evidence concerning things to come, the things that have already happened.

Further, when Theognis composed:

The bane of counterfeit gold and silver, Cyrnus, is unrestrained, yet easy for a wise man to detect;

but if a friend's mind, hidden within his breast, is false, and he holds a deceitful heart in his soul, this is the most counterfeit thing that a god has made for mortals, and this is the most grievous of all things to discern … For Euripides writes:

O Zeus, why then did you give to men clear signs by which to know gold that is counterfeit, but on the body of a man, by which one ought to discern the base one, no mark is engraved? … And Hyperides himself likewise says:

No mark of the mind is set upon the face for men to see.

Again, when Stasinus composed:

Foolish is he who, having killed the father, leaves the children alive, … Xenophon says:

for I now seem to myself to have done the very same thing, as if one, having slain the father, should spare his children.

And when Sophocles composed in the Antigone:

When mother and father alike have found their place in Hades, there is no brother who could ever be born again, … Herodotus says:

With mother and father no longer living, I shall have no other brother.

In addition to these, when Theopompus composed:

Old men, by right reckoning, are twice children, … and even before him, Sophocles in the Peleus:

I alone, keeper of the house, tend Peleus son of Aeacus in his old age, and rear him again as a child;

for the man growing old becomes, once again, a child, … Antiphon the orator says:

for the tending of old age resembles the rearing of children; … but also the philosopher Plato:

So then, as it seems, the old man might become twice a child.

Yes, indeed, when Thucydides said that they alone had first faced the danger at Marathon, Demosthenes said:

By those who first faced the danger at Marathon—

Nor will I pass over the following:

When Cratinus said in the Pytine:

'The preparation, perhaps, you know,' … Andocides the orator says:

The preparation, gentlemen of the jury, and the zeal of my enemies, nearly all of you will come to know.

Likewise Nicias also, in his speech against Lysias concerning the deposit, says: 'You see, gentlemen of the jury, the preparation and the zeal of my opponents,' and after him Aeschines says:

You see, men of Athens, the preparation and the array of forces.

…that you have perceived. And Philinus likewise:

How much eagerness and array of forces, gentlemen of the jury, has arisen concerning this very trial, I think not one of you is unaware.

And again, when Isocrates had said, 'as though she were kin to the money, but not to him,' Lysias says in his Orphan Speeches:

and he has become manifest as being akin, not to the persons, but to their money.

Since also, when Homer composed:

O friend, if indeed, escaping this war, we were forever destined to be ageless and immortal, neither would I myself fight among the foremost, nor would I send you into the battle that brings men glory;

but now, since in any case ten thousand fates of death stand close at hand, which no mortal can flee or escape, let us go forth, whether we shall grant glory to another, or another to us … Theopompus writes:

For if it were possible, having escaped the present danger, to live out the rest of one's time without fear, it would be no wonder to cling fondly to life; but as it is, so many fates are attached by nature to life that death in battle seems the more preferable.

What then? When the sophist Chilon pronounced the saying, 'Give a pledge, and ruin is at hand,' did not Epicharmus put forth the very same thought under another name, saying:

Ruin is the daughter of surety, and suretyship the daughter of loss.

Moreover, when the physician Hippocrates wrote that one must take into account the season, the region, the age, and the diseases, Euripides, in a certain speech in hexameter, says:

He who knows how to practice medicine well must look at the land and the ways of life of those dwelling in the city, and only then consider the diseases.

And I say that no man among men has escaped his fate.

To all men it is owed to die, whether sooner or later; and Demosthenes too says:

For to all men the end of life is death, even if a man shuts himself up in a little chamber and keeps watch over himself.

And again, when Herodotus, in his account concerning Glaucus the Spartan, said that the Pythia declared that to put God to the test and to do the deed amount to the same thing, Aristophanes said:

For thinking has the same force as doing; and before him, Parmenides of Elea said:

For to think and to be are one and the same thing.

Or again, when Plato said, 'We might perhaps not inappropriately say this, that the beginning of love is sight, hope diminishes the passion, memory nourishes it, and habit preserves it,' does not Philemon the comic poet write:

All first see, then they marvel, then they gaze upon it further, then it comes to hope,

and thus, out of these things, love comes to be.

Moreover, when Demosthenes said, 'For to all of us death is owed,' and so on, Phanocles in his 'Loves, or Beautiful Youths' writes:

But the thread of the Fates is unbreakable, and it is never possible to escape it, for as many of us as are nourished upon the earth.

You would also find that, when Plato said, 'For the first shoot of every plant, if well set out toward excellence, is most decisive in bringing its own nature to its fitting end,' Ephorus the historian writes:

But not even wild plants are by nature capable of being tamed, once they have passed beyond their younger age.

'For I myself was once already a boy and a girl and a bush and a bird and a voiceless fish leaping in the sea' ... Euripides in his 'Chrysippus' rewrites this, saying:

Nothing of what comes into being dies, but being dissolved, one thing into another, it displays a different form.

And when Plato in the Republic said that women should be held in common, Euripides in his 'Protesilaus' writes:

For the marriage-bed of women ought to be held in common.

But while Euripides writes:

'since what suffices is enough for those who are temperate' ... Epicurus says outright:

Self-sufficiency is the richest of all things.

Again, while Aristophanes writes:

'You will have a secure life if you are just, and you will live well, free from turmoil and fear' ... Epicurus says:

The greatest fruit of righteousness is freedom from disturbance.

Let these kinds of intellectual theft on the part of the Greeks, being such as they are, suffice as a clear illustration for one able to discern.

they will be convicted outright of possessing whole works taken as they are:

For, taking entirely what belonged to others, they published it as their own, just as Eugammon of Cyrene took from Musaeus the whole book concerning the Thesprotians, and Peisander of Camirus took from Peisinus of Lindos the Heracleia, and Panyassis of Halicarnassus took from Creophylus of Samos the Capture of Oechalia.

You would also find that even Homer, the great poet, took those verses:

'Even as a man rears a luxuriant shoot of an olive tree,' and so on, having transferred them word for word from Orpheus, from the poem on the Disappearance of Dionysus.

And in the Theogony, concerning Cronus, it has been composed by Orpheus:

'He lay, having bent his thick neck aslant, and all-conquering sleep seized him' — and these verses Homer transferred to his description of the Cyclops.

And Hesiod, concerning Melampus, composes:

'Sweet it is also to learn how many things the immortals have ordained for mortals, a clear sign of the base and the noble,' and so on, taking these word for word from Musaeus the poet.

And Aristophanes the comic poet, in the first Thesmophoriazusae, transferred the verses from Cratinus's 'Men on Fire.'

And Plato the comic poet and Aristophanes, in the Daedalus, steal from one another.

Indeed, the Cocalus composed by Araros, the son of Aristophanes, Philemon the comic poet, having altered it, turned into comedy in his 'Changeling' (Hypobolimaeus).

And Hesiod's works the historians Eumelus and Acusilaus transposed into prose and published as their own.

For the historians Gorgias of Leontini and Eudemus of Naxos stole from Melesagoras, and after them Bion of Proconnesus, who also transcribed in summary the works of Cadmus the elder; likewise Amphilochus and Aristocles and Leandrius and Anaximenes and Hellanicus and Hecataeus and Androtion and Philochorus; and Dieuchidas of Megara altered the beginning of his discourse, taking it from the Deucalioneia of Hellanicus.

I say nothing of Heraclitus of Ephesus, who took most of his teachings from Orpheus.

And Plato drew from Pythagoras the doctrine that the soul is immortal, and Pythagoras drew it from the Egyptians.

And many of the followers of Plato have composed writings in which they demonstrate that both the Stoics, as we said at the beginning, and Aristotle took the most and the most authoritative of their doctrines from Plato.

But Epicurus too has contrived his principal doctrines from Democritus.

For life would fail me, were I to choose to go through each instance one by one, exposing the self-loving theft of the Greeks, and how they appropriate to themselves the discovery of the finest doctrines among them — a discovery which they have received from us.

By now they stand convicted not only of stealing their doctrines from the barbarians, but also, moreover, of imitating, through Greek mythology, turning into wonder-tales, the things that among us, from above, through the divine power, have been wondrously wrought through those who have lived holy lives, for our conversion.

And so we shall inquire of them whether these things which they relate are true or false.

But they would not say they are false (for they would not, at least not willingly, condemn themselves of the greatest folly, namely, writing falsehoods);

and they would necessarily be forced to admit that they are true.

And how then do the things wondrously displayed through Moses and the other prophets still appear incredible to them? For God, the Almighty, caring for all men, turns some by commandments,

and others by threats, and some by wondrous signs, and yet others by gentle promises, he turns to salvation.

Nevertheless, the Greeks relate that when a drought once ravaged Greece for a long time and a barrenness of crops prevailed, those who were left, they say, coming as suppliants to Delphi on account of the famine, asked the Pythia how they might be delivered from the calamity.

And she gave them one oracle as remedy for their misfortune: that they should make use of the prayer of Aeacus.

Persuaded, then, by them, Aeacus went up onto the Greek mountain, and stretching out his pure hands to heaven, calling God the common Father, prayed that he would have pity on Greece, worn out as it was.

his prayer was granted, and violent, unceasing rains burst forth and filled the whole land:

from this an abundant and rich harvest was brought to fullness, cultivated by the prayers of Aeacus.

And Samuel, it says, called upon the Lord, and the Lord gave thunder-voices and rain on the day of harvest.

Do you see that he who sends rain on the just and the unjust, through the powers subject to him, is one God? And our whole Scripture is full of instances in which God hears and fulfills each request in accordance with the prayers of the righteous.

Again, the Greeks relate that once, when the Etesian winds had failed, Aristaeus sacrificed on Ceos to Zeus Icmaeus, the god of moisture.

For there was great destruction, all things being scorched by the burning heat, since the winds that were accustomed to refresh the crops were not blowing;

and he easily called them back.

And when Xerxes made war upon Greece, since the Pythia had proclaimed, the Delphians —

'O Delphians, entreat the winds, and it shall be better for you' — having made an altar and sacrifice to the winds, gained them as their helpers:

for, blowing mightily around the promontory of Sepias, they shattered the entire fleet of the Persian navy.

And Empedocles of Acragas was called 'Restrainer of Winds' (Kolysanemas).

For it is said that once, when a wind was blowing from Mount Acragas that was oppressive and injurious to the inhabitants, and even the cause of barrenness for their women, he stopped the wind:

wherefore he himself also writes in his verses:

You shall stop the fury of unwearied winds, which, rising upon the earth, waste away the fields for mortals.

And again, whenever you wish, you will bring the winds back in requital.

And he said that there followed him both those who had recourse to divinations, ... and those who had long been transfixed by grievous diseases.

At any rate, they have come to believe, from our own Scriptures, that the righteous plainly perform healings, signs, and wonders.

For even if certain powers do move the winds and distribute the rains, yet let them listen to the psalmist.

'How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of powers!'

This is the Lord of the powers, the principalities, and the authorities, concerning whom Moses speaks, that we should cleave to him:

'And you shall circumcise the hardness of your heart, and shall no longer stiffen your neck.'

'For the Lord your God, he is Lord of lords and God of gods, the great and mighty God,' and what follows thereupon.

And Isaiah says, 'Lift up your eyes on high and see.'

Who has shown forth all these things? ... Some, indeed, say that plagues, hailstorms, tempests, and the like occur not from the disorder of matter alone, but also according to a certain wrath of demons, or even of angels who are not good.

For instance, they say that the magi at Cleonae, watching the sky for clouds about to hurl hail, avert the threat of their wrath by songs and sacrifices.

Indeed, if ever a lack of a sacrificial animal should befall them, they draw blood from their own finger and are content with that as the offering.

And Diotima of Mantinea, by causing the Athenians to sacrifice before the plague, brought about a ten-year postponement of the disease, just as the sacrifices of Epimenides the Cretan likewise put off the Persian war for the Athenians for an equal span of time.

And they think it makes no difference whether we call these souls gods or angels.

For instance, those experienced in this matter, at the founding of shrines, established the tombs of the departed within many of the sacred precincts—indeed almost all of them—calling the souls of these persons demons, and teaching men to venerate them as having received, by reason of the purity of their life, authority from divine providence to range about the earthly region for the service of mankind.

For they knew that certain souls are held fast ... by nature to the body.

But concerning these matters we shall discourse in due course, as the treatise proceeds, in the discussion concerning angels.

And Democritus, by foretelling many things from the observation of celestial phenomena, was surnamed 'Wisdom.'

For instance, when his brother Damasus received him hospitably, he, inferring from certain stars, foretold that there would be much rain.

They gathered in the crops (for it was summer, and they were still on the threshing floors), while the others lost everything, when an unexpected and heavy downpour of rain burst forth.

How, then, shall the Greeks any longer disbelieve the divine manifestation upon Mount Sinai, when fire blazed, consuming nothing of what grew upon the mountain, and the sound of trumpets was carried forth, blown without instruments? For that so-called descent of God upon the mountain is a manifestation of the divine power extending throughout the whole world and proclaiming the unapproachable light.

For such is the allegory according to Scripture.

But the fire was seen, as Aristobulus says, by the whole multitude—not less than a hundred myriads, apart from the minors—who were assembled around the mountain, the circuit around the mountain taking no less than five days.

Accordingly, from every point of vantage, the blazing fire was seen by all of them all around, as by those encamped there, so that the descent was not local.

Those who have compiled histories concerning the British island also say that there is a certain cave lying beneath a mountain, and on its summit a chasm.

So when the wind falls into the cave and dashes against the recesses of the hollow, a sound is heard like cymbals struck in rhythm.

And often too, when the leaves throughout the woods are stirred by a sudden gust of wind, a sound like the singing of birds falls upon the ear.

But those who have compiled the histories of Persia record that, in the elevated regions in the land of the Magi, three mountains lie in succession on a long plain.

Those, then, who travel through the region, when they come to the first mountain, hear a confused sound of voices, as of many myriads shouting, as though in battle array.

And when they arrive at the middle mountain, they perceive a still greater and more distinct tumult.

And at the last, they hear voices chanting a paean, as of men who have been victorious.

And the cause of every such echo, I think, is the smoothness of the places and their cavernous nature.

For instance, the wind that has entered, being cast back and returning again into the same space, resounds more violently.

But for God the Almighty, even when no substrate whatever is present, it is possible to generate a voice and an impression in the hearing, showing forth his own majesty beyond the usual natural course of things, for the conversion of the soul that does not yet believe, and for the acceptance of the commandment given.

And when there is a cloud and a high mountain, how is it not possible for a distinct sound to be heard, as the wind is stirred by the operating cause? Wherefore the prophet also says:

'You heard the sound of words, but you saw no likeness.'

You see how the voice of the Lord is a word without visible form.

For the power of the Word—the luminous word of the Lord, the truth that has come down from heaven above to the assembly of the church—was operative through the luminous ministry immediately at hand.

We might also find another piece of evidence confirming that the best of the philosophers, having appropriated from us the fairest of their doctrines, boast of them as their own—namely, that certain doctrines contributing to each of their sects have also been culled from other barbarian nations, and especially from the Egyptians, among other things the doctrine concerning the transmigration of the soul.

For the Egyptians pursue a certain philosophy of their own.

This is shown especially, for instance, by their priestly religious observance.

For first there comes forward the singer, bearing one of the symbols of music.

They say that he must have taken up two books from those of Hermes, one of which contains hymns to the gods, and the second a compendium of the royal life.

After the singer comes forward the horoscopist, carrying in his hand a time-instrument and a palm branch, symbols of astrology.

[the books concern] the sun and moon, and the rest concerns the risings [of the stars].

Next comes forward the sacred scribe, having feathers upon his head, and in his hands a book and a case in which are the writing-ink and the reed with which they write.

This man must know the so-called hieroglyphics, concerning cosmography and geography, the order of the sun and moon and of the five wandering stars, the topography of Egypt and the description of the Nile, and concerning the recorded construction of the temples and the lands consecrated to them, and concerning measures and the things useful in the temples.

Then the vestment-keeper follows those aforementioned, carrying the cubit of justice and the libation vessel.

This man knows all the disciplinary writings and the so-called writings on the sealing of calves.

There are ten books pertaining to the honor of their gods and containing Egyptian piety, such as concerning sacrifices, first-fruits, hymns, prayers, processions, festivals, and things similar to these.

Last of all, the 'prophet' comes forth, carrying openly upon his bosom the water-vessel, followed by those who carry the distribution of loaves.

This man, as being the president of the temple, learns thoroughly the ten books called the priestly books (which contain matters concerning the laws, the gods, and the whole education of the priests).

For indeed, among the Egyptians, the 'prophet' is also the overseer of the distribution of the revenues.

Now the books absolutely essential to Hermes number forty-two.

Of these, the thirty-six that contain the whole philosophy of the Egyptians are thoroughly learned by those aforementioned, while the remaining six, which are medical books, are learned by the pastophoroi, dealing with the constitution of the body, diseases, instruments, remedies, the eyes, and finally with women's matters.

And such, to speak briefly, are the matters of the Egyptians.

But the philosophy of the Indians too is renowned.

For instance, Alexander the Macedonian, having taken ten of the Indian gymnosophists who seemed to be the best and most concise in speech, put problems to them, threatening to kill whoever did not answer aptly, and commanding one of them, the eldest, to judge the answers.

The first, then, being questioned whether he thought the living to be more numerous, or the dead, said, 'The living.'

For the dead do not exist.

The second, asked whether the land or the sea nourishes larger beasts, said, 'The land.'

For the sea is a part of it.

The third, asked which animal is the most cunning—one that until now has not been recognized as such—said, 'Man.'