Clement of Alexandria: STROMATA (MISCELLANIES), Part II, Complete

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Page 62

Already, then, the aegis of the poetic Jove is described as

"Dreadful, crowned all around by Terror,

And on it Strife and Prowess, and chilling Rout;

On it, too, the Gorgon's head, dread monster,

Terrible, dire, the sign of Aegis-bearing Jove." [2401]

But to those, who are able rightly to understand salvation, I know not what will appear dearer than the gravity of the Law, and Reverence, which is its daughter. For when one is said to pitch too high, as also the Lord says, with reference to certain; so that some of those whose desires are towards Him may not sing out of pitch and tune, I do not understand it as pitching too high in reality, but only as spoken with reference to such as will not take up the divine yoke. For to those, who are unstrung and feeble, what is medium seems too high; and to those, who are unrighteous, what befalls them seems severe justice. For those, who, on account of the favour they entertain for sins, are prone to pardon, suppose truth to be harshness, and severity to be savageness, and him who does not sin with them, and is not dragged with them, to be pitiless. Tragedy writes therefore well of Pluto:--

"And to what sort of a deity wilt thou come, [2402] dost thou ask,

Who knows neither clemency nor favour,

But loves bare justice alone."

[2401] Iliad, v. 739.

[2402] After this comes os erota, which yields no meaning, and has been variously amended, but not satisfactorily. Most likely some words have dropped out of the text. [The note in ed. Migne, nevertheless, is worth consultation.]

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