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Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.
Clement of Alexandria in Print
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This Part: 134 Pages
Page 59
Esther alone we find justly adorned. The spouse adorned herself mystically for her royal husband; but her beauty turns out the redemption price of a people that were about to be massacred. And that decoration makes women courtesans, and men effeminate and adulterers, the tragic poet is a witness; thus discoursing:--
"He that judged the goddesses,
As the myth of the Argives has it, having come from Phrygia
To Lacedaemon, arrayed in flowery vestments,
Glittering with gold and barbaric luxury,
Loving, departed, carrying away her he loved,
Helen, to the folds of Ida, having found that
Menelaus was away from home." [1591]
O adulterous beauty! Barbarian finery and effeminate luxury overthrew Greece; Lacedaemonian chastity was corrupted by clothes, and luxury, and graceful beauty; barbaric display proved Jove's daughter a courtesan.
They had no instructor [1592] to restrain their lusts, nor one to say, "Do not commit adultery;" nor, "Lust not;" or, "Travel not by lust into adultery;" or further, "Influence not thy passions by desire of adornment."
[1591] Iphigenia in Aulis, 71-77.
[1592] [The law was the paedagogue of the Jews (Gal. iii. 24); and therefore, as to Gentiles, they were a law unto themselves (Rom. ii. 14, 15), with some truth in their philosophy to guide them.]
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