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

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Page 77

And Orpheus having said:--

"Water is the change for soul, and death for water;

From water is earth, and what comes from earth is again water,

And from that, soul, which changes the whole ether;"

and Heraclitus, putting together the expressions from these lines, writes thus:--

"It is death for souls to become water, and death for

water to become earth; and from earth comes water,

and from water soul."

And Athamas the Pythagorean having said, "Thus was produced the beginning of the universe; and there are four roots--fire, water, air, earth: for from these is the origination of what is produced,"--Empedocles of Agrigentum wrote:--

"The four roots of all things first do thou hear--

Fire, water, earth, and ether's boundless height:

For of these all that was, is, shall be, comes."

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