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

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Page 76

For well Menander remarks: [3543] --

"Had you, O Phidias, any real ill,

You needs must seek for it a real cure;

Now 'tis not so. And for the unreal ill

I've found an unreal cure. Believe that it

Will do thee good. Let women in a ring

Wipe thee, and from three fountains water bring.

Add salt and lentils; sprinkle then thyself.

Each one is pure, who's conscious of no sin."

For instance, the tragedy says:--

Menelaus. "What disease, Orestes, is destroying thee?"

Orestes. "Conscience. For horrid deeds I know I've done." [3544]

For in reality there is no other purity but abstinence from sins. Excellently then Epicharmus says:--

"If a pure mind thou hast,

In thy whole body thou art pure."

Now also we say that it is requisite to purify the soul from corrupt and bad doctrines by right reason; and so thereafter to the recollection of the principal heads of doctrine. Since also before the communication of the mysteries they think it right to apply certain purifications to those who are to be initiated; so it is requisite for men to abandon impious opinion, and thus turn to the true tradition.

[3543] Translated as arranged and amended by Grotius.

[3544] Euripides, Orestes, 395, 396.

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