Clement of Alexandria
The Stromata or Miscellanies
Book I, Chapter XV - The Greek Philosophy in Great Part Derived from the Barbarians
(Original at Early Christian Writings - Peter Kirby)
1. These are the times of the oldest wise men and philosophers among the Greeks.
And that the most of them were barbarians by extraction, and were trained among
barbarians, what need is there to say? Pythagoras is shown to have been either a
Tuscan or a Tyrian. And Antisthenes was a Phrygian. And Orpheus was an Odrysian
or a Thracian. The most, too, show Homer to have been an Egyptian. Thales was a
Phoenician by birth, and was said to have consorted with the prophets of the
Egyptians; as also Pythagoras did with the same persons, by whom he was
circumcised, that he might enter the adytum and learn from the Egyptians the
mystic philosophy. He held converse with the chief of the Chaldeans and the
Magi; and he gave a hint of the church, now so called, in the common hall which
he maintained.
2. And Plato does not deny that he procured all that is most excellent in
philosophy from the barbarians; and he admits that he came into Egypt. Whence,
writing in the Phoedo that the philosopher can receive aid from all sides, he
said: "Great indeed is Greece, O Cebes, in which everywhere there are good men,
and many are the races of the barbarians." Thus Plato thinks that some of the
barbarians, too, are philosophers. But Epicurus, on the other hand, supposes
that only Greeks can philosophise. And in the Symposium, Plato, landing the
barbarians as practising philosophy with conspicuous excellence, truly says:
"And in many other instances both among Greeks and barbarians, whose temples
reared for such sons are already numerous." And it is clear that the barbarians
signally honoured their lawgivers and teachers, designating them gods. For,
according to Plato, "they think that good souls, on quitting the supercelestial
region, submit to come to this Tartarus; and assuming a body, share in all the
ills which are involved in birth, from their solicitude for the race of men;"
and these make laws and publish philosophy, "than which no greater boon ever
came from the gods to the race of men, or will come."
4. Democritus appropriated the Babylonian ethic discourses, for he is said to
have combined with his own compositions a translation of the column of Acicarus.
And you may find the distinction notified by him when he writes, "Thus says
Democritus." About himself, too, where, pluming himself on his erudition, he
says, "I have roamed over the most ground of any man of my time, investigating
the most remote parts. I have seen the most skies and lands, and I have heard of
learned men in very great numbers. And in composition no one has surpassed me;
in demonstration, not even those among the Egyptians who are called
Arpenodaptae, with all of whom I lived in exile up to eighty years." For he went
to Babylon, and Persis, and Egypt, to learn from the Magi and the priests.
5. Zoroaster the Magus, Pythagoras showed to be a Persian. Of the secret books
of this man, those who follow the heresy of Prodicus boast to be in possession.
Alexander, in his book On the Pythagorean Symbols, relates that Pythagoras was a
pupil of Nazaratus the Assyrian a (some think that he is Ezekiel; but he is not,
as will afterwards be shown), and will have it that, in addition to these,
Pythagoras was a hearer of the Galatae and the Brahmins.
7. Numa the king of the Romans was a Pythagorean, and aided by the precepts of
Moses, prohibited from making an image of God in human form, and of the shape of
a living creature. Accordingly, during the first hundred and seventy years,
though building temples, they made no cast or graven image. For Numa secretly
showed them that the Best of Beings could not be apprehended except by the mind
alone. Thus philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in antiquity
among the barbarians, shedding its light over the nations. And afterwards it
came to Greece. First in its ranks were the prophets of the Egyptians; and the
Chaldeans among the Assyrians; and the Druids among the Gauls; and the
Samanaeans among the Bactrians; and the philosophers of the Celts; and the Magi
of the Persians, who foretold the Saviour's birth, and came into the land of
Judaea guided by a star. The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and
the other barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of
them called Sarmanae, and others Brahmins. And those of the Sarmanae who are
called Hylobii neither inhabit cities, nor have roofs over them, but are clothed
in the bark of trees, feed on nuts, and drink water in their hands. Like those
called Encratites in the present day, they know not marriage nor begetting of
children.
Chapter XVI - That the Inventors of Other Arts were Mostly Barbarians
And barbarians were inventors not only of philosophy, but almost of every
art. The Egyptians were the first to introduce astrology among men. Similarly
also the Chaldeans. The Egyptians first showed how to burn lamps, and divided
the year into twelve months, prohibited intercourse with women in the temples,
and enacted that no one should enter the temples from a woman without bathing.
Again, they were the inventors of geometry. There are some who say that the
Carians invented prognostication by the stars. The Phrygians were the first who
attended to the flight of birds. And the Tuscans, neighbours of Italy, were
adepts at the art of the Haruspex. The Isaurians and the Arabians invented
augury, as the Telmesians divination by dreams. The Etruscans invented the
trumpet, and the Phrygians the flute. For Olympus and Marsyas were Phrygians.
And Cadmus, the inventor of letters among the Greeks, as Euphorus says, was a
Phoenician; whence also Herodotus writes that they were called Phoenician
letters. And they say that the Phoenicians and the Syrians first invented
letters; and that Apis, an aboriginal inhabitant of Egypt, invented the healing
art before Io came into Egypt. But afterwards they say that Asclepius improved
the art. Atlas the Libyan was the first who built a ship and navigated the sea.
Kelmis and Damnaneus, Idaean Dactyli, first discovered iron in Cyprus. Another
Idaean discovered the tempering of brass; according to Hesiod, a Scythian. The
Thracians first invented what is called a scimitar (arph), -- it is a
curved sword, -- and were the first to use shields on horseback. Similarly also
the Illyrians invented the shield (pelth). Besides, they say that the
Tuscans invented the art of moulding clay; and that Itanus (he was a Samnite)
first fashioned the oblong shield (qureos). Cadmus the Phoenician
invented stonecutting, and discovered the gold mines on the Pangaean mountain.
Further, another nation, the Cappadocians, first invented the instrument called
the nabla, and the Assyrians in the same way the dichord. The Carthaginians were
the first that constructed a triterme; and it was built by Bosporus, an
aboriginal. Medea, the daughter of Æetas, a Colchian, first invented the dyeing
of hair. Besides, the Noropes (they are a Paeonian race, and are now called the
Norici) worked copper, and were the first that purified iron. Amycus the king of
the Bebryci was the first inventor of boxing-gloves. In music, Olympus the
Mysian practised the Lydian harmony; and the people called Troglodytes invented
the sambuca, a musical instrument. It is said that the crooked pipe was invented
by Satyrus the Phrygian; likewise also diatonic harmony by Hyagnis, a Phrygian
too; and notes by Olympus, a Phrygian; as also the Phrygian harmony, and the
half-Phrygian and the half-Lydian, by Marsyas, who belonged to the same region
as those mentioned above. And the Doric was invented by Thamyris the Thracian.
We have heard that the Persians were the first who fashioned the chariot, and
bed, and footstool; and the Sidonians the first to construct a trireme. The
Sicilians, close to Italy, were the first inventors of the phorminx, which is
not much inferior to the lyre. And they invented castanets. In the time of
Semiramis queen of the Assyrians, they relate that linen garments were invented.
And Hellanicus says that Atossa queen of the Persians was the first who composed
a letter. These things are reported by Seame of Mitylene, Theophrastus of
Ephesus, Cydippus of Mantinea also Antiphanes, Aristodemus, and Aristotle and
besides these, Philostephanus, and also Strato the Peripatetic, in his books
Concerning Inventions. I have added a few details from them, in order to confirm
the inventive and practically useful genius of the barbarians, by whom the
Greeks profited in their studies. And if any one objects to the barbarous
language, Anacharsis says, "All the Greeks speak Scythian to me." It was he who
was held in admiration by the Greeks, who said, "My covering is a cloak; my
supper, milk and cheese." You see that the barbarian philosophy professes deeds,
not words. The apostle thus speaks: "So likewise ye, except ye utter by the
tongue a word easy to be understood, how shall ye know what is spoken? for ye
shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kind of voices in the
world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the
meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that
speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." And, "Let him that speaketh in an
unknown tongue pray that he may interpret."
Exhortation to the Heathen
Magi & Magians - Beliefs & Customs
(Original at Piney.com)
Chap. 5. Let the philosophers, then, own as their teachers the Persians, or the Sauromatae, or the Magi...
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