Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Such, then, are the dates of the oldest of the sages and philosophers among the Greeks. But since most of them were barbarian by race and were educated among barbarians, what need is there even to say it, if indeed Pythagoras was shown to be a Tyrrhenian or a Tyrian, and Antisthenes was a Phrygian, and Orpheus an Odrysian or a Thracian? For most say that Homer was an Egyptian. And Thales, being Phoenician by race, is said to have conversed with the prophets of the Egyptians, just as Pythagoras did with these very men, on whose account he even had himself circumcised, in order that, going down into the inner sanctuaries, he might thoroughly learn from the Egyptians their mystic philosophy; and he associated with the best of the Chaldeans and the Magi, and the assembly now called by him the "homakoeion" hints at this. And Plato does not deny that the best material for philosophy was brought in from foreign peoples, and he concedes that he journeyed to Egypt. At any rate, he says in the Phaedo that the philosopher can be helped from every quarter, writing: "Greece is large, Cebes," he said, "in which there are altogether good men, and the races of the barbarians are many."
So Plato too supposes that there are some philosophers even among the barbarians, whereas Epicurus, on the contrary, supposes that only Greeks are capable of philosophizing. And in the Symposium, Plato, praising the barbarians as having trained themselves exceptionally, says that alone truly [text uncertain] and others elsewhere in many places, both among Greeks and barbarians, of whom already many sanctuaries have come to be on account of such offspring. And it is clear that the barbarians have honored their own lawgivers and teachers exceptionally, addressing them as gods. For according to Plato they suppose that good souls, having left the place beyond the heavens, endured to come down into this Tartarus here and, taking up a body, to share in all the evils belonging to generation, caring for the human race — souls which established laws and proclaimed philosophy, than which no greater good has ever come to the human race from the gods, nor ever will.
And it seems to me that they, perceiving the great benefaction that comes through the wise, both revered these men and philosophized publicly. All the Brahmans, and the Odrysians, and the Getae, and the race of the Egyptians theologized precisely about their own matters, as did the Chaldeans and the Arabians who are called the Blessed, and all who settled Palestine, and no small part of the Persian race, and countless other races besides these. And Plato is plainly found always exalting the barbarians, since he recalls that both he himself and Pythagoras learned most and the noblest of their doctrines among barbarians. For this reason he also spoke of "races of barbarians," recognizing races of barbarian philosophic men; and in the Phaedrus he shows us the Egyptian king, and Thoth, as wiser than we are, whom he knows to be Hermes. But also in the Charmides he appears to be acquainted with certain Thracians, who are said to make the soul immortal.
It is related that Pythagoras studied under Sonchis, the Egyptian chief-prophet, while Plato studied under Sechnuphis of Heliopolis, and Eudoxus of Cnidus studied under Conuphis, another Egyptian. And in his treatise On the Soul, Plato again is evidently acquainted with prophecy, introducing a prophet who proclaims the word of Lachesis to the souls receiving their lots and foretells the future. And in the Timaeus he introduces the wisest Solon as being instructed by the barbarian. The passage runs thus: "Solon, O Solon, you Hellenes are ever as children, and among you no elder Greek exists"; "for none of you carries learning whitened by age." For Democritus composed his so-called Babylonian moral discourses; for it is said that, having had the pillar of Akikaros translated, he incorporated it into his own writings, and one can note from him the phrase, "thus says Democritus," as he writes. Indeed, concerning himself, boasting somewhere of his wide learning, he says: "I, of the men of my time, wandered over the most land, inquiring into the farthest things, and I saw the most skies and lands, and I heard the most learned men, and in the composition of lines with proof no one has yet surpassed me, not even the Egyptians called Harpedonaptae; and besides all these, for eighty years I lived as a stranger abroad." For he traveled through Babylon and Persia and Egypt, being a disciple of the Magi and the priests. And Pythagoras emulated Zoroaster the Persian Magus, and those who follow the sect of Prodicus boast of possessing the secret books of this man.
Alexander, in his work On Pythagorean Symbols, relates that Pythagoras was a disciple of Zaratas the Assyrian (some suppose this man to be Ezekiel, but it is not so, as will be shown later), and he further wishes Pythagoras to have heard also the Galatians and the Brahmans. And Clearchus the Peripatetic says he knew a certain Jew who conversed with Aristotle. For Heraclitus says that it was not by human means but with God that the future was revealed to the Sibyl. At any rate, they say that at Delphi, beside the council-chamber, a certain rock is shown, upon which it is said the first Sibyl used to sit, having come from Helicon, where the Muses raised her. But others say she came from the Malians, being a daughter of Lamia the daughter of Poseidon. And Sarapion in his verses says that the Sibyl did not cease from prophecy even after death, but that the part of her that passed into the air after her end is what prophesies in rumors and omens, while from her body, which changed into earth, grass naturally grew up, and whatever cattle graze upon it, coming to be, as one would suppose, on that very spot, give to men through their entrails a precise indication of the future — and he writes that her soul is what appears as the face in the moon.
So much concerning the prophetess. Numa, who ruled the Romans, followed Pythagorean teaching, and, drawing assistance from what Moses had written, he prohibited the Romans from fashioning a divine image in human or animal form. Indeed, across the first hundred seventy years, though temples were erected, no statue was made among them, neither carved nor painted. Numa taught them in this way, veiling the truth, that the highest reality can be grasped by mind alone and by nothing else.
Philosophy, then, a thing of great benefit, flourished long ago among the barbarians, shining forth among the nations, and later it also came down to the Greeks. Its leaders were, among the Egyptians, the prophets, and among the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, and among the Galatians, the Druids, and the Samanaeans of the Bactrians, and those among the Celts who philosophized, and among the Persians, the Magi (who by their magic even foretold beforehand the birth of the Savior, coming into the land of Judea guided by a star), and among the Indians, the gymnosophists, and other barbarian philosophers besides. Of these there are two kinds, some called Sarmanae among them, others called Brahmans. And of the Sarmanae, those called the "forest-dwellers" neither inhabit cities nor have roofs, but wear garments made from tree bark and feed on uncultivated fruit and drink water cupped in their hands; they know nothing of marriage or of producing offspring — much as those now called the Encratites. These are among the Indians who follow the teaching of Buddha, whom, because of his exceptional dignity, they revere as a god.
Anacharsis too was a Scythian, and he is recorded as surpassing many of the philosophers among the Greeks. Hellanicus relates that the Hyperboreans dwell beyond the Rhipaean mountains, and that they are taught justice, not eating meat but living on wild fruits. These people, when men reach sixty years, lead them outside the gates and make them disappear. And among the Germans there are the so-called sacred women, who, by gazing at the eddies of rivers and the windings and sounds of the currents, make conjectures and foretell the future. These women, at any rate, did not allow them to join battle against Caesar before the new moon had shone forth. Among all of these, the nation of the Jews is easily the most ancient, and that their philosophy, committed to writing, came before Greek philosophy is shown through numerous arguments by Philo the Pythagorean, and likewise by Aristobulus the Peripatetic and various others, so I need not review them individually. Clearest of all is Megasthenes the historian, a contemporary of Seleucus Nicator, who writes as follows in book three of his Indica: "In truth, everything the early thinkers stated concerning nature has its counterpart among the philosophers beyond Greece as well, partly among the Indians through the Brahmans, and partly in Syria through the people called Jews."
But some tell a more mythical tale, that certain sages called the Idaean Dactyls were the first to arise, to whom is attributed both the discovery of the so-called Ephesian letters and the discovery of musical rhythms — for which reason the "fingers" (dactyls) used by musicians have taken their name. The Idaean Dactyls were Phrygians, and barbarians. Herodorus relates that Heracles, having become a seer and a natural philosopher, received the pillars of the world from Atlas the Phrygian barbarian, the myth hinting that he received by instruction the science of the heavenly bodies. And Hermippus of Berytus calls Cheiron the Centaur wise, of whom the writer of the Titanomachy says that he was the first to lead the race of mortals toward justice, having shown them oaths and joyful sacrifices and the figures of Olympus. Under him Achilles, who campaigned against Ilium, was educated, and Hippo, the daughter of the Centaur, having married Aeolus, taught him the contemplation of nature, the ancestral science. Euripides too testifies concerning Hippo thus: "She first foretold divine things by clear oracles at the risings of the stars." With this Aeolus, Odysseus is entertained as a guest after the capture of Ilium. Observe for me these dates, for comparison with the age of Moses and the most ancient philosophy connected with him.
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