{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Wishing to express Sun in writing, they make a circle; and Moon,\r\na figure like the Moon, like its proper shape. But in using the\r\nfigurative style, by transposing and transferring, by changing and\r\nby transforming in many ways as suits them, they draw characters. In\r\nrelating the praises of the kings in theological myths, they write in\r\nanaglyphs.<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_745\" id=\"FNanchor_745\">[745]</a> Let the following stand as a specimen of the third\r\nspecies—the Enigmatic. For the rest of the stars, on account of their\r\noblique course, they have figured like the bodies of serpents; but the\r\nsun like that of a beetle, because it makes a round figure of ox-dung,\r\nand rolls it before its face. And they say that this creature lives\r\nsix months under ground, and the other division of the year above\r\nground, and emits its seed into the ball, and brings forth; and that\r\nthere is not a female beetle. All then, in a word, who<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_234\">[234]</span> have spoken\r\nof divine things, both Barbarians and Greeks, have veiled the first\r\nprinciples of things, and delivered the truth in enigmas, and symbols,\r\nand allegories, and metaphors, and such like tropes. Such also are the\r\noracles among the Greeks. And the Pythian Apollo is called Loxias. Also\r\nthe maxims of those among the Greeks called wise men, in a few sayings\r\nindicate the unfolding of matter of considerable importance. Such\r\ncertainly is that maxim, “Spare Time:” either because life is short,\r\nand we ought not to expend this time in vain; or, on the other hand, it\r\nbids you spare your personal expenses; so that, though you live many\r\nyears, necessaries may not fail you. Similarly also the maxim “<i>Know\r\nthyself</i>” shows many things; both that thou art mortal, and that\r\nthou wast born a human being; and also that, in comparison with the\r\nother excellences of life, thou art of no account, because thou sayest\r\nthat thou art rich or renowned; or, on the other hand, that, being rich\r\nor renowned, you are not honoured on account of your advantages alone.\r\nAnd it says, Know for what thou wert born, and whose image thou art;\r\nand what is thy essence, and what thy creation, and what thy relation\r\nto God, and the like. And the Spirit says by Isaiah the prophet, “I\r\nwill give thee treasures, hidden, dark.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_746\" id=\"FNanchor_746\">[746]</a> Now wisdom, hard to\r\nhunt, is the treasures of God and unfailing riches. But those, taught\r\nin theology by those prophets, the poets, philosophize much by way of\r\na hidden sense. I mean Orpheus, Linus, Musæus, Homer, and Hesiod, and\r\nthose in this fashion wise. The persuasive style of poetry is for them\r\na veil for the many. Dreams and signs are all more or less obscure\r\nto men, not from jealousy (for it were wrong to conceive of God as\r\nsubject to passions), but in order that research, introducing to the\r\nunderstanding of enigmas, may haste to the discovery of truth. Thus\r\nSophocles the tragic poet somewhere says:</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","BOOK V.","CHAPTER IV. DIVINE THINGS WRAPPED UP IN FIGURES BOTH IN THE SACRED AND IN HEATHEN WRITERS."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_746","paragraph_id":"pg73020-paragraph-329"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"0a18fbc9cf0f02d019eff06654de11dc94b7e5211c2b529b266c5e681d4d5d53","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"ISA","chapter":45,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Isa. xlv. 3","verse":3,"verse_end":3}],"headings":[],"id":"pg73020-Footnote_746","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1869 English translation; translator died 1875. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"Footnote_746","source_ebook":73020,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_746\" id=\"Footnote_746\">[746]</a> Isa. xlv. 3.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"c35077683d75abe553cc6ef5d3ef5a1a978f07dfbcf4bad5c3d56302ad03dc19","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/73020/pg73020-images.html#Footnote_746","text_sha256":"ae673deccf7d44a6a0c48f9171b13738f3d1053d324f217cfb28ec8c8864762a","verified":false,"work_id":null}