Clement of Alexandria: INSTRUCTOR (PAEDAGOGUS) - Part II, Complete

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Page 106

The Model Maiden.

Zeno the Cittiaean thought fit to represent the image of a young maid, and executed the statue thus: "Let her face be clean, her eyebrows not let down, nor her eyelids open nor turned back. Let her neck not be stretched back, nor the members of her body be loose. But let the parts that hang from the body look as if they were well strung; let there be the keenness of a well-regulated mind [1710] for discourse, and retention of what has been rightly spoken; and let her attitudes and movements give no ground of hope to the licentious; but let there be the bloom of modesty, and an expression of firmness. But far from her be the wearisome trouble that comes from the shops of perfumers, and goldsmiths, and dealers in wool, and that which comes from the other shops where women, meretriciously dressed, pass whole days as if sitting in the stews."

Amusements and Associates.

And let not men, therefore, spend their time in barbers' shops and taverns, babbling nonsense; and let them give up hunting for the women who sit near, [1711] and ceaselessly talking slander against many to raise a laugh.

The game of dice [1712] is to be prohibited, and the pursuit of gain, especially by dicing, [1713] which many keenly follow. Such things the prodigality of luxury invents for the idle. For the cause is idleness, and a love [1714] for frivolities apart from the truth. For it is not possible otherwise to obtain enjoyment without injury; and each man's preference of a mode of life is a counterpart of his disposition.

[1710] This passage has been variously amended and translated. The reading of the text has been adhered to, but orthonou has been coupled with what follows.

[1711] Sylburg suggests pariouas (passing by) instead of parizousas.

[1712] kubos, a die marked on all the six sides. [This prohibition would include cards in modern ethics.]

[1713] dia...on astragalon. The astragaloi were dice marked on four sides only. Clemens seems to use the terms here indifferently.

[1714] Lowth's conjecture of eros instead of era has been adopted.

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