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

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Page 109

For he said that askion (shadowless) meant darkness, for it has no shadow; and kataskion (shadowy) light, since it casts with its rays the shadow; and lix if is the earth, according to an ancient' appellation; and tetras is the year, in reference to the seasons; and damnameneus is the sun, which overpowers (damazon); and ta aisia is the true voice. And then the symbol intimates that divine things have been arranged in harmonious order--darkness to light, the sun to the year, and the earth to nature's processes of production of every sort. Also Dionysius Thrax, the grammarian, in his book, Respecting the Exposition of the Symbolical Signification in Circles, says expressly, "Some signified actions not by words only, but also by symbols: by words, as is the case of what are called the Delphic maxims, 'Nothing in excess,' 'Know thyself,' and the like; and by symbols, as the wheel that is turned in the temples of the gods, derived from the Egyptians, and the branches that are given to the worshippers. For the Thracian Orpheus says:--

"Whatever works of branches are a care to men on earth,

Not one has one fate in the mind, but all things

Revolve around; and it is not lawful to stand at one point,

But each one keeps an equal part of the race as they began."

The branches either stand as the symbol of the first food, or they are that the multitude may know that fruits spring and grow universally, remaining a very long time; but that the duration of life allotted to themselves is brief. And it is on this account that they will have it that the branches are given; and perhaps also that they may know, that as these, on the other hand, are burned, so also they themselves speedily leave this life, and will become fuel for fire.

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