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

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Page 111

In the same opinion also concurs Neanthes of Cyzicum, who writes that the Macedonian priests invoke Bedu, which they interpret to mean the air, to be propitious to them and to their children. And Zaps some have ignorantly taken for fire (from zesin, boiling); for so the sea is called, as Euphorion, in his reply to Theoridas:--

"And Zaps, destroyer of ships, wrecked it on the rocks."

And Dionysius Iambus similarly:--

"Briny Zaps moans about the maddened deep."

Similarly Cratinus the younger, the comic poet:--

"Zaps casts forth shrimps and little fishes."

And Simmias of Rhodes:--

"Parent of the Ignetes and the Telchines briny Zaps was born." [3037]

And chthon is the earth (kechumene) spread forth to bigness. And Plectron, according to some, is the sky (polos), according to others, it is the air, which strikes (plessonta) and moves to nature and increase, and which fills all things. But these have not read Cleanthes the philosopher, who expressly calls Plectron the sun; for darting his beams in the east, as if striking the world, he leads the light to its harmonious course. And from the sun it signifies also the rest of the stars.

[3037] This line has given commentators considerable trouble. Diodorus says that the Telchimes--fabled sons of Ocean--were the first inhabitants of Rhodes.

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