The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Religion
The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
Nay more, it was late before the teaching and writing of discourses
reached Greece. Alcmæon, the son of Perithus, of Crotona, first
composed a treatise on nature. And it is related that Anaxagoras of
Clazomenæ, the son of Hegesibulus, first published a book in writing.
The first to adapt music to poetical compositions was Terpander of
Antissa; and he set the laws of the Lacedæmonians to music. Lasus of
Hermione invented the dithyramb; Stesichorus of Himera, the hymn;
Alcman the Spartan, the choral song; Anacreon of Teos, love songs;
Pindar the Theban, the dance accompanied with song. Timotheus of
Miletus was the first to execute those musical compositions called
νόμοι on the lyre, with dancing. Moreover, the iambus was invented
by Archilochus of Paros, and the choliambus by Hipponax of Ephesus.
Tragedy owed its origin to Thespis the Athenian, and comedy to Susarion
of Icaria. Their dates are handed down by the grammarians. But it were
tedious to specify them accurately: presently, however, Dionysus, on
whose account the Dionysian spectacles are celebrated, will be shown to
be later than Moses. They say that Antiphon of Rhamnusium, the son of
Sophilus, first invented scholastic discourses and rhetorical figures,
and was the first who pled causes for a fee, and wrote a forensic
speech for delivery,[952] as Diodorus says. And Apollodorus of Cuma
first assumed the name of critic, and was called a grammarian. Some
say it was Eratosthenes of Cyrene who was first so called, since he
published two books which he entitled _Grammatica_. The first who
was called a grammarian, as we now use the term, was Praxiphanes, the
son of Disnysophenes of Mitylene. Zeleucus the Locrian was reported to
have been the first to have framed laws (in writing). Others say that
it was Menos the son of Zeus, in the time of Lynceus. He comes after
Danaus, in the eleventh generation from Inachus and Moses; as we shall
show a little further on. And Lycurgus, who lived many years after the
taking of Troy, legislated for the Lacedæmonians a hundred and fifty
years before the Olympiads. We have spoken before of the age of Solon.
Draco (he was a legislator too) is discovered to have lived about the
three hundred and ninth Olympiad. Antilochus, again, who wrote of the
learned men from the age of Pythagoras to the death of Epicurus, which
took place in the tenth day of the month Gamelion, makes up altogether
three hundred and twelve years. Moreover, some say that Phanothea, the
wife of Icarius, invented the heroic hexameter; others Themis, one of
the Titanides. Didymus, however, in his work _On the Pythagorean
Philosophy_, relates that Theano of Crotona was the first woman
who cultivated philosophy and composed poems. The Hellenic philosophy
then, according to some, apprehended the truth accidentally, dimly,
partially; as others will have it, was set a-going by the devil.
Several suppose that certain powers, descending from heaven, inspired
the whole of philosophy.
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