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
Many, perhaps, may be surprised to learn that the Palladium which is
called the Diopetes--that is, fallen from heaven--which Diomede and
Ulysses are related to have carried off from Troy and deposited at
Demophoon, was made of the bones of Pelops, as the Olympian Jove of
other bones--those of the Indian wild beast. I adduce as my authority
Dionysius, who relates this in the fifth part of his _Cycle_. And
Apellas, in the _Delphics_, says that there were two Palladia, and
that both were fashioned by men. But that no one may suppose that I
have passed over them through ignorance, I shall add that the image of
Dionysus Morychus at Athens was made of the stones called Phellata,
and was the work of Simon the son of Eupalamus, as Polemo says in a
letter. There were also two other sculptors of Crete, as I think: they
were called Scyles and Dipoenus; and these executed the statues of the
Dioscuri in Argos, and the image of Hercules in Tiryns, and the effigy
of the Munychian Artemis in Sicyon.
Why should I linger over these, when I can point out to you the great
deity himself, and show you who he was,--whom indeed, conspicuously
above all, we hear to have been considered worthy of veneration? Him
they have dared to speak of as made without hands--I mean the Egyptian
Serapis. For some relate that he was sent as a present by the people of
Sinope to Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of the Egyptians, who won their
favour by sending them corn from Egypt when they were perishing with
famine; and that this idol was an image of Pluto; and Ptolemy, having
received the statue, placed it on the promontory which is now called
Racotis; where the temple of Serapis was held in honour, and the sacred
enclosure borders on the spot; and that Blistichis the courtesan having
died in Canopus, Ptolemy had her conveyed there, and buried beneath the
fore-mentioned shrine.
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