Chapter XII. From Clement

[CLEMENT] [1] ‘THE subject has indeed been carefully discussed by Tatian in his Discourse to the Greeks,and by Cassian in the first book of his Exegetics.But nevertheless my commentary demands that I also should run over what has been said upon the topic.

‘Apion then the grammarian, who was surnamed Pleistonices, in the fourth Book of his Egyptian Histories,although being an Egyptian by birth he was so spitefully disposed towards the Hebrews as to have composed a book Against the Jews,when he mentions Amosis the king of Egypt and the transactions of his time, brings forward Ptolemaeus of Mendes as a witness.

‘And his language is as follows:

‘”But Avaris was demolished by Amosis, who lived in the time of Inachus the Argive, as Ptolemaeus of Mendes recorded in his Chronology.”

‘Now this Ptolemaeus was a priest, who published The Acts of the Kings of Egyptin three whole books, and says that the departure of the Jews out of Egypt under Moses as their leader took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt; from which, it is clearly seen that Moses flourished in the time of Inachus.

‘Now Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches us in his Chronologythat the history of Argos, I mean the history from Inachus downwards, is mentioned as older than any Hellenic history.

‘Forty generations later than this is the Athenian history, beginning from Cecrops the so-called aboriginal of double sex, as Tatian says in so many words: and nine generations later the history of Arcadia from the time of Pelasgus, who also is called an aboriginal.

‘More recent than this last by other fifty-two generations is the history of Phthiotis from the time of Deucalion. From Inachus to the time of the Trojan war twenty or twenty-one generations are reckoned, four hundred years, we may say, and more.

‘And whether the Assyrian history is many years earlier than the Hellenic, will appear from what Ctesias says. In the four hundred and second year of the Assyrian empire, and in the thirty-second year of the reign of Beluchus the eighth, the movement of Moses out of Egypt took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt, and of Inachus king of Argos.

‘And in Hellas in the time of Phoroneus the successor of Inachus the flood of Ogyges occurred, and the reign in Sicyon, of Aegialeus first, then of Europs, and then of Telchis, and in Crete the reign of Cres.

‘For Acusilaus says that Phoroneus was the first man: whence also the author of the poem “Phoronis” says that he was “the father of mortal men.”

‘Hence Plato in the Timaeus,following Acusilaus, writes: “And once when he wished to lead them on to a discussion about antiquity, he said that he attempted to speak of the most ancient things in this city, about Phoroneus who was called ‘the first’ man, and about Niobe, and the events that followed the flood.” [2]

‘Contemporary with Phorbas was Actaeus, from whom Attica was called Actaea: and contemporary with Triopas were Prometheus, and Atlas, and Epimetheus, and the biform Cecrops, and Io: in the time of Crotopus there was Phaethon’s conflagration, and the flood of Deucalion: and in the time of Sthenelaus was the reign of Amphictyon, and the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnese, and the colonization of Dardania by Dardanus, whom Homer calls

“The first-born son of cloud-compelling Zeus,” [3]

and the abduction of Europa from Crete to Phoenicia.

‘In the time of Lynceus was the rape of Core, and the foundation of the sanctuary at Eleusis, and the husbandry of Triptolemus, and the arrival of Cadmus in Thebes, and the reign of Minos. In the time of Proetus there was the war of Eumolpus against the Athenians: and in the time of Acrisius the migration of Pelops from Phrygia, and the arrival of Ion in Athens, and the second Cecrops, and the exploits of Perseus and Dionysus, and also Orpheus and Musaeus.

‘And in the eighteenth year of the reign of Agamemnon Troy was taken, in the first year of the reign in Athens of Demophon son of Theseus, on the twelfth day of the month Thargelion, as Dionysius the Argive says.

‘But Agius and Dercylus in their third Book say, on the eighth day of the last decade of the month Panemus: Hellanicus says, on the twelfth of Thargelion; and some of the writers of Athenian history say, on the eighth of the last decade, in the last year of the reign of Menestheus, at the full moon. The poet who wrote The Little Iliadsays:

“At midnight, when the moon was rising bright.” [4]

But others say, on the same day of the month Scirophorion.

‘Now Theseus, who was a rival of Hercules, is older than the Trojan war by one generation: Homer at least mentions Tlepolemus, who was the son of Hercules, as having joined in the expedition against Troy.

‘Moses therefore is shown to be six hundred and four years older than the deification of Dionysus, if at least he was deified in the thirty-second year of the reign of Perseus, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles.

‘And from Dionysus to Hercules and the chiefs who sailed in the Argo with Jason, there are sixty-three years comprised. Asclepius too and the Dioscuri sailed with them, as Apollonius Rhodius testifies in the Argonautica.[5]

‘From the reign of Hercules in Argos to the deification of Hercules himself and of Asclepius there are comprised thirty-eight years, according to Apollodorus the chronicler: and from that point to the deification of Castor and Pollux fifty-three years: and somewhere about this time was the capture of Troy.

‘And if we are to believe the poet Hesiod, let us hear what he says:

“Admitted to the sacred couch of Zeus, Fairest of Atlas’ daughters, Maia bare Renowned Hermes, herald of the Gods. And linked with Zeus in sweetest bonds of love Fair Semele conceived a glorious son, Great Dionysus, joy of all mankind.” [6]

‘Cadmus the father of Semele came to Thebes in the reign of Lynceus, and became the inventor of the Greek letters. And Triopas was contemporary with Isis in the seventh generation from Inachus.

‘But there are some who say that she was called Io from her going (ἰένα) through all the earth in her wanderings: and Istrus in his book Of the migration of the Egyptianssays that she was the daughter of Prometheus: and Prometheus was contemporary with Triopas, in the seventh generation after Moses; so that Moses would be earlier even than the origin of mankind was according to the Greeks.

‘Now Leon, who wrote a treatise On the gods of Egypt,says that Isis was called by the Greeks Demeter, who is contemporary with Lynceus in the eleventh generation after Moses.

‘Apis also the king of Argos was the founder of Memphis, as Aristippus says in the first Book of the Arcadica.

‘Moreover Aristeas of Argos says that this Apis was surnamed Sarapis, and that it is he whom the Egyptians worship.

‘But Nymphodorus of Amphipolis, in the third Book of The Customs of Asia,says that when Apis the bull died and was embalmed, he was deposited in a coffin (σορός) in the temple of the daemon who was worshipped there, and thence was called Soroapis and afterwards Sarapis. And Apis is the third from Inachus. ‘Moreover Latona is contemporary with Tityus:

“For Leto erst he strove to violate, The noble consort of immortal Zeus.” [7]

‘And Tityus was contemporary with Tantalus. With good reason therefore the Boeotian Pindar writes:

“For late in time Apollo too was born.” [8]

‘And no wonder, since he is found in company with Hercules serving Admetus

“A whole long year.” [9]

‘Zethus too and Amphion, the inventors of music, lived about the age of Cadmus. And if any one tell us that Phemonoe was the first who uttered an oracle in verse to Acrisius, yet let him know that twenty-seven years after Phemonoe came Orpheus, and Musaeus, and Linus the teacher of Hercules.

‘But Homer and Hesiod were much later than the Trojan war, and after them far later were the lawgivers among the Greeks, Lycurgus and Solon, and the Seven Sages, and Pherecydes of Syros, and the great Pythagoras, who lived some time later about the beginning of the Olympiads, as we proved.

‘So then we have demonstrated that Moses was more ancient than most of the gods of the Greeks, and not merely than their so-called Sages and poets.’

So far Clement. But since the question before us was carefully studied before our Christian writers by the Hebrews themselves, it would be well to consider also what they have said: and I shall use the language of Flavius Josephus as representative of them all.