Chapter II. Of the Plagiarism of the Greek Writers, From Clement

[CLEMENT] [1] ‘Now after having shown, that the significance of Greek thought was illumined on all sides from the truth bestowed on us through the Scripturess according to the sense which we took in proving that the theft of the truth (if it be not offensive to say so) came home to them; let us proceed to bring forward the Greeks as witnesses of the theft against themselves.

‘For they who so openly filch their own works one from another establish the fact that they are thieves, and betray, however unwillingly, that they are secretly appropriating to their own countrymen the truth borrowed from us. For if they do not keep their hands off even from one another, it is not likely that they will from our writers.

‘Now of their philosophical doctrines I shall say nothing, since the very men who have divided themselves into sects, confess in writing, in order that they may not be convicted of ingratitude, that they have received the most important of their doctrines from Socrates. But after employing a few testimonies of men familiarly known and renowned among the Greeks, and exposing their style of plagiarism, by dealing with various periods, I shall turn to the subjects next in order.’

After these statements by way of preface, he brings forward his proofs in order, using all kinds of evidence, and calls the poets first to account as having stolen the thoughts from other poets, by a comparison of their respective utterances.

Then next he adds the following:

‘In order that we may not allow philosophy, nor history, nor even rhetoric to pass free from the same charge, it is reasonable to bring forward a few passages from them also.’ [2]

Then he successively compares passages of Orpheus, Heracleitus, Plato, Pythagoras, Herodotus, Theopompus, Thucydides, Demosthenes, Aeschines, Lysias, Isocrates, and ten thousand others, of whose sayings it is superfluous for me to make a catalogue, as the author’s work is ready at hand, in which, after the evidences concerning the said authors, he again speaks as follows:

‘Let then these specimens of Greek plagiarism in thought suffice, being such as they are, for a clear example to one who has any power of discernment. But further they have been detected not only in filching and paraphrasing the thoughts and the expressions, but, as shall be shown, they have stolen the works of others wholesale, and brought them out as their own; as Eugamon of Cyrene stole the entire book Concerning the Thesprotiansfrom Musaeus.’ [3]

Clement having afterwards added to these very many proofs of his argument, again at the end makes this addition:

‘Life would fail me, should I attempt to go over in particular detail the proof of the selfish plagiarism of the Greeks, and how they claim as their own the discovery of the noblest doctrines current among them, which they have taken from us.[4]

‘But now they are convicted not only of stealing their doctrines from the Barbarians, but also of copying our records of deeds so wonderfully wrought of old by the divine power through men of holy lives for our study, and exhibiting them in the marvellous stories of Greek mythology.

‘And so we shall inquire of them whether these stories which they relate are true or false. False they would not say; for they would not willingly convict themselves of the great folly of recording falsehoods; but they would of necessity confess that they are true.

‘But how then do the deeds miraculously exhibited by Moses and the other prophets any longer appear incredible to them? For the Almighty God in His care for all men tries to convert them to salvation, some by commandments, some by threatenings, some by miraculous signs, and some by gentle promises.

‘Moreover, once when a drought was for a long time ruining Greece, and a dearth of food prevailed, the Greeks, those of them who were left, it is said, because of the famine came as suppliants to Delphi, and asked the Pythoness how they might be delivered from the danger. And she answered them that there was only one way of escape from the calamity, that they should employ the prayer of Aeacus, So Aeacus was persuaded by them, and went up to the Hellenic Mount, and, stretching out his pure hands to heaven, called upon God as the common Father, and prayed Him to have pity upon Hellas in her distress.

‘And while he was yet praying there was a portentous sound of thunder, and all the surrounding air grew clouded, and violent and continuous rains burst forth and filled the whole country. Thence an abundant and rich harvest, produced by the husbandry of the prayers of Aeacus, is brought to perfection. [5]

‘”And Samuel(says the Scripture) called upon the Lord, and the Lord gave thunder and rain in the day of harvest.[6] Seest thou that there is One God, who sendeth rain upon the just and unjust[7]by means of the powers subject to Him? “’ And the rest.

To this Clement subjoined countless instances, and convicted the Greeks of having been plagiarists by indisputable proofs. But if you do not think him trustworthy, inasmuch as he, like us, has himself preferred the philosophy of the Barbarians to that of Greece, well then let him be dismissed, although he conducted his argument not in words of his own, but in those of Greeks themselves. But what would you say. if you should learn the like facts even from your noble philosophers themselves? Listen then to their testimonies also.