Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
This perfection is attainable equally by a man and by a woman alike. To begin with, Moses was not the only one who, hearing from God, "I have addressed you twice already and more," heard him say, "This nation—look how obstinate they are; let me wipe them out, and I will erase their memory from beneath the sky, and I will build from you a people greater and more astonishing, far surpassing this one" — Moses answers with a plea, regarding not his private good but the salvation held in common: "Not so, Lord; either pardon this people their offense, or else strike my own name from the scroll of the living." What a mark of perfection, to have preferred perishing alongside the nation over being spared by himself! But Judith too, brought to perfection among women, when her city lay under blockade, having won over the elders, went forth into the enemy camp, despising every peril, handing herself over for her homeland to the foe out of trust in God; and straightway she won the prize of her faith, having shown herself the finest of women arrayed against faith's foe, becoming captor of Holofernes's severed head.
Again, Esther, made perfect in faith, rescued Israel from a despot's grip and the cruelty of his satrap; a lone woman, worn thin by fasting, she stood arrayed against countless armed men and unraveled a tyrant's decree through faith; indeed she subdued the one, restrained Haman, and kept Israel safe by her flawless entreaty before God. As for Susanna and the sibling of Moses, I leave their stories aside here — how the latter campaigned as it were beside the prophet, foremost among all women famed for wisdom among the Hebrews, while the former, brought to the brink of death by her excess of modesty though her lecherous accusers condemned her, stood firm as an unyielding witness to chastity.
Indeed, Dio the philosopher records that a certain woman Lysidice, out of an excess of modesty, bathed in her tunic itself, while Philotera, whenever she was about to step into the tub, quietly drew up her tunic only so far as the water covered her nakedness, and then, rising a little at a time, put it back on again. And did not Leaena the Athenian also bear tortures manfully? She, being privy along with the circle of Harmodius and Aristogeiton to the plot against Hipparchus, though racked most severely, did not betray it in the slightest. They also say that the women of Argos, led by Telesilla the poetess, appearing armed for war merely turned back the valiant Spartans, and thereby won for themselves fearlessness of death. The author of the Danaid says similar things concerning the daughters of Danaus, thus: "And then the daughters of Danaus armed themselves swiftly, before the fair-flowing river Nile, its lord" —
and so on. The rest of the poets sing of the swiftness of Atalanta in the hunt, and the tender love of Anticleia, and the devotion of Alcestis to her husband, and the courage of Macaria and of the daughters of Hyacinthus. What then? Did not Theano the Pythagorean advance so far in philosophy that, to one who gazed at her arm too curiously and remarked, "A fair forearm," she replied, "but not public"? Of the same gravity is reported also that saying of hers: for being asked how many days after being with her husband a woman may go down to the Thesmophorion, she said, "From her own, at once; from another's, never." And indeed Themisto, daughter of Zoilus, the Lampsacene, wife of Leonteus of Lampsacus, practiced Epicurean philosophy, just as Myia, daughter of Theano, practiced the Pythagorean, and Arignote, who wrote on the mysteries of Dionysus. For the daughters of Diodorus, surnamed Cronus, all became skilled in dialectic, as Philo the dialectician says in his Menexenus, where he sets down their names as follows: Menexene, Argeia, Theognis, Artemisia, Pantakleia. I recall too a certain Cynic woman, called Hipparchia, the Maronite, wife of Crates, in whose honor also the "dog-marriage" was celebrated in the Painted Stoa.
Arete, daughter of Aristippus of Cyrene, educated the Aristippus surnamed "Mother-taught." Under Plato there also studied philosophy Lasthenia of Arcadia and Axiothea of Phlius; and as for Aspasia of Miletus, about whom the comic poets write a great deal, Socrates profited from her toward philosophy, and Pericles toward rhetoric. I pass over the rest, then, given how long this discourse is already running, without listing the poetesses — Corinna and Telesilla and Myia and Sappho — nor the women painters, such as Eirene the daughter of Cratinus and Anaxandra the daughter of Nealces, whom Didymus mentions in his Symposiaca.
And the daughter of Cleobulus the sage, who was monarch of the Lindians, felt no shame in bathing the feet of the guests who came to her father's house; since Sarah too, the blessed wife of Abraham, herself prepared the cakes baked in ashes for the angels, and royal maidens among the Hebrews tended sheep — whence also Nausicaa in Homer went to the washing-troughs.
The temperate woman, then, would choose first of all to persuade her husband to become a partner with her in the things that lead to happiness; but if this proves impossible, let her press on toward virtue alone. She should be obedient to her husband in all things, so as never to do anything against his will, except in matters that are held to bear on virtue and salvation. But moreover, if anyone should hinder a wife or even a household servant, moved without pretense toward such a disposition, such a man plainly does nothing else in doing so than choosing to lead her away from righteousness and temperance, while at the same time contriving to make his own household unjust and licentious.
It is therefore not possible for either a man or a woman to become distinguished in anything whatsoever without applying to it learning, practice, and training; and virtue, we say, lies in nothing else so much as in what depends on ourselves. Now other things one may be hindered in by an opponent, but that which depends on ourselves can in no way be hindered, however strongly one might resist; for it is a gift given by God, and does not fall subject to anyone else. Hence licentiousness would be judged to be the evil of no one else but the one who is licentious, while temperance in turn is the good of the one who is capable of being temperate.
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