Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 9

It appears I have been led astray by a demonstrative ambition, carrying my argument further than necessity demands. My life would fall short if I tried to catalog every thinker who philosophizes through symbols. So, for the sake of memory, brevity, and keeping our course set toward the truth, I present these writings of barbarian philosophy. Those who frequently draw near to them and have proven themselves in both faith and life desire to possess nothing less than the true philosophy and the true theology. They insist that we require an interpreter and a guide; only then will these writings be studied with proper diligence, benefit those worthy of them, and remain uncorrupted, received from those who know them well. Besides, anything glimpsed through a veil displays the truth as greater and more dignified—just as the forms of water appear clearly, but shapes seen through coverings gain an added charm. Such veils serve as checks, compelling us to understand visible realities in a unified way. Consequently, we can and do draw multiple interpretations from statements made under concealment. The inexperienced and ignorant stumble over these; the knowledgeable grasp them.

From the outset, the authors did not wish to pour everything out indiscriminately, nor to make the goods of wisdom common property for those who have not even purified their souls in a dream. It is not lawful to offer what was won through such great struggles to every chance comer, nor to recount the mysteries of the Word to the profane. They tell of Hipparchus the Pythagorean, who was expelled from the school and marked with a pillar as if dead because he wrote Pythagoras's teachings plainly. So too in barbarian philosophy, those who fall away from the doctrines and subject their minds to the passions of the soul are called 'dead.' For what partnership can righteousness have with lawlessness, according to the divine apostle, or what communion can light have with darkness? What harmony exists between Christ and Beliar? Or what share does a believer have with an unbeliever? Honors belong to the Olympians, not to the dead. Therefore, "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean; and I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters" (2 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Corinthians 6:18).

It was not only the Pythagoreans and Plato who concealed much. The Epicureans also claim that some teachings are secret and not permitted to all. The Stoics say that Zeno, their founder, wrote certain things they do not readily allow students to read unless they have first been tested to see if they philosophize genuinely. Aristotle's followers distinguish his inner writings from those that are common and exoteric. Even the philosophers who established the mysteries hid their doctrines in myths so they would not be clear to everyone; having concealed mere human opinions, they kept the ignorant from access—was it not beneficial that the holy and blessed contemplation of true being should be veiled from all? Yet neither the contents of barbarian philosophy, nor the Pythagorean myths, nor those in Plato's Republic—the myth of Er the Armenian, the judgment of Aeacus and Rhadamanthus in the Gorgias, the tale of Tartarus in the Phaedo, the story of Prometheus and Epimetheus in the Protagoras, and the war of the Atlanteans and Athenians in the Atlantic—are to be allegorized simply in every detail. Only insofar as they signify something universal to the mind should they be so read; these are the things we would discover through symbols veiled by allegory.

Indeed, Pythagoras's own community practiced a twofold fellowship with his companions: he called the many 'acousmatics' and a few others 'mathematicians,' those genuinely kindled by philosophy. But the distinction between what is said openly and what is kept hidden from the many was itself hinted at. Perhaps, too, that twofold division among the Peripatetics—the teachings called 'noble' and 'scientific'—has not escaped the separation of reputation from truth. Nor will you, glorious one, seize the flowers of honor from mortals, a subject on which more could be said concerning holiness. The Muses declare plainly that the many and the pretended sophists follow the poets of the people and use their laws, knowing that the wicked are many and the good few; the best pursue glory. "For they choose," he says, "one thing instead of all: eternal fame among mortals. But the many are satisfied like cattle, measuring happiness by the belly, the genitals, and the basest parts within us." The great Eleatic Parmenides also sets forth a twofold teaching of ways, writing thus: "On the one hand, the unshakeable heart of persuasive Truth; on the other, the opinions of mortals, in which there is no true faith."