Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily VI/Chapter 8

by Anonymous

Chapter VIII.—Pallas and Hera.

“And this, when it had reached the summit of the æther, was devoured by it (moisture being mixed with heat, so to say); and causing in it that ceaseless palpitation, it begat intelligence, which they call Pallas from this palpitating (pallesthai).^[1]  And this is artistic wisdom, by which the ætherial artificer wrought out the whole world.  And from all-pervading Zeus, that is, from this very hot æther, air (aer) extends all the way to our earth; and this they call Hera.  Wherefore, because it has come below the æther, which is the purest substance (just as a woman, as regards purity, is inferior), when the two were compared to see which was the better, she was rightly regarded as the sister of Zeus, in respect of her origin from the same substance, but as his spouse, as being inferior like a wife.

Footnotes

1. [With chaps. 8–10 compare Recognitions, x. 32, 34.—R.]