The Shelves · Philosophy

Exhortation to the Greeks (Protrepticus)

Προτρεπτικὸς πρὸς Ἕλληνας

Known · Attestedin Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Philosophy

Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

c. 150–215 CE. Taught a Christian gnosis steeped in Greek philosophy until the persecution of 202/203 drove him out. His Stromata quote hundreds of lost authors, among them the Gnostics Basilides, Valentinus and Epiphanes, and describe the 42 books of Hermes carried in Egyptian processions.

Exhortation to the Greeks

Προτρεπτικὸς πρὸς Ἕλληνας

Opening words

Ἀμφίων ὁ Θηβαῖος καὶ Ἀρίων ὁ Μηθυμναῖος

Amphion of Thebes and Arion of Methymna...

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives whole

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Attested

Written in Alexandria.

On the table: written in Alexandria; no evidence it was in the Library.

Read it today

Greek text (Scaife Viewer) · the original · link checked 31 Oct 2026
Butterworth, Clement of Alexandria (public-domain Loeb scan, PDF) · a translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026

III · In the show

Heresiologists and early Christian doctrine, episode 2, at 43 secondsTranscriptHeresiologists and early Christian doctrine: why we know the early schools from their opponents.Known: attested
Heresiologists and early Christian doctrine, episode 2, at 2 minutes 2 secondsTranscript“Clement of Alexandria was a little bit more um he was a little bit more amunable to you know particularly the Gnostic schools”Fair: Clement's 'true gnostic' and his careful quotation of Valentinian and Basilidean sources.Known: attested
Baptism, anointing, and the Holy Spirit, episode 2, at 23 minutes 50 secondsTranscript“Basalian gnostics did not celebrate the incarnation of the Lord on or around the winter solstice”Clement is the source: the Basilideans kept the feast of the Baptism, on 15 or 11 Tybi, around 10 or 6 January (Stromata I.21.146).Known: attested

+ 8 more

Path: Martinism and Reintegration, station 4Understand the anointing. The Basilidian feast of the Baptism, connected with the anointing at the Jordan.Known: attested
Gnosticism · Thirty aeons and a Limit: 'How we know' cites Clement's Excerpts from TheodotusKnown: attested
Gnosticism · Traditions: the Basilidean current, 'reports in Clement of Alexandria'Known: attested
Early Spread of Christianity & Esotericism, episode 17, at 48 minutes 34 secondsTranscriptEarly spread of Christianity and esotericism; Plotinus' hypostases and the Trinity.Known: attested
Alexandria as Esoteric Crossroads, episode 17, at 47 minutes 57 secondsTranscript“the evangelist Mark brought Christianity there in 42 CE”Church tradition, which the speaker labels 'legend… or tradition' (Eusebius, Church History 2.16); Eusebius' Chronicle, in Jerome's version, puts Mark's mission in the early 40s.Known: attested
Correction
What was said
The Hermetic tracts were "all found outside of Alexandria".
What the sources say
Near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, some 600 km south of Alexandria (about 615 km in a straight line, farther by the river). Codex VI holds three Hermetic texts (the Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, the Prayer of Thanksgiving, an extract of the Asclepius) and an extract of Plato's Republic.
Christian Mysticism · Chronology: Origen reads the SongOrigen reads the Song.Known: attested
Christian Mysticism · Chronology: The desert withdrawalThe desert withdrawal; Athanasius' Life of Antony.Known: attested
Symbolism · Origen's three sensesKnown: attested

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references

Clement, Protrepticus 2.18, 2.21; 4.48

Modern scholarship (3)

G. W. Butterworth, Clement of Alexandria: The Exhortation to the Greeks etc. (Loeb Classical Library 92; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1919).
E. Osborn, Clement of Alexandria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
F. Graf and S. I. Johnston, Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2013).

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

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