Protrepticus

The Protrepticus, whose Greek title means «Exhortation to the Greeks», is the first of the three surviving works of Clement of Alexandria, a Christian theologian active between the second and third centuries. It is followed by the Paedagogus and the Stromata, and the three together form a trilogy. The exact date of composition is unknown.

As its title suggests, the work exhorts the pagans of Greece to embrace Christianity. Clement shows wide knowledge of Greek mythology and theology, and its chief interest for the history of ideas lies in its treatment of religion as a human phenomenon open to anthropological explanation. After a brief philosophical discussion, he sketches a history of Greek religion in seven stages: people first worshipped the Sun, the Moon and the stars; then the products of agriculture, from which the cults of Demeter and Dionysus arose; later, revenge and feelings such as love and fear were deified. Hesiod and Homer tried to list the gods, and the Theogony fixed their number at twelve. Finally, men such as Asclepius and Heracles were proclaimed divine.

Clement criticises idolatry and, following Plato, distrusts the visual arts, which he regards as illusions and «deadly toys». He denounces the moral failings of the gods and the obscurantism and trivial rituals of the mystery cults, especially those of Dionysus. At some points he suggests the gods derive from humans; at others, that they are demons hostile to mankind. He praises Euhemerus and Plato, whom he regards as the philosopher closest to the truth, and presents Orpheus as a contrast between pagan superstition and the divine Logos of Christ, the only full path to universal truth.