Skip to Content
intertextual.bible
Go to Related Reading
About this book

Clement of Rome

1 Clement

First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

About this book
Chapter 6

1 A vast multitude of the elect was gathered to these men of holy lives, and through many indignities and tortures, as victims of jealousy, they set a brave example among us. 2 Because of jealousy, women were persecuted, and after suffering cruel and unholy insults, like the Danaids and Dircae,⁠ they safely reached the goal in the race of faith and received a noble reward, though they were weak in body. 3 Jealousy has separated wives from their husbands and reversed the words of our father Adam: ‘This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.’ 4 Jealousy and strife have overthrown great cities and uprooted great nations.

Texts in conversation

Compare Pliny the Elder, Pliny Natural History 36.4 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 6:2

Classical · Early Christian

Share:

Summary

In 1 Clement, the author says Christian women were persecuted as Dircae. Pliny describes a famous statue in Rome of Dirce tied to a bull, which shows how familiar the image was in the city where the women may have been killed in imitation of her death.

Passages

Pliny the Elder, Pliny Natural History 36.4

Classical
Asinius Pollio, a man of a warm and ardent temperament, was determined that the buildings which he erected as memorials of himself should be made as attractive as possible; for here we see groups representing, Nymphs carried off by Centaurs, a work of Arcesilas: the Thespiades, by Cleomenes: Oceanus and Jupiter, by Heniochus: the Appiades, by Stephanus: Hermerotes, by Tauriscus, not the chaser in silver, already mentioned, but a native of Tralles: a Jupiter Hospitalis by Papylus, a pupil of Praxiteles: Zethus and Amphion, with Dirce, the Bull, and the halter, all sculptured from a single block of marble, the work of Apollonius and Tauriscus, and brought to Rome from Rhodes. These two artists made it a sort of rivalry as to their parentage, for they declared that, although Apollodorus was their natural progenitor, Menecrates would appear to have been their father.
77 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pliny the Elder, Natural History Book 36

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 6:2

Early Christian · First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
1 A vast multitude of the elect was gathered to these men of holy lives, and through many indignities and tortures, as victims of jealousy, they set a brave example among us. 2 Because of jealousy, women were persecuted, and after suffering cruel and unholy insults, like the Danaids and Dircae, they safely reached the goal in the race of faith and received a noble reward, though they were weak in body. 3 Jealousy has separated wives from their husbands and reversed the words of our father Adam: ‘This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.’ 4 Jealousy and strife have overthrown great cities and uprooted great nations.
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Rome, 1 Clement

References

“... So too with one of the most famous emendations in the texts of the Apostolic Fathers, this one in 1 Clement’s reference to women who were martyred as Δαναΐδες καὶ Δίρκαι (1 Clem. 6. 2). The author’s meaning is unclear. Some scholars have suggested that he is referring to Christian women martyred under Nero, who was known for his creatively brutal excesses. If so, women executed as Dircae may have been dragged to death in the arena, bound to the horns of a bull, like Dirce of Greek myth. ...”
Bart D. Ehrman, “Textual Traditions Compared: The New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers,” in The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers, ed. Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 17–18.
“... Again, others have compared the language of our author here with the descriptions by Tacitus and Clement of the indignities inflicted on the Christians of Rome under Nero in A.D. 64. “Their death,” says Tacitus, “was made a matter of sport: they were covered in wild beasts’ skins and torn to pieces by dogs; or were fastened to crosses and set on fire in order to serve as torches by night when daylight failed.” Clement tells how Christian women had to “enact the parts of Dirce and the daughters of Danaus”. ...”
F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 267.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Your feedback

Pliny the Elder, Pliny Natural History 36.4 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 6:2

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library