Sunday, June 7, 2009

Pantaenus never existed

I have always had my suspicions about the figure of Pantaenus who is identify as Clement's instructor in Eusebius. The name 'Pantaenus' doesn't appear anywhere in Clement's surviving writings. The claim that he is the 'Sicilian honeybee' cannot be proved (I can make an equally convincing case that Clement is talking about gospel texts here). Indeed Pantaenus (the spelling in Eusebius' original Greek text is pantainon) is never found as a name anywhere in any Greek texts I have ever seen. It does appear as a common Greek expression 'all the praise' as we see in Homer's Illiad:

Il.23.651:

soi de theoi tônd' anti charin menoeikea doien. hôs phato, Pêleïdês de polun kath' homilon Achaiôn ôichet', epei pant' ainon epeklue Nêleïdao.

May the gods, for what you have done for me, give you great happiness. He spoke, and Peleides went back among the great numbers of Achaians assembled, when he had listened to all the praise spoken

Who or what instructed Clement that had 'all the praise' of Alexandria or Alexandrians is anyone's guess but we are essentially back to square one regarding the origins and influences of Clement's thought.


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