Refutation of All Heresies 10.7.3

Hippolytus of Rome · Refutation of All Heresies · ca. 222–235 · Rome · Read in context

Authorship disputed: The work names no author. Book 1 was long printed among Origen's works as the Philosophumena; after books 4–10 were found in a manuscript from Mount Athos (published 1851), it was assigned to Hippolytus, the usual view today, though some scholars ascribe it to another Roman writer of the same circle. Books 2 and 3 are lost, and book 4 lacks its beginning.

Summary: Empedocles names four roots of all things.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

BothGreekEnglish

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 500

Τέσσαρα τῶν πάντων ῥιζώματα πρῶτον ἄκουε· Ζεὺς ἀήρ, Ἥρη τε φερέσβιος, ἠδʼ Ἀϊδωνεύς, Νῆστις δὲ ἡ δακτοῖς σπονδε κρουνῷ μαβρόντιον.

English · Claude translation

“Hear first the four roots of all things: Zeus the air, and life-bearing Hera, and Aidoneus, and Nestis, who with her tears wets the fount of mortals.”

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 500 · Ludwig Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, eds., S. Hippolyti episcopi et martyris Refutationis omnium haeresium librorum decem quae supersunt (Göttingen: Dieterich, 1859); section divisions from Paul Wendland, ed., Hippolytus Werke 3: Refutatio omnium haeresium, GCS 26 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1916) · Greek text: L. Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, Refutationis omnium haeresium (Göttingen, 1859), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library; section divisions from P. Wendland (GCS 26, 1916), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin); both CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Duncker–Schneidewin. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Duncker–Schneidewin; made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Its chapter numbers differ from the standard (Wendland) numbering used here.

Extrabiblical texts

Empedocles, frag. 6 (Empedocles (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

Empedocles, fragment 6; compare 7.29.4. The verse is corrupt in the digital text (δακτοῖς σπονδε … μαβρόντιον); the rendering follows the usual reading. Its introduction was probably in the missing 10.7.2.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.7.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/7/3/).

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Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.7.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/7/3/).

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