Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.20.10

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: Homer's oath by the Styx shows, they say, that water is dreadful, as it is to the mind.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 210

Ἴστω γὰρ (φησί) τόδε γαῖα καὶ οὐρανὸς εὐρὺς ὕπερθεν, καὶ τὸ κατειβόμενον Στυγὸς ὕδωρ, ὅς τε μέγιστος ὅρκος δεινότατός τε πέλει μακάρεσσι θεοῖσι· τουτέστιν ἀποτρόπαιόν τι καὶ φρικτὸν οἱ θεοὶ καθʼ Ὅμηρον εἶναι τὸ ὕδωρ νομίζουσιν, ὅπερ ὁ λόγος τῶν Σηθιανῶν φοβερὸν εἶναι φησὶ τῷ νοΐ.

English · Claude translation

“Let earth know this,” he says, “and broad heaven above, and the down-flowing water of Styx, which is the greatest and most dread oath for the blessed gods”; that is, according to Homer, the gods think water something to be averted and dreadful, which the Sethian doctrine says is fearful to the mind.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 210 · 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; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
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
  • Homer, Il. 15.36–38 (Homer, Iliad) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is Homer, Iliad 15.36–38, also quoted by the Peratae at 5.16.3.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.20.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/20/10/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.20.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/20/10/).

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