Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.37

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 souls following Hermes past Ocean are read as souls led to the eternal realm.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 148

καὶ φησὶν ὅτι τετριγυῖαι αὐτῷ ἠκολούθουν αἱ ψυχαί, τῷ λόγῳ, ὡς αὗται τετριγυῖαι ἅμʼ ἦσαν, ἦρχε δʼ ἄρα σφιν, (τουτέστιν ἡγεῖτο, ) Ἑρμείας ἀκάκητα κατʼ εὐρώεντα κέλευθα, τουτέστι, φησίν, εἰς τὰ πάσης κακίας ἀπηλλαγμένα αἰώνια χωρία. Ποῦ γὰρ, φησίν, ἦλθον; Πὰρ δʼ ἴσαν ὠκεανοῦ τε ῥοὰς καὶ λευκάδα πέτρην, ἠδὲ παρʼ ἠελίοιο πύλας καὶ δῆμον ὀνείρων.

English · Claude translation

And he says that the souls followed him squeaking, the Word: "So these went together squeaking, and Hermes the helper led them" (that is, guided them) "down the dank ways," that is, he says, into the eternal places freed from all evil. For where, he says, did they go? "They went past the streams of Ocean and the White Rock, and past the gates of the Sun and the land of dreams."

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 148 · 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, Od. 24.9–12 (Homer, Odyssey) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The verses are Homer, Odyssey 24.9–12.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.37 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/37/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.37 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/37/).

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