Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.29.5

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: Hippolytus explains the four names: Zeus is fire, Hera earth, Aidoneus air, and Nestis water.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 384

Ζεύς ἐστι τὸ πῦρ, Ἥρη δὲ φερέσβιος ἡ γῆ ἡ φέρουσα τοὺς πρὸς τὸν βίον καρπούς, Ἀϊδωνεὺς δὲ ὁ ἀήρ, ὅτι πάντα διʼ αὐτοῦ βλέποντες μόνον αὐτὸν οὐ καθορῶμεν, Νῆστις δὲ τὸ ὕδωρ· μόνον γὰρ τοῦτο ὄχημα τροφῆς αἴτιον γινόμενον πᾶσι τοῖς τρεφομένοις, αὐτὸ καθʼ αὑτὸ τρέφειν οὐ δυνάμενον τὰ τρεφόμενα.

English · Claude translation

Zeus is fire; life-bearing Hera is earth, which bears the fruits for life; Aidoneus is air, because, seeing all things through it, it alone we do not see; and Nestis is water, for this alone becomes a vehicle of food and a cause of it for all that are nourished, yet by itself it cannot nourish those that are nourished.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 384 · 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.

Notes

Translation notes

  • Aidoneus (Hades) is linked with ἀ-ιδεῖν, “unseen”; Nestis means “fasting.”

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.29.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/29/5/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.29.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/29/5/).

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