Octavius 11.8

Minucius Felix · Octavius · ca. 197–250 · Rome · Read in context

Summary: No one has ever come back from the dead.

BothLatinEnglish

Latin text · CSEL 2:16

et tamen tanta aetas abiit, saecula innumera fluxerunt: quis unus ullus ab inferis uel Protesilai sorte remeauit, horarum saltem.. permisso commeatu, uel ut exemplo crederemus?

English · Claude translation

And yet so long a time has passed, countless ages have flowed by: what single person has come back from the underworld, even with the lot of Protesilaus, with leave granted for a few hours at least, so that we might believe by an example?

About this passage

Source: CSEL 2:16 · Karl Halm, ed., M. Minucii Felicis Octavius; Iulii Firmici Materni Liber de errore profanarum religionum, CSEL 2 (Vienna: Gerold, 1867), 1–56 · Latin text: K. Halm (CSEL 2, 1867), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text: As printed in CSEL 2. 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 Latin text of CSEL 2; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Divided there by chapter only.
Topics: Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

Protesilaus, the first Greek killed at Troy, was allowed by the gods to return to his wife for a few hours.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 11.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/11/8/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 11.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/11/8/).

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