Octavius 19.10 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The Stoics, despite differences, agree on one providence and explain the gods as natural elements.

Latin text · CSEL 2:27

Theophrastus etiam uariat, alias mundo, alias menti diuinae tribuens principatum. Zenon et Chrysippus et Cleanthes sunt et ipsi multiformes, sed ad unitatem prouidentiae omnes reuoluuntur. Cleanthes enim mentem, modo animum, modo aethera, plerumque rationem deum disseruit. Zenon, eiusdem magister, naturalem legem atque diuinam et aethera interim interdumque rationem uult omnium esse principium; idem interpretando Iunonem aera, Iouem caelum, Neptunum mare, ignem esse Vulcanum et ceteros similiter uulgi deos elementa esse monstrando publicum arguit grauiter et reuincit errorem.

English · Claude translation

Theophrastus also varies, assigning supremacy now to the world, now to the divine mind. Zeno and Chrysippus and Cleanthes are themselves also manifold, but all come round to the unity of providence. For Cleanthes spoke of God now as mind, now as soul, now as ether, most often as reason. Zeno, his master, holds that the principle of all things is the natural and divine law, and sometimes ether, and at times reason; the same man, by interpreting Juno as air, Jupiter as the sky, Neptune as the sea, Vulcan as fire, and by showing likewise that the other gods of the common people are elements, gravely censures and refutes the public error.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:27 · 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.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 19.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/19/10/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 19.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/19/10/).