Octavius 22.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Cybele's priests castrate themselves in memory of her shameful myth.

Latin text · CSEL 2:31–32

Cybelae Dindyma pudet dicere, quae adulterum suum infeliciter placitum, quoniam ipsa et deformis et uetula, ut multorum deorum mater, ad stuprum inlicere non poterat, exsecuit, ut deum scilicet faceret eunuchum. propter hanc fabulam Galli eam et semiuiri sui corporis supplicio colunt. haec iam non sunt sacra, tormenta sunt.

English · Claude translation

Of Cybele of Dindymus I am ashamed to speak: she castrated her lover, who pleased her unhappily, because, being ugly and old herself, as the mother of many gods, she could not entice him to debauchery; so as, of course, to make a god a eunuch. Because of this fable the Galli worship her by mutilating their own bodies, and are half-men. These are no longer rites; they are tortures.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:31–32 · 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. 22.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/22/4/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 22.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/22/4/).