Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 24.4

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

Summary: Self-wounding and castration in worship are madness excused only by the numbers who do it.

Latin text · CSEL 2:35

quid, qui sanguine suo libat et uulneribus suis supplicat, non profanus melius esset quam sic religiosus? aut cui testa sunt obscena demessa, quo modo deum non uiolat qui hoc modo placat, cum si eunuchos deus uellet, posset procreare, non facere? quis non intellegat male sanos et uanae et perditae mentis in ista desipere et ipsam errantium turbam mutua sibi patrocinia praestare? hic defensio communis furoris est furentium multitudo.

English · Claude translation

What of him who makes libation with his own blood and supplicates with his own wounds: would he not be better profane than religious in this way? Or he whose private parts are cut off: how does he not outrage God who appeases him in this way, since if God wanted eunuchs he could have them born so, not make them? Who would not see that those of unsound, vain, and ruined mind are raving in these things, and that the very crowd of the erring provides mutual protection for itself? Here the defence of the common madness is the multitude of the mad.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:35 · 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.

Notes

Translation notes

  • The digital text has no sections 24.5–24.7.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 24.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/24/4/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 24.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/24/4/).

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