Refutation of All Heresies 5.16.16

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.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 194

Ἑκατέρωθεν δὲ αὐτοῦ παρατέτακται Στέφανος καὶ Λύρα, καὶ κατʼ αὐτὴν ἄνωθεν τὴν κεφαλὴν ἄκραν ἐλεεινὸς ἄνθρωπος, ὁ Ἐν γόνασιν ἐστὶν ὁρώμενος, δεξιτεροῦ ποδὸς ἄκρον ἔχων σκολιοῖο Δράκοντος. Κατὰ δὲ τὸν νῶτον τοῦ Ἐν γόνασιν ἐστὶν ἀτελὴς ὄφις ἀμφοτέραις ταῖς χερσὶ κατεσφιγμένος ὑπὸ τοῦ Ὀφιούχου, καὶ κωλυόμενος ἐφάψασθαι τοῦ στεφάνου παρακειμένου τῷ τελείῳ ὄφει.

English · Claude translation

On either side of him are set the Crown and the Lyre, and above, by the very top of his head, a pitiable man, the one seen as “the Kneeler,” “holding the tip of his right foot on the crooked Dragon.” And at the back of the Kneeler is the imperfect serpent, gripped with both hands by the Serpent-holder and prevented from touching the Crown that lies beside the perfect serpent.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 194 · 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.

Extrabiblical texts

Aratus, Phaen. 70 (Aratus, Phaenomena) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

The quoted line is Aratus, Phaenomena 70; the constellations are Corona, Lyra, Engonasin (the Kneeler, later Hercules), and Ophiuchus with Serpens.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.16.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/16/16/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.16.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/16/16/).