Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.21.11

Hippolytus of Rome · Refutation of All Heresies · ca. 222–235 · Rome · Read in context

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.

Summary: The well yields salt, asphalt, and black oil, as Herodotus relates.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 214

Καὶ ἐν μὲν πρώτῃ ἄλας πηγνύμενον δείκνυται, ἐν ἑτέρᾳ δὲ τῶν ἀφετηριῶν ἄσφαλτος, ἐν δὲ τῇ τρίτῃ ἔλαιον. Μέλαν δέ ἐστι τὸ ἔλαιον, ὡς, φησί, καὶ Ἡρόδοτος ἱστορεῖ, καὶ ὀσμὴν παρεχόμενον βαρεῖαν· ῥαδινάκην δὲ αὐτὸ οἱ Πέρσαι καλοῦσιν.

English · Claude translation

And in the first outlet salt is shown solidifying, in another of the outlets asphalt, and in the third oil. The oil is black, as Herodotus also relates,” he says, “and gives off a heavy smell; the Persians call it rhadinake.”

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 214 · 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
  • Herodotus, Hist. 6.119 (Herodotus, Histories) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The source is Herodotus 6.119.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.21.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/21/11/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.21.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/21/11/).

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