Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.4

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, 134–136

χαλεπὸν δέ, φησίν, ἐξευρεῖν, εἴτε Βοιωτοῖς Ἀλαλκομενεὺς ὑπὲρ λίμνης Κηφιστίδος ἀνέσχε πρῶτος ἀνθρώπων, εἴτε Κουρῆτες ἦσαν Ἰδαῖοι, θεῖον γένος, ἢ Φρύγιοι Κορύβαντες, οὓς πρώτους ἥλιος ἔπιδε δενδροφυεῖς ἀναβλαστάνοντας, εἴτε προσεληναῖον Ἀρκαδία Πελασγόν, ἢ Ῥαρίας οἰκήτορα Δίαυλον Ἐλευσίν, ἢ Λῆμνος καλλίπαιδα Κάβιρον ἀρρήτων ἐτέκνωσεν ὀργιασμῶν, εἴτε Φελλήνη Φλεγραῖον Ἀλκυονέα, πρεσβύτατον Γιγάντων.

English · Claude translation

but it is hard," he says, "to find out whether for the Boeotians Alalcomeneus rose first of men above the Cephisian lake; or whether it was the Idaean Curetes, a divine race, or the Phrygian Corybantes, whom the sun first saw sprouting up like trees; or whether Arcadia brought forth Pelasgus, older than the moon, or Eleusis Diaulus, dweller in Raria, or Lemnos begot Cabirus, fair child of unspeakable orgies, or Pallene Phlegraean Alcyoneus, eldest of the Giants.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 134–136 · 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.

Topics

Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

The digital text reads Φελλήνη; Pallene is probably meant.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (misread letter in the digital text (Α for Λ); wrong breathing mark in the digital text): ᾿Ραρίας → Ῥαρίας; Αῆμνος → Λῆμνος.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/4/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/4/).