Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.16.1

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: Odysseus, protected by moly, escaped Circe's spell and restored his transformed companions.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 246

Ἀρκεῖ, φησί, τὸ λεχθὲν ὑπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν πρὸς ἐπίγνωσιν τῶν ὅλων τοῖς ἔχουσιν ἀκοὰς [τῆς ἀ]κοῆς· τούτου γὰρ, φησίν, ὁ γευσάμενος τοῦ καρποῦ ὑπὸ τῆς Κίρκης οὐκ ἀπεθηριώθη μόνος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς ἤδη τεθηριωμένους τῇ δυνάμει χρώμενος τοῦ τοιούτου καρποῦ εἰς τὸν πρῶτον ἐκεῖνον τὸν ἴδιον αὐτῶν ἀνέπλασε καὶ ἀνετύπωσε καὶ ἀνεκαλέσατο χαρακτῆρα.

English · Claude translation

“What was said by the Gentiles,” he says, “suffices for the knowledge of all things for those who have ears to hear. For he who tasted this fruit,” he says, “not only was not turned into a beast by Circe himself, but, using the power of such a fruit, he also reshaped, re-formed, and called back to that first character of their own those who had already been turned into beasts.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 246 · 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
  • Homer, Od. 10 (Homer, Odyssey) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • Odysseus is meant; compare Homer, Odyssey 10.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.16.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/16/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.16.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/16/1/).

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