Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 21.12

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

Summary: Gods who were born and died must have been men, as the rites of Isis and Osiris show.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Latin text · CSEL 2:31

ceterum si dii creare possent, interire non possent, plures totis hominibus deos haberemus, ut iam eos nec caelum contineret nec aer caperet nec terra gestaret. unde manifestum est homines illos fuisse, quos et natos legimus et mortuos scimus. t et despicis Isidis ad hirundinem, sistrum, et ad sparsis membris inanem tui Serapidis siue Osiris tumulum.

English · Claude translation

Besides, if gods could beget and could not perish, we would have more gods than all mankind, so that heaven could not contain them, nor air hold them, nor earth bear them. From this it is plain that those were men whom we both read were born and know died. And look at Isis with her swallow and her sistrum, and at the empty tomb of your Serapis, or Osiris, his limbs scattered.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:31 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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 last sentence is corrupt: the "t" before it is probably the editor's crux (†), and "et ad sparsis" is garbled; the sense given is probable.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR: stray accent.): fuissê → fuisse.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 21.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/21/12/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 21.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/21/12/).

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