Octavius 27.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Demons hide in idols and produce omens and oracles.

Latin text · CSEL 2:39

Isti igitur impuri spiritus, daemones, ut ostensum a magis, a philosophis et a Platone, sub statuis et imaginibus consecratis delitescunt et adflatu suo auctoritatem quasi praesentis numinis consequuntur, dum inspirant interim uates, dum fanis inmorantur, dum nonnumquam extorum fibras animant, auium uolatus gubernant, sortes regunt, oracula efficiunt, falsis pluribus inuoluta.

English · Claude translation

"These impure spirits, then, the demons, as the magicians, the philosophers, and Plato have shown, lurk under consecrated statues and images, and by their breath gain the authority of a divinity as it were present, while they sometimes inspire prophets, dwell in shrines, sometimes animate the fibres of entrails, govern the flights of birds, direct the lots, and produce oracles wrapped in many falsehoods.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 2:39 · 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; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

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.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 27.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/27/1/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 27.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/27/1/).