Refutation of All Heresies 4.20.1

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 appearance and character of those born under Virgo.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 84

Ἐν Παρθένῳ τύπος· ὁράσει καλῇ, ὀφθαλμοῖς οὐ μεγάλοις, ἐπαφροδίτοις, μέλασιν, ὀφρύσι συντεθειμέναις, ἱλαροῖς, κολυμβῶσιν. Εἰσὶ δὲ λεπτοὶ σώματι, ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦ ὄψει καλοῦ, τριχὶ καλῶς συντεθειμένῃ, μετώπῳ μεγάλῳ, ῥώθωνι προάλει. Οἱ αὐτοὶ φύσεως· εὐμαθεῖς, μέτριοι, ἐννοηταί, παιγνιώδεις, λόγιοι, βραδυλαλοῦντες, πολλὰ βουλευόμενοι, πρὸς χάριν εὐπαραίτητοι, ἡδέως πάντα παρατηροῦντες, καὶ μαθηταὶ εὐφυεῖς, ἃ ἔμαθον κρατοῦσι, μέτριοι, ἐξουθενηταί, παιδεράσται, συνήθεις, ψυχῇ μεγάλῃ, καταφρονηταί, πραγμάτων ἀμελεῖς, διδαχῇ προσέχοντες, καλλίονες ἐν ἄλλοις ἢ τοῖς ἰδίοις, πρὸς φιλίαν ὠφέλιμοι.

English · Claude translation

Type in the Virgin: of fair appearance, eyes not large, charming, black, eyebrows joined, cheerful, swimming. They are slender of body, and fair in look, hair nicely arranged, large forehead, prominent nose. The same by nature: quick to learn, moderate, thoughtful, playful, eloquent, slow of speech, deliberating much, easily won over to a favor, gladly observing everything, gifted pupils who hold fast what they have learned, moderate, contemptuous, pederasts, sociable, great-souled, scornful, careless of affairs, attentive to teaching, better in others' affairs than in their own, useful in friendship.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 84 · 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.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.20.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/20/1/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.20.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/20/1/).