Refutation of All Heresies 4.36.1

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: Hecate's fiery flight is a bird released with burning tow.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 102–104

Ταῦτʼ εἰπόντος αὐτοῦ πῦρ διʼ ἀέρος βλέπεται φερόμενον, οἱ δὲ φρίξαντες τὸ παράδοξον τῆς θέας καλύψαντες τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐπὶ γῆς ῥιπτοῦνται ἄναυδοι. Τὸ δὲ τῆς τέχνης μέγεθος τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν τρόπον· ὁ συμπαίκτης, ὃν ἔφην κεκρυμμένον, ἡνίκα ἀκούσῃ παυσαμένης τῆς ἐπαοιδῆς, ἔχων ἴκτινα ἢ γῦπα περιειλημμένον στυπείῳ ἀνάψας ἀπολύει.

English · Claude translation

When he has said this, fire is seen carried through the air; and they, shuddering at the marvel of the sight, cover their eyes and throw themselves speechless on the ground. The greatness of the art is of this kind: the accomplice, whom I said was hidden, when he hears that the incantation has stopped, holding a kite or a vulture wrapped in tow, sets it alight and lets it go.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 102–104 · 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. 4.36.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/36/1/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.36.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/36/1/).