Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.14.4

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: A power around the twelve-angled pyramid, which ignorance named Kore, has five ministers with strange names.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 186

Περιεσφαιρωκὼς τὴν δωδεκαγώνιον πυραμίδα, πύλην εἰς πυραμίδα σκοτίζων ποικίλαις χρόαις καὶ ἀπαρτίζων πᾶσαν τὴν νυκτόχρουν. Τοῦτον ἡ ἀγνωσία ἐκάλεσε Κόρην, οὖ λειτουργοὶ πέντε· πρῶτος Οὔ, δεύτερος Ἀοαί, τρίτος Οὐώ, τέταρτος Οὐωάβ, πέμπτος... ἄλλοι πιστοὶ οἰκονόμοι αὐτοῦ τῆς τοπαρχίας ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς οἱ ἀναπαυόμενοι ἐν τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ αὐτῶν.

English · Claude translation

Having encircled the twelve-angled pyramid, darkening the gate into the pyramid with varied colors and completing the whole night-colored one: this one ignorance called Kore, whose ministers are five: first Ou, second Aoai, third Ouo, fourth Ouoab, fifth …; other faithful stewards of his toparchy of day and night, who rest in their own authority.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 186 · 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.
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The name of the fifth minister is lost.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.14.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/14/4/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.14.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/14/4/).

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