Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 20.4

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

Summary: Tales of people turned into animals or plants are impossible, since such things never happen now.

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

Latin text · CSEL 2:28

quid illas aniles fabulas, de hominibus aues et feras, t homines et de hominibus arbores atque flores? quae si essent facta, fierent: quia fieri non possunt, ideo nec facta sunt.

English · Claude translation

What of those old wives' tales, of birds and beasts made from men, and of trees and flowers made from men? If these things had happened, they would still happen; because they cannot happen, therefore they have not happened.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:28 · 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 "t" before "homines" in the digital text is probably the editor's crux (†) marking the words as corrupt; the sense given is probable.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR: "lll" for "ill".): quid lllas → quid illas.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 20.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/20/4/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 20.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/20/4/).

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