Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 28.7

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

Summary: The charge of worshipping an ass's head is absurd, but pagans do honour animals.

Latin text · CSEL 2:41–42

sic est negotium daemonum; ab ipsis enim rumor falsus et seritur et fouetur. inde est quod audire te dicis, caput asini rem nobis esse diuinam. quis tam stultus, ut hoc colat? quis stultior, ut hoc coli credat? nisi quod uos et totos asinos in stabulis cum uestra uel sua Epona consecratis et eosdem asinos cum Iside religiose decoratis, item boum capita et capita ueruecum et immolatis et colitis, de capro etiam et homine mixtos deos et leonum et canum uultibus deos dedicatis.

English · Claude translation

Such is the business of demons; for false rumour is both sown and cherished by them. Hence comes what you say you hear, that an ass's head is a sacred thing to us. Who is so foolish as to worship this? Who more foolish than to believe it is worshipped? Unless it is that you consecrate whole asses in stables together with your, or their, Epona, and religiously decorate the same asses along with Isis; you also sacrifice and worship the heads of oxen and of rams; you dedicate gods mixed of goat and man, and gods with the faces of lions and dogs.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:41–42 · 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.

Notes

Translation notes

  • Epona was the goddess of horses and stables.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 28.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/28/7/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 28.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/28/7/).

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