Sophia Scriptura

Octavius 31.3

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

Summary: Incest is found in pagan law, literature, and myth.

Latin text · CSEL 2:44

ius est apud Persas misceri cum matribus, Aegyptiis et Atheniensibus cum sororibus legitima conubia, memoriae et tragoediae uestrae incestis gloriantur, quas uos libenter et legitis et auditis; sic et deos colitis incestos, cum matre, cum filia, cum sorore coniunctos.

English · Claude translation

Among the Persians it is lawful to have intercourse with mothers; among the Egyptians and Athenians marriages with sisters are legitimate; your histories and tragedies glory in incests, which you gladly read and hear; so too you worship incestuous gods, joined with mother, with daughter, with sister.

About this passage

Source
CSEL 2:44 · 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

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR: "n" for "ri".): miscen cum → misceri cum.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 31.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/31/3/).

Plain text
Minucius Felix, Oct. 31.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/31/3/).

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