Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume IHippolytus, Antipope
Philosophy
Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume I
Hippolytus, Antipope
Christian heresies -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Occultism; Philosophy, Ancient
[Footnote 167: Why should the cosmos be masculo-feminine? The
Valentinians said the same thing about their Sophia, who was, as I have
said elsewhere (_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, Oct. 1917), a
personification of the Earth. The idea seems to go back to Sumerian
times. Cf. _Forerunners_, II, 45, n. 1, and Mr. S. Langdon, _Tammuz and
Ishtar_, Oxford, 1914, pp. 7, 43 and 115.]
[Footnote 168: The worshippers of the Greek Isis declared Isis to be
the earth and Osiris water. See _Forerunners_, I, 73, for references.
If Hippolytus is here recapitulating Books II and III, it is probable
that the lacuna was occupied with some reference to the Alexandrian
deities and their connection with the arithmetical speculations of the
Neo-Pythagoreans. Could this be substantiated, we should not need to
look further for the origin of the Simonian and Valentinian heresies.]
[Footnote 169: ψηφιζόμενα κὰι ἀναλυόμενα, _supputata et diversa_, Cr.
The process seems to be that called earlier (p. 85 _supra_) the rule of
9.]
[Footnote 170: 361 ÷ 9 = 40 + 1; 605 ÷ 9 = 67 + 2.]
[Footnote 171: ἀπερίζυγον, lit., “unyoked.”]
[Footnote 172: εἰς ἐννάδα here appears in the text apparently as an
alternative reading. Cruice suggests “with an ennead deducted.”]
[Footnote 173: Meaning that some reckon the numerical value of all the
letters in a name, others that of the vowels only.]
[Footnote 174: What follows has nothing to do with divination, but
treats of the celestial map as a symbolical representation of the
Christian scheme of salvation. Hippolytus condemns the notion as a
“heresy,” but if so, its place ought to be in Book V. It is doubtful
from what author or teacher he derived his account of it; but all the
quotations from Aratus’ _Phænomena_ which he gives are to be found in
Cicero, _De Natura Deorum_, 41, where they make, as they do not here, a
connected story.]
[Footnote 175: One of the passages favouring the conjecture that the
book was originally in the form of lectures.]
[Footnote 176: οἱ ἐντυγχάνοντες, _legentibus_, Cr. It may just as
easily mean “those who come across this.”]
[Footnote 177: “Catasterisms” was the technical term for these
transfers, of which the _Coma Berenices_ is the best-known example. Cf.
Bouché-Leclercq, _op. cit._, p. 23.]
[Footnote 178: The long-eared owl (_strix otus_). According to Ælian it
had a reputation for stupidity, and was therefore a type of the easy
dupe, Athenæus, _Deipnosophistæ_, IX, 44, 45, tells a similar story to
that in the text about the bustard.]
[Footnote 179: Reading μετανάσσεται for μετανίσσεται or μετανείσεται.]
[Footnote 180: στρεπτούς, _volventes_, Cr. An attempt to pun on πόλος,
the Pole.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account