Hippolytus

Footnotes

^[277] Or “you will suppose.”

Chapter XLIII.—Recapitulation of Theologies and Cosmogonies; System of the Persians; Of the Babylonians; The Egyptian Notion of Deity; Their Theology Based on a Theory of Numbers; Their System of Cosmogony.

^[278] See Aristotle’s Metaphysics, book i.; Cicero, De Naturâ Deorum, book i. (both translated in Bohn’s Classical Library); and Plutarch, De Placitis Philosophorum. lib. i.

^[279] The mention of the Persians, Babylonians, and Egyptians shows the subject-matter of the lost books to have been concerning the speculative systems of these nations.

^[280] This rendering follows Miller’s text. Schneidewin thinks there is a hiatus, which the Abbe Cruice fills up, the latter translating the passage without an interrogation: “The Egyptians, who think themselves more ancient than all, have formed their ideas of the power of the Deity by calculations and computing,” etc.

^[281] Or, “meditation on the divine nature,” or “godlike reflection.”

^[282] The ms. has “says he.”

^[283] The Abbe Cruice suggests the elimination of 9, on account of its being a divisible number.

^[284] Miller considers some reference here to the six days’ creation (Hexaëmeron), on account of the word φυσικωτέρα, i.e., more natural. The Abbe Cruice considers that there is an allusion to an astronomic instrument used for exhibiting harmonic combinations; see Ptolem., Harmon., i. 2. Bunsen reads τοῦ ἑξακύκλου ὑλικοῦ.

^[285] The text is obviously corrupt. As given by Schneidewin, it might be rendered thus: “These deriving from the monad a numerical symbol, a virtue, have progressed up to the elements.” He makes no attempt at a Latin version. The Abbe Cruice would suggest the introduction of the word προστεθεῖσαν, on account of the statement already made, that “the monad, superadded into itself, produces a duad.”

^[286] There is a hiatus here. Hippolytus has said nothing concerning enneads.

Chapter XLIV.—Egyptian Theory of Nature; Their Amulets.

^[287] Or, “names have been allocated,” or “distributed.”

^[288] Miller thinks it should be “even number” (περιττόν). The Abbe Cruice would retain “uneven” (ἀπερίζυγον), on the ground that the duad being a περίζυξ ἀριθμὸς, the monad will be ἀπεριζυγος.

^[289] Servius on the Eclogues of Virgil (viii. 75) and Pliny (Hist. Nat., xxxviii. 2) make similar statements.

^[290] This is Miller and Schneidewin’s emendation for “uneven” in the ms.

Chapter XLVI.—The Astrotheosophists; Aratus Imitated by the Heresiarchs; His System of the Disposition of the Stars.

^[291] Arat., Phænom., v. 19 et seq.

Chapter XLVII.—Opinions of the Heretics Borrowed from Aratus.

^[292] Ibid., v. 45, 46.

^[293] This refers to Job i. 7, but is at once recognised as not a correct quotation.

^[294] Arat., Phænom., v. 61.

^[295] Arat., Phænom., v. 63 et seq.

^[296] Arat., Phænom., v. 70.

Chapter XLVIII.—Invention of the Lyre; Allegorizing the Appearance and Position of the Stars; Origin of the Phœnicians; The Logos Identified by Aratus with the Constellation Canis; Influence of Canis on Fertility and Life Generally.

^[297] “Pierced it through,” i.e., bored the holes for the strings, or, in other words, constructed the instrument. The Latin version in Buhle’s edition of Aratus is ad cunam (cunabulam) compegit, i.e., he fastened the strings into the shell of the tortoise near his bed. The tortoise is mentioned by Aratus in the first part of the line, which fact removes the obscurity of the passage as quoted by Hippolytus. The general tradition corresponds with this, in representing Mercury on the shores of the Nile forming a lyre out of a dried tortoise. The word translated bed might be also rendered fan, which was used as a cradle, its size and construction being suitable. [See note, p. 46, infra.]

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