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87 Hippolytus, having exposed the system of sidereal influence over men, proceeds to detail the magical rites and operations of the sorcerers. This arrangement is in conformity with the technical divisions of astrology into (1) judiciary, (2) natural. The former related to the prediction of future events, and the latter of the phenomena of nature, being thus akin to the art of magic.
88 The text here and at the end of the last chapter is somewhat imperfect.
89 Or "cushion" (Cruice), or "couch," or "a recess."
90 Or "goes up," or "commences," or "enters in before the others, bearing the oblation" (Cruice).
92 The Abbe Cruice considers that this passage, as attributing all this jugglery to the artifice of sorcerers, militates against the authorship of Origen, who ascribes ( Heri Arxwn, lib. iii. p. 144, ed. Benedict.) the same results not to the frauds of magicians, but to demons.
95 On the margin of the MS., we find the words, "concerning coals," "concerning magical signs," "concerning sheep."
96 Or, paradoqeij, "he delivers it a sword, and departs."
98 The words "death of a goat" occur on the margin of the MS.
99 A similar statement is made, on the authority of Alcmaeon, by Aristotle in his Histor. Animal., i. 2.
100 Mannh is the word in the text. But manna in the ordinary acceptation of the tenn can scarcely be intended. Pliny, however, mentions it as a proper name of grains of incense and resin. The Abbe Cruice suggests the very probable emendation of malqh, which signifies a mixture of wax and resin for caulking ships.
101 diaulon in the text has been altered into kelanon. The trans- ~ lator has followed the latter.
102 Or "indissoluble," or "inseparable."
103 Marsilius Ficinus (in his Commentary on Plotinrus, p. 504 et sec., vol. ii. Creuzer's edition), who here discusses the subject of demons and magical art, mentions, on the authority of Porphyry, that sorcerers had the power of evoking demons, and that a magician, in the presience of many, had shown to Plotinus his guardian demon (angel). This constitutes the Goetic department of magic.
105 Mursinh This word is evidently not the right one, for we have ( smurnh) myrrh mentioned. Perhaps the word malqh, suggested in a previous passage, is the one employed here likewise.
106 Or, "makes speedy preparation;" or, "resorts to the contrivance of."
107 The words in italics are added by the Abbe Cruice. There is obviously some hiatus in the original.
109 In the margin of the MS. occur the words, "concerning the brealking of the seals."
110 Or, "exposed their method of proceeding in accordance with the system of Gnosticism." Schneidewin, following C. Fr. Hermann, is of opinion that what follows is taken from Celsus' work on magic, to which Origen alludes in the Contra Celsum, lib. i. p.53 (Spencer's edition). Lucian (the well-known satirist), in his Alexander, or Pseudomiantis, gives an account of the jugglery of these magicians. See: note, chap. xlii. of this book.
111 Or, "ground"-forukthj,( al.) frukthj, ( al.) frukthj, ( al.) frukthj.
113 Or "taught," or "adduced," or "delivered."
114 This sentence is obviously out of place, and should properly come in probably before the words, "These contrivances, however, I hesitated to narrate," etc., a few lines above in this chapter. The Abbe Cruice conjectures that it may have been written on the margin by some reader acquainted with chemistry, and thatafterwards it found its way into the text.
115 Some read faneron for paron.
116 What cyanus was is not exactly known. It was employed in the Homeric age for the adornment of implements of war. Whatever the nature of the substance be, it was of a dark-blue colour. Some suppose it to have been blue steel, other, blue copper. Theophrastus' account of it makes it a stone like a dark sapphire.
117 Or, "with the head downwards."
118 There is some hiatus here.
120 Or, "suspending a drum, etc., covered with," etc.; or "frequently placing on an elevated position a drum." For porrwqen, which is not here easy of explanation, some read tornwqen, others !porpwqen, i.e, fastened with buckles; others, porrw teqen.
121 Schneidewin, but not the Abbe Cruice, thinks there is a hiatus here.
122 There are diferent readings: (1) etumololikhj; (2) eti oloklhrou; (3) ualourgikhj, i e., composed of glass. (See next note.)
123 The Abbe Cruice properly remarks that this has no meaning here. He would read ualwdesi topoij, or by means of glass images.