Hippolytus

“ The fate of Hippolytus is indeed tragic—a lofty and pure character destroyed by his own purity; but the spectator is partly reconciled to it, and the vengeance of the deity is palliated, by the bold and somewhat impious contempt for her which he expresses at the opening of the play. The aged servant who begs him to offer the customary sacrifice to Aphrodite, and not brave her anger, touches the proper string; the bold self-opinion of the hero gives a jarring sound. ”

“ For yokeless maids before their bridal night Shall shear for thee their tresses; and a rite Of honouring tears be thine in ceaseless store; And virgin's thoughts in music evermore Turn toward thee, and praise thee in the Song Of Phaedra's far-famed love and thy great wrong. O seed of ancient Aegeus, bend thee now And clasp thy son. Aye, hold and fear not thou! Not knowingly hast thou slain him; and man's way, When Gods send error, needs must fall astray. And thou, Hippolytus, shrink not from the King, Thy father. ”

“ Why? NURSE It is not meet, fair Son, for every ear! HIPPOLYTUS Good words can bravely forth, and have no fear. NURSE Thine oath, thine oath! I took thine oath before! HIPPOLYTUS 'Twas but my tongue, 'twas not my soul that swore. NURSE O Son, what wilt thou? Wilt thou slay thy kin? HIPPOLYTUS I own no kindred with the spawn of sin! [ He flings her from him.] NURSE Nay, spare me! Man was born to err; oh, spare! HIPPOLYTUS O God, why hast Thou made this gleaming snare, Woman, to dog us on the happy earth? Was it Thy will to make Man, why his birth Through Love and Woman? ”

“ Of the historical Hippolytus little remained in the memory of after ages. Neither Eusebius (H.E. vi. 20, 2) nor Jerome (Vir. ill. 61) knew that the author so much read in the East and the Roman saint were one and the same person. The notice in the Chronicon Paschale preserves one slight reminiscence of the historical facts, namely, that Hippolytus’s episcopal see was situated at Portus near Rome. In 1551 a marble statue of a seated man was found in the cemetery of the Via Tiburtina: on the sides of the seat were carved a paschal cycle, and on the back the titles of numerous writings. ”

“ If we knew why the hero Hippolytus dedicated just twenty horses to the god who raised him from the dead, we might perhaps know why the saint Hippolytus went to heaven attended by a glorious company of just twenty martyrs. ”

“ The Roman Churches of S. Laurence and the “Quatuor Coronati” also claim to possess reliques of S. Hippolytus.
But these few scattered and doubtful reliques are well-nigh all that remains of Hippolytus, and while many of his writings are still with us, bearing witness to his industry and scholarship, his name and life-work are virtually forgotten by men; and in ecclesiastical annals only a dim, blurred memory of the career of one of the greatest scholars and writers of the first two Christian centuries lives in the pages of that eventful story. ”

“ The mystery which enveloped the person and writings of Hippolytus, [1] one of the most prolific ecclesiastical writers of early times, had some light thrown upon it for the first time about the middle of the 19th century by the discovery of the so-called Philosophumena (see below) . Assuming this writing to be the work of Hippolytus, the information given in it as to the author and his times can be combined with other traditional dates to form a tolerably clear picture. Hippolytus must have been born in the second half of the 2nd century, probably in Rome. ”

“ Lost, for this anguish presses, soon or late, To that swift river that no life hath crossed. No woman ever lived so desolate! LEADER OF THE CHORUS Ah me, the time for deeds is gone; the boast Proved vain that spake thine handmaid; and all lost! [ At these words PHAEDRA suddenly remembers the NURSE, who is cowering silently where HIPPOLYTUS had thrown her from him. She turns upon her.] PHAEDRA O wicked, wicked, wicked! Murderess heart To them that loved thee! Hast thou played thy part? Am I enough trod down? May Zeus, my sire, Blast and uproot thee! Stab thee dead with fire! ”

“ Hippolytus, charged by Theseus with the crime, will not break his oath and goes out to exile under his father's curse. The gods, in fulfilment of the curse, send death to him, but before he actually dies reveal his innocence. The story which might so easily be made ugly or sensual is treated by Euripides with a delicate and austere purity. In construction, too, and general beauty of workmanship, though not in greatness of idea or depth of passion, the Hippolytus is perhaps the finest of all his plays, and has still a great appeal on the stage. ”

“ Hippolytus’s voluminous writings, which for variety of subject can be compared with those of Origen, embrace the spheres of exegesis, homiletics, apologetics and polemic, chronography and ecclesiastical law. His works have unfortunately come down to us in such a fragmentary condition that it is difficult to obtain from them any very exact notion of his intellectual and literary importance. ”

“ CHAPTER XXXII. And Hippolytus the son of Theseus has precincts and a temple in them and ancient statue. Diomede they say erected all these, and was the first to sacrifice to Hippolytus: and the people of Trœzen have a priest of Hippolytus who serves for life, and they have yearly sacrifices, and the following custom. Every maiden cuts off a lock of her hair before marriage, and takes it and offers it at this temple. ”

“ The account given by Hippolytus, the friend of the apostles. [1]
In another little book bearing the name of Hippolytus, the friend of the apostles, I found a story of the following nature:—
There lived a certain most noble and beautiful maiden [2] in the city of Corinth, in the careful exercise of a virtuous life. At that time some persons falsely charged her before the judge there, who was a Greek, with cursing the times, and the princes, and the images. Now those who trafficked in such things, brought her beauty under the notice of the impious judge, who lusted after women. ”

“ The source of his doctrine is equally obscure; for although Hippolytus classes him with the Ophites, the serpent in his system is certainly not good and plays as hostile a part towards man as the serpent of Genesis, while his supreme Triad of the Good Being, an intermediate power ignorant of the existence of his superior, and the Earth, differs in all essential respects from the Ophite Trinity of the First and Second Man and First Woman. ”

“ Now, then, from Portus and from Lyons, Hippolytus brought into Rome the Catholic doctrine, and convicted two of its bishops of pernicious heresies and evil living. And thus, as Irenæus teaches, the faith was preserved in Rome by the testimony of those from every side resorting thither, not by any prerogative of the See itself. ”

“ Thus the mode of Hippolytus’ death is stated by Prudentius to have been identical with that of Hippolytus the son of Theseus, who was torn limb from limb by being tied to wild horses. St. Hippolytus, however, is known on historical testimony to have been thrown into a canal and drowned; but whether the scene of his martyrdom was Sardinia, to which he was undoubtedly banished along with the Roman bishop Pontianus, or Rome, or Portus, has not as yet been definitively proved. ”

“ In the case of Irenæus, too, The Refutation has restored the Greek text of much of his book Against Heresies, hitherto only known to us in a Latin version. Nor is the value of Hippolytus’ work seriously impaired, even on the supposition of the authorship not being proved,—a concession, however, in no wise justified by the evidence. ”

“ Hippolytus, Bishop and Martyr, in a letter to a certain queen. [2]
1. He calls Him, then, “the first-fruits of them that sleep,” [3] as the “first-begotten of the dead.” [4] For He, having risen, and being desirous to show that that same (body) had been raised which had also died, when His disciples were in doubt, called Thomas to Him, and said, “Reach hither; handle me, and see: for a spirit hath not bone and flesh, as ye see me have.” ”

“ The character of Hippolytus, as revealed to us in the Philosophumena, is that of a strictly, even rigidly, moral man, of a puritanic disposition, who believed in drawing the reins very tight, and allowing to the members of the Christian Church no license. ”

“ In his personal character he so much resembles Irenæus risen again, [1] that the great Bishop of Lyons must be well studied and understood if we would do full justice to the conduct of Hippolytus. Especially did he follow his master’s example in withstanding contemporary bishops of Rome, who, like Victor, “deserved to be blamed,” but who, much more than any of their predecessors, merited rebuke alike for error in doctrine and viciousness of life. ”

“ For if with each man's life 'twill higher climb, And every age break out in blood and lies Beyond its fathers, must not God devise Some new world far from ours, to hold therein Such brood of all unfaithfulness and sin? Look, all, upon this man, my son, his life Sprung forth from mine! He hath defiled my wife; And standeth here convicted by the dead, A most black villain! [HIPPOLYTUS falls back with a cry and covers his face with his robe.] Nay, hide not thine head! Pollution, is it? Thee it will not stain. Look up, and face thy Father's eyes again! Thou friend of Gods, of all mankind elect ”

“ But this is not certain, and even if it were, it does not necessarily imply that Hippolytus enjoyed the personal teaching of the celebrated Gallic bishop; it may perhaps merely refer to that relation of his theological system to that of Irenaeus which can easily be traced in his writings. As a presbyter of the church at Rome under Bishop Zephyrinus (199–217) , Hippolytus was distinguished for his learning and eloquence. It was at this time that Origen, then a young man, heard him preach (Hieron. Vir. ill. 61; cp. Euseb. H.E. vi. 14, 10) . ”

“ It was ascertained, on more minute examination, that, some time after the establishment of Christianity by Constantine, [344:1] this monument had been erected in honour of Hippolytus—a learned writer and able controversialist, who bad been bishop of Portus in the early part of the third century, and who had finished his career by martyrdom, about A.D. 236, during the persecution under the Emperor Maximin. Hippolytus is commemorated as a saint in the Romish Breviary ”

“ Arrangement (according to Croiset) : protagonist, Hippolytus; deuteragonist, Aphrodite, Phædra, Theseus (the body of Phædra being represented by a lay-figure) ; tritagonist, Artemis, servant (who announces the suicide) , nurse, messenger.
[467] This additional name (The Crowned H.) was given to distinguish the play from the earlier Ἱππόλυτος Καλυπτόμενος (now lost) , or Hippolytus Veiled. ”

“ Some, as we learn from Hippolytus, made up the number to thirty, by the addition of Christ and the Holy Ghost,—a fact which Bunsen thinks conclusively proves that the alleged generation of Æons was a subsequent addition to Valentinus’ system.↑ There is some confusion in Hippolytus’ text, which is, however, removeable by a reference to Irenæus (i. 1) .↑ We subjoin the meanings of these names:— Ten Æons from Nous and Aletheia, (or) Logos and Zoe, viz.:— 1. Bythus = Profundity. 2. Mixis = Mixture. 3. Ageratos = Ever-young. 4. Henosis = Unification. 5. Autophyes = Self-grown. ”

“ It is certainly not to be recognized in pseudo-Tertullian’s Adversus Omnes Hæreses, and the work of Hippolytus recorded by Photius was probably a copy of our text in a more or less complete form.
5. The Style of the Work
Photius’ remark that Hippolytus did not keep to the Attic style is an understatement of the case with regard to our text. Jacobi, its first critic, was so struck by the number of “Latinisms” that he found in it as to conjecture that it is nothing but a Greek translation of a Latin original. ”

“ The simple primitive cathedra, [16] of which we may learn something from the statue of Hippolytus, was, no doubt, “a throne” in the eyes of an ambitious man. Callistus is here charged, by one who knew him and his history, with obtaining this position by knavish words and practices. The question may well arise, in our Christian love for antiquity, How could such things be, even in the age of martyrdoms? Let us recollect, that under the good Bishop Pius, when his brother wrote the Hermas, the peril of wealth and love of money began to be imminent at Rome. ”

“ Suffice it, Hippolytus was one of those suburbicarian bishops who sat in the Provincial Council of Rome; without consent of which the Bishop of Rome could not, canonically, do anything of importance, as the canon above cited ordains. Such are the facts necessary to a comprehension of conflicts excited by “the contemporaneous heresy,” here noted. ”

“ Mgr. Duchesne, who may in such a matter be supposed to speak with the voice of the majority of the learned of his own communion, in his Histoire Ancienne de l’Église [15] accepts the view that Hippolytus was the author of the Philosophumena, and thinks that he became reconciled to the Church under the persecution of Maximin. [16] We may, therefore, take it that Hippolytus’ authorship is now admitted on all sides. ”

“ Richard Ganschinietz, in a study on Hippolytus’ Capitel gegen die Magier appearing in Gebhardt’s and Harnack’s Texte und Untersuchungen, dritte Reihe Bd. 9, Leipzig, 1913, says it is not doubtful that Hippolytus took this chapter from Celsus’ book κατὰ μάγων, which he discovers in Origen’s work against the last-named author. He assumes that Lucian of Samosata in his Ἀλέξανδρος ἢ Ψευδόμαντις borrowed from the same source.
[106] τῶν δαιμόνων, a demonibus, Cr. But the word δαίμων is hardly ever used in classic or N.T. Greek for a devil or evil spirit, generally called δαιμόνιον. ”