Note 611 — Chapter VI · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: SIMON MAGUS

Hippolytus, Bk VI. c. 1, § 17, p. 259, Cruice. For the μήτηρ, πατήρ of the text it is necessary to read μητροπάτωρ unless we are to believe that the author is here repeating without rhyme or reason the statement already made in the same sentence that the power he is describing is its own mother and its own father. The expression μητροπάτωρ is found in an address to Zeus attributed to Orpheus and quoted by Clement of Alexandria, Strom. Bk V. c. 14. Cf. Frgs. 238, 239 of Abel’s Orphica. He remarks concerning it that, by this μητροπάτωρ, Orpheus meant not only birth from the Μὴ ὤν, but also “gave occasion to those who bring in the emanations and perhaps imagine a spouse of God,”—which gives some colour to the surmise that Clement may have been acquainted with Simon’s writings.