Editing Simon Magus (section)

===Hippolytus===
In ''[[Refutation of All Heresies|Philosophumena]]'', [[Hippolytus of Rome|Hippolytus]] retells the narrative on Simon written by Irenaeus (who in his turn based it on the lost ''Syntagma'' of Justin). Upon the story of "the lost sheep", Hippolytus comments as follows:<ref name=EB1911/>

{{blockquote|But the liar was enamoured of this wench, whose name was Helen, and had bought her and had her to wife, and it was out of respect for his disciples that he invented this fairy-tale.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050106.htm Hippolytus], ''[[Refutation of all Heresies]]'',  6, 19.</ref>}}

Also, Hippolytus demonstrates acquaintance with the folk tradition on Simon which depicts him rather as a magician than Gnostic, and in constant conflict with Peter (also present in the apocrypha and [[Clementine literature|Pseudo-Clementine literature]]). Reduced to despair by the curse laid upon him by Peter in the Acts, Simon soon abjured the faith and embarked on the career of a sorcerer:<ref name=EB1911/>

{{blockquote|Until he came to Rome also and fell foul of the Apostles. Peter withstood him on many occasions. At last he came&nbsp;... and began to teach sitting under a plane tree. When he was on the point of being shown up, he said, in order to gain time, that if he were buried alive he would rise again on the third day. So he bade that a tomb should be dug by his disciples and that he should be buried in it. Now they did what they were ordered, but he remained there until now: for he was not the Christ.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050106.htm Hippolytus], ''[[Refutation of all Heresies]]'', 6, 15.</ref>}}

====Simonians====
{{Main|Simonians}}
[[Image:Simonian Aeonology.jpg|thumb|right|Illustration of the Simonian philosophy]]

Hippolytus gives a much more doctrinally detailed account of [[Simonianism]], including a system of divine emanations and interpretations of [[Old Testament|the Old Testament]], with extensive quotations from the ''[[Simonianism#The Great Declaration|Apophasis Megale]]''. Some believe that Hippolytus' account is of a later, more developed form of Simonianism, and that the original doctrines of the group were simpler, close to the account given by Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (this account however is also included in Hippolytus' work).{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

Hippolytus says the [[free love]] doctrine was held by them in its purest form, and speaks in language similar to that of Irenaeus about the variety of magic arts practiced by the Simonians, and also of their having images of Simon and Helen under the forms of [[Zeus]] and [[Athena]]. But he also adds, "if any one, on seeing the images either of Simon or Helen, shall call them by those names, he is cast out, as showing ignorance of the mysteries."<ref name=EB1911/>