Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek
This page translates Kern fragment 178 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. Proclus uses the fragment to explain divine arts: Athena presides over weaving, Kore's life-giving order weaves the adornment of life, Circe appears as a golden weaver in the lower realm, and human crafts have symbolic causes among daimons and gods.
Translation
Kern Fr. 178 — Athena and the Weaving Art
Proclus, commenting on Plato's Cratylus, says:
If someone were to call the gods' own productive and generative powers, which they bring forward into the whole, "arts" that are demiurgic, noetic, generative, and perfective, we would not reject such a name. For we find that the theologians too show divine makings through these terms.
They say that the Cyclopes are causes of all technical making, and that they taught Zeus, Athena, and Hephaestus. They say that Athena presides over the other arts, and especially over weaving; that Hephaestus is, in his own way, overseer of another art; and that weaving itself begins from Lady Athena:
For she is the foremost of all immortals
in tending the loom and understanding wool-working tasks,
Orpheus says.
This weaving proceeds into the life-giving series of Kore. For she herself, and all her choir, while she remains above, are said to weave the adornment of life. The art is then shared by all the gods in the cosmos: the one demiurge commands the young demiurges to weave the mortal form of life onto the immortal. Finally it is bounded among the gods who preside over generation. Among them is Homer's Circe, weaving all life in the four-element order and, together with her songs, making the region beneath the moon harmonious.
In these weaving arts, then, Circe too is received by the theologians. They call her golden, showing her noetic and stainless being, immaterial and unmixed with generation. Her work is to distinguish what stands from what moves, and to separate according to divine otherness.
In a parallel passage on Plato's Parmenides, Proclus says that it is not strange for there to be causes among daimons that are called overseers of the arts: some of one art, some of another. These arts have been given to human beings, and exist symbolically among the gods. For example, let there be some daimonic Hephaestus, guardian of bronze-working and holder of its form; but great Hephaestus himself would be said symbolically to forge the heaven. Likewise, for weaving, there is some Athenaic daimonic guardian; but Athena herself, in another and demiurgic way, is hymned as weaving the adornment of the noetic forms.
Proclus also says that Athena is called Worker because she is guardian of the demiurgic works.
Colophon
This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), fr. 178, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.
The source witness translated here is Proclus as printed by Kern.
Source Text
Kern Fr. 178 — Proclus
Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Cratylus:
εἰ δέ τις αὐτὰς τὰς ποιητικὰς καὶ γονίμους δυνάμεις τῶν θεῶν, ἃς εἰς τὸ πᾶν προάγουσι, τέχνας προσαγορεύοι δημιουργικὰς καὶ νοερὰς καὶ γεννητικὰς καὶ τελεσιουργούς, οὐκ ἂν οὐδ᾽ ἡμεῖς ἀποδοκιμάσαιμεν τὴν τοιαύτην προσηγορίαν, ἐπεὶ καὶ τοὺς θεολόγους εὑρίσκομεν διὰ τούτων τὰς θείας ποιήσεις ἐνδεικνυμένους, καὶ τοὺς μὲν Κύκλωπας ἁπάσης τεχνικῆς ποιήσεως αἰτίους λέγοντας, οἳ καὶ τὸν Δία καὶ τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν καὶ τὸν Ἥφαιστον ἐδίδαξαν, τὴν δὲ Ἀθηνᾶν τῶν τ᾽ ἄλλων τεχνῶν καὶ διαφερόντως τῆς ὑφαντικῆς προστατεῖν, τὸν δ᾽ Ἥφαιστον ἄλλης ἰδίως ἔφορον τέχνης, αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν ὑφαντικὴν ἀρχομένην μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς δεσποίνης Ἀθηνᾶς·
ἥδε γὰρ ἀθανάτων προφερεστάτη ἐστὶν ἁπασέων
ἱστὸν ἐποίχεσθαι ταλασήϊά τ᾽ ἔργα πινύσσειν·
φησὶν Ὀ., προϊοῦσαν δ᾽ εἰς τὴν ζωιογόνον τῆς Κόρης σειράν· καὶ γὰρ αὐτὴ καὶ πᾶς αὐτῆς ὁ χορὸς ἄνω μενούσης ὑφαίνειν λέγονται τὸν διάκοσμον τῆς ζωῆς, μετεχομένην δὲ ὑπὸ πάντων τῶν ἐν κόσμωι θεῶν· καὶ γὰρ ὁ εἷς δημιουργὸς τοῖς νέοις δημιουργοῖς προσυφαίνειν τῶι ἀθανάτωι παρακελεύεται τὸ θνητὸν εἶδος τῆς ζωῆς, περατουμένην δ᾽ εἰς τοὺς τῆς γενέσεως προστάτας θεούς, ὧν ἐστιν καὶ ἡ παρ᾽ Ὁμήρωι Κίρκη πᾶσαν ὑφαίνουσα τὴν ἐν τῶι τετραστοίχωι ζωὴν καὶ ἅμα ταῖς ὠιδαῖς ἐναρμόνιον ποιοῦσα τὸν ὑπὸ σελήνην τόπον. ἐν ταύταις οὖν ταῖς ὑφαντικαῖς καὶ ἡ Κίρκη ὑπὸ τῶν θεολόγων παραλαμβάνεται, χρυσῆ μέντοι, καθάπερ φασίν, ἐνδεικνύμενοι τὴν νοερὰν αὐτῆς καὶ ἄχραντον οὐσίαν καὶ ἄυλον καὶ ἀμιγῆ πρὸς τὴν γένεσιν, καὶ τὸ ἔργον αὐτῆς διακρίνειν τὰ ἑστῶτα τῶν κινουμένων καὶ χωρίζειν κατὰ τὴν ἑτερότητα τὴν θείαν.
Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Parmenides:
θαυμαστὸν δὲ οὐδὲν καὶ τὸ εἶναι τινας ἐν δαίμοσιν αἰτίας, οἳ καὶ ἔφοροι λέγονται τῶν τεχνῶν οἱ μὲν ἄλλων οἱ δὲ ἄλλων ὑπάρχειν, καὶ ἀνθρώποις δεδωρῆσθαι ταύτας, καὶ ἐν θεοῖς συμβολικῶς εἶναι, οἷον χαλκείας εἶναι μέν τις δαίμων Ἥφαιστος λεγέσθω προστάτης καὶ τὸ εἶδος ἔχων, αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ μέγας Ἥφαιστος συμβολικῶς ἂν λέγοιτο χαλκεύειν τὸν οὐρανόν· καὶ ὑφαντικῆς ὡσαύτως Ἀθηναϊκή τις δαιμονὶς ἔφορος, αὐτῆς τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἄλλως καὶ δημιουργικῶς ὑφαίνειν τὸν διάκοσμον τῶν νοερῶν εἰδῶν ὑμνουμένης.
Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:
Ἐργάνη δὲ ὡς τῶν δημιουργικῶν ἔργων προστάτις.