Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragment 284 from the Astrologica section of Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta. Kern places the fragment under the conjectural heading On Runaways. The surviving witness is Tzetzes, who says that Orpheus remembered the story of Iphiclus' impossible lightness and speed.

Translation

Kern Fr. 284 — Iphiclus Above the Dry Field

Tzetzes says:

Orpheus somewhere remembers this story, saying:

You would not even call him
swifter than Iphiclus,

who ran
over the stalks,

and did no harm
to the fruit,

carrying his light limbs
over the dry grain-field.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), fr. 284, in the Astrologica section headed "On Runaways." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witness translated here is Tzetzes' Chiliades, with the parallel note in Tzetzes' commentary on Homer's Iliad, as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 284 — On Runaways

τῆς ἱστορίας μέμνηται ταύτης Ὀρφεὺς που λέγων·

οὐδ᾽ ἦν Ἰφίκλοιο θοώτερος αὐδάζοιο,
ὅς τε καὶ ἀνθερίκεσσιν ἐπέτρεχεν, οὐδέ τι καρπὸν
σίνετ᾽ ἀήσυρα γυῖα φέρων ἐπὶ λήιον αὖον.