Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragment 288 from the Astrologica section of Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta. Kern prints the fragment under Katarchai, "Beginnings," an electional-astrological title on the signs under which one should or should not begin roads, marriages, purchases, studies, medical treatment, and other actions.

Translation

Kern Fr. 288 — From Orpheus' Dodecatropos, On Beginnings

The heading says:

From Orpheus' Dodecatropos: On Beginnings.

On the Tropical or Turning Signs

When the tropical signs are rising, do not take hold of a road. The road is hard and slow, and not accompanied by good outcome. Friends will make enmity, and then they will become friends again.

One should sow and plant. Do not lay foundations. Give earnest money.

Those who fall sick in these signs will rise up, or their suffering will be dissolved on the seventh day. But if the day of taking to bed passes from the tropical signs into the fixed signs, it brings death.

One should not go out or go campaigning. If someone has fled, plundering happens. As long as the Moon is in the same zodiacal sign, you will find it quickly. But if it passes beyond the tropical signs, the thing is lost; it will be found with another.

If a promise is made, it is not fulfilled. Dreams are false. A physician does not heal. Liquids do not help. Or else another person completes the work.

It is not useful for women to begin a web at the loom. Someone who has fled from his fatherland returns again. In short: do not begin a lasting matter in the tropical signs.

On the Double-Bodied Signs

When the double-bodied signs are rising, never trade in the market. The transaction has deceit in it, or sickness, or some other thing lies ahead.

Marriages made in the double-bodied signs turn toward adultery, and many battles and pains are nourished in marriages like these.

If someone who has fled is caught in the double-bodied signs, he becomes a fugitive again. If someone has promised to give wages, he will not give as much as he said. Favors and gifts, however, will be good.

It is good to plant, and to set eggs under birds.

Taking to bed brings fever back again, and the disease returns. Whether in good or bad, it doubles the experience.

It is also good to begin a road. But if someone dies in the double-bodied signs, another is going to die too; and if someone falls sick in the double-bodied signs, others in that same house will fall sick too.

Victory comes in the double-bodied signs, but bad things come afterward, for they are doubled.

For teachers and physicians, it is good to begin learning in the double-bodied signs.

On the Fixed Signs

When the fixed signs are rising, possessions and purchases are firm.

In the fixed signs one should take a wife and begin her affairs, a craft, and a work, for plans are fulfilled.

The thief will easily be found. Going abroad is firm. An enemy, once made, does not become a friend. Judgments are firm: they bring either death, or length of sickness, or the sickness is released through a week.

Bonds in the fixed signs are bad, for the person who has become angry does not change. If someone asks for money, it is not given to him.

One should begin speeches and music in the fixed signs. The borrower pays back with difficulty. It is good to be taught letters and to make friendships. The tropical signs, however, change matters and make battles in them.

The Moon passing through the signs already named shows these same things, just as the rising sign indicated them.

Related Verse Parallel from Ammon's Katarchai

Kern also prints a related verse fragment from Ammon's Katarchai, because many details agree with the Orphic material.

The Tropical or Turning Signs

In the tropical signs, it is not good to marry,
nor to complete the lovely betrothal
for marriage,

nor to buy possession.
Do not begin learning
some craft then.

And if there is some other matter
that you want to remain
for a long time,

do not do this
when the Moon
is in the tropical signs.

For all things
in the tropical signs
come to pass in reversal,

and oracles and dreams
lie
in the tropical signs.

The one who has taken something
will repay it easily
and gladly.

If you wish
to sail into foreign land
and travel,

I command you
to do it in the tropical signs:
your return will be swift.

Then go home
from the foreign land.

If a bad-devising servant
flees
in the tropical signs,

he will come back again
into his master's house
and will not escape.

The one who steals
in the tropical signs
is caught

and will not pass unnoticed.

The Fixed Signs

In the fixed signs,
if you are driven
into foreign land,

you will remain there
for a long time,
and your return is slow.

A sickness
that begins in the fixed signs
is bad.

It does not stop quickly,
but the sickness remains,

and often it has destroyed men,
unless some good god
has looked upon the Moon.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), fr. 288, in the Astrologica section headed Katarchai. Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witness translated here is the Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum IV text pointed out by Franz Cumont and edited by Josef Heeg. Kern also prints the related Ammon Katarchai verses edited by Arthur Ludwich because of their overlap with the Orphic electional-astrological tradition.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 288 — From Orpheus' Dodecatropos, On Beginnings

Ἐξ τῆς δωδεκατρόπου Ὀρφέως· περὶ καταρχῶν.

a) Περὶ τροπικῶν ζωιδίων

τῶν τροπικῶν ζωιδίων ὡροσκοπούντων μὴ ἅψηι ὁδοῦ· χαλεπὴ γὰρ καὶ βραδεῖα καὶ οὐ μετὰ καλοῦ· φίλοι δὲ ἔχθραν ποιήσουσι· πάλιν φίλοι γενήσονται· χρὴ σπείρειν φυτεύειν· θεμέλια μὴ τιθῆις· ἀρραβῶνα δίδου· οἱ ἐννοσοῦντες τοῖς ζωιδίοις ἐγερθήσονται <ἢ> ἑβδομαδαῖοι διαλυθήσονται τὸ πάθος· εἰ δὲ ἡ τῆς κατακλίσεως ἡμέρα μετέλθηι ἀπὸ τῶν τροπικῶν εἰς τὰ στερεά, θάνατον ἐπάγει· οὐ δεῖ ἐξελθεῖν ἢ στρατεύειν· εἰ φύγοι τις, ἡ σύλησις γένηται· ἕως οὗ ἐν τῶι αὐτῶι ζωιδίωι ἦι Σελήνη, ταχὺ ἀνευρήσεις· εἰ δὲ παρέλθηι τῶν τροπικῶν, καὶ ἀπόλλυται, εἰ μέθ' ἑτέρου εὑρεθήσεται· ἐάν τις ὑπόσχεσις γένηται, οὐ πληροῦται· οἱ ὄνειροι ψευδεῖς· οὐδὲ ἰατρεύει ἰατρός· ὑγρὰ οὐκ ὠφελεῖ· ἢ ἄλλος πληροῖ τὸ ἔργον· οὐδὲ γυναίκαις ἱστοῦ κατάρχεσθαι ὠφελεῖ· ἀποφυγών τις τῆν πατρίδαν πάλιν ἐπιστρέφει· βεβαίου γὰρ πράγματος μὴ κατάρχου τοῖς τροπικοῖς ζωιδίοις.

b) Περὶ δισώμων ζωιδίων

τῶν δισώμων ζωιδίων ὡροσκοπούντων μηδέποτε ἀγοράζηις· δόλον γὰρ ἔχει ἡ πρᾶσις· ἢ νόσος ἢ ἕτερα πρόκειται. οἱ ἐν δισώμοις γενόμενοι γάμοι εἰς μοιχείαν τρέπονται· καὶ πολλαὶ μάχαι καὶ ὀδύναι τρέφονται τοῖς τοιούτοις γάμοις· εἴ τις φυγὼν τοῖς δισώμοις πιασθῆι, καὶ πάλιν φυγὰς γίνεται· εἴ τις ὑπεσχέθη ἵνα δώσηι μισθόν, οὐ δώσει ὅσον εἶπεν· αἱ δὲ χάριτες καὶ αἱ δωρεαὶ καλαὶ ἔσονται. φυτεύειν καὶ ὄρνισιν ἐπιτιθέναι ὠιά.

ἡ δὲ κατάκλισις πάλιν πυρετὸν φέρει· καὶ ὑποστραφῆι τὸ νόσημα· ἢ ἐν καλῶι ἢ ἐν κακῶι πείσεις διπλασιάζει. καλὸν καὶ ὁδοῦ κατάρχεσθαι· εἰ δέ τις ἀποθάνηι ἐν δισώμοις, μέλλει καὶ ἀποθανεῖν καὶ <εἰ> ἐν δισώμοις τις νοσήσει, νοσήσουσι καὶ ἕτεροι <ἐν> τῶι οἴκωι ἐκείνωι· νίκη ἐν δισώμοις, εἶτα δὲ κακὰ <. . . . .> διπλασιάζονται γάρ.

παιδευταῖς καὶ ἰατροῖς μανθάνειν καλὸν <εἰς> τὰ δίσωμα.

c) Περὶ στερεῶν ζωιδίων

τῶν στερεῶν ζωιδίων ὡροσκοπούντων αἱ κτήσεις καὶ ἀγορασίαι βέβαιοί εἰσιν. ἐν στερεοῖς δεῖ γυναῖκα λαμβάνειν καὶ τὰ πράγματα αὐτῆς, τέχνην καὶ ἔργον, ἄρχεσθαι [οὐ] συμφέρει· πληροῦνται γὰρ αἱ βουλαί. ὁ κλέπτης εὐχερῶς εὑρήσεται· ἀποδημεῖν δὲ βέβαιόν ἐστιν· ὁ δὲ ἐχθρὸς γενόμενος οὐ φιλιοῦται· αἱ δὲ κρίσεις βέβαιοί εἰσιν· ἢ γὰρ θάνατον φέρει ἢ μῆκος νόσου ἢ δι' ἑβδομάδος λυθήσεται ἡ νόσος· δεσμοὶ ἐν στερεοῖς κακοί· ὁ γὰρ ὀργισθεὶς οὐ μεταβάλλεται· ἐάν τις αἰτήσηι χρήματα, οὐ δίδοται αὐτῶι.

λόγων καὶ μουσικῆς δεῖ ἄρχεσθαι ἐν τοῖς στερεοῖς· ὁ δὲ δανειζόμενος μόλις ἀποδίδωσι· διδάσκεσθαι δὲ γράμματα καλὸν <καὶ> φίλιας ποιεῖν· μεταβάλλει δὲ τὰ τροπικὰ καὶ ποιεῖ μάχας ἐν αὐτοῖς. ὡσαύτως καὶ ἡ Σελήνη τὰ προειρημένα ζώιδια διερχομένη ταῦτα δηλοῖ ἅπερ καὶ ὁ ὡροσκοπῶν ἐσήμανεν.

Related Verse Parallel from Ammon's Katarchai

I

ἐν τροπικοῖς οὔτ' ἂρ γαμέειν καλὸν οὔτε γάμοιο

μνηστείην ἐρατὴν τελέειν, οὐ κτήσιος ὠνήν·

μηδὲ δαημοσύνην τέχνης τινὸς ἄρχεο τῆμος.

εἰ δὲ καὶ ἄλλο τι πρᾶγμα θέλεις μίμνειν ἐπὶ δηρόν,

μὴ σύγε τοῦτ' ἔρξηις τροπικοῖς Μήνης ἐνεούσης·

πάντα γὰρ ἐν τροπικοῖσι παλίντροπα ἐκτελέθουσι,

καὶ χρησμοὶ καὶ ὄνειροι ψεύδοντ' ἐν τροπικοῖσι.

ῥηιδίως δ' ὁ λαβὼν καὶ ἀσπασίως ἀποτείσει.

πλώειν δ' εἰς ξείνην καὶ ὁδεύειν ἢν ἐθέληισθα,

ἐν τροπικοῖς κέλομαι· νόστος δέ τοι ἔσσεται ὠκύς,

καὶ εἰς οἶκον ἴθι τῆμος ξείνης ἀπὸ γαίης.

ἢν δὲ φύγηι θεράπων κακομήχανος ἐν τροπικοῖσιν,

ἂψ εἰς οἶκον ἄνακτος ἐλεύσεται οὐδ' ὑπαλύξει·

κλέψας δ' ἐν τροπικοῖσιν ἁλίσκεται οὐδέ τε λήσει.

II

ἐν στερεοῖς ζώιοις ξείνην εἰς γαῖαν ἐπειχθεὶς

δηρὸν ἐκεῖ μενέεις, καί τοι νόστος βραδύς ἐστιν.

ἀρξαμένη δὲ νόσος στερεοῖς κακή· οὐδὲ γὰρ ὦκα

παύεται, ἀλλὰ μένει τε νόσος καὶ πολλάκις ἄνδρας

ὤλεσεν, εἰ μή τις Μήνην θεὸς εἴσιδεν ἐσθλός.