Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragment 245 from the section Kern heads Diathekai, the Orphic Testament tradition. The witnesses are Pseudo-Justin and Cyril of Alexandria. Pseudo-Justin presents Orpheus as the poet who introduced the three hundred and sixty gods but later repented and bore witness to one God. Cyril likewise presents Orpheus as turning from hymns to false-named gods toward the truth about God.

Translation

Kern Fr. 245 — The Justinian Redaction

Pseudo-Justin says that Orpheus too will bear witness: the same Orpheus who brings in the three hundred and sixty gods in the book entitled Testaments, when he appears to repent of this from what he writes.

Pseudo-Justin's Exhortation to the Greeks says that Orpheus, who might be called the first teacher of Greek polytheism, later proclaimed one and only God to his son Musaeus and to the rest of his genuine hearers:

I will speak to those for whom it is lawful.
Shut the doors,
all you profane ones alike.

But you, listen,
child of light-bearing Memory,
Muse.

For I will tell true things.
Do not let what appeared before
in your breast
rob you of dear life.

Look to the divine word.
Attend to it.
Guide the thinking vessel
of your heart.

Step well upon the path,
and look only
to the lord of the world.

He is one,
self-born.

From one,
all offspring have been made.

He himself is present
within them,
and no mortal sees him.

But he sees all.

From good
he gives evil to mortals:
chilling war
and tearful pains.

There is no other
apart from the great king.

I do not see him,
for a cloud is fixed around him.

For all mortals
have mortal pupils
in their eyes,
and it is weakness
to see Zeus,
who rules over all.

He is fixed
in the bronze heaven,
on a golden throne.

He has set his feet
upon the earth,
and stretched his right hand
to Ocean's limit
on every side.

Around him tremble
the long mountains,
and the rivers,
and the depth
of the gray, gleaming sea.

Kern notes that the line "One Zeus, one Hades, one Helios, one Dionysus" follows this passage in the same tradition.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), fr. 245, in the section headed "Diathekai." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Pseudo-Justin, De monarchia, Pseudo-Justin, Exhortation to the Greeks, and Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian, as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 245 — Pseudo-Justin and Cyril

Pseudo-Justin, De monarchia:

μαρτυρήσει δέ μοι καὶ Ὀ. ὁ παρεισάγων τοὺς τριακοσίους ἑξήκοντα θεοὺς ἐν τῷ Διαθῆκαι ἐπιγραφομένῳ βιβλίῳ, ὁπότε μετανοῶν ἐπὶ τούτῳ φαίνεται ἐξ ὧν γράφει.

Pseudo-Justin, Exhortation to the Greeks:

Ὀ. γοῦν, ὁ τῆς πολυθεότητος ὑμῶν ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις, πρῶτος διδάσκαλος γεγονώς, οἷα πρὸς τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ Μουσαῖον καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς γνησίους ἀκροατὰς ὕστερον περὶ ἑνὸς καὶ μόνου θεοῦ κηρύττει λέγων, ἀναγκαῖον ὑπομνῆσαι ὑμᾶς. ἔφη δὲ οὕτως:

φθέγξομαι οἷς θέμις ἐστί· θύρας δ' ἐπίθεσθε βέβηλοι
πάντες ὅμως. σὺ δ' ἄκουε, φαεσφόρου ἔκγονε Μνήμης,
Μουσαῖ· ἐξερέω γὰρ ἀληθέα· μηδέ σε τὰ πρὶν
ἐν στήθεσσι φανέντα φίλης αἰῶνος ἀμέρσῃ.
εἰς δὲ λόγον θεῖον βλέψας τούτῳ προσέδρευε
ἰθύνων κραδίης νοερὸν κύτος· εὖ δ' ἐπίβαινε
ἀτραπιτοῦ, μοῦνον δ' ἐσόρα κόσμοιο ἄνακτα.
εἷς ἔστ', αὐτογενής, ἑνὸς ἔκγονα πάντα τέτυκται·
ἐν δ' αὐτοῖς αὐτὸς περιγίνεται, οὐδέ τις αὐτὸν
εἰσοράᾳ θνητῶν, αὐτὸς δέ γε πάντας ὁρᾶται.
οὗτος δ' ἐξ ἀγαθοῖο κακὸν θνητοῖσι δίδωσι
καὶ πόλεμον κρυόεντα καὶ ἄλγεα δακρυόεντα.
οὐδέ τις ἔσθ' ἕτερος χωρὶς μεγάλου βασιλῆος.
αὐτὸν δ' οὐχ ὁρόω· περὶ γὰρ νέφος ἐστήρικται.
πᾶσιν γὰρ θνητοῖς θνηταὶ κόραι εἰσὶν ἐν ὄσσοις,
ἀσθενὲς δ' ἰδέειν Δία τὸν πάντων μεδέοντα.
οὗτος γὰρ χάλκειον ἐς οὐρανὸν ἐστήρικται
χρυσέῳ ἐνὶ θρόνῳ, γαίης δ' ἐπὶ ποσσὶ βέβηκε
χεῖρά τε δεξιτερὴν ἐπὶ τέρματος Ὠκεανοῖο
πάντοθεν ἐκτέτακεν· περὶ γὰρ τρέμει οὔρεα μακρὰ
καὶ ποταμοὶ πολιῆς τε βάθος χαροποῖο θαλάσσης.

Kern adds:

sequitur fr. 239 b.