Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragment 228 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The witness is Vettius Valens, who cites four short sayings as Orphic: the soul rooted from aether, divine soul gathered with breath, the immortal and ageless soul from Zeus, and mortal bodies beside immortal soul.

Translation

Kern Fr. 228 — Four Sayings on Soul

Vettius Valens says, "as also the most divine Orpheus says":

For human beings, the soul is rooted from aether.

And elsewhere:

Drawing in air, we gather a divine soul.

Elsewhere:

The soul is immortal and ageless; it is from Zeus.

Elsewhere:

The soul of all is immortal, but bodies are mortal.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), fr. 228, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witness translated here is Vettius Valens, Anthologies, Book IX, as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 228 — Vettius Valens

Vettius Valens, Anthologies, Book IX:

καθὼς καὶ ὁ θειότατος Ὀ. λέγει·

a. ψυχὴ δ' ἀνθρώποισιν ἀπ' αἰθέρος ἐρρίζωται.

καὶ ἄλλως·

b. ἀέρα δ' ἕλκοντες ψυχὴν θείαν δρεπόμεθα.

ἄλλως·

c. ψυχὴ δ' ἀθάνατος καὶ ἀγήρως ἐκ Διός ἐστιν.

ἄλλως·

d. ψυχὴ δ' ἀθάνατος πάντων, τὰ δὲ σώματα θνητά.