Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragment 246 from the section Kern heads Diathekai, the Orphic Testament tradition. The witness is Clement of Alexandria. Kern calls this the Clementine redaction, perhaps connected with the forged Hecataeus tradition. Clement quotes the Orphic verses in several places, and Kern deliberately does not restore them into a single continuous poem. They are translated here in the order of Clement's witnesses.

Translation

Kern Fr. 246 — The Clementine Redaction

Clement's Exhortation to the Greeks says:

The Thracian hierophant and poet, Orpheus son of Oeagrus, after the hierophantic display of the rites and the theology of idols, brings in a palinode of truth. Late though it is, still he sings the truly sacred word:

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

But you, listen,
Musaeus,
child of light-bearing Moon.

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 immortal lord
of the world.

Then, descending further, Clement says, Orpheus adds explicitly:

He is one,
self-born.

From one
all offspring have been made.

He himself moves
within them,
and no mortal sees him.

But he sees all.

Clement's Stromata says, after Moses entering the darkness where God was, that God is invisible and unutterable, and that the darkness is the unbelief and ignorance of the many set before the ray of truth. Clement then says that Orpheus the theologian, helped from this, spoke:

He is one,
self-complete.

From one
all offspring have been made,
or, as it is also written,
"have grown."

And no mortal sees him.
But he sees all.

Clement then adds a clearer saying:

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

For all mortals
have mortal pupils
in their eyes,
small ones,
since flesh and bones
have grown into them.

In another place, Clement says that the same Orpheus again speaks about God:

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 immortal lord
of the world.

Then Clement says that Orpheus speaks of God as invisible and says that God is known to one certain man of Chaldaean race, whether he means Abraham or Abraham's son:

Unless he is some only-born
shoot from the Chaldaean race
from above.

For he was skilled
in the course of the star,
and in the motion
of the sphere,
how it always turns
around the earth,
circular,
equal in balance,
upon its own axle.

He reins the breaths
around the air
and around the stream
of water.

Clement says that Orpheus then paraphrases the saying, "Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet":

He himself again
is fixed on great heaven,
on a golden throne.

Earth has been set
beneath his feet.

He has stretched out
his right hand
around the limits
of Ocean.

The base of the mountains
trembles within
in its heart,
and cannot bear
his strong might.

He is everywhere:
heavenly,
and upon earth.

By him
all things are brought
to completion.

He himself holds
beginning,
middle,
and end.

It is not lawful
for you to speak otherwise.

I tremble in my limbs
and in my mind.

From the highest,
he brings all things
to pass.

Later, Clement quotes Orpheus again:

He himself
plants evil from good
for mortals,
and chilling war,
and tearful pains.

Then, after citing Archilochus, Clement asks Orpheus to sing again:

He stretched out
his right hand
to the limit of Ocean
on every side,
and earth
has been set
beneath his feet.

Finally, Clement cites one more line from the same tradition:

Nor is there any other
apart from the great king.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), fr. 246, in the section headed "Diathekai." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 7.74.3-5, Stromata 5.12.78.4, Stromata 5.14.123.1, Stromata 5.14.126.5, and Stromata 5.14.133.1, as printed and indexed by Kern. Kern notes that the scattered Testament verses could be arranged into a poem, but that no certain restoration can be supplied.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 246 — Clement of Alexandria

Clement, Exhortation to the Greeks 7.74.3-5:

Ὁ δὲ Θρᾴκιος ἱεροφάντης καὶ ποιητὴς ἅμα, ὁ τοῦ Οἰάγρου Ὀρφεύς, μετὰ τὴν τῶν ὀργίων ἱεροφαντίαν καὶ τῶν εἰδώλων τὴν θεολογίαν, παλινῳδίαν ἀληθείας εἰσάγει, τὸν ἱερὸν ὄντως ὀψέ ποτε, ὅμως δ' οὖν ᾄδων λόγον·

φθέγξομαι οἷς θέμις ἐστί· θύρας δ' ἐπίθεσθε βέβηλοι
πάντες ὁμῶς· σὺ δ' ἄκουε, φαεσφόρου ἔκγονε Μήνης,
Μουσαῖε, 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
ἀθάνατον.

εἷς ἔστ', αὐτογενής, ἑνὸς ἔκγονα πάντα τέτυκται·
ἐν δ' αὐτοῖς αὐτὸς περινίσσεται, οὐδέ τις αὐτὸν
εἰσορᾷ θνητῶν, αὐτὸς δέ γε πάντας ὁρᾶται.

Clement, Stromata 5.12.78.4:

Ὀρφεύς τε αὖ ὁ θεολόγος ἐντεῦθεν ὠφελημένος εἰπών·

εἷς ἔστ', αὐτοτελής, ἑνὸς ἔκγονα πάντα τέτυκται

ἢ "πέφυκεν", γράφεται γὰρ καὶ οὕτως, ἐπιφέρει·

οὐδέ τις αὐτὸν
εἰσορᾷ θνητῶν, αὐτὸς δέ γε πάντας ὁρᾶται.

σαφέστερον δὲ ἐπιλέγει·

αὐτὸν δ' οὐχ ὁρόω· περὶ γὰρ νέφος ἐστήρικται.
πᾶσιν γὰρ θνητοῖς θνηταὶ κόραι εἰσὶν ἐν ὄσσοις
μικραί, ἐπεὶ σάρκες τε καὶ ὀστέα ἐμπεφύασιν.

Clement, Stromata 5.14.123.1:

ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς Ὀρφεὺς καὶ ταῦτα λέγει·

εἰς δὲ λόγον θεῖον βλέψας τούτῳ προσέδρευε,
ἰθύνων κραδίης νοερὸν κύτος· εὖ δ' ἐπίβαινε
ἀτραπιτοῦ, μοῦνον δ' ἐσόρα κόσμοιο ἄνακτα
ἀθάνατον.

Αὖθίς τε περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀόρατον αὐτὸν λέγων, μόνῳ γνωσθῆναι ἑνί τινί φησι τὸ γένος Χαλδαίῳ, εἴτε τὸν Ἀβραὰμ λέγων τοῦτον εἴτε καὶ τὸν υἱὸν τὸν αὐτοῦ, διὰ τούτων·

εἰ μὴ μουνογενής τις ἀπορρὼξ φύλου ἄνωθεν
Χαλδαίων· ἴδρις γὰρ ἔην ἄστροιο πορείης,
καὶ σφαίρης κίνημ' ἀμφὶ χθόνα θ' ὡς περιτέλλει
κυκλοτερὲς ἐν ἴσῳ τε κατὰ σφέτερον κνώδακα,
πνεύματα δ' ἡνιοχεῖ περί τ' ἠέρα καὶ περὶ χεῦμα.

Αὐτὸς δ' αὖ μέγαν αὖτις ἐπ' οὐρανὸν ἐστήρικται
χρυσέῳ εἰνὶ θρόνῳ, γαίη δ' ὑπὸ ποσσὶ βέβηκεν.
χεῖρα δὲ δεξιτερὴν περὶ τέρμασιν Ὠκεανοῖο
ἐκτέτακεν, ὀρέων δὲ τρέμει βάσις ἔνδοθι θυμῷ
οὐδὲ φέρειν δύναται κρατερὸν μένος. ἔστι δὲ πάντῃ
αὐτὸς ἐπουράνιος καὶ ἐπὶ χθονὶ πάντα τελευτᾷ,
ἀρχὴν αὐτὸς ἔχων καὶ μέσσην ἠδὲ τελευτήν.
ἄλλως οὐ θεμιτόν σε λέγειν· τρομέω δέ τε γυῖα
ἐν νόῳ. ἐξ ὑπάτου κραίνει περὶ πάντ' ἐνὶ τάξει.

Clement, Stromata 5.14.126.5:

αὐτὸς δὲ ἐξ ἀγαθοῖο κακὸν θνητοῖσι φυτεύει
καὶ πόλεμον κρυόεντα καὶ ἄλγεα δακρυόεντα

κατὰ τὸν Ὀρφέα.

Πάλιν ἡμῖν ᾀσάτω ὁ Θρᾴκιος Ὀρφεύς·

χεῖρα δὲ δεξιτερὴν ἐπὶ τέρματος Ὠκεανοῖο
πάντοθεν ἐκτέτακεν, γαίη δ' ὑπὸ ποσσὶ βέβηκεν.

Clement, Stromata 5.14.133.1:

οὐδέ τις ἔσθ' ἕτερος χωρὶς μεγάλου βασιλῆος.