Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 234-235 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The first witness is Clement of Alexandria quoting a hostile one-line saying about women and comparing it with Homer. The second is Olympiodorus' discussion of an Orphic saying on the many narthex-bearers and the few true Bacchoi, in a passage on initiation, purification, matter, Titans, death, and Dionysus.

Translation

Kern Fr. 234 — A Hostile Saying About Women

Clement says that someone made the line in an Orphic manner:

as there was nothing else more doglike
and more chilling than a woman.

Homer, Clement says, states it directly:

as there is nothing else more dreadful
and more doglike than a woman.

Kern compares Hesiod, Works and Days:

For a man wins nothing better than a good wife,
and nothing more chilling than a bad one.

Kern Fr. 235 — Narthex-Bearers and Bacchoi

Olympiodorus says that he brings in an Orphic saying: "Whoever among us is uninitiated lies in Hades as though in mud." Initiation, he says, is the Bacchic possession of the virtues. He then quotes:

Many are narthex-bearers,
but few are Bacchoi.

Olympiodorus explains that civic virtues are called narthex-bearers, but not Bacchoi, while purificatory virtues are both narthex-bearers and Bacchoi. We are clothed in matter like Titans, because of much division; "mine" and "yours" are many. But we are awakened as Bacchoi. Therefore we become more prophetic about death, and Dionysus is overseer of death because he is also overseer of every Bacchic possession.

Olympiodorus adds that the argument begins from a god, when Plato speaks of the secret doctrine that we are in a kind of guard, and ends in a god, from whom it began: Dionysus.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 234-235, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, and Olympiodorus on Plato's Phaedo, as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 234 — Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata:

Ὀρφικῶς τοίνυν ποιήσαντος·

ὡς οὐ κύντερον ἦν καὶ ῥίγιον ἄλλο γυναικός

Ὅμηρος δὲ ἀντικρὺς λέγει·

ὡς οὐκ αἰνότερον καὶ κύντερον ἄλλο γυναικός.

Kern compares Hesiod, Works and Days:

οὐ μὲν γάρ τι γυναικὸς ἀνὴρ ληίζεται ἄμεινον
τῆς ἀγαθῆς, τῆς δ' αὖτε κακῆς οὐ ῥίγιον ἄλλο.

Kern Fr. 235 — Olympiodorus

Olympiodorus on Plato's Phaedo:

διὸ καὶ παροιμίαν ἔπος Ὀρφικὸν τὸ λέγον, ὅτι· ὅστις δ' ἡμῶν ἀτέλεστος, ὥσπερ ἐν βορβόρῳ κεῖσεται ἐν Ἅιδου. τελετή γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τῶν ἀρετῶν βακχεία. καὶ φησίν·

πολλοὶ μὲν ναρθηκοφόροι, παῦροι δέ τε Βάκχοι,

ναρθηκοφόρους, οὐ μὴν Βάκχους τοὺς πολιτικοὺς καλῶν, ναρθηκοφόρους δὲ καὶ Βάκχους τοὺς καθαρτικούς. καὶ γὰρ ἐνδούμεθα μὲν τῇ ὕλῃ ὡς Τιτᾶνες διὰ τὸν πολὺν μερισμόν, πολὺ γὰρ τὸ ἐμὸν καὶ σόν· ἀνεγειρόμεθα δὲ ὡς Βάκχοι· διὸ καὶ περὶ τοῦ θανάτου μαντικώτεροι γινόμεθα, καὶ ἔφορος δὲ τοῦ θανάτου ὁ Διόνυσος, διότι καὶ πάσης βακχείας. καὶ εὖ γε τοῦ λόγου, διότι καὶ ἀπὸ θεοῦ ἤρξατο, ἡνίκα ἔλεγεν "ὁ μὲν ἐν ἀπορρήτοις περὶ αὐτῶν λεγόμενος λόγος, ὡς ἐν τινὶ φρουρᾷ ἐσμεν," καὶ εἰς θεὸν κατέληξεν, ἐξ οὗ καὶ ἤρξατο, λέγω δὲ τὸν Διόνυσον.