Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 215-216 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group continues the Titan aftermath: Atlas receives his western station after the Dionysian division, and Proclus explains why Orpheus and the theologians can call Dionysus "Wine," extending the name to the god's divided creation.

Translation

Kern Fr. 215 — Atlas After the Dionysian Division

Proclus says that the theologians, after the dismemberment of Dionysus, say that the other Titans received other allotments, while Atlas was established in the western regions, holding up heaven. The dismemberment of Dionysus, Proclus says, indicates the divided progression into the whole from the undivided creation-work under Zeus:

Atlas holds the broad heaven under strong necessity,

at the limits of the earth.

Simplicius gives a related interpretation. If myth truly conceals something divine and wise within itself, one may say that Atlas too is one of the Titans around Dionysus. But because he did not completely err against Dionysus, that is, because he did not act only according to the Titanic separation around Dionysian creation, but somehow also inclined toward Zeus' holding-together power, he acts according to both properties.

Kern Fr. 216 — Dionysus Called Wine

Proclus says that the theologians often call our lord Dionysus "Wine," even from the last of his gifts. Orpheus says:

Instead of one root of Wine, they set a triple one.

And again:

Take all the limbs of Wine in the cosmos, and bring them to me.

And again:

She was angry at Wine, the boy of Zeus.

Since all divided creation depends on the Dionysian monad, it divides the participable intellects in the cosmos from the whole intellect, the many souls from the one soul, and all the sensible forms from their proper wholenesses. Therefore the theologians have named both the god himself and all his created works "Wine." All are offspring of intellect; some participate from farther away, and others from nearer, in the divided distribution of intellect.

So wine operates analogously among beings: in the body, image-wise, according to opinion and false imagination; among intellectual things, according to activity and creation in accordance with intellect. In the dismemberment by the Titans, only the heart is said to have remained undivided: that is, the partless essence of intellect.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 215-216, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Proclus and Simplicius as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 215 — Proclus and Simplicius

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

καὶ γὰρ οἱ θεολόγοι μετὰ τὸν τοῦ Διονύσου διασπασμόν, ὃς δηλοῖ τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἀμερίστου δημιουργίας μεριστὴν πρόοδον εἰς τὸ πᾶν ὑπὸ τοῦ Διός, τοὺς μὲν ἄλλους Τιτᾶνας ἄλλας λήξεις διακεκληρῶσθαί φασι, τὸν δὲ Ἄτλαντα ἐν τοῖς πρὸς ἑσπέραν τόποις ἱδρῦσθαι ἀνέχοντα τὸν οὐρανόν·

Ἄτλας δ' οὐρανὸν εὐρὺν ἔχει κρατερῆς ὑπ' ἀνάγκης,

πείρασιν ἐν γαίης.

Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's On the Heavens:

εἰ δὲ μῦθος ὄντως ἐστὶ θεῖόν τι κρύπτων ἐν ἑαυτῶι καὶ σοφόν, λεγέσθω ὅτι Ἄτλας εἷς μέν ἐστι καὶ αὐτὸς τῶν περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον Τιτάνων, διὰ δὲ τὸ μὴ τελέως ἐξαμαρτεῖν εἰς αὐτόν, τουτέστι μὴ κατὰ τὴν Τιτανικὴν μόνην διάκρισιν ἐνεργῆσαι περὶ τὴν Διονυσιακὴν δημιουργίαν, ἀλλ' ἀποκλίνειν πως καὶ πρὸς τὴν Διὸς συνοχὴν κατ' ἄμφω τὰς ἰδιότητας ἐνεργεῖ.

Kern Fr. 216 — Proclus

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Cratylus:

ὅτι τὸν δεσπότην ἡμῶν Διόνυσον οἱ θεολόγοι πολλάκις καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν τελευταίων αὐτοῦ δώρων Οἶνον καλοῦσιν, οἷον Ὀρφεύς·

Οἴνου δ' ἀντὶ μιῆς τριπλῆν μετὰ ῥίζαν ἔθεντο·

καὶ πάλιν·

Οἴνου πάντα μέλη κόσμωι λαβὲ καὶ μοι ἔνεικε·

καὶ αὖθις·

Οἴνωι ἀγαιομένη κούρωι Διός.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Cratylus:

ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν ἡ μεριστὴ δημιουργία πᾶσα τῆς Διονυσιακῆς ἐξήρτηται μονάδος, διαιροῦσα τοὺς μὲν μεθεκτοὺς ἐν τῶι κόσμωι νόας ἀπὸ τοῦ ὅλου νοῦ, τὰς δὲ πολλὰς ψυχὰς ἀπὸ τῆς μιᾶς, τὰ δ' εἴδη τὰ αἰσθητὰ πάντα ἀπὸ τῶν οἰκείων ὁλοτήτων. διὰ δὴ τοῦτο καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν θεὸν Οἶνον προσειρήκασιν οἱ θεολόγοι, αὐτόν τε καὶ πάντα τὰ δημιουργήματα αὐτοῦ· πάντα γὰρ ἔκγονα τοῦ νοῦ, καὶ τὰ μὲν πορρώτερον τὰ δὲ ἐγγύτερον μετέχει τῆς μεριστῆς τοῦ νοῦ διανομῆς. ἀναλόγως οὖν ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ὁ οἶνος ἐγγινόμενος ἐνεργεῖ, ἐν μὲν τῶι σώματι εἰδωλικῶς κατὰ οἴησιν καὶ φαντασίαν ψευδῆ, ἐν δὲ τοῖς νοεροῖς τὸ κατὰ νοῦν ἐνεργεῖν καὶ δημιουργεῖν, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐν τῆι διασπαράξει τῶν Τιτάνων μόνη ἡ καρδία ἀδιαίρετος μεῖναι λέγεται, τουτέστιν ἡ ἀμερὴς τοῦ νοῦ οὐσία.