Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 179-182 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group continues the divine-art sequence after Athena's weaving: the Cyclopes give Zeus thunder and teach craft, Hephaestus symbolically forges the bronze heaven, Aglaia adorns the sky with stars, and the Hours and Graces order the fixed, planetary, and sublunary realms.

Translation

Kern Fr. 179 — The First Craft-Hands

Proclus, commenting on Plato's Timaeus, says that, according to the theologian, the first craft-hands gave Zeus the demiurgic powers for all cosmic making:

They furnished thunder for Zeus and fashioned the lightning,

the first craft-hands; and they taught Hephaestus and Athena

all cunning works, as many as heaven encloses within.

Hermias explains the same order through the Cyclopes. Theology says that in these first gods shape is manifested, and that the Cyclopes are first principles and causes of shapes everywhere. Therefore theology calls them craft-hands. This triad is perfective of shapes, and teaches Athena and Hephaestus the many forms of shape.

Kern Fr. 180 — Hephaestus Forges Heaven

Syrianus says that the theologians show that analogous causes of all arts can be understood among the gods. They do not hesitate to call the Cyclopes and Hephaestus smiths and builders, nor to allot weaving to Athena and Kore.

Proclus says that Hephaestus is called a smith by the theologians because he works with solid and resistant things, and because heaven is bronze, being an image of the intelligible; therefore the maker of heaven is a bronze-smith. Proclus adds that the theologians hand Hephaestus down as belonging to the demiurgic series: they present him as smithing, moving the bellows, and, in general, as a craftsman. In another passage Proclus says that great Hephaestus would symbolically be said to forge the heaven.

Kern Fr. 181 — Eunomia, Aglaia, Dike, Thalia, Eirene, and Euphrosyne

Proclus says that the theologians set Eunomia over the fixed sphere, because she distinguishes the multitude within it and keeps each thing always in its own order.

For the same reason, when they hymn Hephaestus as maker of heaven, they join Aglaia to him, since he makes the whole heaven splendid through the patterned variety of the stars.

Again, they set Dike, one of the Hours, over the wandering sphere, because she must bring its irregularity back, according to reason, into regularity. They also set Thalia, one of the Graces, over it, because she makes its lives ever-flourishing.

Over the realm beneath the moon they set Eirene, because she heals the war of the elements, and Euphrosyne, one of the Graces, because she gives to each thing ease in its natural activity.

Kern Fr. 182 — Hephaestus, Aphrodite, and the Children of Aglaia

Proclus says that, for these reasons, the theologians yoke Aphrodite to Hephaestus, and so they say that he forges the whole. From Hephaestus and Aglaia they generate Eukleia, Eutheneia, Eupheme, and Philophrosyne; these too make the bodily form shine out with beauty.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 179-182, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Proclus, Syrianus, and Hermias as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 179 — Proclus and Hermias

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

ὡς γὰρ φησὶν ὁ θεολόγος, οἱ πρῶτοι τεκτονόχειρες τῶι Διὶ τὰς δημιουργικὰς δυνάμεις ἔδοσαν πάσης τῆς ἐγκοσμίου ποιήσεως·

οἱ Ζηνὶ βροντήν τε πόρον τεῦξάν τε κεραυνόν,

πρῶτοι τεκτονόχειρες, ἰδ᾽ Ἥφαιστον καὶ Ἀθήνην

δαίδαλα πάντ᾽ ἐδίδαξαν, ὅσ᾽ οὐρανὸς ἐντὸς ἔεργει.

Hermias, Commentary on Plato's Phaedrus:

ἐν γὰρ πρώτοις τούτοις τὸ σχῆμα ἐκφαίνεσθαι ἡ θεολογία φησὶ καὶ πρώτας ἀρχὰς καὶ αἰτίας τῶν πανταχοῦ σχημάτων τούτους εἶναι τοὺς θεοὺς Κύκλωπας· διὸ καὶ τεκτονόχειρας αὐτοὺς ἡ θεολογία καλεῖ· αὐτὴ γὰρ τριὰς ἐστι τελεσιουργικὴ τῶν σχημάτων.

πρῶτοι τεκτονόχειρες, οἳ Ἥφαιστον καὶ Ἀθήνην πάντ᾽ ἐδίδαξαν.

Kern Fr. 180 — Syrianus and Proclus

Syrianus, Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics:

ὅτι μέντοι τὰς ἀνάλογον καὶ ἐν θεοῖς ἐστιν ἐπινοεῖν, δηλοῦσι καὶ οἱ θεολόγοι Κύκλωπας καὶ Ἥφαιστον χαλκέας καὶ οἰκοδόμους οὐκ ὀκνοῦντες καλεῖν, οὐδὲ Ἀθηνᾶι καὶ Κόρηι τὴν ὑφαντικὴν ἀποκληροῦν.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

διὰ ταῦτα γὰρ καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν θεολόγων [sc. ὁ Ἥφαιστος] λέγεται χαλκεύειν, ὡς στερεῶν καὶ ἀντιτύπων ἐργάτης, καὶ διότι χάλκεος ὁ οὐρανὸς ὡς μίμημα ὢν τοῦ νοητοῦ καὶ ὁ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ποιητὴς χαλκεύς.

ὅτι μὲν οὖν τῆς δημιουργικῆς ἐστι σειρᾶς, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχὶ τῆς ζωιογονικῆς ἢ συνοχικῆς ἢ ἄλλης τινός, δηλοῦσιν οἱ θεολόγοι χαλκεύοντά τε αὐτὸν καὶ κινοῦντα τὰς φύσας καὶ ὅλως ἐργοτεχνίτην παραδιδόντες.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Parmenides:

αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ μέγας Ἥφαιστος συμβολικῶς ἂν λέγοιτο χαλκεύειν τὸν οὐρανόν.

Kern Fr. 181 — Proclus

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

διὰ γὰρ τοῦτο καὶ οἱ θεολόγοι τὴν Εὐνομίαν ἐπέστησαν τῆι ἀπλανεῖ, τὸ ἐν αὐτῆι πλῆθος διακρίνουσαν καὶ ἕκαστον ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκείας διατηροῦσαν ἀεὶ τάξεως. διὰ τοῦτο δὲ ἄρα καὶ τὸν Ἥφαιστον ὑμνοῦντες τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ποιητὴν συνάπτουσιν αὐτῶι τὴν Ἀγλαΐαν ὡς ἀγλαΐζοντι πάντα τὸν οὐρανὸν διὰ τῆς τῶν ἄστρων ποικιλίας. καὶ πάλιν τῶι μὲν πλανωμένωι τὴν μὲν Δίκην ἐφιστᾶσι τῶν Ὡρῶν ὡς ὀφείλουσαν τὴν ἀνωμαλίαν κατὰ λόγον εἰς ὁμαλότητα περιάγειν, τὴν δὲ Θάλειαν τῶν Χαρίτων ὡς τὰς ζωὰς αὐτῶν ἀειθαλεῖς ἀποτελοῦσαν, τῶι δὲ ὑπὸ σελήνην τὴν μὲν Εἰρήνην ὡς τὸν πόλεμον τῶν στοιχείων ἐξιωμένην, τὴν δὲ Εὐφροσύνην τῶν Χαρίτων ὡς ἑκάστοις ἐνδιδοῦσαν ῥαιστώνην τῆς κατὰ φύσιν ἐνεργείας.

Kern Fr. 182 — Proclus

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

διὰ δὴ ταῦτα καὶ οἱ θεολόγοι τῶι Ἡφαίστῳ τὴν Ἀφροδίτην συζεύξαντες οὕτως αὐτὸν χαλκεύειν εἰρήκασι τὸ πᾶν, καὶ αὖ ἐξ Ἡφαίστου καὶ Ἀγλαΐας Εὔκλειαν καὶ Εὐθένειαν ἀπογεννῶσι καὶ Εὐφήμην καὶ Φιλοφροσύνην, αἳ καὶ αὐταὶ τὸ σωματοειδὲς τῶι κάλλει διαπρέπον ἀποτελοῦσι.