Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 189-190 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group gathers two Proclean witnesses on Demeter and Kore: Demeter dividing divine nourishment, devising attendants, ambrosia, red nectar, and the works of bees; and Kore as Monogeneia, the single-born power who rules over encosmic things.

Translation

Kern Fr. 189 — Demeter and the Double Nourishments

Proclus, commenting on Plato's Cratylus, says that Demeter was the first to divide the double nourishments among the gods, as Orpheus says:

She devised attendants, handmaids, and followers;

she devised ambrosia and the joining of red nectar;

she devised the splendid works of deep-buzzing bees.

Kern Fr. 190 — Kore Monogeneia

Proclus, commenting on Plato's Timaeus, says that the word "single-born" images the monadic cause and indicates the essence that rules over the wholes. For the theologian too is accustomed to call Kore Monogeneia in this way, since she presides as leader over all encosmic things and is the cause of single-born living beings.

Those beings that are not single-born are brought into being by the goddess after her, being irrational. For these reasons, then, Orpheus also calls Kore single-born, even though he also brings forth another divinity, Zeus and Plouton, from the same causes as Kore.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 189-190, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witness translated here is Proclus as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 189 — Proclus

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Cratylus:

ἡ δὲ Δημήτηρ πρώτη καὶ τὰς διττὰς τροφὰς διεῖλεν ἐν τοῖς θεοῖς, ὡς φησιν Ὀρφεύς·

μήσατο γὰρ προπόλους <τε> καὶ ἀμφιπόλους καὶ ὀπηδούς,

μήσατο δ᾽ ἀμβροσίην καὶ ἐρυθροῦ νέκταρος ἁρμόν,

μήσατο δ᾽ ἀγλαὰ ἔργα μελισσάων ἐριβόμβων.

Kern Fr. 190 — Proclus

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

τὸ μὲν "μουνογενὲς" τὴν μοναδικὴν αἰτίαν ἀπεικονίζεται καὶ τὴν τῶν ὅλων ἐπικρατοῦσαν οὐσίαν ἐνδείκνυται· καὶ γὰρ ὁ θεολόγος, οὕτως τὴν Κόρην μουνογένειαν εἴωθε προσαγορεύειν, ὡς τῶν ἐγκοσμίων ἁπάντων ἡγεμονικῶς προϊσταμένην καὶ τῶν μουνογενῶν ζώιων αἰτίαν· τὰς γὰρ μὴ μουνογενεῖς ἡ μετ᾽ αὐτὴν ὑφίστησιν θεός, ἀλόγους οὔσας. μουνογενῆ δ᾽ οὖν καλεῖ καὶ ἐκεῖνος διὰ ταῦτα τὴν Κόρην, καίτοι καὶ ἄλλην θεότητα παραγαγὼν ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν αἰτίων τῆι Κόρηι.