Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 209-210 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group opens the Dionysian dismemberment sequence: souls descend like Dionysus looking into the mirror, Apollo gathers Dionysus back, Hephaestus' mirror marks the passage into divided creation, Athena preserves the heart, and the Titans divide the child into seven parts.

Translation

Kern Fr. 209 — The Mirror of Dionysus

Plotinus says that human souls, after seeing their own images as though in the mirror of Dionysus, came here from above. Yet they too have not been cut away from their own beginning and intellect.

Olympiodorus says that the same pattern is told in myth within the paradigm. When Dionysus put his image into the mirror, he followed it, and in this way he was divided into the all. But Apollo gathers him together and leads him up, because Apollo is a purifying god and truly the savior of Dionysus. For this reason Apollo is hymned as Dionysodotus, "giver of Dionysus."

Proclus says that the theologians show Hephaestus to be the maker of sensible things, not of works of soul or works of intellect. The making of the mirror, bronze-working, lameness, and all such things are symbols of his production around the sensible. The same theologians also show that he is maker of all sensible things: they say that he was hurled from Olympus above down to earth, and they make all the receptacles of the encosmic gods Hephaestus-made.

Elsewhere Proclus says that the mirror had long ago been received by the theologians as a symbol of fitness for the intellectual completion of the whole. Therefore they say that Hephaestus made a mirror for Dionysus. When the god looked into it and saw his own image, he went forward into the whole divided creation-work.

Proclus also says that, just as Orpheus fashions Dionysian images which preside over generation and receive the whole form of the paradigm, so Plato called the world an image of the intelligible, since it resembles its own paradigm.

In his commentary on the Republic, Proclus says that Orpheus attached combinations, divisions, and laments to the Dionysian images, assigning all these things to the objects of forethought. He adds, as a comparison, that the rites have handed down certain sacred laments of Kore, Demeter, and the greatest goddess herself in secret.

Kern also prints a later poetic parallel from Nonnus: Dionysus did not hold the throne of Zeus for long. The Titans, with their deceitful faces cunningly smeared in gypsum, and under the heavy anger of unloving Hera, wounded him with a Tartarian knife while he gazed at a false image in the answering mirror.

Kern Fr. 210 — The Heart and the Sevenfold Division

Proclus says that Orpheus says all the other created works of Dionysus were divided by the divisive gods, but that the heart alone remained undivided through Athena's providence.

Since Dionysus establishes intellects, souls, and bodies, souls and bodies receive much division and partition within themselves. Intellect, however, remains unified and undivided, being all things in one and containing the intelligible wholes in a single act of intellection. Therefore Orpheus says that only the intellectual essence and the intellectual number were left preserved by Athena:

For they left only the intellectual heart.

By this, Proclus says, Orpheus plainly calls the heart intellectual. If the undivided heart is intellectual, it must be intellect and intellectual number: not every intellect, but the encosmic intellect, for this is the undivided heart, since the god being divided was also the maker of it.

Orpheus calls the intellect the undivided essence of Dionysus. He calls the god's generative power the divided natural life around body, seed-bearing and belonging to Artemis, who presides over all generation in nature and brings the natural principles down from above as far as the things beneath the earth. The rest of the god's body is the whole psychic constitution, and this too is divided into seven:

The Titans divided all seven limbs of the child.

Proclus says that the theologian says this about the Titans, just as the Timaeus divides the soul into seven portions. When Plato says that soul is stretched through the whole world, he may be reminding us of the Orphic Titanic division, through which soul not only covers the whole but is stretched through the whole. Therefore Plato fittingly called the being immediately above soul "undivided being," following the Orphic myths and wishing, as it were, to be an interpreter of the things said in secret.

Elsewhere Proclus says that the number seven is common to both Dionysus and Apollo. The theologians say that Dionysus, when divided, was divided into seven parts:

The Titans divided all seven limbs of the child.

They also refer the heptad to Apollo, since Apollo holds together all harmonies. In the monad, dyad, and tetrad the double octave first subsists, and from these comes the heptad.

In his commentary on the Parmenides, Proclus says that the theologians say intellect is saved undivided by Athena's providence in the Dionysian dismemberments, while soul is divided first. The cutting of soul into seven is its first division. Therefore it is proper to soul to have the form of division and to behold things by transition.

In his commentary on the Cratylus, Proclus says that in the dismemberment by the Titans, the heart alone is said to have remained undivided: that is, the partless essence of intellect.

In his commentary on the First Alcibiades, Proclus says that Alcibiades must be placed in rational soul. Passions and irrational powers still hang from this soul, as though plotting against rational life and trying to tear it apart in Titanic fashion. But intellect is established above it in an Athenian way, holding it up from its downward tilt and from its movement into matter. It is Athenian to preserve life undivided; for this reason Pallas Athena was called Savior. It is Titanic to divide life and call it toward generation.

Damascius gives a related theological frame. Zeus, for example, brought forth many gods from himself in parts; upon this complete division he brought forth divisible wholeness and the many gods ordered beneath it. According to the Orphic tradition, Zeus also generated the Titans in his own ordering. In the same way Kronos, after bringing forth a large earlier generation, produces whole Zeus at the end as ruler of another kingship; and like things are handed down about Heaven producing Kronos as the last after all the whole sons of Heaven.

Kern also gives a later Christian polemical witness from Nonnus Abbas. Persephone bears Zagreus-Dionysus, having conceived him from Zeus. After he is born, the Titans, jealous of Dionysus because he had his birth from Zeus, tear him apart. Others, Nonnus says, report that Dionysus was torn apart by the Titans at Hera's instigation.

Kern then gathers older and parallel witnesses to the Zagreus and Titan story: the Alcmaeonis invokes Lady Earth and Zagreus, highest of all gods; Aeschylus names Zagreus with the hospitable one; Euripides' Cretans speaks of an initiate of Idaean Zeus and night-wandering Zagreus who has performed raw-feasting rites and become a Bacchus among the Kouretes; and Callimachus names Persephone as mother of Dionysus-Zagreus.

A scholion on Lycophron says that Dionysus was honored at Delphi together with Apollo because the Titans tore apart the limbs of Dionysus and set them before Apollo, his brother, after putting them in a cauldron; Apollo put them away beside the tripod. Diodorus says that Orpheus handed down in the rites that Dionysus, born from Zeus and Persephone in Crete, was torn apart by the Titans. Plutarch says that the stories about Dionysus' dismemberment, the Titans' outrages against him, and their punishments and thunder-strikings are an enigmatic myth about rebirth. Lucian lists the rending of Iacchus among the mythic subjects of dance, together with Hera's deception, Semele's burning, the two births of Dionysus, and stories about Athena and Hephaestus.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 209-210, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Plotinus, Olympiodorus, Proclus, Damascius, Nonnus, Nonnus Abbas, the Alcmaeonis, Aeschylus, Euripides, Callimachus, the scholion on Lycophron, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, and Lucian as printed or cited by Kern. Kern's bibliography and textual-apparatus notes are not translated as running prose.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 209 — Plotinus, Olympiodorus, Proclus, and Nonnus

Plotinus, Enneads:

ἀνθρώπων δὲ ψυχαὶ εἴδωλα αὐτῶν ἰδοῦσαι οἷον Διονύσου ἐν κατόπτρωι ἐκεῖ ἐγένοντο ἄνωθεν ὁρμηθεῖσαι, οὐκ ἀποτμηθεῖσαι οὐδ᾽ αὗται τῆς ἑαυτῶν ἀρχῆς τε καὶ νοῦ.

Olympiodorus, Commentary on Plato's Phaedo:

ὅτι τὰ ὅμοια μυθεύεται καὶ ἐν τῶι παραδείγματι. ὁ γὰρ Διόνυσος, ὅτε τὸ εἴδωλον ἐνέθηκε τῶι ἐσόπτρωι, τούτωι ἐφέσπετο, καὶ οὕτως εἰς τὸ πᾶν ἐμερίσθη. ὁ δὲ Ἀπόλλων συναγείρει τε αὐτὸν καὶ ἀνάγει καθαρτικὸς ὢν θεὸς καὶ τοῦ Διονύσου σωτὴρ ὡς ἀληθῶς, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο Διονυσοδότης ἀνυμνεῖται.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

ὅτι δὲ τῶν αἰσθητῶν δημιουργός, ἀλλ' οὐ τῶν ψυχικῶν ἢ τῶν νοερῶν ἔργων, καὶ τοῦτο οἱ αὐτοὶ δηλοῦσιν· ἡ γὰρ τοῦ ἐσόπτρου κατασκευὴ καὶ ἡ χαλκεία καὶ ἡ χωλεία καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα σύμβολα τῆς περὶ τὸ αἰσθητὸν αὐτοῦ ποιήσεώς ἐστι. καὶ μὴν καὶ ὅτι πάντων τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐστι ποιητής, ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν φανερόν, οἵ φασιν αὐτὸν ἄνωθεν ἀπὸ τοῦ Ὀλύμπου φέρεσθαι μέχρι γῆς, καὶ οἳ τὰς ὑποδοχὰς πάσας τῶν ἐγκοσμίων θεῶν Ἡφαιστοτεύκτους ποιοῦσιν.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

πάλαι δὲ καὶ τοῖς θεολόγοις τὸ ἔσοπτρον ἐπιτηδειότητος παρείληπται σύμβολον πρὸς τὴν νοερὰν ἀποπλήρωσιν τοῦ παντός· διὸ καὶ τὸν Ἥφαιστον ἔσοπτρόν φασι ποιῆσαι τῶι Διονύσωι, εἰς ὃ ἐμβλέψας ὁ θεὸς καὶ εἴδωλον ἑαυτοῦ θεασάμενος προῆλθεν εἰς ὅλην τὴν μεριστὴν δημιουργίαν.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

καθάπερ οὖν Ὀ. εἴδωλα πλάττει τοῦ Διονύσου τὰ τὴν γένεσιν ἐπιτροπεύοντα καὶ τὸ εἶδος ὅλον ὑποδεξάμενα τοῦ παραδείγματος, οὕτως καὶ ὁ φιλόσοφος εἰκόνα τὸν κόσμον τοῦ νοητοῦ προσεῖπεν, ὡς ἐοικότα τῶι σφετέρωι παραδείγματι.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Republic:

ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ Ὀ. τοῖς Διονυσιακοῖς εἰδώλοις τὰς συνθέσεις καὶ τὰς διαιρέσεις καὶ τοὺς θρήνους προσῆψεν ἀπὸ τῶν προνοουμένων ἅπαντα ταῦτα ἐκείνοις ἀναθείς.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Republic:

ἐπεὶ καὶ Κόρης καὶ Δήμητρος καὶ αὐτῆς τῆς μεγίστης θεᾶς ἱερούς τινας ἐν ἀπορρήτοις θρήνους αἱ τελεταὶ παραδεδώκασιν.

Nonnus, Dionysiaca:

οὐδὲ Διὸς θρόνον εἶχεν ἐπὶ χρόνον· ἀλλά ἑ γύψωι

κερδαλέηι χρισθέντες ἐπίκλοπα κύκλα προσώπου

δαίμονος ἀστόργοιο χόλωι βαρυμήνιος Ἥρης

Ταρταρίηι Τιτῆνες ἐδηλήσαντο μαχαίρηι

ἀντιτύπωι νόθον εἶδος ὀπιπεύοντα κατόπτρωι.

Kern Fr. 210 — Proclus and Damascius

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν ἄλλα δημιουργήματα αὐτοῦ πάντα μεμερίσθαι φησὶν ὑπὸ τῶν διαιρετικῶν θεῶν, μόνην δὲ τὴν καρδίαν ἀμέριστον εἶναι προνοίαι τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὑφίστησι μὲν καὶ νοῦς καὶ ψυχὰς καὶ σώματα, ἀλλὰ ψυχαὶ μὲν καὶ σώματα δέχονται πολλὴν τὴν πρὸς ἑαυτὰ διαίρεσιν καὶ τὸν μερισμόν, νοῦς δὲ ἡνωμένος μένει καὶ ἀδιαίρετος ἐν ἑνὶ τὰ πάντα ὢν καὶ μιᾶι νοήσει τὰ ὅλα τὰ νοητὰ περιέχων, μόνην τὴν νοερὰν οὐσίαν καὶ τὸν νοερὸν ἀριθμὸν ἀπολελεῖφθαί φησιν ὑπὸ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς σεσωσμένον·

μούνην γὰρ κραδίην νοερὴν λίπον,

φησίν, ἄντικρυς νοερὰν αὐτὴν προσαγορεύων. εἰ τοίνυν ἡ ἀμέριστος καρδία νοερά ἐστι, νοῦς ἂν εἴη δηλαδὴ καὶ νοερὸς ἀριθμός, οὐ μέντοι πᾶς νοῦς, ἀλλ' ὁ ἐγκόσμιος· οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ἡ καρδία ἡ ἀμέριστος, ἐπειδὴ καὶ τούτου δημιουργὸς ἦν ὁ μεριζόμενος θεός. τὸν μὲν δὴ νοῦν ἀμέριστον οὐσίαν τοῦ Διονύσου καλεῖ, τὸ δὲ γόνιμον αὐτοῦ τὴν μεριστὴν αὐτὴν περὶ τὸ σῶμα ζωὴν φυσικὴν οὖσαν καὶ σπερμάτων οἰστικήν, ἣν καὶ τὴν Ἄρτεμίν φησι τὴν πάσης προεστῶσαν τῆς ἐν τῆι φύσει γεννήσεως καὶ μαιευομένην τοὺς φυσικοὺς λόγους ἄνωθεν διατείνειν ἄχρι τῶν ὑποχθονίων, δυναμοῦσαν αὐτῆς τὴν γόνιμον δύναμιν, τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν τοῦ θεοῦ σῶμα πᾶν τὴν ψυχικὴν σύστασιν, εἰς ἑπτὰ καὶ τοῦτο διηιρημένον·

ἑπτὰ δὲ πάντα μέλη κούρου διεμοιρήσαντο,

φησὶν ὁ θεολόγος περὶ τῶν Τιτάνων, καθάπερ καὶ ὁ Τίμαιος εἰς ἑπτὰ διαιρεῖ μοίρας αὐτήν. καὶ τάχα ἂν τὸ διὰ παντὸς τοῦ κόσμου τεταμένην εἶναι τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ Τιτανικοῦ μερισμοῦ τοὺς Ὀρφικοὺς ἀναμιμνήσκοι, δι' ὃν οὐ μόνον ἡ ψυχὴ περικαλύπτει τὸ πᾶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τέταται δι' αὐτοῦ παντός. εἰκότως δὴ οὖν καὶ ὁ Πλάτων ἀμέριστον οὐσίαν ἀπεκάλεσε τὴν προσεχῶς ὑπὲρ ψυχὴν καὶ ὡς συντόμως εἰπεῖν τὸν μεθεκτὸν ἀπὸ ψυχῆς νοῦν, τοῖς Ὀρφικοῖς ἑπόμενος μύθοις καὶ οἷον ἐξηγητὴς τῶν ἐν ἀπορρήτοις λεγομένων εἶναι βουλόμενος.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

καὶ γὰρ ὁ ἀριθμὸς κοινός ἐστιν ἀμφοτέροις ἡ ἑβδομάς, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸν Διόνυσον οἱ θεολόγοι μεριζόμενον εἰς ἑπτὰ μερισθῆναι λέγουσιν·

ἑπτὰ δὲ πάντα μέλη κούρου διεμοιρήσαντο,

καὶ τῶι Ἀπόλλωνι τὴν ἑπτάδα ἀνεῖσαν, ὡς συνέχοντι πάσας τὰς συμφωνίας· ἐν γὰρ μονάδι καὶ δυάδι καὶ τετράδι πρῶτον τὸ δὶς διὰ πασῶν, ἐξ ὧν ἡ ἑβδομάς.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Parmenides:

διὸ καὶ οἱ θεολόγοι τὸν μὲν νοῦν ἐν τοῖς σπαραγμοῖς τοῖς Διονυσιακοῖς ἀμέριστον προνοίαι τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς σώζεσθαι λέγουσι, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν μερίζεσθαι πρώτως, καὶ ἡ εἰς ἑπτὰ γοῦν τομὴ ταύτης ἐστὶ πρώτης· οἰκεῖον οὖν αὐτῆι καὶ τὸ εἶδος τῆς διαιρετικῆς καὶ τὸ θεωρεῖν μεταβατικῶς.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Cratylus:

καὶ ἐν τῆι διασπαράξει τῶν Τιτάνων μόνη ἡ καρδία ἀδιαίρετος μεῖναι λέγεται, τουτέστιν ἡ ἀμερὴς τοῦ νοῦ οὐσία.

Proclus, Commentary on the First Alcibiades:

ἀνάγκη τοίνυν κατὰ τὴν τῶν ἄκρων ἀναλογίαν καὶ τὸν Ἀλκιβιάδην ἐν ψυχῆι λογικῆι τάττειν, ἧς ἐξήρτηται μὲν ἔτι τὰ πάθη καὶ αἱ ἄλογοι δυνάμεις, οἷον ἐπιβουλεύουσαι τῆι λογικῆι ζωῆι καὶ Τιτανικῶς αὐτὴν ἐπιχειροῦσαι σπαράττειν· ὑπερίδρυται δὲ ὁ νοῦς Ἀθηναϊκῶς ἀνέχων αὐτὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ῥοπῆς καὶ τῆς εἰς τὸ ἔνυλον φορᾶς. Ἀθηναϊκὸν γὰρ τὸ σώιζειν ἀμέριστον τὴν ζωήν, ἐξ οὗπερ Σώτειρα ἐπεκλήθη Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη· Τιτανικὸν δὲ τὸ μερίζειν αὐτὴν καὶ προκαλεῖσθαι πρὸς τὴν γένεσιν.

Damascius, On First Principles:

ὁ γὰρ Ζεύς, φέρε εἰπεῖν, τοὺς πολλοὺς ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ παραγαγὼν κατὰ μέρη θεούς, ἐπὶ τούτωι τῶι ὁλοτελεῖ μερισμῶι τὴν μεριστὴν ὁλότητα παρήγαγεν, καὶ τοὺς ὑπὸ ταύτηι πολλοὺς τεταγμένους θεούς· ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ τοὺς Τίτανας ὁ Ζεὺς ἐγέννησεν ἐν τῶι οἰκείωι διακόσμωι κατὰ τὴν Ὀρφικὴν παράδοσιν; οὕτω δὴ καὶ ὁ Κρόνος ἐπὶ πολλῆι γενεᾶι τῆι πρότερον, ἐπ' ἐσχάτωι παράγει τὸν ὅλον Δία τῆς ἑτέρας ἐξάρχοντα βασιλείας· τὰ δὲ ὅμοια καὶ τὸν Οὐρανὸν ὑφιστῶντα παραδίδωσι μετὰ τοὺς ὅλους Οὐρανίδας τὸν Κρόνον ἔσχατον.

Kern Fr. 210 — Later and Parallel Witnesses

Nonnus Abbas, Against Julian:

Περὶ θεῶν διεσπασμένων· Περσεφόνη γεννᾶι τὸν Ζαγραῖον Διόνυσον, ἐκ τοῦ Διὸς συλλαβοῦσα αὐτόν. τοῦτον γεννηθέντα οἱ Τιτᾶνες — δαιμονίων τάξεις αὗται — φθονήσαντες τῶι Διονύσωι ὡς ἐκ Διὸς ἔχοντι τὴν γέννησιν, διασπαράσσουσιν αὐτόν· ἄλλοι δὲ λέγουσιν, ὅτι καθ' ὑπόθεσιν τῆς Ἥρας διεσπάσθη ὑπὸ τῶν Τιτάνων ὁ Διόνυσος.

Alcmaeonis:

πότνια Γῆ Ζαγρεῦ τε θεῶν πανυπέρτατε πάντων.

Aeschylus, Sisyphus:

Ζαγρεῖ τε νῦν με καὶ πολυξένωι ... χαίρειν.

Euripides, Cretans:

ἁγνὸν δὲ βίον τείνων, ἐξ οὗ Διὸς Ἰδαίου μύστης γενόμην, καὶ νυκτιπόλου Ζαγρέως βούτης τάς τ' ὠμοφάγους δαῖτας τελέσας, μητρί τ' ὀρείαι δάιδας ἀνασχὼν καὶ Κουρήτων βάκχος ἐκλήθην ὁσιωθείς.

Callimachus, on Persephone:

υἷα Διώνυσον Ζαγρέα γειναμένη.

Scholion on Lycophron:

ἐτιμᾶτο δὲ καὶ Διόνυσος ἐν Δελφοῖς σὺν Ἀπόλλωνι οὑτωσί· οἱ Τιτᾶνες τὰ Διονύσου μέλη σπαράξαντες Ἀπόλλωνι ἀδελφῶι ὄντι αὐτοῦ παρέθεντο ἐμβαλόντες λέβητι, ὁ δὲ παρὰ τῶι τρίποδι ἀπέθετο· ὥς φησι Καλλίμαχος καὶ Εὐφορίων λέγων·

ἂν πυρὶ Βάκχον δῖον ὑπερφίαλοι ἐβάλοντο.

Diodorus Siculus:

τοῦτον δὲ τὸν θεὸν γεγονέναι φασὶν ἐκ Διὸς καὶ Φερσεφόνης κατὰ τὴν Κρήτην, ὃν Ὀρφεὺς κατὰ τὰς τελετὰς παρέδωκε διασπώμενον ὑπὸ τῶν Τιτάνων.

Plutarch, On the Eating of Flesh:

τὰ γὰρ δὴ περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον μεμυθευμένα πάθη τοῦ διαμελισμοῦ καὶ τὰ Τιτάνων ἐπ' αὐτὸν τολμήματα, κολάσεις τε τούτων καὶ κεραυνώσεις γευσαμένων τοῦ φόνου, ᾐνιγμένος ἐστὶ μῦθος εἰς τὴν παλιγγενεσίαν. τὸ γὰρ ἐν ἡμῖν ἄλογον καὶ ἄτακτον καὶ βίαιον οὐ θεῖον ἀλλὰ δαιμονικόν, οἱ παλαιοὶ Τιτᾶνας ὠνόμασαν, καὶ τοῦτ' ἔστι κολαζομένου καὶ δίκην διδόντος.

Lucian, On Dance:

Δευκαλίωνα ..., εἶτα Ἰάκχου σπαραγμὸν καὶ Ἥρας δόλον καὶ Σεμέλης κατάφλεξιν καὶ Διονύσου ἀμφοτέρας τὰς γονάς, καὶ ὅσα περὶ Ἀθηνᾶς καὶ ὅσα περὶ Ἡφαίστου κτλ.