Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 109-113 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group follows the kingship after Night: Night bears Earth and broad Heaven; the visible orders are shown from hidden things; the Cyclopes and Hundred-handers are placed in the theology of making and guarding; Heaven rules after mother Night; and the theologians call the union of Heaven and Earth the first marriage.

Translation

Kern Fr. 109 — Night Bears Earth and Heaven

Hermias says:

Plato said this because these are offspring of Night that remain in her. There is also a supercelestial Heaven, and all these things remain in Night:

She again bore Earth and broad Heaven,

and showed from hidden things the manifest ones, who are their offspring.

In another place, Hermias says:

Plato, closely following what was said by the theologians, arranges the account according to them. For after the order of the Nights there are three orders of gods: Heaven, the Cyclopes, and the Hundred-handers. He himself declares their proper names.

Since Heaven first came forth visibly from the beings that remained within Phanes, Heaven and Earth were the first to go forth outside from him:

and he showed their offspring.

Heaven is the first to be illuminated by the divine light of Phanes.

Proclus uses the same verses in another way:

Just as this cosmos contains all visible things, that cosmos contains all intelligible things. The manner of containing is different in each case, but the visible here still exists by analogy with those things. For there too Phanes, shining intelligible light from above, makes all things visible and shows them:

from hidden things, manifest.

So also here, through light, all colors that come to be in bodies receive the power of being visible.

And elsewhere Proclus says:

Heaven bounds all generation; Earth does so by power. Ocean moves, and Tethys establishes each thing in its own movement. Ocean moves all things without noise. Kronos alone divides intellectually. Rhea gives life. Phorkys orders through generative hollows. Zeus makes things manifest from hidden things, and Hera unfolds them through every change of the manifest.

Kern Fr. 110 — The Cyclopes and the Hundred-handers

Proclus says:

The Orphic interpretation, being proper to Hellenic theology, gives auspicious names to the highest principles of all: Kronos, Zeus, Heaven, Night, the Cyclopes, and the Hundred-handers.

Hermias says:

By "king" he shows that the order is also above the Hundred-handers. For these first touch the whole demiurgy, as it were. Therefore theology also calls them Hundred-handers. Through the hands we grasp everything, make, and distinguish; and touch has gone through the whole body. Symbolically, then, theology called them Hundred-handers because they touch the whole demiurgy and are causes of it. The triad of the Hundred-handers is guarding in character.

Kern Fr. 111 — Heaven Rules After Night

Alexander of Aphrodisias says:

After Night came Heaven:

who first ruled the gods after mother Night.

Kern Fr. 112 — The First Marriage

Proclus says:

After these comes a second dyad, Ocean and Tethys. This generation did not happen according to a procreative coupling, nor according to any meeting of separated beings, nor according to division, nor according to any cutting off of this begetting, for some people form all such opinions about the gods in an alien way. Rather, it happened according to one union and indivisible interweaving of powers, which the theologians are accustomed to call marriage.

Marriage is proper to this order, as the theologian says. He calls Earth the first bride, and her union with Heaven the first marriage. For marriage is not among the things that are most completely united. Therefore there is no marriage of Phanes and Night, since they are intelligibly united with each other. Marriage belongs among those who, together with union, also display the distinction of powers and activities.

For this reason marriage seems to belong to this Heaven and this Earth, since they image that Heaven and that Earth. The laws of the Athenians, knowing this, commanded marriages to be performed first to Heaven and Earth.

In another place, Proclus says:

Ocean is said to marry Tethys, Zeus to marry Hera, and the like, because each has established communion with the other for the generation of subordinate things. The consubstantial ordering of the gods and their kindred co-operation toward productions is called marriage by the theologians.

Kern Fr. 113 — Heaven as Guardian

Damascius says:

The Heaven of Orpheus wants to be the watcher and guardian of all things. The Phoenicians and Egyptians also place the guarding power in this order.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 109-113, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here include Hermias, Proclus, Alexander of Aphrodisias, and Damascius as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 109 — Hermias and Proclus

Hermias, on Plato's Phaedrus:

πρὸς δὴ τοῦτο εἶπεν ὅτι γεννήματά ἐστι ταῦτα τῆς Νυκτὸς μένοντα ἐν αὐτῇ. ἔστι δὲ καὶ Οὐρανὸς ὑπερουράνιος, καὶ ταῦτα πάντα μένει ἐν τῇ Νυκτί:

ἡ δὲ πάλιν Γαῖάν τε καὶ Οὐρανὸν εὐρὺν ἔτικτε,

δεῖξέν τ᾽ ἐξ ἀφανῶν φανεροὺς οἵ τ᾽ εἰσὶ γενέθλην.

ἡ σφόδρα παρηκολουθηκὼς ὁ Πλάτων τοῖς ὑπὸ τῶν θεολόγων εἰρημένοις, κατ᾽ ἐκείνους καὶ αὐτὸς διατίθησι τὸν λόγον. μετὰ γὰρ τὴν τῶν Νυκτῶν τάξιν τρεῖς εἰσι τάξεις θεῶν, Οὐρανοῦ, Κυκλώπων, Ἑκατογχείρων, ὧν αὐτὸς ἀποφάσκει τὰ οἰκεῖα τούτων ὀνόματα. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τῶν ἔνδον ἐν αὐτῷ μεινάντων τῷ Φάνητι πρῶτος φανερῶς ὁ Οὐρανὸς ἐξ αὐτοῦ γέγονεν, ἔξω γὰρ προῆλθον πρῶτοι ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ Οὐρανὸς καὶ Γῆ, δεῖξεν γενέθλην, καὶ πρῶτος καταλάμπεται ὁ Οὐρανὸς ὑπὸ τοῦ θείου φωτὸς τοῦ Φάνητος.

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνοις ἄνωθεν ὁ Φάνης ἐπιλάμπων τὸ νοητὸν φῶς πάντας ὁρατοὺς ποιεῖ καὶ δείκνυσιν ἐξ ἀφανῶν φανερούς, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐνταῦθα διὰ τοῦ φωτὸς τὰ χρώματα πάντα γεννώμενα τοῖς σώμασι παρέχεται τὸ ὁρατοῖς εἶναι.

ὁ μὲν γὰρ Οὐρανὸς περατοῖ πᾶσαν τὴν γένεσιν, ἡ δὲ Γῆ δυνάμει, κινεῖ δὲ ὁ Ὠκεανός, ἑδράζει δὲ ἡ Τηθύς ἕκαστον ἐπὶ τῆς ἰδίας κινήσεως, τῆς νοερᾶς τὰ νοερά, τῆς ψυχικῆς τὰ μέσα, τῆς φυσικῆς τὰ σωματικά, τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ πάντα κινοῦντος ἀθορύβως. διαιρεῖ δὲ νοερῶς μόνος ὁ Κρόνος, ζωοποιεῖ δὲ ἡ Ῥέα, κόλποις δὲ σπερματικοῖς ὁ Φόρκυς διακοσμεῖ, φανερὰ δὲ ἐξ ἀφανῶν ὁ Ζεὺς ἀποτελεῖ, ἐξελίττει δὲ ἡ Ἥρα κατὰ παντοίας τῶν ἐμφανῶν μεταβολάς.

Kern Fr. 110 — Proclus and Hermias

Proclus, on Plato's Parmenides:

τῇ δὲ τῶν Ὀρφικῶν ἐφηρμηνείᾳ τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς οὔσῃ θεολογίας ἰδίᾳ, Κρόνον καὶ Δία καὶ Οὐρανὸν καὶ Νύκτα καὶ Κύκλωπας καὶ Ἑκατόγχειρας ἐπιφημίζουσα ταῖς ἀκροτάταις τῶν πάντων ἀρχαῖς.

Hermias, on Plato's Phaedrus:

διὰ δὲ τοῦ ἄναξ ὅτι καὶ ὑπὲρ τοὺς Ἑκατόγχειράς ἐστι δηλοῖ. οὗτοι γὰρ πρῶτοι οἷον ἐφάπτονται τῆς πάσης δημιουργίας· διὸ καὶ Ἑκατόγχειρας αὐτοὺς ἡ θεολογία προσαγορεύει. διὰ γὰρ τῶν χειρῶν πάντων ἡμεῖς ἐφαπτόμεθα καὶ ποιοῦμεν καὶ διακρίνομεν· ἔτι καὶ ἡ ἀφὴ διὰ παντὸς πεφοίτηκε τοῦ σώματος. συμβολικῶς οὖν Ἑκατόγχειρας ὠνόμασε τούτους ἡ θεολογία ὡς πάσης ἐφαπτομένους τῆς δημιουργίας καὶ αἰτίους αὐτῆς ὄντας. ἔστι δὲ ἡ τριὰς τῶν Ἑκατογχείρων φρουρητική.

Kern Fr. 111 — Alexander of Aphrodisias

Alexander of Aphrodisias, on Aristotle's Metaphysics:

μεθ᾽ ἣν Οὐρανός:

ὃς πρῶτος βασίλευσε θεῶν μετὰ μητέρα Νύκτα.

Kern Fr. 112 — Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus and Cratylus

ἀπὸ δὲ τούτων δευτέρα πρόεισι δυάς, Ὠκεανὸς καὶ Τηθύς, οὐ κατὰ συνδυασμὸν γενεσιουργὸν οὐδὲ κατὰ τινα σύνοδον τῶν κεχωρισμένων οὐδὲ κατὰ μερισμὸν οὐδὲ κατὰ τινα ἀποτομὴν τῆς ἀπογεννήσεως ταύτης γενομένης, πάντα γὰρ ταῦτα ἀλλοτρίως τῶν θεῶν διαδοξάζουσί τινες, ἀλλὰ κατὰ μίαν ἕνωσιν καὶ συμπλοκὴν τῶν δυνάμεων ἀδιαίρετον, ὃν καὶ εἰώθασι γάμον οἱ θεολόγοι προσαγορεύειν.

οἰκεῖος γὰρ καὶ ὁ γάμος τῇ τάξει ταύτῃ, καθὰ φησὶν ὁ θεολόγος· πρώτην γὰρ νύμφην ἀποκαλεῖ τὴν Γῆν καὶ πρωτότατον γάμον τὴν ἕνωσιν αὐτῆς τὴν πρὸς τὸν Οὐρανόν. οὐ γὰρ ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα ἡνωμένοις ὁ γάμος, διὸ Φάνητος οὐκ ἔστι γάμος καὶ Νυκτός, ἡνωμένων ἀλλήλοις νοητῶς, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν τοῖς μετὰ τῆς ἑνώσεως καὶ τὸ διῃρημένον τῶν δυνάμεων καὶ τῶν ἐνεργειῶν ἐπιδεικνυμένοις.

γαμεῖν λέγεται ὅ τε Ὠκεανὸς τὴν Τηθὺν καὶ Ἥραν ὁ Ζεὺς καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, ὡς κατὰ τὴν τῶν ὑφειμένων ἀπογέννησιν τὴν πρὸς αὐτὴν κοινωνίαν ἐνστησάμενος. ἡ γὰρ ὁμοουσιαστικὴ σύνταξις τῶν θεῶν καὶ ἡ ὁμοφυὴς συνεργεία πρὸς τὰς ποιήσεις γάμος ἀποκαλεῖται παρὰ τοῖς θεολόγοις.

Kern Fr. 113 — Damascius, On First Principles

καὶ ὁ τοῦ Ὀρφέως Οὐρανὸς θουρὸς πάντων καὶ φύλαξ εἶναι βούλεται. καὶ Φοίνικές τε καὶ Αἰγύπτιοι τῇδε τῇ τάξει τὸ φρουρητικὸν ἐγκατοικίζουσιν.