Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek and Latin

This page translates Kern fragments 236-237 from the section Kern heads Bacchica. The witness is Macrobius, who quotes Orphic material while identifying Bacchus, Dionysus, Phanes, and the Sun. The fragments include a short sacred prayer to Helios, an Orphic hymn to Zeus Dionysus as the all-begetting Sun, and verses explaining why the visible god is called Phanes and Dionysus.

Translation

Kern Fr. 236 — Helios the All-Ruler

Macrobius says that the theologians show that the power of the Sun is referred to the summit of all powers. In the sacred rites they demonstrate this with a very short prayer, saying:

Helios all-ruler,
breath of the world,
power of the world,
light of the world.

Macrobius adds that Orpheus also bears witness that the Sun is all things, in these verses:

Hear me,
you who always whirl
the far-traveling, spiral-bright circle
in heavenly turnings,
the circle running all around:

glorious Zeus Dionysus,
father of sea,
father of earth,
Helios all-begetter,
all-varied,
gold-bright.

Kern Fr. 237 — Phanes and Dionysus

Macrobius says that Orpheus too, wanting the Sun to be understood, says among other things:

Melting the divine aether,
which before was unmoving,
he brought forth for the gods
a beauty most lovely to behold:

the one whom they now call
Phanes and Dionysus,
lord Eubouleus
and clear-shining Antauges.

Different people on earth
call him by different names.

He was first to come into the light,
and he was called Dionysus
because he whirls
through the boundless, long Olympus.

As he changed, he received a name,
and many different titles
for each occasion,
as time shifted in its season.

Macrobius explains that Orpheus called the Sun Phanes from light and manifestation, because he is seen by all and sees all things. He says Dionysus comes, as Orpheus himself says, from being whirled and carried in a circle.

Kern notes that one line of this fragment, "For this reason they call him Phanes and Dionysus," is also transmitted in Diodorus Siculus and Eusebius in a discussion of Osiris, Dionysus, and Sirius.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 236-237, in the section headed "Bacchica." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witness translated here is Macrobius, Saturnalia, as printed by Kern, with Kern's parallels to Diodorus Siculus, Eusebius, and Aristocritus noted where they preserve part of the same naming tradition.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 236 — Macrobius

Macrobius, Saturnalia:

postremo potentiam solis ad omnium potestatum summitatem referri indicant theologi, qui in sacris hoc brevissima precatione demonstrant dicentes "Ἥλιε παντοκράτωρ, κόσμου πνεῦμα, κόσμου δύναμις, κόσμου φῶς." Solem esse omnia et O. testatur his versibus:

κέκλυθι τηλεπόρου δίνης ἑλικαυγέα κύκλον
οὐρανίαις στροφάλιγξι περίδρομον αἰὲν ἑλίσσων,
ἀγλαὲ Ζεῦ Διόνυσε, πάτερ πόντου, πάτερ αἴης,
Ἥλιε παγγενέτωρ, πανταίολε, χρυσοφεγγές.

Kern Fr. 237 — Macrobius

Macrobius, Saturnalia:

O. quoque, solem volens intellegi, ait inter cetera:

τήκων αἰθέρα δῖον, ἀκίνητον πρὶν ἐόντα
ἐξανέφηνε θεοῖσιν ὥραν κάλλιστον ἰδέσθαι,
ὃν δὴ νῦν καλέουσι Φάνητά τε καὶ Διόνυσον
Εὐβουλῆά τ' ἄνακτα καὶ Ἀνταύγην ἀρίδηλον·
ἄλλοι δ' ἄλλο καλοῦσιν ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων.
πρῶτος δ' ἐς φάος ἦλθε, Διόνυσος δ' ἐπεκλήθη,
οὕνεκα δινεῖται κατ' ἀπείρονα μακρὸν Ὄλυμπον·
ἀλλαχθεὶς δ' ὄνομ' ἔσχε, προσηγορίας πρὸς ἕκαστον
παντοδαπὰς κατὰ καιρὸν ἀμειβομένοιο χρόνοιο.

Φάνητα dixit solem ἀπὸ τοῦ φωτὸς καὶ φανεροῦ, id est a lumine atque inluminatione, quia cunctis visitur cuncta conspiciens. Διόνυσος, ut ipse vates ait, ἀπὸ τοῦ δινεῖσθαι καὶ περιφέρεσθαι, id est quod circumferatur in ambitum.

Kern's parallel from Diodorus Siculus and Eusebius:

τοὔνεκά μιν καλέουσι Φάνητά τε καὶ Διόνυσον.