Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 161-163 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group turns from Zeus' public ordering to the life-giving goddesses around him: Hera and Hestia, Adrasteia and Ananke, Heimarmene, and Hera's marriage to Zeus as coequal source of souls.

Translation

Kern Fr. 161 — Hera and Hestia

Damascius says:

According to Orpheus, the procession of the inexorable gods also projects two life-giving goddesses: one more according to what is moved, the other more according to what stands. I mean Hera and Hestia. Hestia grounds the gods who proceed into this whole world; Hera calls all of them forth into procession.

Kern Fr. 162 — Adrasteia, Ananke, and Heimarmene

Proclus says:

For the demiurge, as Orpheus says, is nourished from Adrasteia, is together with Ananke, and begets Heimarmene.

Kern Fr. 163 — Hera Joined to Zeus

Proclus says:

The demiurge himself, greatest Zeus, is joined in marriage to Hera. Therefore she is called equal in rank to him, and they have proceeded from the same fathers.

Proclus also says:

Hera is the source of every procession and generation of souls. She generates every hypercosmic soul and every encosmic soul, proceeds over all things, gives life to all things, and gives life to the whole cosmos. Orpheus calls her equal in rank to the demiurge, joins her to him, and by wedding them makes her the one mother of all things of which Zeus is father.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 161-163, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here include Damascius and Proclus as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 161 — Damascius, On First Principles

Damascius, On First Principles:

ἔτι δὲ κατ᾽ Ὀρφέα δύο προβάλλεται ζωιογόνους θεότητας, τὴν μὲν κατὰ τὸ κινούμενον μᾶλλον, τὴν δὲ μᾶλλον κατὰ τὸ ἑστός, Ἥραν φημὶ καὶ Ἑστίαν· ταύτην μὲν ἑδράζουσαν τοὺς εἰς τόδε τὸ πᾶν προϊόντας θεούς, ἐκείνην δὲ πάντας εἰς πρόοδον ἐκκαλουμένην.

Kern Fr. 162 — Proclus on Plato's Timaeus

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

καὶ γὰρ ὁ δημιουργός, ὡς ὁ Ὀρφεὺς φησι, τρέφεται μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀδραστείας, σύνεστι δὲ τῆι Ἀνάγκηι, γεννᾶι δὲ τὴν Εἱμαρμένην.

Kern Fr. 163 — Proclus on Plato's Timaeus

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

ὁ δὲ δημιουργὸς αὐτός, ὁ μέγιστος Ζεύς, συζυγεῖ τῆι Ἥραι· διὸ καὶ ἰσοτελὴς αὐτῶι καλεῖται, καὶ ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν προεληλύθασι πατέρων.

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

πηγὴ πάσης τῆς τῶν ψυχῶν προόδου καὶ ἀπογεννήσεως· πᾶσαν μὲν τὴν ὑπερκόσμιον ἀπογεννῶσα ψυχήν, πᾶσαν δὲ τὴν ἐγκόσμιον, προϊοῦσα δὲ ἐπὶ πάντα καὶ ζωιοποιοῦσα καὶ τὸν ὅλον κόσμον, ἣν ὁ μὲν Ὀρφεὺς ἰσοτελῆ τῶι δημιουργῶι καλεῖ καὶ συνάπτει καὶ συζεύξας μίαν ποιεῖ μητέρα πάντων ὧν ὁ Ζεὺς πατήρ.