Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 191-192 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group turns from Kore's single-born name to her guarded and weaving power: the Kouretes around the demiurge, the Korybants guarding Kore, Kore as overseer of everything sown, the unfinished looms of the abduction myth, and the heavenly robe woven with the Father.

Translation

Kern Fr. 191 — The Korybants Guard Kore

Proclus says that the Kouretes are said to stand around the demiurge of the wholes and dance around him, having appeared from Rhea. Among the intellectual gods, then, the first Kourete order received its existence.

Analogous to those Kouretes there is the order of the Korybants, which proceeds with Kore and guards her from every side, as theology says. Therefore they received this name.

Julian gives a related notice: the Korybants, given by the Mother, escort Attis; they are the three ruling hypostases of the superior genera after the gods.

Kern Fr. 192 — Kore Weaves the Heavenly Order

Porphyry says that the body with which the soul is clothed is truly a wonder to behold, whether one looks to its composition or to the soul's binding to it. So also, in Orpheus, Kore, who is overseer of everything sown, has been handed down as weaving. The ancients also called heaven a robe, as though it were the covering of the heavenly gods.

Proclus says that, for these reasons, Orpheus says that the life-making cause of divided things remains above and weaves the ordering of the heavenly beings. She is a nymph because she is undefiled; she is joined to Zeus and remains in her own ways. But when she goes forth from her own houses, she leaves the looms unfinished; she is seized, and, once seized, is married; and, once married, gives birth, so that she may ensoul the things that have life brought in from outside.

The unfinished state of the looms shows, Proclus thinks, that up to the eternal living beings the whole is still incomplete. So Plato says that the one demiurge commands the many gods to "weave mortal things onto immortal things." In this way Plato reminds us that the addition of mortal things completes the woven life of the whole, and he gives interpretive concepts for the Orphic divine myth and the unfinished looms. The divine number has its own boundary and limit, and is an end.

Elsewhere Proclus says that the robe, the work of weaving, is last. It bears an image of the cosmic war and of the demiurgic ordering that proceeds from the goddess into the whole; the goddess weaves this robe together with the Father. He also says that Kore herself, and all her chorus, while remaining above, are said to weave the ordering of life.

Damascius says that some theologians, starting from the divine tradition, call this ordering "ruling," while the great Iamblichus hymns it as "leaderly." Later theologians have also called the ordering "assimilative," perhaps starting from the supercosmic robe-making of Kore in Orpheus, in which the imitations of the intellectual forms are woven in; but they also clearly start from the oracles.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 191-192, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Proclus, Porphyry, Julian, and Damascius as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 191 — Proclus and Julian

Proclus, Platonic Theology:

ἐπεὶ καὶ περιεστάναι λέγονται (sc. οἱ Κουρῆτες) τὸν τῶν ὅλων δημιουργὸν καὶ περιχορεύειν ἀπὸ τῆς Ῥέας ἀναφανέντες. ἐν μὲν οὖν τοῖς νοεροῖς θεοῖς ἡ Κουρητικὴ τάξις ἡ πρωτίστη τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἔλαχεν. ἀνάλογον δὴ τοῖς ἐκεῖ Κούρησιν ἡ τῶν Κορυβάντων προβαίνουσα τῆι Κόρηι καὶ φρουροῦσα πανταχόθεν αὐτήν, ὡς φησιν ἡ θεολογία. διὸ καὶ τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν ἔλαχον ταύτην.

Julian, Oration V:

δορυφοροῦσι γὰρ αὐτὸν (sc. Ἄττιν) παρὰ τῆς Μητρὸς δοθέντες οἱ Κορύβαντες αἱ τρεῖς ἀρχικαὶ τῶν μετὰ θεοὺς κρεισσόνων γενῶν ὑποστάσεις.

Kern Fr. 192 — Porphyry, Proclus, and Damascius

Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs:

καὶ χιτών γε τὸ σῶμα τῆι ψυχῆι ὃ ἠμφίεσται, θαῦμα τῶι ὄντι ἰδέσθαι, εἴτε πρὸς τὴν σύστασιν ἀποβλέποις εἴτε πρὸς τὴν πρὸς τοῦτο σύνδεσιν τῆς ψυχῆς. οὕτω καὶ παρὰ τῶι Ὀρφεῖ ἡ Κόρη, ἥπερ ἐστὶ παντὸς τοῦ σπειρομένου ἔφορος, ἱστουργοῦσα παραδέδοται, τῶν παλαιῶν καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν πέπλον εἰρηκότων οἷον θεῶν οὐρανίων περίβλημα.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ἄρα Ὀ. τὴν τῶν μεριστῶν ζωιοποιὸν αἰτίαν ἄνω μένουσαν καὶ ὑφαίνουσαν τὸν διάκοσμον τῶν οὐρανίων νύμφην τε εἶναί φησιν ὡς ἄκραντον καὶ ταύτα τῶι Διὶ συναφθεῖσαν καὶ μένειν ἐν οἰκείοις ἤθεσι, προελθοῦσαν δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν ἑαυτῆς οἴκων ἀτελεῖς τε καταλείπειν τοὺς ἱστοὺς καὶ ἁρπάζεσθαι καὶ ἀναρπασθεῖσαν γαμεῖσθαι καὶ γαμηθεῖσαν γεννᾶν, ἵνα ψυχώσηι καὶ τὰ ἐπείσακτον ἔχοντα ζωήν· τὸ γὰρ ἀτελές, οἶμαι, τῶν ἱστῶν ἐνδείκνυται κἀκεῖνο τὸ μέχρι τῶν ἀϊδίων ζώιων ἀτελὲς εἶναι τὸ πᾶν. διὸ καὶ ὁ Πλάτων παρακελεύεσθαί φησι τὸν ἕνα δημιουργὸν τοῖς πολλοῖς "προσυφαίνειν τὰ θνητὰ τοῖς ἀθανάτοις" ἀναμιμνήσκων πως ἡμᾶς, ὅτι τῆς τοῦ παντὸς ὑφαντικῆς ζωῆς τελείωσίς ἐστιν ἡ προσθήκη τῶν θνητῶν, καὶ τῆς Ὀρφικῆς θεομυθίας καὶ τῶν ἀτελῶν ἱστῶν ἐξηγητικὰς ἐννοίας παρεχόμενος. ὁ μὲν οὖν θεῖος ἀριθμὸς ὅρον οἰκεῖον ἔσχε καὶ πέρας καὶ ἐστὶ τέλος.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

μᾶλλον δὲ ἔσχατον μὲν ὁ πέπλος, τὸ τῆς ὑφαντικῆς ἔργον, εἴδωλον φέρων τοῦ κοσμικοῦ πολέμου καὶ τῆς δημιουργικῆς ἀπὸ τῆς θεοῦ τάξεως τῆς εἰς τὸ πᾶν προϊούσης, ὃν ἡ θεὸς ὑφαίνει μετὰ τοῦ πατρός.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Cratylus:

καὶ γὰρ αὐτὴ (sc. Κόρη) καὶ πᾶς αὐτῆς ὁ χορὸς ἄνω μενούσης ὑφαίνειν λέγονται τὸν διάκοσμον τῆς ζωῆς.

Damascius, On First Principles:

πρὸς μὲν τοίνυν τὸ πρῶτον ἐροῦμεν ὅτι τῶν θεολόγων οἱ μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς θείας ὁρμώμενοι παραδόσεως "ἀρχικὴν" καλοῦσι ταύτην τὴν διακόσμησιν, ὁ δὲ μέγας Ἰάμβλιχος "ἡγεμονικὴν" αὐτὴν ἀνευφημεῖ· ἤδη δὲ οἱ νεώτεροι καὶ "ἀφομοιωτικὴν" αὐτὴν κεκλήκασιν, ἴσως μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς παρ᾽ Ὀρφεῖ Κορικῆς ὑπερκοσμίου πεπλοποιΐας ὁρμηθέντες — ἐν ᾗ τὰ μιμήματα τῶν νοερῶν εἰδῶν ἐνυφαίνεται —, σαφῶς δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν λογίων.