Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 195-198 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group follows Kore from the upper weaving room into the abduction myth: her relation to Zeus, Plouton, Poseidon, Aphrodite's autumnal hour, the scorpion woven at the moment of seizure, and the twofold Koric order above and within the world.

Translation

Kern Fr. 195 — Kore With Zeus and Plouton

Proclus says that, for this reason, the theologian says that the gods at the extremes, Zeus and Plouton, make the first and last things together with Kore. The middle god, Poseidon, does so even without her, arranging the generative cause from his own allotment. Therefore they say that Kore is overpowered by Zeus and seized by Plouton.

Elsewhere Proclus says that the report of the theologians who handed down the most holy rites at Eleusis says this: above, Kore remains in the houses of her mother, which her mother prepared for her in inaccessible places set apart from the whole; below, with Plouton, she rules the chthonic powers, oversees the recesses of the earth, gives life to the lowest things of the whole, and shares soul with the things that are lifeless and dead in themselves.

So one should not be surprised, Proclus says, that Kore is with both Zeus and Plouton: with the one who, as the myths say, overpowered her, and with the one who seized the goddess.

Kern Fr. 196 — Aphrodite's Autumnal Hour and the Scorpion

Proclus assigns the autumnal hour to Aphrodite. In that season the casting-down of seeds into the earth takes place, and this is Aphrodite's work: to mingle fertile things and bring the cause of generation into communion.

For these reasons, then, the myth says that Kore was seized in this season, since she presides over the life-generation of all divided things. It adds that in the weaving she was weaving the scorpion, which has received the middle of this season, when she underwent the abduction.

Kern Fr. 197 — Persephone and the Eumenides

Proclus says that Kore, according to the Artemis within herself and the Athena within herself, is said to remain a virgin. But according to Persephone's fruitful power, she also approaches, joins herself to the third demiurge, and gives birth, as Orpheus says:

Nine bright-eyed daughters, workers in flowers.

For the Artemis and Athena within her always preserve the same virginity.

Elsewhere Proclus says that she is called Persephone especially when she is together with Plouton and orders the last things of the whole with him. According to the extremes, she is said to be a virgin and to remain undefiled; according to the middle, she is yoked to Hades and co-begets the Eumenides in the places under the earth.

Kern Fr. 198 — The Double Koric Order

Proclus says that the Koric order is double. One order appears above the world, where Kore is arranged together with Zeus and, after that one demiurge, brings forth the demiurge of divided things, Dionysus. The second order is in the world: here she is said to be with Plouton, to be seized, and to ensoul the last things of the whole, over which Plouton has been set.

Plato, Proclus says, has perfectly disclosed both orders to us: sometimes joining Kore to Demeter, and sometimes showing her as the wife of Plouton, this god.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 195-198, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Proclus' Commentary on Plato's Cratylus, Commentary on Plato's Republic, and Platonic Theology as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 195 — Proclus

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Cratylus:

ὅθεν καὶ ὁ θεολόγος τοῖς μὲν ἄκροις μετὰ τῆς Κόρης φησὶ τά τε πρῶτα καὶ τὰ ἔσχατα δημιουργεῖν, τὸν δὲ μέσον καὶ ἄνευ ἐκείνης, ἀπὸ τοῦ σφετέρου κλήρου τὴν γεννητικὴν αἰτίαν συντάξαντα· διὸ καὶ φασὶν τὴν Κόρην ὑπὸ μὲν τοῦ Διὸς βιάζεσθαι, ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦ Πλούτωνος ἁρπάζεσθαι.

Proclus, Platonic Theology:

καὶ γὰρ ἡ τῶν θεολόγων φήμη τῶν τὰς ἁγιωτάτας ἡμῖν ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι τελετὰς παραδεδωκότων ἄνω μὲν αὐτὴν ἐν τοῖς μητρὸς οἴκοις μένειν φησίν, οὓς ἡ μήτηρ αὐτῆι κατεσκεύασεν ἐν ἀβάτοις ἐξηιρημένους τοῦ παντός, κάτω δὲ μετὰ Πλούτωνος τῶν χθονίων ἐπάρχειν καὶ τοῖς τῆς γῆς μυχούς ἐπιτροπεύειν καὶ ζωὴν ἐπορέγειν τοῖς ἐσχάτοις τοῦ παντὸς καὶ ψυχῆς μεταδιδόναι τοῖς παρ' ἑαυτῶν ἀψύχοις καὶ νεκροῖς. οὐ δὴ καὶ θαυμάσειε ἄν, ὅπως ἡ Κόρη Διὶ μὲν καὶ Πλούτωνι σύνεστι, τῶι μὲν — ὡς φασιν οἱ μῦθοι — βιασαμένωι, τῶι δὲ ἁρπάσαντι τὴν θεόν.

Kern Fr. 196 — Proclus

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Republic:

τὴν δὲ μετοπωρινὴν Ἀφροδίτης· ἐν ταύτηι γὰρ ἡ καταβολὴ γίνεται τῶν σπερμάτων εἰς γῆν, τοῦτο δὲ Ἀφροδίτης ἔργον τὰ γόνιμα μιγνύναι καὶ εἰς κοινωνίαν ἄγειν τὴν τῆς γενέσεως αἰτίαν — καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ἄρα καὶ ὁ μῦθος τὴν Κόρην ἁρπασθῆναί φησιν ἐν τῆι ὥραι ταύτηι, τῆς ζωιογονίας τῶν μερικῶν πάντων προισταμένη, προσθεὶς ὅτι καὶ ἐν τῆι ἱστοποΐαι τὸν σκορπίον ὑφαίνουσα, τὸν τὰ μέσα τῆς ὥρας εἰληχότα ταύτης, ὑπομείνειεν τὴν ἁρπαγήν.

Kern Fr. 197 — Proclus

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Cratylus:

ὅθεν δὴ καὶ ἡ Κόρη κατὰ μὲν τὴν Ἄρτεμιν τὴν ἐν ἑαυτῆι καὶ τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν παρθένος λέγεται μένειν, κατὰ δὲ τὴν τῆς Περσεφόνης γόνιμον δύναμιν καὶ προσιέναι καὶ συνάπτεσθαι τῶι τρίτωι δημιουργῶι καὶ τίκτειν, ὡς φησιν Ὀρφεύς·

ἐννέα θυγατέρας γλαυκώπιδας ἀνθεσιουργούς·

ἐπεὶ ἥ γε Ἄρτεμις ἡ ἐν αὐτῆι καὶ ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ τὴν παρθενίαν ἀεὶ τὴν αὐτὴν διασώζουσι.

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Cratylus:

διὸ καὶ Περσεφόνη καλεῖται μάλιστα τῶι Πλούτωνι συνοῦσα καὶ μετ' αὐτοῦ διακοσμοῦσα τὰ τελευταία τοῦ παντός, καὶ κατὰ μὲν τὰ ἄκρα παρθένος εἶναι λέγεται καὶ ἄκραντος μένειν, κατὰ δὲ τὸ μέσον ζεύγνυσθαι τῶι Ἄιδηι καὶ συναπογεννᾶν τὰς ἐν τοῖς ὑποχθονίοις Εὐμενίδας.

Kern Fr. 198 — Proclus

Proclus, Platonic Theology:

διττῆς δὲ οὔσης τῆς Κορικῆς τάξεως, καὶ τῆς μὲν ὑπὲρ τὸν κόσμον προφαινομένης, ὅθι δὴ καὶ συντάττεται τῶι Διί, καὶ μετ' ἐκεῖνον τὸν ἕνα δημιουργὸν ὑφίστησι τῶν μεριστῶν, τῆς δὲ ἐν τῶι κόσμωι δευτέρας, ἡ δὴ καὶ σύν ἐστι τοῦ Πλούτωνος ἁρπαζομένη λέγεται, καὶ ψυχοῖ τὰ ἔσχατα τοῦ παντός, ὧν ὁ Πλούτων ἐπετρόπευσεν, ἀμφοτέρας ὁ Πλάτων ἡμῖν τελέως ἐξέφηνε, τοτὲ μὲν τῆι Δήμητρι τὴν Κόρην συνάπτων, τοτὲ δὲ τῶι Πλούτωνι καὶ σύζυγον αὐτὴν ἀποφαίνων τοῦδε τοῦ θεοῦ.