Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 146-149 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group stays with Kronos before the Kouretes material: Kronos is called a Titan, the stone is swallowed in place of Zeus, and two short witnesses preserve the image of Kronos asleep after deceit.

Translation

Kern Fr. 146 — Kronos as Titan

Damascius says:

For the Kronos in Orpheus is a Titan, insofar as he has withdrawn into himself, and he swallows his own offspring according to the implacable power.

Kern Fr. 147 — The Stone in Place of Zeus

A scholion on Lycophron says:

He calls Zeus a disk because of the stone that Rhea swaddled in place of Zeus and Kronos swallowed, as Hesiod says in the Theogony, after taking and altering Orpheus' Theogony.

Kern Fr. 148 — Kronos Sleeps After Deceit

Proclus says:

For even that god, sleeping, is handed down as first among the gods:

There Kronos, after eating deceptive food,

lay there, loudly snoring.

Kern Fr. 149 — The All-Subduing Sleep

Clement of Alexandria says:

In the Theogony, Orpheus has made this verse about Kronos:

He lay with his thick neck bent aside,

and sleep, the all-subduer, seized him.

Homer transferred these lines to the Cyclops.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 146-149, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here include Damascius, a scholion on Lycophron, Proclus, and Clement of Alexandria as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 146 — Damascius

Damascius, On First Principles:

καὶ γὰρ ὁ παρ᾽ Ὀρφεῖ Κρόνος, ὃς Τιτάν ἐστι καθὰ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ὑπεξωκότα, καὶ καταπίνει τὰ οἰκεῖα γεννήματα καθὰ τὸν ἀμείλικτον.

Kern Fr. 147 — Scholion on Lycophron

Scholion on Lycophron:

δίσκον δὲ τὸν Δία λέγει διὰ τὸν λίθον τὸν ἀντὶ Διὸς ὑπὸ Ῥέας σπαργανωθέντα καὶ ὑπὸ Κρόνου καταποθέντα, ὡς φησὶν Ἡσίοδος ἐν τῇ Θεογονίᾳ, τὴν Ὀρφέως ὑποκλέψας καὶ παραφθείρας Θεογονίαν.

Kern Fr. 148 — Proclus

Proclus, on Plato's Republic:

καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος καθεύδων πρώτιστος παραδίδοται τῶν θεῶν·

ἔνθα Κρόνος μὲν ἔπειτα φαγὼν δολόεσσαν ἐδωδὴν

κεῖτο μέγα ῥέγχων.

Kern Fr. 149 — Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata:

ἐν τε τῇ Θεογονίᾳ ἐπὶ τοῦ Κρόνου Ὀρφεῖ πεποίηται·

κεῖτ᾽ ἀποδοχμώσας παχὺν αὐχένα, κὰδ δέ μιν ὕπνος

ᾕρει πανδαμάτωρ.

ταῦτα δὲ Ὅμηρος ἐπὶ τοῦ Κύκλωπος μετέθηκεν.