Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 117-122 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group follows the Titan ordering after Ocean and Tethys: Kronos is placed above Ocean; Thaumas and Bia appear in the same rank; the Titans are named as overbearing and ill-counselled; the Olympian gods overpower them; and Proclus reads the descent into invisibility and Tartarus as part of the Orphic ordering of the whole.

Translation

Kern Fr. 117 — Kronos Above Ocean

Proclus says:

The other Titans press on toward distinction and procession, and the greatest of them, Kronos, leads them, as the theologian says.

At any rate, the theologian again shows that Kronos is higher than Ocean. He says that Kronos himself takes possession of heavenly Olympus and, thundering there, rules the Titans, while Ocean inhabits the whole middle zone. For Ocean dwells in the divine streams after Olympus and after the Heaven that surrounds it there. This is not the highest Heaven but, as the myth says, the Heaven that has sprung out from Olympus and been set in order there.

Since this is so, Ocean and Tethys, insofar as they remain and are united with Heaven, bring forth together with him the kingship of those who proceed, Kronos and Rhea. Insofar as they are established in the generative power of the mother, they bring forth Phorkys together with her. For Tethys brings him forth after mingling in love with Pontus, together with Nereus and Thaumas. Phorkys is not Phorkys son of Heaven, but Phorkys of the sea, as is clear from the Theogony.

And insofar as Tethys is full of Earth, someone might say that she brings forth this Phorkys with Ocean, insofar as Ocean too has enclosed the intelligible in himself. Thus she, insofar as she is Earth by participation, and he, insofar as he is Pontus by cause, establish this god after Kronos and Rhea.

Kern Fr. 118 — Thaumas and Wonder

Proclus says:

Wonder leads the way, because in us too it is the beginning of knowledge of the wholes. Among divine things, wonder joins the one who wonders to the thing wondered at. From this, the wise in divine matters have hymned a certain very great god, Thaumas, who through wonder bends the secondary things beneath the first things.

In another place, Proclus says:

It seems that Plato also called the power of the Atlanteans great and wonderful for this reason: in this order, the ancient theologians hand down one being called Thaumas and another called Bia.

Kern Fr. 119 — The Titans' Overbearing Heart

Proclus says:

This insolence is truly lack of limit and shame. Therefore they say that what draws near to it, and what is somehow in it, acts insolently. For the paradigms of these things are shown by the theologian through the names:

Titans of wicked counsel, having an overbearing heart.

Kern Fr. 120 — The Olympians Overpower the Titans

Proclus says:

In this way the demiurgic will has limit, and the worse things are mastered by the better: among partial things, the Atlanteans by the Athenians; among the wholes, the Titans by the Olympians:

strong though they were, when they met one better than themselves,

because of ruinous insolence and overweening recklessness,

as the theologian says. Plato, imitating him, said that the Atlanteans went against the Athenians in insolence.

Kern Fr. 121 — Cast Below Deep Earth

Proclus says:

Of all the heavenly races, some remain only in the principles, as the first two triads do. For when Heaven perceived them, as the theologian says:

having an implacable heart

and a nature ...

he hurled them beneath deep Earth, into Tartarus.

So they are hidden in invisibility because of the superiority of their power. Others both remain and proceed, as Ocean and Tethys do.

Kern Fr. 122 — The Orphic Casting-Down

Proclus says:

That all this has a wonderful indication of the ordering of the whole is something we may trust if we remind ourselves of the things said by Orpheus about the castings-down into Tartarus at the edge of demiurgy. For Orpheus, after handing down the demiurgic opposition of the Olympian gods and the Titanic order, completes the whole ordering as far as the last things of the universe, giving even to them a share in the undefiled providence of the gods.

Plato also knew this. When he hands down the wholes in his own way, he stretches them out, leads them down, and brings both whole classes under invisibility. Through this making-invisible, he imitates the Orphic casting-down into Tartarus.

In another place, Proclus says:

Certainly Homer is hinting in these verses at the war against Zeus, the Titanic war, and the things called castings-down into Tartarus among the Orphics.

Damascius says:

With the proper distinction, of the kind that Orpheus also hands down, there are all the shadowy races and the Heaven-born ones who are bound in Heaven.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 117-122, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

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

Source Text

Kern Fr. 117 — Proclus

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

οἱ δὲ ἄλλοι Τιτᾶνες εἰς διάκρισιν ἐπείγονται καὶ πρόοδον, ἡγεῖται δὲ αὐτῶν ὁ μέγιστος Κρόνος, ὡς φησὶν ὁ θεολόγος. καίτοι γε ὅτι ὁ Κρόνος ὑπέρτερός ἐστι τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ, δεδήλωκεν ὁ θεολόγος πάλιν λέγων τὸν μὲν Κρόνον αὐτὸν καταλαμβάνειν τὸν οὐράνιον Ὄλυμπον κἀκεῖ βροντήεντα βασιλεύειν τῶν Τιτάνων, τὸν δὲ Ὠκεανὸν τὴν ζώνην ἅπασαν τὴν μέσην ναίειν· ναίειν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἐν τοῖς θεσπεσίοις ῥείθροις τοῖς μετὰ τὸν Ὄλυμπον καὶ τὸν ἐκεῖ περιέπειν Οὐρανόν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ τὸν ἀκρότατον, ὡς δὲ φησὶν ὁ μῦθος, τὸν ἐκπεδόντα τοῦ Ὀλύμπου καὶ ἐκεῖ τεταγμένον.

τούτων δ᾽ οὖν οὕτως ἐχόντων ὁ Ὠκεανὸς καὶ ἡ Τηθὺς καθ᾽ ὅσον μένουσι καὶ ἥνωνται πρὸς τὸν Οὐρανὸν συμπαράγουσιν αὐτῷ τὴν τῶν προιόντων βασιλείαν, Κρόνον τε καὶ Ῥέαν, καὶ καθ᾽ ὅσον ἐνίδρυνται τῇ γονίμῳ δυνάμει τῆς μητρός, κατὰ τοσοῦτον τὸν Φόρκυν μετ᾽ αὐτῆς· αὐτὴ γὰρ αὐτὸν παράγει Πόντῳ φιλότητι μιγεῖσα μετὰ Νηρέως καὶ Θαύμαντος. οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ὁ Φόρκυς ὁ Οὐρανίδης, ἀλλὰ ὁ Φόρκυς ὁ Πόντιος, ὡς ἐστι δῆλον ἐκ τῆς Θεογονίας. καὶ καθ᾽ ὅσον ἡ Τηθὺς τῆς Γῆς ἐστι πλήρης, κατὰ τοσοῦτον οἷον Γῆ τις οὖσα λέγοιτ᾽ ἂν τὸν Φόρκυν τοῦτον παράγειν μετὰ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ, καθ᾽ ὅσον καὶ οὗτος ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸν νοητὸν περιείληφεν· ὥσθ᾽ ἡ μὲν καθ᾽ ὅσον ἐστὶ Γῆ κατὰ μέθεξιν, ὁ δὲ καθ᾽ ὅσον ἐστὶ Πόντος κατ᾽ αἰτίαν ὑφιστᾶσι μετὰ Κρόνον καὶ Ῥέαν τόνδε τὸν θεόν.

Kern Fr. 118 — Proclus

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

προηγείσθω μὲν οὖν τὸ θαῦμα, διότι καὶ ἐν ἡμῖν ἀρχὴ τοῦτό ἐστι τῆς τῶν ὅλων γνώσεως, ἐν δὲ τοῖς θείοις συνάπτει τῷ θαυμαζομένῳ τὸ θαυμάζον· ὅθεν καὶ Θαύμαντα θεόν τινα μέγιστον ὑμνήκασιν οἱ τὰ θεῖα σοφοί, τὸν διὰ τοῦ θαύματος ὑποκατακλίνοντα τὰ δεύτερα τοῖς πρώτοις.

The same Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

καὶ ἔοικεν ὁ Πλάτων καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μεγάλην καὶ θαυμαστὴν καλέσαι τὴν δύναμιν τῶν Ἀτλαντίνων, ἐπειδὴ καὶ ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ τάξει παραδίδοταί τις Θαύμας καλούμενος καὶ Βία ἄλλος τις ὑπὸ τῶν πάλαι θεολόγων.

Kern Fr. 119 — Proclus

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

αὕτη γὰρ ἐστιν ἡ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀπειρία καὶ τὸ αἶσχος, διὸ καὶ τὸ συνεγγίζον αὐτῇ καὶ τὸ ἐν αὐτῇ πως οὐχ ὑβρίζειν λέγουσιν, ἐπεὶ παράδειγμα αὐτῶν διὰ τούτων παρὰ τῷ θεολόγῳ δηλοῦται τῶν ὀνομάτων·

Τιτῆνες κακόμηται, ὑπέρβιον ἦτορ ἔχοντες.

Kern Fr. 120 — Proclus

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

οὕτω γὰρ ἥ τε δημιουργικὴ πέρας ἴσχει βούλησις καὶ τὰ χείρω κρατεῖται ὑπὸ τῶν ἀμεινόνων, ἐν μὲν τοῖς μερικοῖς Ἀτλαντῖνοι ὑπὸ τῶν Ἀθηναίων, ἐν δὲ τοῖς ὅλοις οἱ Τιτᾶνες ὑπὸ τῶν Ὀλυμπίων,

καὶ κρατεροί περ ἐόντες ἀμείνονος ἀντιάσαντες,

ὕβριος ἀντ᾽ ὀλοῆς καὶ ἀτασθαλίης ὑπερόπλου,

φησὶν ὁ θεολόγος, οὗ καὶ ὁ Πλάτων ζηλώσας ὕβρει πορεύεσθαι τοὺς Ἀτλαντίνους εἶπεν ἐπὶ τοὺς Ἀθηναίους.

Kern Fr. 121 — Proclus

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

μᾶλλον δὲ πάντων τῶν οὐρανίων γενῶν τὰ μὲν μένει μόνον ἐν ταῖς ἀρχαῖς, ὥσπερ αἱ δύο πρῶται τριάδες· ὡς γὰρ ἐνόησε, φησίν, αὐτοὺς ὁ Οὐρανός,

ἀμείλιχον ἦτορ ἔχοντας

καὶ φύσιν ἰχνομένην . . .

ῥῖψε βαθεῖν γαίης ἐς Τάρταρον.

κρύπτονται οὖν ἐν ἀφανεῖ δι᾽ ὑπεροχὴν δυνάμεως· τὰ δὲ καὶ μένει καὶ πρόεισιν, ὥσπερ ὁ Ὠκεανὸς καὶ ἡ Τηθύς.

Kern Fr. 122 — Proclus and Damascius

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

ὅτι δὲ καὶ πάντα θαυμαστὴν ἔνδειξιν ἔχει τῆς τοῦ παντὸς διακοσμήσεως, πιστοῦμεν ἀναμνήσαντες ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς τῶν παρὰ τῷ Ὀρφεῖ λεγομένων πρὸς τῷ πέρατι τῆς δημιουργίας καταταρταρώσεων· ἐπεὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος τὴν τῶν Ὀλυμπίων θεῶν καὶ τὴν Τιτανικὴν παραδοὺς δημιουργικὴν ἀντίθεσιν ἀποπερατοῖ τὴν ὅλην διακόσμησιν ἄχρι τῶν ἐσχάτων τοῦ παντός, μεταδιδοὺς καὶ ἐκείνοις τῆς τῶν θεῶν ἀκράντου προνοίας. ταύτῃ οὖν καὶ ὁ Πλάτων εἰδὼς ἐν οἰκείᾳ τὰ ὅλα παραδιδούς διατείνει καὶ κατάγει καὶ ὑπὸ τὸ ἀφανὲς τὰ διττὰ ταῦτα γένη καὶ διὰ τῆς ἀφανίσεως ταύτης μιμεῖται τὴν Ὀρφικὴν καταταρτάρωσιν.

The same Proclus, on Plato's Republic:

πάντως γάρ που τὸν πρὸς Δία πόλεμον ἐν τούτοις αἰνίσσεται τὸν Τιτανικὸν καὶ τὰς καλουμένας καταταρταρώσεις παρὰ τοῖς Ὀρφικοῖς.

Damascius, On First Principles:

μετὰ τῆς πρεπούσης διακρίσεως, οἵαν καὶ Ὀρφεὺς παραδίδωσιν, τῶν τε σκιῶν ἁπάντων γενῶν καὶ τῶν ἐν οὐρανῷ δεδεμένων Οὐρανιδῶν.