Good Works Translation from Latin and Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 240-242 from the section Kern heads Bacchica. The witnesses are Macrobius' Commentary on the Dream of Scipio and Saturnalia. The first two fragments explain matter, nectar, the Lethean river, Liber as material mind, the Titanic tearing and restoration of Liber, the descent of souls, the heavenly Crater of Liber, intoxication, and forgetfulness. The third gives a short Orphic line used to explain Apollo Patroios as the Sun, the fatherly cause of generation.

Translation

Kern Fr. 240 — Liber as Material Mind

Macrobius says:

This is hyle: matter. It has been impressed with forms, and has shaped the whole body of the world, whatever we see anywhere.

Its highest and purest part, by which divine things are sustained or in which they consist, is called nectar, and is believed to be the drink of the gods. Its lower and more turbid part is the drink of souls. This is what the ancients called the Lethean river.

The Orphics understand Father Liber himself as material mind, born from that undivided One and then divided into individual beings.

Therefore in their rites he is handed down as having been torn limb from limb by Titanic frenzy, and, after the pieces were buried, as having emerged again one and whole. For mind, which we have said is called nous, offers itself to be divided from the undivided, and then returns from division to the undivided. In doing this, it both fulfills the offices of the world and does not abandon the hidden things of its own nature.

Kern Fr. 241 — The Crater of Liber and Forgetfulness

Macrobius says:

This is what Plato marked in the Phaedo: the soul is drawn into the body, trembling with a new intoxication. By this he wanted us to understand the new drink of material overflow, by which the soul is touched, weighed down, and led below.

The starry Crater of Father Liber is also an indication of this hidden doctrine. It is set in the region between Cancer and Leo, signifying that intoxication first happens there to souls about to descend, as matter flows in. From there forgetfulness, the companion of intoxication, already begins secretly to creep over souls.

Kern Fr. 242 — Apollo Patroios

Macrobius says that people gave Apollo the surname Patroios not because of the private religion of one clan or one city, but because he is the author of the begetting of all things. The Sun, by drying up moisture, supplied the cause of begetting to all things, as Orpheus says:

having the mind of the father
and thoughtful counsel.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 240-242, in the section headed "Bacchica." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, and Macrobius, Saturnalia, as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 240 — Macrobius

Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio:

haec est autem hyle, quae omne corpus mundi, quod ubicumque cernimus, ideis inpressa formavit. sed altissima et purissima pars eius, qua vel sustentantur divina vel constant, nectar vocatur et creditur esse potus deorum, inferior vero atque turbidior potus animarum. et hoc est quod veteres Lethaeum fluvium vocaverunt. ipsum autem Liberum patrem Orphici νοῦν ὑλικόν suspicantur intellegi qui ab illo individuo natus in singulos ipse dividitur. ideo in illorum sacris traditur Titanio furore in membra discerptus et frustis sepultis rursus unus et integer emersisse quia νοῦς, quem diximus, mentem vocari, ex individuo praebendo se dividendum et rursus ex diviso ad individuum revertendo et mundi inplet officia et naturae suae arcana non deserit.

Kern Fr. 241 — Macrobius

Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio:

et hoc est quod Plato notavit in Phaedone animam in corpus trahi nova ebrietate trepidantem, volens novum potum materialis alluvionis intellegi quo delibuta et gravata deducitur. arcani huius indicium est et Crater Liberi patris ille sidereus in regione quae inter Cancrum est et Leonem locatus, ebrietatem illic primum descensuris animis evenire silva influente significans, unde et comes ebrietatis oblivio illic animis incipit iam latenter obrepere.

Kern Fr. 242 — Macrobius

Macrobius, Saturnalia:

Apollinem Πατρῷον cognominaverunt non propria gentis unius aut civitatis religione sed ut auctorem progenerandarum omnium rerum, quod sol umoribus exsiccatis ad progenerandum omnibus praebuit causam, ut ait Orpheus:

πατρὸς ἔχοντα νόον καὶ ἐπίφρονα βουλήν.