Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 104-106 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group stays inside Night's hidden order: Phanes and Night in the adyton, Night as the power that brings life from the unseen with Phanes, Adrasteia at the doors of Night's cave, and Night as ambrosial nurse of the gods.

Translation

Kern Fr. 104 — Phanes and Night in the Adyton

Proclus says:

Some say that Plato has left us to seek the things that correspond by analogy to the two kings in heaven, I mean Phanes and Night. For those who are in the higher order must also be posited among the encosmic beings, since before the cosmos they lead the intellectual gods and are eternally established in the adyton, as Orpheus says, calling the hidden and ineffable order of Phanes himself an adyton.

Whether someone wishes to assign the revolution of the Same and the revolution of the Other to their analogy, as male and female, paternal and generative, he would not miss the truth. Or one might assign the Sun and Moon among the wandering gods as opposites: the Sun preserving likeness to Phanes, the Moon preserving likeness to Night.

The transmitted passage is broken after this point. Proclus continues:

It is better to understand both before the cosmos, and to assign the craftsman himself by analogy to Phanes, since he too is said to be assimilated to him in the making of the wholes; and to assign the life-giving krater to Night, who brings all life out of unseen things with Phanes, just as the krater gives birth to every soul in the cosmos. After these two, the remaining kingdoms are handed down, ordered by analogy with the intellectual orders.

And if we ask this very question, why he did not explicitly take the two kingdoms by analogy, it is more fitting to say that the tradition of Orpheus had those too, through which he hymns the first kingship of Heaven and Earth, since that was more familiar to the Greeks, as Plato himself says in the Cratylus.

In another place, Proclus says:

In the case of these intelligible forms it is true that they do not have their power in relation to us, nor we in relation to them. They are unknown to us and are established beyond our thought, hidden in the Father's adyton; and, as the theologian says, they are known only to the order of gods immediately after them.

Kern Fr. 105 — Adrasteia at the Doors of Night

Hermias says:

Adrasteia is herself one goddess among those who remain in Night, born from Melissus and Amaltheia. Melissus is taken according to care and providence for the secondary things; Amaltheia according to what is unswerving and does not grow soft. From unswerving providence, then, Adrasteia was born. She is the sister of Ida:

fair-formed Ida, and Adrasteia of the same seed.

She gathers and contains in herself, in a single way, the measures of all laws: the encosmic and the supercosmic, the fated and the divine. For there are divine laws, temporal laws, supercosmic laws, and encosmic laws. This goddess is called Adrasteia because the things set down and legislated by her are inescapable.

Therefore she is said to stand before the cave of Night:

and in her palms he gave bronze clappers

to Adrasteia.

She is said to sound the cymbals at the doors of Night's cave, so that all things may become obedient to her laws. Inside, in the adyton of Night, Phanes sits. In the middle, Night prophesies to the gods. At the doors, Adrasteia legislates the divine bonds for all.

She differs from the Justice who is there as the legislative power differs from the judicial power. That Justice is called the daughter of the Law that is there and of Piety; but Adrasteia, being from Melissus and Amaltheia, also contains Law.

These goddesses are also said to nourish Zeus in Night's cave, as the theologian states directly. Plato too says this about him, for he makes Zeus both a craftsman and an establisher of laws. Ordinance is given from Adrasteia into the gods, for the order among them is under this goddess, and it is also given into the attendants of the gods, both commonly to all and privately to each.

Kern Fr. 106 — Night as Ambrosial Nurse

Proclus says:

Demeter, just as she sends forth all life, so also holds all nourishment, having Night as her paradigm:

for Night is called the ambrosial nurse of the gods.

But that one is so in an intelligible way.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 104-106, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

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

Source Text

Kern Fr. 104 — Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus and Parmenides

ἔνιοι μὲν οὖν φασίν, ὅτι τοὺς μὲν ἀνὰ λόγον τοῖς δύο βασιλεῦσιν ἐν οὐρανῷ καταλέλοιπε ζητεῖν, Φάνητί λέγω καὶ Νυκτί. δεῖ γὰρ τοὺς ἐν ὑπερτέρᾳ τάξει ποιεῖν καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐγκοσμίοις, διότι δὴ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ κόσμου τῶν νοερῶν ἡγοῦνται θεῶν, ἐν τῷ ἀδύτῳ διαιωνίως ἱδρυμένοι, καθά φησιν Ὀρφεύς, αὐτοῦ τοῦ Φάνητος τὴν κρύφιον αὐτῶν τάξιν καὶ ἀνέκφαντον ἐκεῖνος ἄδυτον ἀποκαλῶν.

εἴτε οὖν τὴν ταὐτοῦ περιφορὰν καὶ τὴν θατέρου τάττειν ἐθέλοι τις εἰς τὴν τούτων ἀναλογίαν ὡς ἄρρεν καὶ θῆλυ καὶ πατρικὸν καὶ γεννητικόν, οὐκ ἂν ἁμαρτάνοι τῆς ἀληθείας, εἴτε ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην ὡς ἐν τοῖς πλανωμένοις ἀντιθέτους, ὁ μὲν ἥλιος τὴν ὁμοιότητα τὴν πρὸς τὸν Φάνητα διασώσει, ἡ δὲ σελήνη τὴν πρὸς τὴν Νύκτα.

τὸν δὲ κρατῆρα τὸν ζῳογόνον τῇ Νυκτί, τῇ πᾶσαν ἐκ τῶν ἀφανῶν παραγούσῃ ζωὴν μετὰ τοῦ Φάνητος, ὡς καὶ ὁ κρατὴρ πᾶσαν λοχεύει τοῖς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ψυχήν. βέλτιον γὰρ ἄμφω πρὸ τοῦ κόσμου νοεῖν καὶ τὸν μὲν δημιουργὸν αὐτὸν ἀνὰ λόγον τῷ Φάνητι τάττειν, ἐπειδὴ καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀφομοιοῦσθαι λέγεται κατὰ τὴν ποίησιν τῶν ὅλων, τὴν δὲ συνεζευγμένην αὐτῷ καὶ γεννητικὴν τῶν ὅλων δύναμιν τῇ Νυκτὶ, ἀφανῶς τὰ πάντα ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς προαγούσῃ, μετὰ δὲ τούτους τὰς λοιπὰς παραδιδόναι βασιλείας διακεκοσμημένας ἀνὰ λόγον ταῖς νοεραῖς.

καὶ εἰ καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο ζητοίημεν, διὰ τί μὴ καὶ τὰς δύο διαρρήδην βασιλείας ἔλαβεν ἀνὰ λόγον, προσεχέστερόν ἐστι λέγειν, ὅτι καὶ ἐκείνους μὲν ἡ Ὀρφέως εἶχε παράδοσις, δι᾽ οὗ τὴν Οὐρανοῦ πρώτην καὶ Γῆς ἐξυμνεῖ βασιλείαν, συνηθεστέρα τοῖς Ἕλλησιν οὖσα, καθάπερ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν τῷ Κρατύλῳ λέγει.

ἐπὶ δὲ τούτων νοητῶν εἰδῶν ἀληθὲς καὶ τὸ μὴ πρὸς ἡμᾶς αὐτὰ τὴν δύναμιν ἔχειν, μηδὲ ἡμᾶς πρὸς ἐκεῖνα. καὶ γὰρ ἡμῖν ἄγνωστά ἐστι καὶ ὑπὲρ τὴν ἡμετέραν ἵδρυται νόησιν, ἐν τῷ ἀδύτῳ κεκρυμμένα τοῦ πατρός, καὶ ὡς φησὶν ὁ θεολόγος, μόνῃ γνώριμα τῇ προσεχῶς μετὰ ταῦτα τάξει τῶν θεῶν.

Kern Fr. 105 — Hermias, on Plato's Phaedrus 248c

ἡ δὲ Ἀδράστεια μία ἐστὶ καὶ αὐτὴ θεὰ τῶν μενουσῶν ἐν τῇ Νυκτί, γενομένη ἐκ Μελίσσου καὶ Ἀμαλθείας. ὁ μὲν οὖν Μέλισσος κατὰ τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν τῶν δευτέρων καὶ πρόνοιαν εἴληπται· ἡ δὲ Ἀμάλθεια κατὰ τὸ ἀκλινὲς καὶ μὴ μαλθάσσεσθαι. ἐκ τῆς οὖν προνοίας τῆς ἀκλίνους γέγονεν ἡ Ἀδράστεια, ἥτις ἀδελφὴ ἐστὶ τῆς Ἴδης:

Ἴδη τ᾽ εὐειδὴς καὶ ὁμόσπορος Ἀδρήστεια,

ἡ πάντων ὁμοῦ τῶν νόμων τῶν τε ἐγκοσμίων καὶ ὑπερκοσμίων, τῶν τε εἱμαρμένων καὶ θείων, πάντων οὖν τούτων τὰ μέτρα ἑνιαίως ἐν ἑαυτῇ συλλαβοῦσα καὶ συνέχουσα. αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ θεὸς Ἀδράστεια, διὰ τοῦτο κεκλημένη διὰ τὸ τὰ ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς τεθέντα καὶ νομοθετηθέντα ἀναπόδραστα εἶναι. διὸ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ ἄντρου τῆς Νυκτὸς ἠχεῖν λέγεται:

παλάμῃσι δὲ χάλκεα ῥόπτρα

δῶκεν Ἀδρηστείᾳ.

ἐν τοῖς προθύροις γὰρ τοῦ ἄντρου τῆς Νυκτὸς ἠχεῖν λέγεται τοῖς κυμβάλοις, ἵνα πάντα αὐτῆς τῶν νόμων κατήκοα γένηται. ἔνδον μὲν γὰρ ἐν τῷ ἀδύτῳ τῆς Νυκτὸς κάθηται ὁ Φάνης· ἐν μέσῳ δὲ ἡ Νὺξ μαντεύουσα τοῖς θεοῖς· ἡ δὲ Ἀδράστεια ἐν τοῖς προθύροις πᾶσι νομοθετοῦσα τοὺς θείους δεσμούς.

διαφέρει δὲ τῆς ἐκεῖ Δίκης ὡς νομοθετικὴ δικαστικῆς. καὶ ἡ μὲν ἐκεῖ Δίκη θυγάτηρ λέγεται τοῦ Νόμου τοῦ ἐκεῖ καὶ Εὐσεβείας, αὐτὴ δὲ ἡ Ἀδράστεια ἐκ Μελίσσου καὶ Ἀμαλθείας οὖσα περιεκτική ἐστι καὶ τοῦ Νόμου. αὗται δὴ καὶ λέγονται τρέφειν τὸν Δία ἐν τῷ ἄντρῳ τῆς Νυκτός, ἀντικρὺς τοῦ θεολόγου τοῦτο λέγοντος, ὃ καὶ Πλάτων περὶ αὐτοῦ φησί. καὶ γὰρ δημιουργοῦντα καὶ αὐτὸν ποιεῖ καὶ διαθεσμοθετοῦντα. θεσμὸς δὲ ἐνδίδοται μὲν παρὰ τῆς Ἀδραστείας καὶ εἰς τοὺς θεούς, ἡ γὰρ ἐν αὐτοῖς τάξις ὑπὸ ταύτης ἐστὶ τῆς θεοῦ, ἐνδίδοται δὲ καὶ εἰς τοὺς ὀπαδοὺς τῶν θεῶν καὶ κοινῇ πᾶσι καὶ ἰδίᾳ ἑκάστῳ.

Kern Fr. 106 — Proclus, on Plato's Cratylus 404b

ὅτι ἡ Δημήτηρ, ὥσπερ πᾶσαν ζωὴν προΐει, οὕτως καὶ πᾶσαν τροφὴν ἔχει διὰ παράδειγμα τὴν Νύκτα, θεῶν γὰρ τροφὸς ἀμβροσίη Νὺξ λέγεται, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκείνη μὲν νοητῶς.