Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek and Latin

This page translates Kern fragments 332-333 from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta. Kern places them under Chresmoi, the Oracles. The first fragment preserves testimony to Orpheus as both poet and seer, two prophetic verses, and alleged Orphic tablets on Mount Haemus in Thrace. The second is an alchemical commentary by Agathodaemon on an alleged oracle of Orpheus. Its Greek is exceptionally corrupt; Kern himself declines to correct most of it. The English below renders the readable frame, Diels' extracted oracle, and the intelligible alchemical directions while keeping the damaged state of the witness visible.

Translation

The Chresmoi Heading

The Suda lists:

Oracles, which are referred to Onomacritus.

Clement of Alexandria says:

Some say that the oracles attributed to Musaeus belong to Onomacritus.

Plato says, in the Protagoras, that some sophists concealed themselves behind poetry, such as Homer, Hesiod, and Simonides, while others concealed themselves behind rites and oracle-singing, namely the circle around Orpheus and Musaeus.

Kern Fr. 332 — Orpheus as Poet and Seer

A scholion on Euripides' Alcestis says:

Orpheus was both a poet and a seer.

Philochorus, in book four of On Divination, sets out poems of Orpheus with these words:

I am not clumsy
at uttering divine prophecies;

within my breast
truth-speaking cares are eager.

The natural philosopher Heraclides says that there really are tablets of Orpheus, writing in this way:

The sanctuary of Dionysus has been built in Thrace, on the mountain called Haemus, where they say that certain inscriptions on tablets of Orpheus exist.

Kern adds that these poems seem more likely to have belonged to the Orphic Works and Days, or to another poem on lucky, unlucky, and religious days.

Kern Fr. 333 — Agathodaemon on the Oracle of Orpheus

Kern prints Agathodaemon's Collection and Commentary on the Oracle of Orpheus from the alchemical manuscripts. It begins:

Agathodaemon to Osiris, greetings.

I am now writing this fourth book to you from the ancient oracle.

Know, Osiris, that the oracle began from the yellowing. Passing by the whitening, it spoke of the yellowing and did not leave it out. Why? Because the one asking heard about the thing he had in mind. For oracles answer according to the dispositions of those who ask them.

So Orpheus, when he was about to make the whitening, knew all the things prepared by him: waters with the instrument and the wax-tablet, and all the parts of the whole yellowing, I mean the water of untouched sulphur and the other prepared things. He sought only the mixture of the later scoria. What he was seeking, the oracle gave.

The oracle was therefore deficient. Later wise people filled in what it lacked for completion, arsenite toward the yellowing, and others in other ways. But no one thought the whitening worthy of record except me. I wrote it often, and now I write again, beginning again from the oracle according to the question. It runs as follows:

Since you seem to seek me
in good strength,

temple-keeper, pray
toward the strength

of nourishing gold,
your own;

engrave my words
on tablets.

The scholion attached to the oracle says:

Give attention to what seems to be the fine power of inquiries. Heating is very fitting, so that you may know how to hold the power of the book.

The continuation turns into technical alchemy. It speaks of copper that has been burned, thoroughly washed, and burned again; filings of fine silver; myrrh; earth of Sinope; shells of cadmia; gold from Macedonian earth; and an Asiatic ingredient. The text says, "I shall embrace the gold."

It says that the book hands down notes by ways of voice, and that tradition will show practice, straight experience, useful application, mystic knowledge, the proper time and times, and everything belonging to the art.

The first verse of the oracle is explained as the whitening of copper after it has settled, been smoothed, and been roasted until it changes into wax. The compound is said to be copper made from six bodies: copper, iron, tin, lead, the essential metals, and white sulphur. The process is placed from the month Mecheir to the month Pharmouthi, forty-one days, followed by washing, boiling, sweetening, straining, weighing, and purification. The corrupt weight list gives copper, iron, tin, lead, and silver.

Kern says that the rest does not seem to belong to the so-called oracle of Orpheus. From this "barbarous" text, which he refuses to correct, Diels extracted the alchemical precept translated above. Kern concludes that this fragment of an "ancient oracle" plainly belongs not to Orpheus' prophecies, but to the magical arts.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 332-333, under the title Chresmoi, the Oracles. Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are the Suda, Clement of Alexandria, Plato's Protagoras, a scholion on Euripides' Alcestis, Philochorus as quoted there, Heraclides Ponticus as quoted there, and Agathodaemon's alchemical commentary on the alleged oracle of Orpheus. For fr. 333, the English follows Kern's printed frame and Diels' extracted oracle rather than pretending that the damaged alchemical Greek is continuous polished prose.

Source Text

The Chresmoi Heading

Suda:

Χρησμοί, οἳ ἀναφέρονται εἰς Ὀνομάκριτον.

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.21.131:

καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἀναφερομένους εἰς Μουσαῖον χρησμοὺς Ὀνομακρίτου εἶναι λέγουσι.

Plato, Protagoras 316d:

πρόσχημα σχηματίζεσθαι καὶ προκαλύπτεσθαι τοὺς μὲν ποίησιν, οἷον Ὅμηρόν τε καὶ Ἡσίοδον καὶ Σιμωνίδην, τοὺς δὲ αὖ τελετάς τε καὶ χρησμῳδίας, τοὺς ἀμφί τε Ὀρφέα καὶ Μουσαῖον.

Kern Fr. 332 — Orpheus as Poet and Seer

Scholion to Euripides, Alcestis 968:

καὶ ποιητὴς καὶ μάντις ἦν ὁ Ὀρφεύς.

Φιλόχορος ἐν δʹ Περὶ μαντικῆς ἐκτίθησιν αὐτοῦ ποιήματα ἔχοντα οὕτως·

οὔτοι ἀριστερός εἰμι θεοπροπίας ἀποειπεῖν,

ἀλλά μοι ἐν στήθεσσιν ἀληθεύουσι μενοιναί.

ὁ δὲ φυσικὸς Ἡρακλείδης εἶναι οὕτως φησὶ σανίδας τινὰς Ὀρφέως, γράφων οὕτως·

τὸ δὲ τοῦ Διονύσου κατεσκεύασται [ἐπὶ] τῆς Θρᾴκης ἐπὶ τοῦ καλουμένου Αἵμου, ὅπου δή τινας ἐν σανίσιν ἀναγραφὰς εἶναί φασιν [Ὀρφέως].

Kern's note:

poemata potius illa Orphica Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι vel aliud carmen de diebus faustis, atris, religiosis videntur fuisse.

Kern Fr. 333 — Agathodaemon on the Oracle of Orpheus

Agathodaemon, Collection and Commentary on the Oracle of Orpheus, excerpt:

Ἀγαθοδαίμων Ὀσιρίδει χαίρειν.

ἤδη σοι τοῦτο τέταρτον βιβλίον γράφω ἐκ τοῦ ἀρχαίου χρησμοῦ.

γνῶθι σύ, Ὄσιρι, ὅτι ὁ χρησμὸς ἀπὸ τῆς ξανθώσεως ἤρξατο· παραλοιπὼν τὴν λεύκωσιν, τὴν ξάνθωσιν οὐκ ἄλειπτον εἴρηκεν· διὰ τί; ὅτι ὁ ἐρωτῶν περὶ οὗ ἐνεθυμεῖτο ἤκουσεν. πρὸς γὰρ τὰς διαθέσεις τῶν ἐρωτώντων τὸν χρησμὸν ὑποκρίνονται.

ὁ γοῦν Ὀρφεὺς τὴν ποιήσων τὴν λεύκωσιν οἶδε πάντα τὰ παρ' ἑαυτῷ ἑτοίματα, ὀργάνῳ ὕδατα καὶ κηροτακίδα, καὶ τὰ μέρη τῆς ξανθώσεως πάσης, λέγω δὴ ὕδατος θείου ἀθίκτου, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἕτοιμα· καὶ μόνον μίξει ζητεῖ τοῦ ὑστέρου σκοριαλίου. ὃ ἐζήτει, τοῦτο ὁ χρησμὸς ἔδωκεν.

ἐνδεὴς οὖν ὁ χρησμὸς· τῶν μετὰ τῶν σοφῶν πρὸς συμπλήρωσιν ἀπεπλήρωσαν αὐτοῦ τὰ λείποντα, ἀρσενοειτε εἰς τὸν ξανθόν, καὶ ἄλλοι ἄλλως· τῆς μέντοι λευκώσεως οὐδεὶς κατηξίωσεν μνημονεύσας, εἰ μὴ ἐγώ· ἣν καὶ ἔγραψα πολλάκις, καὶ πάλιν γράφω, ἀρχόμενος πάλιν ἀπὸ τοῦ χρησμοῦ κατ' ἐπερώτησιν· ἔχει δὲ ὧδε.

Diels' extracted oracle, as printed by Kern:

ἐπεὶ δοκεῖς ἔμ' εὖ σθένειν διζήσεσιν,

ζάκορε, λίταζε πρὸς τροφοῦ [ἰδίου] χρυσοῦ σθένος,

δέλτοισι δ' ἐγχάρασσε τοὺς ἐμοὺς λόγους.

Scholion:

προσέχειν τὸ δοκεῖν καλὴν δύναμιν ζητημάτων, λίαν πρέπει θάλψιν, ὅπως εἰδῇς δύναμιν τῆς βίβλου κρατεῖν.

Kern's judgement:

Ex hac barbarie, quam corrigere nolo, elicuit H. Dielesius hoc alchymiae praeceptum scholiis ornatum.

Hoc "ἀρχαίου χρησμοῦ" fragmentum non ad Orphei vaticinia sed ad artes magicas pertinere per se patet.