Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek and Latin

This page translates Kern fragments 50-53 from the Orphic Demeter and Kore cycle. The group gathers witnesses on Persephone's flower-gathering and descent, Eubouleus and Triptolemus, the Thesmophoria, Baubo, Iacchos, and the Eleusinian kykeon.

Translation

Kern Fr. 50 — Persephone's Flower-Gathering and Eubouleus' Pigs

Do you want me also to narrate Persephone's flower-gathering, the basket, the abduction by Aidoneus, the chasm of the earth, and the pigs of Eubouleus that were swallowed down together with the two goddesses?

Because of this, at the Thesmophoria, when they perform the Megara rite, they throw piglets into the pits.

Kern Fr. 51 — Eubouleus, Triptolemus, and the Gift of Seed

Verses of Musaeus are sung, if these too are really Musaeus' verses, saying that Triptolemus was the child of Ocean and Earth.

Verses of Orpheus are also sung, though these too do not seem to me to be Orpheus' verses, saying that Eubouleus and Triptolemus had Dysaules as father, and that because they reported about the girl, Demeter gave them the crops to sow.

A scholion to Aristides gives the parallel:

Demeter, learning from Celeus and Triptolemus who the abductor was, gives them wheat as the reward for their report.

Kern Fr. 52 — Baubo and the Kykeon at Eleusis

Why should it be amazing if the Tyrrhenian barbarians are initiated by such shameful sufferings, when among the Athenians and the rest of Greece there is, I am ashamed even to say it, a myth about Deo that is full of shame?

Deo, wandering in search of her daughter Kore, came near Eleusis. This is a place in Attica. Worn out, she sat down in grief beside a well. This is still forbidden to the initiates, so that the initiated may not seem to imitate the grieving goddess.

At that time the earth-born people occupied Eleusis. Their names were Baubo, Dysaules, Triptolemus, Eumolpus, and Eubouleus. Triptolemus was a cattleman; Eumolpus was a shepherd; Eubouleus was a swineherd. From them arose the Eleusinian line of the Eumolpidae and the Kerykes, the hierophantic family at Athens.

Baubo hosted Deo and offered her kykeon. Deo refused to take it and did not wish to drink, for she was mourning. Baubo was deeply distressed, as if she had been dishonored, and lifted up her private parts and showed them to the goddess. Deo was delighted by the sight, and at last accepted the drink, pleased by the spectacle.

These are the hidden mysteries of the Athenians. Orpheus records these things too. I will set before you Orpheus' verses themselves, so that you may have a witness to the shamelessness of the mystagogue:

So speaking, she drew up her robes and showed

all the unseemly form of the body. The child was Iacchos,

and with his hand, laughing, he made a tossing motion beneath Baubo's folds.

But when the goddess smiled, smiling in her heart,

she received the bright vessel in which the kykeon lay.

Arnobius gives the Latin parallel:

In this wandering search Ceres comes also to the borders of Eleusis, a village in Attica. Baubo, an inhabitant of that place, receives Ceres as a guest, softens her with gentle services, urges her to care for the restoration of her body, and offers the thirsty goddess the drink called kykeon by Greece.

The grieving goddess turns away and refuses the offices of kindness. Baubo, unable to move her by serious pleading, changes her devices and resolves to cheer her by startling comic play. She uncovers herself and shows the goddess the places of shame. The goddess fixes her eyes there, is fed by the strange form of consolation, relaxes into laughter, takes the drink she had rejected, and drinks it down.

Arnobius then gives verses attributed to the Thracian seer:

So speaking, she drew her garment up from below

and set before the eyes forms shaped in her groin.

Baubo, shaking them with her hand, for there was a child's face there,

clapped and handled them kindly.

Then the goddess, fixing the circles of her august light,

softened a little and laid aside the sadness of her spirit.

Then with her hand she took the cup, and with laughter following,

joyfully drew down all the liquid of the kykeon.

Kern Fr. 53 — Baubo as a Nocturnal Daimon

The Baubontikarion has slipped into life from Greek nonsense.

Somewhere in the Orphic verses there is a certain daimon named Babo, nocturnal, long in shape and shadowy in existence. Porphyry the philosopher also records this.

This northern and barbarian people, he says, has encountered many such nocturnal phantoms. They say these shine out at night, but by day meet those who have been burned through as thin and dim bodies, resembling spider-web threads.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 50-53, in the Demeter and Kore section of the printed collection. Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here include Clement of Alexandria, Pausanias, a scholion to Aristides' Panathenaicus, Arnobius, and Michael Psellus as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 50 — Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus 2.17

βούλει καὶ τὰ Φερεφάττης ἀνθολογία διηγήσωμαί σοι καὶ τὸν κάλαθον καὶ τὴν ἁρπαγὴν τὴν ὑπὸ Ἀϊδωνέως καὶ τὸ χάσμα τῆς γῆς καὶ τὰς ὗς τὰς Εὐβουλέως τὰς συγκαταποθείσας ταῖν θεαῖν, δι' ἣν αἰτίαν ἐν τοῖς Θεσμοφορίοις μεγαρίζοντες χοίρους ἐμβάλλουσιν.

Kern Fr. 51 — Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.14.3

ἔπη δὲ ᾄδεται Μουσαίου μὲν, εἰ δὴ Μουσαίου καὶ ταῦτα, Τριπτόλεμον παῖδα Ὠκεανοῦ καὶ Γῆς εἶναι· Ὀρφέως δὲ, οὐδὲ ταῦτα Ὀρφέως ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν ὄντα, Εὐβουλεῖ καὶ Τριπτολέμῳ Δυσαύλην πατέρα εἶναι, μηνῦσαι δὲ σφίσι περὶ τῆς παιδὸς δοθῆναι παρὰ Δήμητρος σπεῖραι τοὺς καρπούς.

Scholion to Aristides, Panathenaicus 105:

Δημήτηρ παρὰ Κελέου καὶ Τριπτολέμου τὸν ἡρπακότα μαθοῦσα μισθὸν αὐτοῖς ἀποδίδωσι τῆς μηνύσεως τὸν σῖτον.

Kern Fr. 52 — Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus 2.20-21

καὶ τί θαυμαστά, εἰ Τυρρηνοὶ οἱ βάρβαροι αἰσχροῖς οὕτως τελοῦνται παθήμασιν, ὅπου γε Ἀθηναίοις καὶ τῇ ἄλλῃ Ἑλλάδι, αἰδοῦμαι καὶ λέγειν, αἰσχύνης ἔμπλεως ἡ περὶ τὴν Δηὼ μυθολογία;

ἀλωμένη γὰρ ἡ Δηὼ κατὰ ζήτησιν τῆς θυγατρὸς τῆς Κόρης περὶ τὴν Ἐλευσῖνα, τῆς Ἀττικῆς δὲ ἔστι τοῦτο τὸ χωρίον, ἀποκάμνει καὶ φρέατι ἐπικαθίζει λυπουμένη.

τηνικάδε τὴν Ἐλευσῖνα οἱ γηγενεῖς ᾤκουν· ὀνόματα αὐτοῖς Βαυβὼ καὶ Δυσαύλης καὶ Τριπτόλεμος, ἔτι δὲ Εὔμολπός τε καὶ Εὐβουλεύς· βούκολος ὁ Τριπτόλεμος ἦν, ποιμὴν δὲ ὁ Εὔμολπος, συβώτης δὲ ὁ Εὐβουλεύς.

καὶ δὴ ξενίσασα ἡ Βαυβὼ τὴν Δηὼ ὀρέγει κυκεῶνα αὐτῇ· τῆς δὲ ἀναινομένης λαβεῖν καὶ πιεῖν οὐκ ἐθελούσης, πενθήρης γὰρ ἦν, περιαλγὴς ἡ Βαυβὼ γενομένη, ὡς ὑπεροραθεῖσα δῆθεν, ἀναστέλλεται τὰ αἰδοῖα καὶ ἐπιδείκνυσι τῇ θεῷ· ἡ δὲ τέρπεται τῇ ὄψει ἡ Δηὼ καὶ μόλις ποτὲ δέχεται τὸ ποτόν, ἡσθεῖσα τῷ θεάματι.

ταῦτά τοι καὶ Ὀρφεὺς ἀναγράφει. παραθήσομαι δέ σοι αὐτὰ τοῦ Ὀρφέως τὰ ἔπη:

ὣς εἰποῦσα πέπλους ἀνεσύρετο, δεῖξε δὲ πάντα

σώματος οὐδὲ πρέποντα τύπον· παῖς δ' ἦεν Ἴακχος,

χειρί τε μιν ῥίπτασκε γελῶν Βαυβοῦς ὑπὸ κόλποις·

ἡ δ' ἐπεὶ οὖν μειδήσε θεά, μειδήσ' ἐνὶ θυμῷ,

δέξατο δ' αἰόλον ἄγγος, ἐν ᾧ κυκεὼν ἐνέκειτο.

Arnobius, Against the Nations 5.25:

In istius conquisitionis errore Eleusinios etiam pervehitur fines. pagi istud est nomen regione in Attica constituti.

igitur Bauho illa, quam incolam diximus Eleusinii fuisse pagi, malis multiformibus fatigatam accipit hospitio Cererem, adulatur obsequiis mitibus, reficiendi corporis rogat curam ut habeat, sitientis ardori oggerit potionem cinni, cyceonem quam nuncupat Graecia.

aversatur et respuit humanitatis officia maerens dea nec eam fortuna perpetitur valetudinis meminisse. comis rogat illa atque hortatur contra, sicut mos est in huiusmodi casibus, ne fastidium suae humanitatis adsumat: obstinatissime durat Ceres et rigoris indomiti pertinaciam retinet.

retexit se ipsam atque omnia illa pudoris loca revelatis monstrat inguinibus. atque pubi adfigit oculos diva et inauditi specie solaminis pascitur: tum diffusior facta per risum aspernatam sumit atque ebibit potionem.

sic effata simul vestem contraxit ab imo

obiecitque oculis formatas inguinibus res:

quas cava succutiens Bauho manu, nam puerilis

ollis vultus erat, plaudit, contrectat amice.

tum dea defigens augusti luminis orbes

tristitias animi paulum mollita reponit:

inde manu poclum sumit risuque sequenti

perducit totum cyceonis laeta liquorem.

Kern Fr. 53 — Michael Psellus

ὁ μὲν τοι Βαβουντικάριος ἐξ Ἑλληνικῆς φλυαρίας παρεισεφθάρη τῷ βίῳ· ἔνεστι γάρ που τοῖς Ὀρφικοῖς ἔπεσι Βαβώ τις ὀνομαζομένη δαίμων νυκτερινή, ἐπιμήκης τὸ σχῆμα καὶ σκιώδης τὴν ὕπαρξιν· ἱστορεῖ δὲ καὶ Πορφύριος ὁ φιλόσοφος περὶ τούτων.

ἔθνος δὲ οὗτος λέγει βόρειόν τε καὶ βάρβαρον πολλοῖς τοιούτοις ἐπιτετυχηκέναι νυκτερινοῖς φάσμασιν, ἃ δὴ φασὶ νυκτὸς μὲν ἐπικαίειν, ἡμέρας δὲ ἐντυγχάνειν τοῖς ἐπικανθεῖσι λεπτοῖς τισι καὶ ἀμαυροῖς σώμασι, νήμασιν ἀραχνίοις προσεοικόσιν.