Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 143-145 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group turns from Kronos and the human races to three divine functions around the coming of Zeus: Prometheus presides over human descent into generation, Themis stands at the beginnings of demiurgic order, and Rhea is named Demeter when she brings forth Zeus and opens the lower life-giving order.

Translation

Kern Fr. 143 — Prometheus and Human Descent

Proclus says:

Just as there are leaders of each side, so also we must understand one guardian over both together: over ascent and descent, and over the double life in generation, both fruitful birth and barren birth.

If one should trust my divination, this guardian must be thought to be none other than Prometheus. Plato in the Protagoras sets him over human life, just as he sets Epimetheus over irrational nature. Orpheus and Hesiod also show this through the theft of fire and its gift to human beings: Prometheus brings the soul down from the intelligible into generation, as lord of the human circuit and of the better and worse births.

Kern Fr. 144 — Themis and Night's Oracle

Proclus says:

Themis is rightly taken up at the beginnings of demiurgy. She is the cause of the demiurgic ordinances, and from her the order of the whole has been established without dissolution.

Therefore she remains a maiden before the procession of the demiurge, according to the oracles of Night:

until Rhea bears a child to Kronos in love.

Together with Zeus, she also brings forth the triad of the Seasons. To them are entrusted great heaven and Olympus, whether to throw open the thick cloud or to set it closed.

Kern Fr. 145 — Rhea Becomes Demeter

Proclus says:

Orpheus says that Demeter is the same as Rhea. Above, when she is with Kronos and does not go forth, she is Rhea; but when she projects and begets Zeus, she is Demeter. For he says:

Rhea she was before; but when she became the mother

of Zeus, she became Demeter.

Proclus also says:

Orpheus says that Demeter is in one way the same as the whole life-giving power, and in another way not the same. Above, she is Rhea; below, with Zeus, she is Demeter. For the things brought forth are like those that bring them forth, and nearly the same.

And again:

In the Laws, Plato hymns the Thesmophorian goddesses and leads all ordained life upward into the union of Demeter and Kore. For according to Orpheus, when she is joined with Kronos at the summit of herself, the middle goddess is called Rhea; but when she brings forth Zeus, and when she appears with Zeus as the whole and partial orders of the gods, she is Demeter.

The whole ordering of middle life includes the other Titanesses, and Demeter too. He established this goddess as a gathering monad, middle among all the orders within her, both the hidden orders and the divided orders around the god's generative powers. Each of these is triple. She joins the upper triad to Kronos and weaves the lower triad together with the demiurgic order. She shows Demeter as a middle monad, ordered together with the demiurge of the wholes and at the same time set apart from him. For she establishes Zeus together with the whole, and with Zeus she begets Kore. So let the middle ancestral goddess be hymned through these words.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 143-145, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Proclus' Greek witnesses as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 143 — Proclus

Proclus, on Plato's Republic:

ὅτι δέ, καθάπερ ἑκατέρας εἰσὶν ἡγεμόνες, οὕτω καὶ τὸν ἕνα προστάτην τῆς συναμφοτέρας νοεῖν ἀνόδου τε καὶ καθόδου καὶ τῆς διπλῆς ἐν τῇ γενέσει ζωῆς εὐγονίας τε καὶ ἀγονίας· ὃν, εἰ δεῖ τῇ ἐμῇ μαντείᾳ προσέχειν, οὐκ ἄλλον ἢ τὸν Προμηθέα δεῖ νομίζειν, ὃν καὶ Πλάτων ἐν Πρωταγόρᾳ, τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ζωῆς ἔφορον, ὥσπερ τὸν Ἐπιμηθέα τῆς ἀλόγου φύσεως, καὶ Ὀρφεὺς καὶ Ἡσίοδος διὰ τῆς κλοπῆς τοῦ πυρὸς καὶ τῆς εἰς ἀνθρώπους δόσεως ἐνδείκνυνται τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ νοητοῦ κατάγειν εἰς τὴν γένεσιν, ὡς τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης περιόδου κύριον καὶ τῶν ἀμεινόνων καὶ χειρόνων γενέσεων.

Kern Fr. 144 — Proclus

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

ἡ Θέμις εἰκότως ἐν ἀρχαῖς παραλαμβάνεται τῆς δημιουργίας· αὐτὴ γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τῶν δημιουργικῶν θεσμῶν αἰτία, καὶ ἀπὸ ταύτης ἀδιαλύτως ἡ τάξις συνέστη τοῦ παντός, διὸ καὶ μένει μὲν παρθένος πρὸ τῆς τοῦ δημιουργοῦ προόδου κατὰ τοὺς χρησμοὺς τῆς Νυκτός·

ἔστ᾽ ἂν Ῥείη παῖδα τέκῃ Κρόνῳ ἐν φιλότητι.

συμπαράγει δὲ τῷ Διὶ τὴν τριάδα τῶν Ὡρῶν· ταῖς ἐπιτέτραπται μέγας οὐρανὸς Οὔλυμπός τε, ἦμεν ἀνακλῖναι πυκινὸν νέφος ἠδ᾽ ἐπιθεῖναι.

Kern Fr. 145 — Proclus

Proclus, on Plato's Cratylus:

ὅτι τὴν Δημήτρα Ὀρφεὺς μέν, τὴν αὐτὴν λέγων τῇ Ῥέᾳ εἶναι, λέγει ὅτι ἄνω μὲν μετὰ Κρόνον οὖσα ἀνεκφοιτήτως Ῥέα ἐστίν, προβάλλουσα δὲ καὶ ἀπογεννῶσα τὸν Δία Δημήτηρ. λέγει γάρ·

Ῥείη τὸ πρὶν ἐοῦσα, ἐπεὶ Διὸς ἔπλετο μήτηρ,

Δημήτηρ γέγονε.

Proclus, on Plato's Cratylus:

ὁ δὲ Ὀρφεὺς τρόπον μέν τινα τὴν αὐτὴν εἶναι τὴν Δημήτρα τῇ ὅλῃ ζωογονίᾳ, τρόπον δὲ ἄλλον οὐ τὴν αὐτήν· ἄνω μὲν γὰρ οὖσα Ῥέα ἐστὶ, κάτω δὲ μετὰ τοῦ Διὸς Δημήτηρ· καὶ γὰρ τὰ παραγόμενα ὅμοιά ἐστιν τοῖς παράγουσι καὶ σχεδὸν τὰ αὐτά.

Proclus, Platonic Theology:

καὶ δὴ καὶ ἐν Νόμοις, τὰς Θεσμοφόρους θεὰς ἀνυμνῶν, εἰς τὴν ἕνωσιν τῆς τε Δημήτρος καὶ τῆς Κόρης ἀναπέμπει πᾶσαν τὴν ἔνθεσμον ζωήν. ἐπεὶ κατὰ Ὀρφέα τῷ μὲν Κρόνῳ συνοῦσα κατὰ τὴν ἀκρότητα τὴν ἑαυτῆς ἡ μέση θεὸς Ῥέα καλεῖται, τὸν δὲ Δία παράγουσα καὶ μετὰ Διὸς ἐκφαίνουσα τούς τε ὅλους καὶ τοὺς μερικοὺς διακόσμους τῶν θεῶν Δημήτηρ.

καί ἐστιν ὁ σύμπας τῆς μέσης ζωῆς διάκοσμος περιληπτικὸς τῶν τε ἄλλων Τιτανίδων, καὶ δὴ καὶ τῆς Δημήτρος. ταύτην γὰρ προεστήσατο μονάδα συναγωγόν, μέσην τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ πασῶν τάξεων, τῶν τε κρυφίων καὶ τῶν μεριζομένων περὶ τὰς γεννητικὰς τῆς θεοῦ δυνάμεις. τριτταὶ δέ εἰσιν ἑκάτεραι. καὶ τὴν μὲν ἄνω τριάδα συνάπτει τῷ Κρόνῳ, τὴν δὲ κάτω συνυφαίνει τῇ δημιουργικῇ τάξει. τὴν μέσην δὲ οὖσαν τὴν Δημητριακὴν μονάδα συντεταγμένην, ἅμα καὶ ἐξῃρημένην ἀποφαίνει τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τῶν ὅλων. καὶ γὰρ ὑφίστησι Δία μετὰ τῆς ὅλης καὶ συναπογεννᾷ τὴν Κόρην μετὰ τοῦ Διός. ἡ μὲν οὖν μέση τῶν πατέρων πρόγονος θεὰ διὰ τούτων ἀνυμνείσθω τῶν λόγων.