Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek and Latin

This page translates Kern fragments 238-239 from the section Kern heads Bacchica. The witness is Macrobius, who uses Orphic verses to identify Liber, Dionysus, and the Sun. The first fragment interprets the ritual clothing of Liber as a cosmic image of the Sun: crimson robe, fawn-skin, stars, sacred pole, golden belt, and Ocean's circle. The second explains the names Eubouleus and Dionysus and gives the compact Orphic formula: one Zeus, one Hades, one Helios, one Dionysus.

Translation

Kern Fr. 238 — The Vestment of Liber and the Sun

Macrobius says that Orpheus, showing that Liber and the Sun are one and the same god, writes this about the god's adornment and clothing in the rites of the Liberalia:

Perform all these things,
after covering the body of the god
with sacred dress,
an image of the renowned Sun.

First, then,
put around him a crimson robe,
like blazing rays,
like fire.

Then above it fasten
the broad, all-varied skin
of a fawn,
the hide of a many-spotted beast,
down over the right shoulder:

an image of the intricate stars
and of the sacred pole.

Then above the fawn-skin
throw on a golden belt,
all-shining,
and wear it around the chest
as a great sign:

when Phaethon springs straight up
from the ends of earth
and strikes Ocean's stream
with golden rays,

then boundless radiance is there.

Mingled with dew,
it flashes,
whirled in eddies
around the circle
before the god.

And the belt,
beneath the measureless breast,
appears as Ocean's circle,
a great wonder to behold.

Kern Fr. 239 — One Zeus, One Hades, One Helios, One Dionysus

Macrobius says that the same Orphic verses call the god Eubouleus, showing him as the presiding power of good counsel. If counsels are born from the mind's conception, and if the authorities hold that the Sun is the mind of the world, from which the principle of understanding flows into human beings, then they rightly believed the Sun to be the presiding power of good counsel.

Macrobius says that Orpheus plainly declares the Sun to be Liber in this verse:

Helios,
whom they call Dionysus
by name.

That verse, Macrobius says, is more complete; but this other verse of the same poet is more elaborate:

One Zeus,
one Hades,
one Helios,
one Dionysus.

Kern compares a longer form preserved by Pseudo-Justin:

One Zeus,
one Hades,
one Helios,
one Dionysus,

one god in all things.
Why do I speak these things to you
as though they were divided?

Kern also compares Julian's Sarapis line:

One Zeus,
one Hades,
one Helios is Sarapis.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 238-239, in the section headed "Bacchica." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Macrobius, Saturnalia, with parallels from Pseudo-Justin and Julian as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 238 — Macrobius

Macrobius, Saturnalia:

item O. Liberum atque Solem unum esse deum eundemque demonstrans de ornatu vestituque eius in sacris Liberalibus ita scribit:

ταῦτά τε πάντα τελεῖν ἱερῇ σκευῇ πυκάσαντα
σῶμα θεοῦ, μίμημα περικλυτοῦ ἠελίοιο·
πρῶτα μὲν οὖν φλογέαις ἐναλίγκιον ἀκτίνεσσιν
πέπλον φοινίκεον πυρὶ εἴκελον ἀμφιβαλέσθαι·
αὐτὰρ ὕπερθε νεβροῖο παναίολον εὐρὺ καθάψαι
δέρμα πολυστίκτου θηρὸς κατὰ δεξιὸν ὦμον,
ἄστρων δαιδαλέων μίμημ', ἱεροῦ τε πόλοιο.
εἶτα δ' ὕπερθε νεβρῆς χρύσεον ζωστῆρα βαλέσθαι,
παμφαναῶντα, πέριξ στέρνων φορέειν, μέγα σῆμα,
εὐθὺς ὅτ' ἐκ περάτων γαίης Φαέθων ἀνορούων,
χρυσείαις ἀκτῖσι βάλῃ ῥόον Ὠκεανοῖο,
αὐγὴ δ' ἄσπετος ᾖ· ἀνὰ δὲ δρόσῳ ἀμφιμιγεῖσα
μαρμαίρῃ δίνησιν ἑλισσομένη κατὰ κύκλον,
πρόσθε θεοῦ· ζωστὴρ δ' ἄρ' ὑπὸ στέρνων ἀμετρήτων
φαίνεται Ὠκεανοῦ κύκλος, μέγα θαῦμα ἰδέσθαι.

Kern Fr. 239 — Macrobius

Macrobius, Saturnalia:

idem versus Orphici Εὐβουλῆα vocantes boni consilii hunc deum praestitem monstrant. nam si conceptu mentis consilia nascuntur, mundi autem mentem solem esse opinantur auctores, a quo in homines manat intellegendi principium, merito boni consilii Solem antistitem crediderunt. Solem Liberum esse manifeste pronuntiat O. hoc versu:

Ἥλιος, ὃν Διόνυσον ἐπίκλησιν καλέουσιν.

et is quidem versus absolutior, ille vero eiusdem vatis operosior:

εἷς Ζεύς, εἷς Ἀΐδης, εἷς Ἥλιος, εἷς Διόνυσος.

Kern's parallel from Pseudo-Justin:

εἷς Ζεύς, εἷς Ἀΐδης, εἷς Ἥλιος, εἷς Διόνυσος,
εἷς θεὸς ἐν πάντεσσι. τί σοι δίχα ταῦτ' ἀγορεύω;

Kern's parallel from Julian:

εἷς Ζεύς, εἷς Ἀΐδης, εἷς Ἥλιός ἐστι Σάραπις.