Orphic Fragments — The Diktyon and Argo's Epigram

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Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 289-290 from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta. They come from the brief title-and-fragment section after the Astrologica: first a Suda witness to the Orphic Diktyon, "Net," and then a Corinthian-orator witness to an epigram said to be by Orpheus and carved for Jason's Argo.

Translation

Kern Fr. 289 — The Diktyon and the Nisaean Horse

The Suda says:

Nisaean horse: Between Susiana and Bactria there is a place called Katastigona, which in the Greek language is called Nisos. Excellent horses are produced there. Others say the horses come from the Erythraean Sea, and that all of them are tawny.

Herodotus says that the Nisaean place is in Media. Polemon wrongly says "white Nisaean horse." But Orpheus says in the Diktyon that Nisa is a place lying in Erythra.

Kern Fr. 290 — Argo's Epigram

The Corinthian oration transmitted among the orations of Dio Chrysostom says:

There was also a race of ships, and Argo won. After this she did not sail, but Jason dedicated her there, in Corinth, to Poseidon, and inscribed the epigram which they say is by Orpheus:

I am the ship Argo.
Jason dedicated me
to the god,

after crowning me
at the Isthmia
with lovely-haired pines.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 289-290. Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are the Suda entry on the Nisaean horse for fr. 289, and the Corinthian oration transmitted among the orations of Dio Chrysostom for fr. 290.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 289 — The Diktyon and the Nisaean Horse

Σοῦδα·

ἵππος Νισαῖος· μεταξὺ τῆς Σουσιανῆς καὶ τῆς Βακτριανῆς τόπος ἐστὶ Καταστιγώνα, ὅπερ Ἑλλάδι γλώσσηι Νῖσος καλεῖται· ἐνταῦθα ἵπποι διάφοροι γίνονται. οἳ δὲ ἀπὸ Ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάσσης· εἶναι δὲ ξανθὰς πάσας. ὁ δὲ Ἡρόδοτος τῆς Μηδίας εἶναι τὸν τόπον Νίσαιον. ὁ δὲ Πολέμων κακῶς φησι λευκὸν ἵππον Νισαῖον· ἐν δὲ Δικτύωι Ὀρφεὺς λέγει, ὅτι ἡ Νίσα τόπος ἐστὶν ἐν Ἐρυθρᾶι κείμενος.

Kern Fr. 290 — Argo's Epigram

[Favorini] oratio Corinthiaca inter orationes Dionis Prusaei:

ἐγένετο δὲ καὶ νεῶν ἅμιλλα, καὶ Ἀργὼ ἐνίκα, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα οὐκ ἔπλευσεν, ἀλλ' αὐτὴν ἀνέθηκεν ὁ Ἰάσων ἐνταῦθα (sc. ἐν Κορίνθωι) τῶι Ποσειδῶνι, καὶ τὸ ἐπίγραμμα ἐπέγραψεν, ὃ λέγουσιν Ὀρφέως εἶναι·

Ἀργὼ τὸ σκάφος εἰμί, θεῶι δ' ἀνέθηκεν Ἰάσων,

Ἴσθμια καλλικόμοις στεψάμενον πίτυσιν.