Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 271-279 from the Astrologica section of Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta. These fragments belong to the Ephemerides, the Orphic "Daily Tables" or "Days." The witnesses are Tzetzes, Proclus, John Protospatharius, John Lydus, and a Munich astrological manuscript on the days of the moon.

Translation

Kern Fr. 271 — Opening of the Ephemerides

Tzetzes says that Orpheus' Days, also called his Ephemerides, began this way:

Know everything,
god-speaking Musaeus.

If your heart commands you
to hear, in due order,
the names of the Moon,

I will easily tell them to you.

Set the utterance
in your own mind:

what order
each thing has,
and where it falls.

For it is very useful
to know
how she herself
gives renown
to the rim of the month.

Kern Fr. 272 — Useful and Illuminated Lunar Days

A Munich astrological manuscript says:

On the days of the Moon:

For Hesiod, these are the useful days of the Moon: the fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth, eleventh, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, twentieth, twenty-seventh, and thirtieth.

For Orpheus, these days of the Moon are illuminated and useful: the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, thirteenth, fourteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, twentieth, twenty-third, and twenty-eighth.

On these days, as Orpheus and Hesiod say, every beginning is well placed. One must also look to the shapes of the Moon, her forms, her conjunctions, her outflows, the beneficent stars, and the stars that help bring a thing to completion.

Kern Fr. 273 — The One-Horned Calf of the Month

Proclus says:

The first day, also called hene, "the old-and-new," because it is a beginning, is divine. Plato too says that every beginning is divine, and this day is called the birthday of the month.

The Moon on this day is called by Orpheus "a one-horned calf." In general, because the month works generation, it is called a bull. But because, on the first day, it has the first growth of its own being, it is called a calf; and because of its monadic character, it is called one-horned.

John Protospatharius gives the same witness:

The Moon, in Orpheus, is named a one-horned calf: a calf because it has the first growth of the new moon, and one-horned because of its monadic character.

Kern Fr. 274 — Ares, the Third Day, and the Waxing Lamp

Tzetzes says that Hesiod begins his account of days and tells what kind of works each day is useful for, but does so badly, confusedly, tastelessly, and even falsely. Orpheus, he says, teaches in an ordered way, clearly, more technically, and more truly:

First,
on the advancing day,
Ares appears.

The Moon rises
into Ares.

Hold back
from works.

For when she has completed
this nature,
she shows herself
two-horned.

But when the third day
comes out
from the Sun,

for all earth-dwellers
she becomes the cause
of plant-sowing strength.

On the fourth,
as she waxes,
she stretches out
her many-shining lamp.

Tzetzes adds that Orpheus goes on in order: fifth, sixth, seventh, and so on up to the thirtieth day, whereas Hesiod calls the thirtieth "old-and-new."

Kern Fr. 275 — The Sixth Day

Tzetzes quotes one brief Orphic line:

On the sixth,
in the early-born,
rose-fingered,
silver-footed one.

Kern Fr. 276 — Apollo's Seventh Day

John Lydus says that the Pythagoreans assign the seventh day to the ruler of the whole, that is, to Mind, and he calls Orpheus as witness:

The seventh,
which the lord,
far-working Apollo,
loved.

Kern Fr. 277 — Ate's Seventeenth Day

Proclus says:

If, as Orpheus says, the seventeenth day is assigned to Ate, then for this reason it is rightly suited both to cutting wood and to stripping the fruit from its husks.

Proclus adds that Hesiod did not assign this day to such works without a Muse's guidance.

Kern Fr. 278 — The Thirtieth Day and Transactions

Tzetzes says:

Hesiod calls the thirtieth day good. Orpheus says that it is bad for all works, but for giving-and-receiving transactions alone.

Kern Fr. 279 — The Moon That Returns

Tzetzes explains the word hene, the old-and-new day, as the first monad: new because it is the beginning of another cycle. He quotes Orpheus in the Ephemerides:

Because,
though she is perishing,
beyond hope
she comes to be again.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 271-279, in the Astrologica section headed "Ephemerides." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are Tzetzes' prolegomena and scholia on Hesiod, Tzetzes' commentary on Aristophanes' Clouds, Proclus' commentary on Hesiod's Works and Days, John Protospatharius on Hesiod, John Lydus' On the Months, and the Munich astrological manuscript printed by Boll and Kern.

Source Text

Kern Frr. 271-279 — Ephemerides

Kern fr. 271:

πάντ᾽ ἴσθι, Μουσαῖε θεόφραδες. εἰ δέ σ᾽ ἀνώγει
θυμὸς, ἐπωνυμίας Μήνης κατὰ μοῖραν ἀκοῦσαι,
ῥεῖά τοι ἐξερέω. σὺ δ᾽ ἐνὶ φρεσὶ βάλλεο σῇσιν,
οἵην τάξιν ἔχοντα κυρεῖ. μάλα γὰρ χρήσιόν ἐστιν
ἴδμεναι, ὡς αὐτὴ παρέχει κλέος ἄντυγι μηνός.

Kern fr. 272:

Περὶ τῶν τῆς Σελήνης ἡμερῶν. Ἡσιόδου· εὔχρησται τῆς Σελήνης ἡμέραι αὗται· δʹ ϛʹ ηʹ θʹ ιαʹ ιϛʹ ιζʹ [ιηʹ] κʹ κζʹ λʹ.

Ὀρφέως· πεφωτισμέναι καὶ εὔχρησται τῆς Σελήνης αὗται· [αʹ] βʹ γʹ δʹ εʹ ζʹ ιγʹ ιδʹ ιϛʹ [ιζʹ] ιηʹ κʹ κγʹ κηʹ.

ἐν ταύταις, ὥς φησιν Ὀρφεὺς καὶ Ἡσίοδος, ἅπασα ἀρχὴ εὐθετεῖ· καὶ χρὴ ἀφορᾶν καὶ πρὸς τὰ σχήματα τῆς Σελήνης καὶ τοὺς τύπους αὐτῆς καὶ τὰς συναφείας καὶ τὰς ἀπορροίας καὶ τοὺς καλοποιοὺς τῶν ἀστέρων καὶ τοὺς συλληπτικούς.

Kern fr. 273:

ἡ μὲν οὖν πρώτη, ἡ καὶ ἕνη ῥηθεῖσα ὡς ἀρχή, θεῖόν ἐστι· καὶ γὰρ πᾶσαν ἀρχὴν φησὶ Πλάτων εἶναι θείαν, καὶ γενέθλιος αὐτὴ καλεῖται τοῦ μηνός· καὶ ὁ μὴν ἐν αὐτῇ παρ᾽ Ὀρφεῖ προσαγορεύεται μόσχος μονόκερως· ἁπλῶς μὲν γὰρ ὁ μὴν ὡς γενέσεως ἐργάτης λέγεται βοῦς, ὡς δὲ πρώτην ἔχων τότε τῆς οἰκείας οὐσίας τὴν ἔκφυσιν, μόσχος, καὶ διὰ τὸ μοναδικὸν μονόκερως.

ὁ δὲ μὴν παρ᾽ Ὀρφεῖ μόσχος μονόκερως ὀνομάζεται, καὶ μόσχος μὲν ὡς πρώτην ἔχων τῆς νέας μήνης τὴν ἔκφυσιν, μονόκερως δὲ διὰ τὸ μοναδικὸν αὐτοῦ.

Kern fr. 274:

πρῶτον μὲν πρόδοσι ἐνὶ ἤματι φαίνεται Ἄρης,
Μήνη τ᾽ εἰς Ἄρην ἐπιτέλλεται· ἴσχεο δ᾽ ἔργων.

τὴνδε γὰρ ἐξανύσασα φύσιν δίκερων ἀναφαίνει.

αὐτὰρ ἐπὴν τρίτον ἦμαρ ἀποπρόθεν ἠελίοιο,
πᾶσιν ἐπιχθονίοισι φυτοσπόρον αἰτίη ἀλκῆς.

τετράδι δ᾽ αὐξομένη πολυφεγγέα λαμπάδα τείνει.

Kern fr. 275:

ἕκτῃ ἐν ἠριγενεῖ ῥοδοδακτύλῳ ἀργυροπέζῃ.

Kern fr. 276:

ἑβδόμη, ἣν ἐφίλησεν ἄναξ ἑκάεργος Ἀπόλλων.

Kern fr. 277:

εἰ δέ, ὥς φησιν Ὀρφεύς, τῇ Ἄτῃ ἀνάκειται ἡ ἑπτακαιδεκάτη καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τῇ τε τομῇ τῆς ὕλης ἐστὶν οἰκεία καὶ τῇ τοῦ καρποῦ γυμνώσει τῶν περικαρπίων, ὁ Ἡσίοδος οὐκ ἀμούσως τούτοις τοῖς ἔργοις ἀνῆκε τὴν ἡμέραν.

Kern fr. 278:

καὶ τὴν τριακοστὴν δὲ ἡμέραν οὗτος ἀγαθὴν λέγει, ἣν Ὀρφεὺς φαύλην πᾶσιν ἔργοις φησί, δοσοληψίαις δὲ μόναις.

Kern fr. 279:

ἕνην, ὡς πάλιν πρώτην μονάδα, νέαν ὡς ἀρχηγὸν ἑτέρου κύκλου οὖσαν·

οὕνεκεν ὀλλυμένη περ ἄελπτος γίνεται αὖτις,

ὡς Ὀρφεὺς ἐν Ἐφημερίσι φησίν.