Orphic Fragments — The Smaller Krater

Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 297-298 from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta. Kern places them under The Smaller Krater, a title preserved through John the Deacon's Galenus commentary. The fragments explain divine names as powers of nature, culture, memory, and life.

Translation

Kern Fr. 297 — Divine Names and Powers

John the Deacon's Galenus commentary says:

That we have correctly understood Ares as war, Dionysus as wine, Poseidon as the sea, Hephaestus as fire, and other names in other ways, Orpheus too bears witness in the Smaller Krater, saying these things:

Hermes is interpreter,
messenger of all things.

The Nymphs are water.
Fire is Hephaestus.

Grain is Demeter.
The sea is great Poseidon,
the Earth-Shaker.

War is Ares,
and peace is Aphrodite.

Wine,
whom gods and mortal humans love,

found for mortals
a charm for pains
and sufferings.

Bull-born Dionysus
gave joy
to mortals,

sweetest joy,
present
at every feast.

And Themis
judges just things
for all.

The Sun,
whom they call
Apollo the famous archer,

Phoebus the far-shooter,
seer of all,
worker from afar,

healer of diseases:
Asclepius.

All these things are one.

The commentary continues:

And that the Muses are born from Mnemosyne, Memory, and that Zeus is also called Aether, hear the following Orphic sayings:

Zeus is god of all
and mixer of all,

piping with winds
and voices
mingled with air.

For is it not clear that he is calling him Aether in this way?

And again:

The same thing too:
the harmony of the Muses
and the instruments of all things,

Mnemosyne first
gave to all;
yet it did not appear.

But Time
made use of forgetfulness
and hid it away.

Now arts and words
and laws,

and all works
that have been made,

are preserved
among human beings
through memory.

The commentary concludes:

You have these uses and transfers of names not from just any poet, but from one who is wise and advanced in time, so that we are not speaking marvels lightly, my child.

Kern Fr. 298 — Zeus as Life

John the Deacon's Galenus commentary also says:

Zeus is declined from Zenos, plainly showing us that this one is life, and that through him the living live, and that beings simply have their being through him. Hear Orpheus in the so-called Krater, saying these things to you:

There is indeed
a beginning of all things:
Zeus.

For Zeus gave life,
generated living beings,
and they call him Zēn, Life,

and also Dia,
because through him
all things have been fashioned.

This one alone
is father of all:
of beasts and mortals.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 297-298, under the title The Smaller Krater. Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here are John the Deacon's Galenus commentaries on Hesiod's Theogony 943 and 482, preserving Orphic lines on divine names, memory, and Zeus as life.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 297 — Divine Names and Powers

Ioannes Diaconus Galenus ad Hesiodi Theogoniam 943:

ὅτι δὲ καλῶς ἡμεῖς ἐξελαβόμεθα τὸν μὲν Ἄρην εἰς τὸν πόλεμον, τὸν δὲ Διόνυσον εἰς τὸν οἶνον, τὸν δὲ Ποσειδῶνα εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, τὸν δ' Ἥφαιστον εἰς τὸ πῦρ καὶ ἄλλα ἄλλως, μαρτυρεῖ καὶ ἐν τῶι μικροτέρωι Κρατῆρι ὁ Ὀρφεὺς τάδε λέγων·

Ἑρμῆς δ' ἑρμηνεὺς τῶν πάντων ἄγγελός ἐστι,

Νύμφαι ὕδωρ, πῦρ Ἥφαιστος, αἶτος Δημήτηρ,

ἡ δὲ θάλασσα Ποσειδῶν μέγας ἠδ' Ἐνοσίχθων·

καὶ πόλεμος μὲν Ἄρης, εἰρήνη δ' ἔστ' Ἀφροδίτη.

οἶνος, τὸν φιλέουσι θεοὶ θνητοί τ' ἄνθρωποι,

ὅς τε βροτοῖς εὗρεν λυπῶν κηλήτορα παθῶν·

Ταυρογενὴς Διόνυσος εὐφροσύνην πόρε θνητοῖς·

ἡδίστην πάσηισί τ' ἠδ' εἰλαπίνηισι πάρεστι,

καὶ Θέμις ἥπερ ἅπασι θεμιστεύει τὰ δίκαια,

Ἥλιος ὃν καλέουσιν Ἀπόλλωνα κλυτότοξον,

Φοῖβον ἑκηελέτην μάντιν πάντων ἑκάεργον,

ἰητῆρα νόσων Ἀσκληπιόν. ἓν τάδε πάντα.

ὅτι δὲ καὶ ἐκ τῆς Μνημοσύνης αἱ Μοῦσαι γεννῶνται καὶ ὅτι ὁ Ζεὺς καὶ αἰθὴρ λέγεται, ἄκουε τῶν εἰρημένων Ὀρφικῶς·

Ζεὺς δὲ τε πάντων ἐστὶ θεὸς πάντων τε κεραστής,

πνεύμασι συρίσσων φωναῖσί τε ἀερομίκτοις.

ἡ γὰρ οὐχὶ δῆλός ἐστι τὸν αἰθέρα καλῶν οὕτω;

ταυτὸ καὶ ἁρμονία Μουσῶν τά τε ὄργανα πάντων

Μνημοσύνη πάντων πρῶτον πόρεν οὔτ' ἀνεφάνθη·

ἀλλὰ χρόνος λήθηι κατεχρήσατο καὶ κατέκρυψε.

νῦν δὲ τέχναι τε λόγοι τε νόμοι θ' ὅσα τ' ἔργα τέτυκται,

πάντα διὰ μνήμην διασώιζεται ἀνθρώποισιν.

ἔχεις ταύτας τὰς χρήσεις τῶν ὀνομάτων τῆς μεταλήψεως οὐκ ἐκ ποιητοῦ τοῦ τυχόντος ἀλλ' ἐκ σοφοῦ καὶ χρόνωι προήκοντος, ὥστε μὴ τερατολογεῖν ἡμᾶς οἷον, ὦ τέκνον.

Kern Fr. 298 — Zeus as Life

Ioannes Diaconus Galenus ad Hesiodi Theogoniam 482:

ὁ Ζεὺς τοῦ Ζηνὸς κλίνεται, δηλοῦν πάντως ἡμῖν, ὡς οὗτος, τε ζωὴ ἐστί, καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ ζῶσι τὰ ζῶντα καὶ τὰ ὄντα ἁπλῶς δι' αὐτοῦ τὸ εἶναι εἴληχεν· ἄκουε γὰρ τοῦ Ὀρφέως ἐν τῶι λεγομένωι Κρατῆρι τάδε σοι λέγοντος·

ἔστιν δὴ πάντων ἀρχὴ μία. Ζεὺς γὰρ ἔδωκε

ζῶιά τ' ἐγέννησεν καὶ Ζῆν αὐτὸν καλέουσι

καὶ Δία τῆιδ', ὅτι δὴ διὰ τούτου ἅπαντα τέτυκται.

εἷς δὲ πατὴρ οὗτος πάντων θηρῶν τε βροτῶν τε.