Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 99-103 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group continues the Rhapsodic theogony from Phanes into Night: the three Nights, Night's hidden order, the royal sceptre handed down from Phanes, and Night's prophetic authority among the gods.

Translation

Kern Fr. 99 — The Three Nights

Hermias says:

He did not take up these three names idly or without reason: Justice itself, Temperance itself, and Knowledge itself. For three Nights are handed down in Orpheus. The first remains in the same place; the third has gone forth outside; the middle one stands between them. He says that the first prophesies, which belongs to Knowledge. He calls the middle one Reverend, which belongs to Temperance. He says that the third gives birth to Justice.

Kern Fr. 100 — Night and the Hidden Height

Damascius says:

For this reason Orpheus called this ordering Night, since she is beyond the visible gleam of that heaven. Perhaps it is also because the cone of night ends in a point, just as she herself is crowned into the most aetherial summit of intellectual being.

Kern Fr. 101 — The Sceptre Given to Night

Proclus says:

The royal chain of the gods begins from Phanes, descends to our lord Dionysus, and carries the same sceptre down from above to the last kingship. Kronos alone, who received the fourth royal order, seems, according to the mythical narrative, to act violently beyond all the others, both in receiving the sceptre from Heaven and in handing it on to Zeus. For Night receives it from Phanes willingly:

and he put the far-shining sceptre into the hands

of goddess Night, so that she might hold the royal honor.

And Heaven, in turn, receives dominion over the wholes from Night while she gives it willingly.

Kern Fr. 102 — Night Holding the Sceptre of Erikepaios

Alexander of Aphrodisias says:

After him comes Night,

holding in her hands the conspicuous sceptre of Erikepaios.

Syrianus gives the same verse with the same witness to Night's royal succession.

Kern Fr. 103 — Night's Unerring Prophecy

Hermias says:

Orpheus, speaking about Night, says, "for she holds the gods," and:

he gave her unerring prophecy to have in all things.

She herself is said to prophesy to the gods.

Hermias says again:

What Plato found stated affirmatively by the theologian, he himself brought forward by negation. What Orpheus called Night, Plato called colorless. And what Orpheus said negatively when he spoke of unerring prophecy, Plato stated affirmatively when he said, "the essence that truly is, around which the kind of true knowledge is."

And again:

He does not mean truth by agreement, but the truth whose own being and essence run together with the true. Truth is her very being, which the theologian also expressed:

he gave her unerring prophecy in all things.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 99-103, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here include Hermias, Damascius, Proclus, Alexander of Aphrodisias, and Syrianus as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 99 — Hermias, on Plato's Phaedrus 247d

οὐ μάτην δὲ οὐδὲ τὰ τρία ταῦτα ὀνόματα παρέλαβεν, αὐτὴν δικαιοσύνην, αὐτὴν σωφροσύνην, αὐτὴν ἐπιστήμην. τριῶν γὰρ παραδιδομένων Νυκτῶν παρ᾽ Ὀρφεῖ, τῆς μὲν ἐν ταὐτῷ μενούσης τῆς πρώτης, τῆς δὲ τρίτης ἔξω προελθούσης, τῆς δὲ μέσης τούτων, τὴν μὲν πρώτην μαντεύειν φησίν, ὅ ἐστι τῆς ἐπιστήμης, τὴν δὲ μέσην αἰδοίαν καλεῖ, ὅ ἐστι τῆς σωφροσύνης, τὴν δὲ τρίτην ἀποτίκτειν φησὶ τὴν Δικαιοσύνην.

Kern Fr. 100 — Damascius, On First Principles

διὰ τοῦτο καὶ Ὀρφεὺς Νύκτα αὐτὴν προσηγόρευσεν ὡς ὑπὲρ τὴν ἐμφανῆ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐκείνου μαρμαρυγήν. ἴσως δὲ καὶ ὅτι τῆς νυκτὸς ὁ κῶνος εἰς ὀξὺ λήγει, καθάπερ καὶ αὐτὴ εἰς τὸ αἰθεριώτατον ἀποκορυφοῦται τῆς νοερᾶς οὐσίας.

Kern Fr. 101 — Proclus, on Plato's Cratylus 396b

ὅτι τῆς βασιλικῆς τῶν θεῶν σειρᾶς ἀρχομένης μὲν ἀπὸ Φάνητος, καταντώσης δ᾽ εἰς τὸν δεσπότην ἡμῶν τὸν Διόνυσον καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ σκῆπτρον ἄνωθεν ἄχρι τῆς ἐσχάτης βασιλείας προαγούσης, μόνος ὁ Κρόνος, τὴν τετάρτην βασιλικὴν τάξιν κληρωσάμενος, παρὰ πάντας τοὺς ἄλλους ὑβριστικῶς δοκεῖ κατὰ τὸ μυθικὸν πρόβλημα προσδέχεσθαι καὶ ἐκ τοῦ Οὐρανοῦ τὸ σκῆπτρον καὶ μεταδιδόναι τῷ Διί. καὶ γὰρ ἡ Νὺξ παρ᾽ ἑκόντος αὐτὸ λαμβάνει τοῦ Φάνητος:

σκῆπτρον δ᾽ ἀριδείκετον εἰς χερέσσιν

θῆκε θεᾶς Νυκτός, ἵν᾽ ἔχῃ βασιληίδα τιμήν.

καὶ ὁ Οὐρανὸς παρὰ τῆς Νυκτὸς ἑκούσης ὑποδέχεται τὴν ἐπικράτειαν τῶν ὅλων.

Kern Fr. 102 — Alexander of Aphrodisias and Syrianus, on Aristotle's Metaphysics

μεθ᾽ ὃν Νύξ:

σκῆπτρον ἔχουσ᾽ ἐν χείρεσσιν ἀριπρεπὲς Ἠρικεπαίου.

Kern Fr. 103 — Hermias, on Plato's Phaedrus 247c

ὁ γάρ τοι Ὀρφεὺς περὶ τῆς Νυκτὸς λέγων "θεῶν γὰρ ἔχει," φησὶ . . . καί:

μαντοσύνην δ᾽ οἱ δῶκεν ἔχειν ἀψευδέα πάντῃ.

καὶ αὐτὴ λέγεται μαντεύειν τοῖς θεοῖς.

ὁ δὲ Πλάτων ὅπερ μὲν εὗρε καταφατικῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ θεολόγου ῥηθέν, τοῦτο αὐτὸς ἀποφατικῶς προηνέγκατο. ὁ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος Νύκτα εἶπε, τοῦτο οὗτος ἀχρώματον. ὁ δὲ ἐκεῖνος ἀποφατικῶς ἀψευδέα εἰπών, μαντοσύνην . . . πάντων, τοῦτο οὕτως καταφατικῶς εἶπε, "περὶ ἣν τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἐπιστήμης γένος, οὐσία ὄντως οὖσα."

οὐ τὴν κατὰ συμφωνίαν ἀλήθειαν λέγει, ἀλλ᾽ ἥτις σύνδρομον ἔχει τῷ ἀληθεῖ τὸ εἶναι αὐτῆς καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν, καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν αὐτῆς τὸ εἶναι ἡ ἀλήθεια, ἣ ὅπερ καὶ ὁ θεολόγος εἶπε:

μαντοσύνην δέ οἱ δῶκεν ἔχειν ἀψευδέα πάντων.