Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek and Latin

This page translates Kern fragments 54-59 from the Orphic theogony attributed to Hieronymus and Hellanicus. The group gathers late-antique witnesses on water and earth, ageless Time, Necessity, the cosmic egg, Phanes, Ocean, the Titans, Echidna, and the violent succession myths around Zeus, Rhea, Kore, and Dionysus.

Translation

Kern Fr. 54 — Water, Earth, Ageless Time, and the Cosmic Egg

The Orphic theology handed down under the name of Hieronymus and Hellanicus, if indeed the two are not the same person, runs as follows.

"Water," he says, "was from the beginning, and matter, from which the earth was made firm." He sets down these two as the first principles: water and earth, earth as naturally scattered, water as the thing that glues and holds it together. The one principle before the two he leaves unspoken; the very fact that he says nothing about it shows its ineffable nature.

The third principle, after the two, is born from them, I mean from water and earth. It is a serpent, with the heads of a bull and a lion growing on it, and in the middle the face of a god. It also has wings on its shoulders. It is named ageless Time, and also Heracles. Necessity is joined with it: the same nature is also Adrasteia, bodiless, stretched through the whole cosmos, touching its limits.

I think this is said to be the third principle as it stands in substance, except that the theology makes it male-female in order to show the generative cause of all things.

I also suppose that the theology in the Rhapsodies leaves aside the first two principles, together with the one before the two that was handed down in silence, and begins from this third principle after the two, because it is the first that has something speakable and proportionate to human hearing. For this is the much-honored ageless Time in that theology, father of Aether and Chaos.

Accordingly, in this account, this serpent Time begets a triple offspring: moist Aether, boundless Chaos, and, third after these, misty Erebos. This second triad is handed down as analogous to the first, being a triad of power, as the first is paternal. Its third member is therefore misty Erebos; its paternal and highest member is Aether, not simply, but as moist Aether; and the middle from these is boundless Chaos.

In these, as the account says, Time generated an egg. This tradition too makes the egg the offspring of Time, born within these, because from them the third intelligible triad also proceeds. What is that triad? First, the egg. Second, the twofold nature within it, male and female, and the multitude of all kinds of seeds in the middle. Third, besides these, a bodiless god with golden wings on his shoulders; at his flanks he had bull-heads growing from him, and on his head a monstrous serpent, appearing in all kinds of animal forms.

This god must be taken as the mind of the triad. The middle genera, both the many and the twofold, belong to power; the egg itself is the paternal principle of the third triad. This theology hymns the third god of this third triad as Protogonos, calls him Zeus, the disposer of all things and of the whole cosmos, and for this reason says he is called Pan.

So much, then, this genealogy presents concerning the intelligible principles.

Kern Fr. 55 — Chaos as the First Egg

Apion says:

Hesiod says in the Theogony, "First of all Chaos came to be." The phrase "came to be" plainly means that Chaos was generated, as something that came into being, not that it always existed as something ungenerated.

Orpheus, too, likens Chaos to an egg, in which there was the confusion of the first elements. What Hesiod assumes as Chaos, Orpheus calls a generated egg, projected from unlimited matter. It came into being in this way.

The fourfold matter was alive. It was like an unlimited deep, always flowing, carried along without distinction, pouring out countless unfinished mixtures in different ways at different times, and dissolving them again through disorder. It yawned open, but could not be bound into the generation of a living creature.

At some point the unlimited sea, driven around by its own nature, flowed in ordered natural motion from the same into the same, like an eddy, and mixed the substances. Thus the most useful portion of all things, the part most suitable for generating a living creature, flowed toward the middle of the whole like a funnel. Carried by the eddy that bears all things, it moved into the depth, drew in the surrounding breath, and, having been conceived into the most fertile state, made a discriminating compound.

For just as a bubble tends to arise in liquid, so a spherical vessel was gathered from every side. Then, after it had been conceived within itself, it was carried upward by the divine breath it had received and came forth into the light: a very great birth, as though from the whole unlimited deep, a living work, resembling an egg in its roundness and in the speed of its flight.

Rufinus gives the Latin parallel:

Every account among the Greeks that is written about the origin of antiquity has, among many others, two chief authors: Orpheus and Hesiod. Their writings are divided into two kinds of understanding, the literal and the allegorical. The crowd of the unlearned has rushed to the literal things, but all the talkativeness of philosophers and educated people has admired the allegorical things.

Orpheus, then, is the one who says that first there was Chaos: everlasting, immeasurable, ungenerated, the source from which all things were made. He did not say that this Chaos was darkness, or light, or wet, or dry, or hot, or cold, but that all things were mixed together and were always one formless thing.

Yet at some time, after immeasurable ages, it was formed after the manner of a vast egg, and from itself it brought forth and projected a certain double form, which they call male-female, a form concreted from the contrary mixture of that diversity. This, he says, was the principle of all things: the first thing that proceeded from purer matter. As it proceeded, it gave the separation of the four elements. From the two elements that are first it made heaven, and from the others it made earth. From these, he says, all things now are born and generated by mutual participation.

This is what Orpheus says.

Kern Fr. 56 — Phanes, the Egg, and the Elemental Gods

Apion says:

Understand Kronos as time, and Rhea as the flowing of the wet substance. For all matter, carried along in time, brought forth, like an egg, the spherical heaven that contains all things. At first it was full of fertile marrow, as if able to bring forth elements and colors of every kind; and yet from one substance and one color it carried the appearance of every variety.

In the egg of the peacock, for example, there seems to be one color of the egg, but potentially it contains within itself the countless colors of the creature that is going to be brought to completion. So too the living egg born from unlimited matter, moved by the underlying and ever-flowing matter, displays every kind of turn and change.

Within the circumference a certain male-female living being is shaped by the providence of the divine breath inside it. Orpheus calls him Phanes, because when he appeared, the whole shone from him, with the light of fire, the most brilliant of the elements, brought to completion in moisture. This is not unbelievable: as an example, nature has given us the gift of seeing moist light in glowworms.

The first-formed egg, then, warmed from beneath by the living being within it, is broken. Then the formed being comes forth, as Orpheus says:

When the wide-receiving egg was split from the skull-like shell.

When the one who had come forth appeared by his great power, the shell received harmony and took on ordered arrangement. He himself sat as if on the summit of heaven and, in the unspeakable places, shone around boundless eternity.

The fertile matter left inside the shell, when heat was simmering beneath it in the long time of its natural condition, separated the substances of all things. The lowest part of it first sank downward under its weight, like sediment. Because of its mass, its heaviness, and the great quantity of underlying substance, they called it Plouton, and declared it to be Hades, king of the dead.

This first, plentiful, dirty, and rough substance, they say, was swallowed by Kronos, that is, by Time, in a physical sense, because it sank downward. After this first sediment, the water that had flowed together and floated on the first layer they called Poseidon. The remaining third part, the purest and highest, since it was clear fire, they named Zeus, because of the seething nature within it.

Fire rises upward, and therefore it was not swallowed down by Time, Kronos, toward the lower things. Rather, as I said, the fiery substance, being living and upward-bearing, flew up into the air, which is also most intelligent because of its purity. By his own heat, Zeus, that is, the seething substance, draws up from the underlying wetness the thinnest and divine breath left behind there; this they called Metis.

When it came to the summit of Aether and was drunk in by him, like liquid mixed with heat, it created the ever-moving pulse and generated understanding, which they also call Pallas because of the pulsing motion. This is most skillful intelligence, by which the aetherial craftsman fashioned the whole cosmos.

From Zeus himself, who extends through all things, the hottest Aether, the air reaches down as far as the places here below; this they call Hera. Because she has descended below the purest substance of Aether, and because, in comparison with the stronger, she has purity in a female way, she was reasonably thought to be Zeus' sister, since she was born from the same substance, and his wife, because she lies beneath him like a woman.

Clement then gives his epitome:

I pass over, for now, a precise account of the living egg born from unlimited matter by the chance of mixture; how, when it broke, according to some, male-female Phanes leapt out; and I summarize all the rest up to the point where the broken shell received harmony, while its marrow-like matter was left behind.

Rufinus gives the Latin parallel:

The wiser people among the gentiles say, then, that first of all there was Chaos. Over a long time it solidified its outer parts and made for itself boundaries and a kind of foundation, being gathered into the manner and form of a huge egg. Within it, over a long time, as inside an eggshell, a certain living being was warmed and given life. After that huge sphere was broken open, there came forth a certain human form of double nature, which they call male-female. They also named him Phanetas, from appearing, because, they say, when he appeared, light also shone forth.

From him they say substance, prudence, motion, and union were generated. From these Heaven and Earth were made. From Heaven six males were born, whom they call Titans; likewise from Earth six females were born, whom they call Titanides. The names of those born from Heaven are Oceanus, Coeus, Crios, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronos, who among us is called Saturn. Likewise the names of those born from Earth are Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Tethys, and Phoebe.

Of all these, the first born from Heaven took the first daughter of Earth as wife, the second took the second, and the others in the same order. The first, who had married the first, was drawn downward because of her; the second female, because of the one she had married, rose upward. Doing this one by one, they remained in the places that had fallen to them by the lot of marriage.

From their unions, they assert, countless others were born. But one of those six males, who is called Saturn, took Rhea in marriage. When he had been warned by an oracle that the child born from her would be stronger than he and would drive him from the kingdom, he resolved to devour every son born to him.

His first son was born, whom they called Aides, and who among us is named Orcus. For the reasons stated above, his father took him and devoured him. After him he begot a second, whom they call Neptune, and devoured him in the same way. Last he begot the one they call Jove. But his mother Rhea, pitying him, withdrew him by a trick from the father who was about to devour him. First, so that the child's crying would not become known, she had certain Corybantes strike cymbals and drums, so that the infant's cry would not be heard because of the noise.

But when the father understood from the shrinking of her womb that the birth had happened, he demanded the child to devour him. Then Rhea offered him a large stone and said, "This is what I gave birth to." He accepted it and swallowed it. The swallowed stone pushed and forced out the sons he had swallowed first.

Therefore Orcus, coming forth first, descended and occupied the lower places, that is, the underworld. The second, since he was higher than that one, was thrust out over the waters: he is the one they call Neptune. The third, who survived by his mother Rhea's trick, was placed by her on a goat and sent into heaven.

So far runs the old gentile tale and genealogy. It would be endless if I wished to bring forward all the generations of those whom they call gods, and their impious deeds.

Kern Fr. 57 — Ocean, Earth, Heaven, and the Titans

Athenagoras says:

The gods, as they say, did not exist from the beginning. Each of them came to be in the same way that we come to be. All of them agree on this. Homer says:

Ocean, begetter of gods, and mother Tethys.

Orpheus, who first discovered their names, went through their births, told what each of them did, and is believed among them to theologize most truly; Homer follows him in most things, especially concerning the gods. Orpheus too establishes their first birth from water:

Ocean, whose birth has been fashioned for all.

According to him, water was the principle of all things. From the water mud settled; from both of them a living creature was born, a serpent, with a lion's head grown on it, and through the middle of them the face of a god. Its name was Heracles and Time.

This Heracles generated an enormous egg. When it was being filled by the force of the one who had generated it, it was broken into two by friction. The upper part of it was completed as Heaven, and the part borne downward as Earth. A certain god also came forth.

Heaven mingled with Earth and begot females: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos; and males: the Hundred-Handed Ones, Cottus, Gyges, Briareus, and the Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes, and Arges. Having learned that he would be driven out of rule by his children, Heaven bound them and hurled them down into Tartarus.

Because of this Earth became angry and gave birth to the Titans:

Lady Earth bore the sons of Heaven,

whom they call Titans by surname,

because they took vengeance on great starry Heaven.

Kern Fr. 58 — Echidna and the Dragon-Form Theogony

Athenagoras says:

If the implausibility of their theology went only as far as saying that the gods had come to be and had their constitution from water, then, after showing that nothing generated is not also dissoluble, I would move on to the rest of the charges.

But they have described the gods' bodies: Heracles as a god who is a coiled serpent, the Hundred-Handed Ones, and Zeus' daughter, whom he fathered from his mother Rhea, or from Demeter. They say she had two eyes by nature, two more on her forehead, an animal face on the back part of her neck, and horns. Because of this Rhea, frightened by the monstrous child, fled and would not give her the breast; from this she is mystically called Athela, but commonly Phersephone and Kore. She is not the same as Athena, who is called Kore from the pupil of the eye.

They have also gone through the deeds done by these gods exactly, as they suppose. Kronos cut off his father's genitals, threw him down from his chariot, and killed his children by swallowing the male ones. Zeus bound his father and hurled him into Tartarus, just as Heaven had done to his sons; he fought the Titans over rule; he pursued his mother Rhea when she refused marriage with him. When she became a she-serpent, he too changed into a serpent, bound her with the so-called Heraclean knot, and coupled with her. The wand of Hermes is the sign of the shape of that union.

Then, again, Zeus violated his daughter Phersephone, also in the shape of a serpent, and from her Dionysus was his child.

It is necessary to say at least this much: what is holy or useful in such a history, so that we should believe Kronos, Zeus, Kore, and the rest to be gods? Their bodily states? What discerning person, having come into contemplation, would believe that an Echidna was born from a god? Orpheus says:

And Phanes begot another dreadful race

from a holy womb: Echidna, fearful to behold.

From the head her hair and beautiful face

were fair to see; but the rest of her parts

were those of a fearful serpent, from the top of the neck down.

Or who would accept that Phanes himself, being the first-born god, for he is the one poured forth from the egg, either has the body or shape of a serpent, or was swallowed by Zeus so that Zeus might become uncontainable?

If they differ in nothing from the basest beasts, for clearly the divine must be distinguished from earthly things and from things separated out of matter, they are not gods. Why, then, should we approach them, when their generation is like that of cattle and they themselves are beast-shaped and ugly to look upon?

Kern Fr. 59 — Zeus, Kore, and the Eleusinian Witness

Athenagoras says:

It is no wonder, then, that they make up stories about us like the stories they tell about their own gods, for their mysteries display the sufferings of those gods. But if they intended to judge free and indiscriminate mixing to be terrible, they ought either to have hated Zeus, who had children by his mother Rhea and by his daughter Kore, and used his own sister as wife, or to have hated Orpheus, the poet of these things, because he made Zeus more unholy and defiled than Thyestes. For Thyestes too coupled with his daughter according to an oracle, because he wished to reign and to take revenge.

Tatian gives the parallel:

Zeus has intercourse with his daughter, and the daughter conceives from him. Eleusis will now bear witness for me, and the mystic serpent, and Orpheus, who says, "Set doors upon it, you profane."

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 54-59, in the section headed "Hieronymi et Hellanici theogonia." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here include Damascius, Pseudo-Clement's Homilies and Rufinus' Latin Recognitions, Athenagoras, and Tatian as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 54 — Damascius, On First Principles 123 bis

Ἡ δὲ κατὰ τὸν Ἱερώνυμον φερομένη καὶ Ἑλλάνικον Ὀρφικὴ θεολογία, εἴπερ μὴ καὶ ὁ αὐτός ἐστιν, οὕτως ἔχει· ὕδωρ ἦν, φησίν, ἐξ ἀρχῆς καὶ ὕλη, ἐξ ἧς ἐπάγη ἡ γῆ, δύο ταύτας ἀρχὰς ὑποτιθέμενος πρῶτον, ὕδωρ καὶ γῆν, ταύτην μὲν ὡς φύσει σκεδαστήν, ἐκεῖνο δὲ ὡς ταύτης κολλητικόν τε καὶ συνεκτικόν, τὴν δὲ μίαν πρὸ τῶν δυεῖν ἄρρητον ἀφίησιν· αὐτὸ γὰρ τὸ μηδὲ φάναι περὶ αὐτῆς ἐδείκνυται αὐτῆς τὴν ἀπόρρητον φύσιν. τὴν δὲ τρίτην ἀρχὴν μετὰ τὰς δύο γεννηθῆναι μὲν ἐκ τούτων, ὕδατός φημι καὶ γῆς, δράκοντα δὲ εἶναι κεφαλὰς ἔχοντα προσπεφυκυίας ταύρου καὶ λέοντος, ἐν μέσῳ δὲ θεοῦ πρόσωπον, ἔχειν δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων πτερά, ὠνομάσθαι δὲ Χρόνον ἀγήραον καὶ Ἡρακλῆα τὸν αὐτόν· συνεῖναι δὲ αὐτῷ τὴν Ἀνάγκην, φύσιν οὖσαν τὴν αὐτὴν καὶ Ἀδράστειαν ἀσώματον, διωργυιωμένην ἐν παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ, τῶν περάτων αὐτοῦ ἐφαπτομένην.

ταύτην οἶμαι λέγεσθαι τὴν τρίτην ἀρχὴν κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν ἑστῶσαν, πλὴν ὅτι ἀρσενόθηλυν αὐτὴν ὑπεστήσατο πρὸς ἔνδειξιν τῆς πάντων γεννητικῆς αἰτίας. καὶ ὑπολαμβάνω τὴν ἐν ταῖς ῥαψῳδίαις θεολογίαν ἀφεῖσαν τὰς δύο πρώτας ἀρχὰς μετὰ τῆς μιᾶς πρὸ τῶν δυεῖν τῆς σιγῇ παραδοθείσης ἀπὸ τῆς τρίτης μετὰ τὰς δύο ταύτης ἐνστήσασθαι τὴν ἀρχὴν, ὡς πρώτης ῥητόν τι ἐχούσης καὶ σύμμετρον πρὸς ἀνθρώπων ἀκοάς. οὗτος γὰρ ἦν ὁ πολυτίμητος ἐν ἐκείνῃ Χρόνος ἀγήραος καὶ Αἰθέρος καὶ Χάους πατήρ· ἀμέλει καὶ κατὰ ταύτην ὁ Χρόνος οὗτος ὁ δράκων γεννᾶται τριπλῆν γονήν, Αἰθέρα φησὶ νοτερὸν καὶ Χάος ἄπειρον, καὶ τρίτον ἐπὶ τούτοις Ἔρεβος ὀμιχλῶδες.

τὴν δευτέραν ταύτην τριάδα ἀνάλογον τῇ πρώτῃ παραδίδωσι, δυναμικὴν οὖσαν, ὡς ἐκείνην πατρικήν· διὸ καὶ τὸ τρίτον αὐτῆς Ἔρεβος ἐστιν ὀμιχλῶδες, καὶ τὸ πατρικόν τε καὶ ἄκρον Αἰθήρ, οὐχ ἁπλῶς, ἀλλὰ νοτερός, τὸ δὲ μέσον αὐτόθεν Χάος ἄπειρον. ἀλλὰ μὴν ἐν τούτοις, ὡς λέγει, ὁ Χρόνος ᾠὸν ἐγέννησεν, τοῦ Χρόνου ποιοῦσα γέννημα καὶ αὕτη ἡ παράδοσις, καὶ ἐν τούτοις τικτόμενον, ὅτι καὶ ἀπὸ τούτων ἡ τρίτη πρόεισι νοητὴ τριάς.

τίς οὖν αὕτη ἐστί; τὸ ᾠόν· ἡ δυὰς τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ φύσεων, ἄρρενος καὶ θηλείας, καὶ τῶν ἐν μέσῳ παντοίων σπερμάτων τὸ πλῆθος· καὶ τρίτον ἐπὶ τούτοις θεὸν ἀσώματον, πτέρυγας ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων ἔχοντα χρυσᾶς, ὃς ἐν μὲν ταῖς λαγόσι προσπεφυκυίας εἶχε ταύρων κεφαλάς, ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς κεφαλῆς δράκοντα πελώριον παντοδαπαῖς μορφαῖς θηρίων ἰνδαλλόμενον. τοῦτον μὲν οὖν ὡς νοῦν τῆς τριάδος ὑποληπτέον, τὰ δὲ μέσα γένη τά τε πολλὰ καὶ τὰ δύο τὴν δύναμιν, αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ ᾠὸν ἀρχὴν πατρικὴν τῆς τρίτης τριάδος. ταύτης δὲ τῆς τρίτης τριάδος τὸν τρίτον θεὸν καὶ ἥδε ἡ θεολογία πρωτόγονον ἀνυμνεῖ καὶ Δία καλεῖ πάντων διατάκτορα καὶ ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου, διὸ καὶ Πᾶνα καλεῖσθαι. τοσαῦτα καὶ αὕτη περὶ τῶν νοητῶν ἀρχῶν ἡ γενεαλογία παρίστησιν.

Kern Fr. 55 — Pseudo-Clement, Homilies 6.3-4

Ἡσίοδος δὲ ἐν τῇ θεογονίᾳ λέγει·

Ἤτοι μὲν πρώτιστα χάος ἐγένετο.

τὸ δὲ «ἐγένετο» δῆλον ὅτι γεγενῆσθαι ὡς γενητὰ σημαίνει, οὐ τὸ ἀεὶ εἶναι ὡς ἀγένητα. καὶ Ὀρφεὺς δὲ τὸ χάος ὠῷ παρεικάζει, ἐν ᾧ τῶν πρώτων στοιχείων ἦν ἡ σύγχυσις. τοῦτο Ἡσίοδος χάος ὑποτίθεται, ὅπερ Ὀρφεὺς ὠὸν λέγει γενητόν, ἐξ ἀπείρου τῆς ὕλης προβεβλημένον, γεγονὸς δὲ οὕτω·

τῆς τετραγενοῦς ὕλης ἐμψύχου οὔσης καὶ ὅλου ἀπείρου τινὸς βυθοῦ ἀεὶ ῥέοντος καὶ ἀκρίτως φερομένου καὶ μυρίας ἀτελεῖς κράσεις [εἰς] ἄλλοτε ἄλλως ἐπαναχέοντος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο αὐτὰς ἀναλύοντος τῇ ἀταξίᾳ, καὶ κεχηνότος ὡς εἰς γένεσιν ζῴου δεθῆναι μὴ δυναμένου, συνέβη ποτέ, αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἀπείρου πελάγους ὑπὸ ἰδίας φύσεως περιωθουμένου, κινήσει φυσικῇ εὐτάκτως ῥυῆναι ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ ὥσπερ ἴλιγγα καὶ μῖξαι τὰς οὐσίας, καὶ οὕτως ἐξ ἑκάστου τῶν πάντων τὸ νοστιμώτατον, ὅπερ πρὸς γένεσιν ζῴου ἐπιτηδειότατον ἦν, ὥσπερ ἐν χώνῃ κατὰ μέσου ῥυῆναι τοῦ παντὸς καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς πάντα φερούσης ἴλιγγος χωρῆσαι εἰς βάθος καὶ τὸ περικείμενον πνεῦμα ἐπισπάσασθαι καὶ ὡς εἰς γονιμώτατον συλληφθὲν ποιεῖν κριτικὴν σύστασιν. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν ὑγρῷ φιλεῖ γίνεσθαι πομφόλυξ, οὕτως σφαιροειδὲς πανταχόθεν συνελήφθη κύτος. ἔπειτα αὐτὸ ἐν ἑαυτῷ κυηθέν, ὑπὸ τοῦ περιειληφότος θειώδους πνεύματος ἀναφερόμενον, προέκυψεν εἰς φῶς μέγιστόν τι τοῦτο ἀποκύημα, ὡς ἂν ἐκ παντὸς τοῦ ἀπείρου βυθοῦ ἀποκεκυημένον ἔμψυχον δημιούργημα καὶ τῇ περιφερείᾳ τῷ ὠῷ προσεοικὸς καὶ τῷ τάχει τῆς πτήσεως.

Rufinus, Recognitions 10.30:

omnis sermo apud Graecos, qui de antiquitatis origine conscribitur, cum alios multos, tum duos praecipuos auctores habet, Orpheum et Hesiodum. horum ergo scripta in duas partes intelligentiae dividuntur, id est, secundum litteram et secundum allegoriam, et ad ea quidem quae secundum litteram sunt, ignobilis vulgi turba confluxit. ea vero quae secundum allegoriam constant, omnis philosophorum et eruditorum loquacitas admirata est.

Orpheus igitur est, qui dicit primo fuisse Chaos sempiternum, immensum, ingenitum, ex quo omnia facta sunt; hoc sane ipsum Chaos non tenebras dixit esse, non lucem, non humidum, non aridum, non calidum, non frigidum, sed omnia simul mista, et semper unum fuisse informe; aliquando tamen quasi ad ovi immanis modum, per immensa tempora effectam peperisse ac protulisse ex se duplicem quandam speciem, quam illi masculofeminam vocant, ex contraria admistione huius modi diversitatis speciem concretam; et hoc esse principium omnium, quod primum ex materia puriore processerit, quodque procedens discretionem quatuor elementorum dederit, et ex duobus quae prima sunt elementis fecerit coelum, ex aliis autem terram, ex quibus iam omnia participatione sui invicem nasci dicit et gigni. Haec quidem Orpheus.

Kern Fr. 56 — Pseudo-Clement, Homilies 6.5-12

Κρόνον οὖν τὸν χρόνον μοι νόει, τὴν δὲ Ῥέαν τὸ ῥέον τῆς ὑγρᾶς οὐσίας, ὅτι χρόνῳ φερομένη ἡ ὕλη ἅπασα ὥσπερ ὠὸν τὸν πάντα περιέχοντα σφαιροειδῆ ἀπεκύησεν οὐρανόν· ὅπερ κατ' ἀρχὰς τοῦ γονίμου μυελοῦ πλῆρες ἦν ὡς ἂν στοιχεῖα καὶ χρώματα παντοδαπὰ ἐκτεκεῖν δυνάμενον, καὶ ὅμως παντοδαπὴν ἐκ μιᾶς οὐσίας τε καὶ χρώματος ἑνὸς ἔφερε τὴν φαντασίαν. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν τῷ τοῦ ταὼ γεννήματι ἓν μὲν τοῦ ὠοῦ χρῶμα δοκεῖ, δυνάμει δὲ μυρία ἔχει ἐν ἑαυτῷ τοῦ μέλλοντος τελεσφορεῖσθαι χρώματα, οὕτως καὶ τὸ ἐξ ἀπείρου ὕλης ἀποκυηθὲν ἔμψυχον ὠὸν ἐκ τῆς ὑποκειμένης καὶ ἀεὶ ῥεούσης ὕλης κινούμενον παντοδαπὰς ἐκφαίνει τροπάς. ἔνδοθεν γὰρ τῆς περιφερείας ζῷόν τι ἀρρενόθηλυ εἰδοποιεῖται προνοίᾳ τοῦ ἐνόντος ἐν αὐτῷ θείου πνεύματος, ὃν Φάνητα Ὀρφεὺς καλεῖ, ὅτι αὐτοῦ φανέντος τὸ πᾶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἔλαμψεν, τῷ φέγγει τοῦ διαπρεπεστάτου τῶν στοιχείων πυρὸς ἐν τῷ ὑγρῷ τελεσφορουμένου. καὶ οὐκ ἄπιστον, ὅτι καὶ ἐπὶ λαμπυρίδων δείγματος ἕνεκα ἡ φύσις ἡμῖν ὁρᾶν ὑγρὸν φῶς ἐδωρήσατο.

τὸ μὲν οὖν πρωτοσύστατον ὠὸν ὑποθερμανθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἔσωθεν ζῴου ῥήγνυται, ἔπειτα δὲ μορφωθὲν προέρχεται ὁποῖόν τι καὶ Ὀρφεὺς λέγει·

κρανίου σχισθέντος ... πολυχανδέος ὠοῦ.

καὶ οὕτω μεγάλῃ δυνάμει αὐτοῦ τοῦ προεληλυθότος φανέντος, τὸ μὲν κύτος τὴν ἁρμονίαν λαμβάνει καὶ τὴν διακόσμησιν ἴσχει, αὐτὸς δὲ ὥσπερ ἐπ' ἀκρωρείας οὐρανοῦ προκαθέζεται καὶ ἐν ἀπορρήτοις τὸν ἄπειρον περιλάμπων αἰῶνα. ἡ δὲ τοῦ κύτους ἔνδοθεν γόνιμος ὑπολειφθεῖσα ὕλη, ὡς ἐν πολλῷ τῷ χρόνῳ ὑποκειμένης ἕως φυσικῆς ὑποζέουσα ἡ θερμότης, τὰς πάντων διέκρινεν οὐσίας. τὸ μὲν γὰρ κατώτερον αὐτῆς πρῶτον ὥσπερ ὑποστάθμη ὑπὸ τοῦ βάρους εἰς τὰ κάτω ὑποκεχώρηκεν, ὃ διὰ τὴν ὁλκότητα καὶ διὰ τὸ ἐμβριθὲς καὶ πολὺ τῆς ὑποκειμένης οὐσίας πλῆθος Πλούτωνα προσηγόρευσαν, ᾅδου τε καὶ νεκρῶν βασιλέα εἶναι ἀποφηνάμενοι.

ταύτην μὲν οὖν τὴν πρώτην καὶ πολλήν, ῥυπαρὰν καὶ τραχεῖαν οὐσίαν ὑπὸ Κρόνου, τοῦ χρόνου, καταποθῆναι λέγουσιν φυσικῶς διὰ τὴν κάτω ὑπονόστησιν αὐτῆς. μετὰ δὲ τὴν πρώτην ὑποστάθμην τὸ συρρυὲν ὕδωρ καὶ πρώτῃ ἐπιπολάσαν ὑποστάσει Ποσειδῶνα προσηγόρευσαν. τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν τρίτον τὸ καθαρώτατον καὶ κορυφαιότατον ἅτε διαυγὲς ὂν πῦρ Ζῆνα ὠνόμασαν διὰ τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ ζέουσαν φύσιν· ἀνωφερὲς γὰρ ὂν τὸ πῦρ πρὸς μὲν τὰ κάτω ὑπὸ χρόνου, τοῦ Κρόνου, οὐ κατεπόθη, ἀλλ' ἡ πυρώδης οὐσία ζωτική τε καὶ ἀνωφερὴς οὖσα εἰς αὐτὸν ἀνέπτη τὸν ἀέρα, ὃς καὶ φρονιμώτατός ἐστι διὰ τὴν καθαρότητα. τῇ οὖν ἰδίᾳ θερμότητι ὁ Ζεύς, τουτέστιν ἡ ζέουσα οὐσία, τὸ καταλειφθὲν ἐν τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ ὑγρῷ τὸ ἰσχνότατον καὶ θεῖον ἀνιμᾶται πνεῦμα, ὅπερ Μῆτιν ἐκάλεσαν.

κατὰ κορυφῆς δὲ αὐτοῦ ἐλθὸν τοῦ αἰθέρος καὶ συνποθὲν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ, ὥσπερ ὑγρὸν θερμῷ μιγέν, τὸν ἀεικίνητον παλμὸν ἐνποιῆσαν γεννᾷ τὴν σύνεσιν, ἣν καὶ Παλλάδα ἐπονομάζουσιν διὰ τὸ πάλλεσθαι, τεχνικωτάτην οὖσαν φρόνησιν, ᾗ χρώμενος τὸν πάντα ἐτεχνήσατο κόσμον ὁ αἰθέριος τεχνίτης. ἀπ' αὐτοῦ δὲ τοῦ διήκοντος Διός, τοῦ θερμοτάτου αἰθέρος, ὁ ἀὴρ μέχρι τῶν ἐνταῦθα διικνεῖται τόπων, ἣν ἐπονομάζουσιν Ἥραν. καὶ ὡς δὴ τῆς τοῦ αἰθέρος καθαρωτάτης οὐσίας ὑποβεβηκυῖα, ὡς θήλεια τὴν καθαρότητα, πρὸς σύγκρισιν τοῦ κρείττονος ἀδελφὴ Διὸς κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς ἐνομίσθη, ὡς ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς οὐσίας γεγενημένη· γαμετὴ δὲ διὰ τὸ ὡς γυναῖκα ὑποκεῖσθαι.

κἀγὼ ἀπεκρινάμην· Παρίημι νῦν ἐπ' ἀκριβὲς λέγειν τὸ ἐκ τῆς ἀπείρου ὕλης κατὰ ἐπιτυχίαν κράσεως ἀποκυηθὲν ἔμψυχον ὠόν, οὗ ῥαγέντος κατά τινας ἀρρενόθηλυς ἐξέθορεν Φάνης. καὶ πάντ' ἐκεῖνα ἐπιτέμνομαι, μέχρις οὗ τὸ ῥαγὲν κύτος τὴν ἁρμονίαν ἔλαβεν, ὑπολειφθείσης αὐτοῦ μυελώδους ὕλης.

Rufinus, Recognitions 10.17-20:

aiunt ergo qui sapientiores sunt inter gentiles, primo omnium Chaos fuisse: hoc per multum tempus exteriores sui solidans partes, fines sibi et fundum quendam fecisse, tanquam in ovi immanis modum formamque collectum, intra quod multo nihilominus tempore, quasi intra ovi testam, fotum vivificatumque esse animal quoddam; disruptoque post haec immani illo globo processisse speciem quandam hominis duplicis formae, quam illi masculofeminam vocant; hunc etiam Phaneta[m] nominarunt, ab apparendo, quia cum apparuisset, inquiunt, tunc etiam lux effulsit. et ex hoc dicunt progenitam esse substantiam, prudentiam, motum, coitum: ex his factum Coelum et Terram. ex Coelo sex progenitos mares, quos et Titanas appellant; similiter et de Terra sex feminas, quas Titanidas vocitarunt, et sunt nomina eorum quidem qui ex Coelo orti sunt, haec: Oceanus, Coeus, Crios, Hyperion, Iapetos, Cronos, qui apud nos Saturnus nominatur. similiter et earum quae e Terra ortae sunt nomina sunt haec: Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Tethys, Phoebe.

ex his omnibus qui primus fuerat e Coelo natus, primam Terrae filiam accepit uxorem, secundus secundam et caeteri similiter per ordinem. primus ergo qui primam duxerat, propter eam deductus est deorsum; secunda vero propter eum cui nupserat, ascendit sursum; et ita singuli per ordinem facientes, manserunt in his qui eis nuptiali sorte obvenerant locis. ex istorum coniunctionibus alios quoque innumeros asserunt progenitos. sed de illis sex maribus unus, qui dicitur Saturnus, in coniugium accepit Rheam, et cum responso quodam commonitus esset, quod qui ex ea nasceretur fortior ipso futurus esset regnoque eum depelleret, omnes qui ei nascerentur filios devorare instituit. huic ergo primus nascitur filius, quem Aiden appellarunt, qui apud nos Orcus nominatur, quem pro causis quibus supra diximus assumptum devorat pater. post hunc secundum genuit, quem Neptunum dicunt, quemque simili modo devoravit. novissimum genuit eum, quem Iovem appellant, sed hunc mater miserans Rhea, per artem devoraturo subtrahit patri, et primo quidem ne vagitus pueri innotesceret, Corybantas quosdam cymbala fecit ac tympana percutere, ut obstrepente sonitu vagitus non audiretur infantis.

Sed cum ex uteri imminutione intellexisset pater editum partum, expetebat ad devorandum; tunc Rhea lapidem ei offerens magnum, "hunc genui," inquit. at ille accipiens absorbuit, et lapis devoratus eos quos primo absorbuerat filios, trusit et coegit exire. primus ergo procedens descendit Orcus, et inferiora, hoc est inferna, occupat loca. secundus utpote illo superior super aquas detruditur, is quem Neptunum vocant. tertius qui arte matris Rheae superfuit, ab ipsa caprae superpositus in coelum emissus est.

Hactenus anilis gentilium fabula et genealogia processerit; sine fine enim est, si velim omnes generationes eorum quos deos appellant, et impia gesta proferre.

Kern Fr. 57 — Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 18

Οὐκ ἐξ ἀρχῆς, ὥς φασιν, ἦσαν οἱ θεοί, ἀλλ' οὕτως γέγονεν αὐτῶν ἕκαστος ὡς γιγνόμεθα ἡμεῖς· καὶ τοῦτο πᾶσιν αὐτοῖς ξυμφωνεῖται, Ὁμήρου λέγοντος·

Ὠκεανόν τε, θεῶν γένεσιν, καὶ μητέρα Τηθύν,

Ὀρφέως δέ, ὃς καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα αὐτῶν πρῶτος ἐξηῦρεν καὶ τὰς γενέσεις διεξῆλθεν καὶ ὅσα ἑκάστοις πέπρακται εἶπεν καὶ πεπίστευται παρ' αὐτοῖς ἀληθέστερον θεολογεῖν, ᾧ καὶ Ὅμηρος τὰ πολλὰ καὶ περὶ θεῶν μάλιστα ἕπεται, καὶ αὐτοῦ τὴν πρώτην γένεσιν αὐτῶν ἐξ ὕδατος συνιστάντος·

Ὠκεανός, ὅσπερ γένεσις πάντεσσι τέτυκται.

Ἦν γὰρ ὕδωρ ἀρχὴ κατ' αὐτὸν τοῖς ὅλοις, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ὕδατος ἰλὺς κατέστη, ἐκ δὲ ἑκατέρων ἐγεννήθη ζῷον δράκων προσπεφυκυῖαν ἔχων κεφαλὴν λέοντος, διὰ μέσου δὲ αὐτῶν θεοῦ πρόσωπον, ὄνομα Ἡρακλῆς καὶ Χρόνος. Οὗτος ὁ Ἡρακλῆς ἐγέννησεν ὑπερμέγεθες ᾠόν, ὃ συμπληρούμενον ὑπὸ βίας τοῦ γεγεννηκότος ἐκ παρατριβῆς εἰς δύο ἐρράγη. τὸ μὲν οὖν κατὰ κορυφὴν αὐτοῦ Οὐρανὸς εἶναι ἐτελέσθη, τὸ δὲ κάτω ἐνεχθὲν Γῆ· προῆλθε δὲ καὶ θεὸς τις.

Οὐρανὸς δὲ Γῇ μιχθεὶς γεννᾷ θηλείας μὲν Κλωθώ, Λάχεσιν, Ἄτροπον, ἄνδρας δὲ Ἑκατόγχειρας Κόττον, Γύγην, Βριάρεων καὶ Κύκλωπας, Βρόντην καὶ Στερόπην καὶ Ἄργην· οὓς καὶ δήσας κατεταρτάρωσεν, ἐκπεσεῖσθαι αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τῶν παίδων τῆς ἀρχῆς μαθών. Διὸ καὶ ὀργισθεῖσα ἡ Γῆ τοὺς Τιτᾶνας ἐγέννησεν·

Κούρους δ' Οὐρανίωνας ἐγείνατο πότνια Γαῖα,

οὓς δὴ καὶ Τιτῆνας ἐπίκλησιν καλέουσιν,

οὕνεκα τισάσθην μέγαν Οὐρανὸν ἀστερόεντα.

Kern Fr. 58 — Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 20

Εἰ μὲν οὖν μέχρι τοῦ φῆσαι γεγονέναι τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ ἐξ ὕδατος τὴν σύστασιν ἔχειν τὸ ἀπίθανον ἦν αὐτοῖς τῆς θεολογίας, ἐπιδεδειχὼς ὅτι οὐδὲν γενητὸν ὃ οὐ καὶ διαλυτόν, ἐπὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἂν παρεγενόμην τῶν ἐγκλημάτων. Ἐπεὶ δὲ τοῦτο μὲν διατεθείκασιν αὐτῶν τὰ σώματα, τὸν μὲν Ἡρακλέα, ὅτι θεὸς δράκων ἑλικτός, τοὺς δὲ Ἑκατόγχειρας εἰπόντες, καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα τοῦ Διός, ἣν ἐκ τῆς μητρὸς Ῥέας καὶ Δήμητρος ἢ δημήτορος τὸν αὐτῆς ἐπαιδοποιήσατο, δύο μὲν κατὰ φύσιν ἔχειν ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ μετώπῳ δύο καὶ προτομὴν κατὰ τὸ ὄπισθεν τοῦ τραχήλου μέρος, ἔχειν δὲ καὶ κέρατα, διὸ καὶ τὴν Ῥέαν φοβηθεῖσαν τὸ τῆς παιδὸς τέρας φυγεῖν οὐκ ἐφεῖσαν αὐτῇ τὴν θηλήν, ἔνθεν μυστικῶς μὲν Ἀθηλᾶ κοινῶς δὲ Φερσεφόνη καὶ Κόρη κέκληται, οὐχ ἡ αὐτὴ οὖσα τῇ Ἀθηνᾷ τῇ ἀπὸ τῆς κόρης λεγομένῃ.

τοῦτο δὲ τὰ πραχθέντα αὐτοῖς ἐπ' ἀκριβὲς ὡς οἴονται διεξεληλύθασιν, Κρόνος μὲν ὡς ἐξέτεμεν τὰ αἰδοῖα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ κατέρριψεν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἅρματος καὶ ὡς ἐτεκνοκτόνει καταπίνων τῶν παίδων τοὺς ἄρσενας, Ζεὺς δὲ ὅτι τὸν μὲν πατέρα δήσας κατεταρτάρωσεν, καθὰ καὶ τοὺς υἱεῖς ὁ Οὐρανός, καὶ πρὸς Τιτᾶνας περὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐπολέμησεν καὶ ὅτι τὴν μητέρα Ῥέαν ἀπαγορεύουσαν αὐτοῦ τὸν γάμον ἐδίωκε, δρακαίνης δ' αὐτῆς γενομένης καὶ αὐτὸς εἰς δράκοντα μεταβαλὼν συνδήσας αὐτὴν τῷ καλουμένῳ Ἡρακλειωτικῷ ἅμματι ἐμίγη, τοῦ σχήματος τῆς μίξεως σύμβολον ἡ τοῦ Ἑρμοῦ ῥάβδος, εἶθ' ὅτι Φερσεφόνῃ τῇ θυγατρὶ ἐμίγη βιασάμενος καὶ ταύτην ἐν δράκοντος σχήματι, ἐξ ἧς παῖς Διόνυσος αὐτῷ· ἀνάγκη κἂν τοσοῦτον εἰπεῖν· τί τὸ σεμνὸν ἢ χρηστὸν τῆς τοιαύτης ἱστορίας, ἵνα πιστεύσωμεν θεοὺς εἶναι τὸν Κρόνον, τὸν Δία, τὴν Κόρην, τοὺς λοιπούς; Αἱ διαθέσεις τῶν σωμάτων; Καὶ τίς ἂν ἄνθρωπος κεκριμένος καὶ ἐν θεωρίᾳ γεγονὼς ὑπὸ θεοῦ γεννηθῆναι πιστεύσαι ἔχιδναν Ὀρφεύς·

ἂν δὲ Φάνης ἄλλην γενεὴν τεκνώσατο δεινήν

νηδύος ἐξ ἱερῆς, προσιδεῖν φοβερωπὸν Ἔχιδναν,

ἧς χαῖται μὲν ἀπὸ κρατὸς καλόν τε πρόσωπον

ἦν ἐσιδεῖν, τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ μέρη φοβεροῖο δράκοντος

αὐχένος ἐξ ἄκρου.

ἢ αὐτὸν τὸν Φάνητα δέξαιτο, θεὸν ὄντα πρωτόγονον, οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ ἐκ τοῦ ᾠοῦ προχυθείς, ἢ σχῆμα ἔχειν δράκοντος ἢ καταποθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ Διός, ὅπως ὁ Ζεὺς ἀχώρητος γένοιτο; Εἰ γὰρ μηδὲν διενηνόχασι τῶν φαυλοτάτων θηρίων, δῆλον γὰρ ὅτι ὑποδιαλλάσσειν δεῖ τῶν γηΐνων καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ὕλης ἀποκρινομένων τὸ θεῖον, οὐκ εἰσὶ θεοί. Τί δαὶ καὶ πρόσιμεν αὐτοῖς, ὧν κτηνῶν μὲν δίκην ἔχει ἡ γένεσις, αὐτοὶ δὲ θηριόμορφοι καὶ δυσειδεῖς;

Kern Fr. 59 — Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 32; Tatian, Address to the Greeks 8

Τοὺς μὲν οὖν θαυμαστὸν οὐδὲν λογοποιεῖν περὶ ἡμῶν ἃ περὶ τῶν σφετέρων λέγουσι θεῶν, καὶ γὰρ τὰ πάθη αὐτῶν δεικνύουσι μυστήρια· χρῆν δ' αὐτούς, εἰ δεινὸν τὸ ἐπ' ἀδείας καὶ ἀδιαφόρως μίγνυσθαι κρίνειν ἔμελλον, ἢ τὸν Δία μεμισηκέναι, ἐκ μητρὸς μὲν Ῥέας θυγατρὸς δὲ Κόρης πεπαιδοποιημένον, γυναικὶ δὲ τῇ ἰδίᾳ ἀδελφῇ χρώμενον, ἢ τὸν τούτων ποιητὴν Ὀρφέα, ὅτι καὶ ἀνόσιον ὑπὲρ τὸν Θυέστην καὶ μιαρὸν ἐποίησεν τὸν Δία· καὶ γὰρ οὗτος τῇ θυγατρὶ κατὰ χρησμὸν ἐμίγη, βασιλεῦσαι θέλων καὶ ἐκδικηθῆναι.

Tatian:

Ζεὺς τῇ θυγατρὶ συγγίνεται, καὶ ἡ θυγάτηρ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ κυεῖ. μαρτυρήσει μοι νῦν Ἐλευσὶς καὶ δράκων ὁ μυστικὸς καὶ Ὀρφεύς, ὁ "θύρας δ' ἐπίθεσθε βεβήλοις" λέγων.