Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 169-171 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group continues the Zeus-body hymn after the swallowing of Phanes: Zeus knows and provides for all things, the gods and living beings dwell within his sight, Proclus names the great Bromios and Zeus the all-seer together, and Gregory Nazianzen preserves a hostile witness to the Orphic story of Zeus swallowing the gods.

Translation

Kern Fr. 169 — Zeus Knows and Provides for All

Aristocritus preserves a Syrianus oracle-like passage:

One power, one begetter-daemon, great ruler of all;

one royal body, in which all these things turn:

fire and water and earth and aether, Night and Day,

and Metis, first birth-giver, and Eros rich in delight.

For all these things lie in the great body of Zeus.

He alone understands all things, and provides for all things in godlike fashion.

Everywhere, in the eyes of Zeus, father and lord,

deathless gods and mortal human beings dwell,

beasts and birds too, and whatever breathes and creeps.

Nor do the short-lived tribes of human beings escape him anywhere,

as many as act unjustly, nor, in the mountains, do wild beasts escape him:

four-footed, shaggy-haired, storm-spirited.

Kern Fr. 170 — Bromios the Great and Zeus the All-Seer

Proclus, commenting on Plato's Timaeus, says that the theologian long ago hymned the demiurgic cause in Phanes, "for there it was and was present beforehand," as the theologian himself said:

Bromios the great, and Zeus the all-seer,

so that he might have, as it were, the springs of the twofold demiurgy. In Zeus, Proclus says, the theologian also hymned the paradigmatic cause, for Zeus too is Metis, as the verse says, "and Metis ... rich in delight." Dionysus himself, Phanes, and Erikepaios are named continuously.

In his commentary on the First Alcibiades, Proclus adds that it is better to join both arguments together: Eros is in Zeus. Metis is first begetter, and Eros rich in delight; Eros proceeds from Zeus and first subsists together with Zeus among the intelligibles. There, as Orpheus says, Zeus is the all-seer and gracious Eros. They are therefore akin to one another; rather, they are united with one another, and each is friendly to the other.

Kern Fr. 171 — Zeus Swallows the Gods

Gregory Nazianzen, arguing against Greek theology, says that the gods and daimons honored among the Greeks need no accusers from outside. They are caught by their own theologians: some passionate, some factious, full of evils and changes, set not only against one another but also against the first causes, which they call Oceans and Tethyses and Phaneses, and whatever other names.

At the end, Gregory says, they name a child-hating god who, out of love of rule, swallows all the others through greed, so that he may become the father of all men and gods, while they are wretchedly eaten and vomited up.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 169-171, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

Kern notes that fr. 169 lines 1-5 repeat the opening cosmic-body lines of fr. 168 with variants. The source witnesses translated here are Aristocritus, Proclus, and Gregory Nazianzen as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 169 — Aristocritus

Aristocritus:

ἓν κράτος, εἷς δαίμων γενέτης μέγας, ἀρχὸς ἁπάντων,

ἓν δὲ δέμας βασίλειον, ἐν ὧι τάδε πάντα κυκλοῦται,

πῦρ καὶ ὕδωρ καὶ γαῖα καὶ αἰθήρ, νύξ τε καὶ ἦμαρ

καὶ Μῆτις, πρώτη γένετις, καὶ Ἔρως πολυτερπής.

πάντα γὰρ ἐν Ζηνὸς μεγάλωι τάδε σώματι κεῖται,

πάντα μόνος δὲ νοεῖ πάντων προνοεῖ τε θεουδῶς·

πάντηι δὲ Ζηνὸς καὶ ἐν ὄμμασι πατρὸς ἄνακτος

ναίουσ᾽ ἀθάνατοί τε θεοὶ θνητοί τε ἄνθρωποι,

θῆρές τ᾽ οἰωνοί θ᾽ ὁπόσα πνείει τε καὶ ἕρπει.

οὐδέ ἑ που λήθουσιν ἐφήμερα φῦλ᾽ ἀνθρώπων,

ὅσσ᾽ ἀδίκως ῥέζουσί περ, οὐδ᾽ εἰν οὔρεσι θῆρες

ἄγριοι, τετράποδες, λασιότριχες, ὀμβριμόθυμοι.

Kern Fr. 170 — Proclus

Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus:

πάλαι γὰρ ὁ θεολόγος ἔν τε τῶι Φάνητι τὴν δημιουργικὴν αἰτίαν ἀνύμνησεν· ἐκεῖ γὰρ ἦν τε καὶ προῆν, ὥσπερ ἔφη καὶ αὐτός·

Βρόμιός τε μέγας καὶ Ζεὺς ὁ πανόπτης,

ἵνα δὴ τῆς διττῆς δημιουργίας ἔχηι τὰς οἱονεὶ πηγάς· καὶ ἐν τῶι Διὶ τὴν παραδειγματικήν· Μῆτις γὰρ αὖ καὶ οὗτός ἐστιν, ὡς φησι· καὶ Μῆτις . . . πολυτερπής, αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ Διόνυσος καὶ Φάνης καὶ Ἠρικεπαῖος συνεχῶς ὀνομάζεται.

Proclus, Commentary on the First Alcibiades:

κάλλιον δὲ συνάπτειν ἀμφοτέρους τοὺς λόγους· ἐν γὰρ τῶι Διὶ ὁ Ἔρως ἐστί. καὶ γὰρ Μῆτις ἐστὶ πρώτως γενέτωρ καὶ Ἔρως πολυτερπής, καὶ ὁ Ἔρως πρόεισιν ἐκ τοῦ Διὸς καὶ συνυπέστη τῶι Διὶ πρώτως ἐν τοῖς νοητοῖς· ἐκεῖ γὰρ ὁ Ζεὺς ὁ πανόπτης ἐστὶ καὶ ἁβρὸς Ἔρως, ὡς Ὀ. φησίν. συγγενῶς οὖν ἔχουσι πρὸς ἀλλήλους, μᾶλλον δὲ ἥνωνται ἀλλήλοις καὶ φίλιος αὐτῶν ἑκάτερός ἐστι.

Kern Fr. 171 — Gregory Nazianzen

Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 31:

οἵ τε παρ᾽ Ἑλλήνων σεβόμενοι θεοί τε καὶ δαίμονες, ὡς αὐτοὶ λέγουσιν, οὐδὲν ἡμῶν δέονται κατηγόρων, ἀλλὰ τοῖς σφῶν αὐτῶν ἁλίσκονται θεολόγοις, ὡς μὲν ἐμπαθεῖς, ὡς δὲ στασιώδεις, ὅσων δὲ κακῶν γέμοντες καὶ μεταβολῶν· καὶ οὐ πρὸς ἀλλήλους μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς τὰς πρώτας αἰτίας ἀντιθέτως ἔχοντες· οὓς δὴ καὶ Ὠκεανοὺς καὶ Τηθύας καὶ Φάνητας καὶ οὐκ οἶδα οὕστινας ὀνομάζουσι· καὶ τελευταῖόν τινα θεὸν μισότεκνον διὰ φιλαρχίαν, πάντας καταπίνοντα τοὺς ἄλλους ἐξ ἀπληστίας, ἵνα γένηται πάντων ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε πατήρ, δυστυχῶς ἐσθιομένων καὶ ἐμουμένων.