Good Works Translation from Ancient Greek

This page translates Kern fragments 153-155 from the Orphic Sacred Discourses in Twenty-Four Rhapsodies. The group gathers three difficult witnesses around Zeus and Kronos: a Christian polemic against divine incest, Porphyry's account of Kronos trapped with honey and bound by Zeus, and Proclus' explanation of Zeus praying to Kronos as the higher source of demiurgic truth.

Translation

Kern Fr. 153 — A Polemical Zeus Genealogy

The Martyrdom of Theodotus of Ancyra and the Seven Virgins with Him says:

For Orpheus, your poet, says that Zeus killed Kronos, his own father, and took his own mother Rhea; and from them Persephone was born, whom he also defiled. He also took his own sister Hera as wife. Apollo too took his own sister Artemis and defiled her on Delos beside the altar. Ares took Aphrodite, and Hephaestus took Athena.

Kern Fr. 154 — Kronos Trapped with Honey

Porphyry says:

In Orpheus, Kronos is ensnared by Zeus with honey. Filled with honey, he becomes drunk and darkened as if by wine, and he falls asleep, just as in Plato Poros falls asleep after being filled with nectar, for wine did not yet exist. For in Orpheus, Night advises Zeus about the honey-trap:

When you see him under the high-leaved oaks,

drunk on the work of loud-buzzing bees,

bind him.

This is what Kronos suffers. Drunk, he is cut as Heaven was cut. The theologian means that divine things are bound by pleasure and led down into generation, and that they scatter powers as seed when loosened into pleasure. So, when Heaven comes down into Earth in desire for union, Kronos cuts him. The pleasure from union is represented among them by honey; struck by this, Kronos is cut. For Kronos, and the sphere of Kronos, is first among the powers opposed to Heaven. Powers come down from Heaven and from the wandering stars. Kronos receives the powers from Heaven, and Zeus receives those from Kronos.

Proclus says:

The cuttings of the father and the bonds are paradigmatic. For Zeus cuts before all else and binds him with unbreakable bonds. The theologians signify these things too when they speak of the Kronian excisions and the bonds with which the maker of all is said to wrap himself, the same bonds that Socrates mentions in the Cratylus.

Kern Fr. 155 — Zeus Prays to Kronos

Proclus says:

Great Kronos gives the beginnings of thoughts from above to the demiurge and presides over the whole demiurgy. Therefore Zeus calls him a daimon in Orpheus:

Set our race upright, most manifest daimon.

Kronos seems to hold within himself the highest causes of gatherings and divisions. Through the heavenly cuttings he brings the noeric wholeness into parts, becomes the cause of generative processions and multiplications, and in general leads the Titanic race, from which the division of beings comes. Through the swallowings, he gathers his own offspring back again, unifies them to himself, and resolves them into his own single and undivided cause.

For the demiurge Zeus receives directly from him the truth of beings, and thinks primarily the things that are in him. Night prophesies to Zeus, but the father does so more directly, and gives him all the measures of the whole demiurgy.

The same verse is also given in other Proclean and Olympiodoran witnesses, and in Damascius, where Zeus prays to his own father:

Set our race upright, most manifest daimon.

Damascius adds that Orpheus fastens the guiding-ropes of the whole demiurgy in Kronos, and that the demiurgic Zeus prays to him. Therefore Kronos directs and sets right the whole world-making.

Colophon

This Good Works translation was made from Otto Kern's Orphicorum fragmenta (Berlin: Weidmann, 1922), frr. 153-155, in the section headed "Hieroi logoi en rhapsodiais ka'." Kern's numbering is retained.

The source witnesses translated here include the Martyrdom of Theodotus, Porphyry, Proclus, Olympiodorus, and Damascius as printed by Kern.

Source Text

Kern Fr. 153 — Martyrdom of Theodotus

Martyrdom of Theodotus of Ancyra and the Seven Virgins with Him:

Ὀρφεὺς γὰρ ὁ ὑμέτερος ποιητὴς λέγει, ὅτι Ζεὺς τὸν Κρόνον τὸν ἴδιον πατέρα ἐφόνευσε καὶ ἔσχε τὴν ἰδίαν μητέρα τὴν Ῥέαν, καὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν γεννᾶται ἡ Περσεφόνη, ἣν καὶ αὐτὴν ἐμίανεν· ἔσχε δὲ καὶ τὴν ἰδίαν ἀδελφὴν Ἥραν γυναῖκα. καὶ Ἀπόλλων δὲ τὴν ἰδίαν ἀδελφὴν ἔσχεν Ἄρτεμιν, ἣν καὶ ἐμίανεν ἐν Δήλῳ παρὰ τῷ βωμῷ. καὶ ὁ Ἄρης δὲ τὴν Ἀφροδίτην. καὶ ὁ Ἥφαιστος τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν.

Kern Fr. 154 — Porphyry and Proclus

Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs:

παρὰ δὲ τῷ Ὀρφεῖ ὁ Κρόνος μέλιτι ὑπὸ Διὸς ἐνεδρεύεται· πλησθεὶς γὰρ μέλιτος μεθύει καὶ σκοτοῦται ὡς ὑπὸ οἴνου καὶ ὑπνοῖ, ὡς παρὰ Πλάτωνι ὁ Πόρος τοῦ νέκταρος πλησθείς· οὔπω γὰρ οἶνος ἦν. φησὶ γὰρ παρ᾽ Ὀρφεῖ ἡ Νὺξ τῷ Διὶ ὑποτιθεμένη τὸν διὰ μέλιτος δόλον·

εὖτ᾽ ἂν δή μιν ἴδηαι ὑπὸ δρυσὶν ὑψικόμοισιν

ἔργοισιν μεθύοντα μελισσάων ἐριβόμβων,

δῆσον

αὐτόν.

ὃ καὶ πάσχει ὁ Κρόνος, καὶ μεθυσθεὶς ἐκτέμνεται ὡς ὁ Οὐρανός, τοῦ θεολόγου δι᾽ ἡδονῆς δεσμεῖσθαι καὶ κατάγεσθαι τὰ θεῖα εἰς γένεσιν αἰνισσομένου, ἀποσπερματίζειν τε δυνάμεις εἰς ἡδονὴν ἐκλυθέντα. ὅθεν ἐπιθυμίᾳ μὲν συνουσίας τοῦ Οὐρανοῦ κατιόντα εἰς Γῆν ἐκτέμνει Κρόνος· ταὐτὸ δὲ τῇ ἐκ συνουσίας ἡδονῇ παρίσταται αὐτοῖς ἡ τοῦ μέλιτος, ὑφ᾽ οὗ γοητευθεὶς ὁ Κρόνος ἐκτέμνεται. πρῶτος γὰρ τῶν ἀντιφερομένων τῷ Οὐρανῷ ὁ Κρόνος ἐστὶ καὶ ἡ τούτου σφαῖρα· κάτεισι δὲ δυνάμεις ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν πλανωμένων. ἀλλὰ τὰς μὲν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ δέχεται Κρόνος, τὰς δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ Κρόνου Ζεύς.

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

παραδειγματικαὶ δὲ αἱ τομαὶ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ οἱ δεσμοί· καὶ γὰρ τέμνει πρὸ τῶν πάντων ἐκεῖνον καὶ δεσμοῖ τοῖς ἀρρήκτοις δεσμοῖς, ταῦτα καὶ τῶν θεολόγων αἰνιττομένων, ὁπόταν λέγωσι τάς τε Κρονίας ἐκτομὰς καὶ τοὺς δεσμούς, οἷς ἑαυτὸν λέγεται περιβάλλειν ὁ τοῦ παντὸς ποιητής, ὧν καὶ ὁ ἐν Κρατύλῳ διαμνημονεύει Σωκράτης.

Kern Fr. 155 — Proclus, Olympiodorus, and Damascius

Proclus, on Plato's Cratylus:

καὶ γὰρ ὁ μέγιστος Κρόνος ἄνωθεν τὰς τῶν νοήσεων ἀρχὰς ἐνδίδωσι τῷ δημιουργῷ καὶ ἐπιστατεῖ τῆς ὅλης δημιουργίας· διὸ καὶ δαίμονα αὐτὸν ὁ Ζεὺς καλεῖ παρ᾽ Ὀρφεῖ·

ὄρθου δ᾽ ἡμετέρην γενεήν, ἀριδείκετε δαῖμον.

καὶ ἔοικεν τῶν συναγωγῶν καὶ τῶν διαιρέσεων τὰς ἀκροτάτας αἰτίας ἔχειν παρ᾽ ἑαυτῷ ὁ Κρόνος, διὰ μὲν τῶν οὐρανίων τομῶν προάγων εἰς τὰ μέρη τὴν ὁλότητα τὴν νοερὰν καὶ προόδων γεννητικῶν καὶ πολλαπλασιασμῶν αἴτιος γινόμενος καὶ ὅλως τῆς Τιτανικῆς γενεᾶς ἡγούμενος, ἀφ᾽ ἧς ἡ διαίρεσις τῶν ὄντων, διὰ δὲ τῶν καταπόσεων συνάγων τὰ ἑαυτοῦ πάλιν γεννήματα καὶ ἑνίζων πρὸς ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀναλύων εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ μονοειδῆ καὶ ἀμέριστον αἰτίαν.

ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ δημιουργὸς Ζεὺς παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ προσεχῶς ὑποδέχεται τὴν ἀλήθειαν τῶν ὄντων καὶ νοεῖ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ πρώτως· μαντεύει μὲν γὰρ αὐτῷ καὶ ἡ Νύξ, ἀλλ᾽ ὁ πατὴρ προσεχῶς, καὶ πάντα τὰ μέτρα τῆς ὅλης δημιουργίας αὐτῷ ἐνδίδωσιν.

Proclus, on Plato's Timaeus:

πρὸς δὲ τὸν Κρόνον πάλιν μετὰ τοὺς δεσμοὺς μόνον οὐκ εὐχόμενός φησιν·

ὄρθου δ᾽ ἡμετέρην γενεήν, ἀριδείκετε δαῖμον.

Olympiodorus, on Plato's Alcibiades:

καὶ Ὀρφεὺς τὸν Δία ποιεῖ πρὸς τὸν οἰκεῖον πατέρα λέγοντα·

ὄρθου δ᾽ ἡμετέρην γενεήν, ἀριδείκετε δαῖμον.

Damascius, On First Principles:

οὐχὶ δὲ καὶ Ὀρφεὺς ἐν τῷ Κρόνῳ ἐξάπτει τὰ πείσματα τῆς ὅλης δημιουργίας, ὅ γε τοι δημιουργικὸς Ζεὺς καὶ εὔχεται πρὸς αὐτόν·

ὄρθου δ᾽ ἡμετέρην γενεήν, ἀριδείκετε δαῖμον.

ἀπευθύνει ἄρα καὶ ἀνορθοῖ τὴν ὅλην κοσμοποιίαν.