Orphica, Fragmenta

12. ἡ δὲ παρὰ τῶι Περιπατητικῶι Εὐδήμωι ἀναγεγραμμένη ὡς τοῦ Ὀρφέως οὖσα Θεολογία πᾶν τὸ νοητὸν ἐσιώπησεν . . . ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς Νυκτὸς ἐποιήσατο τὴν ἀρχήν, ἀφ’ ἧς καὶ Ὅμηρος, εἰ καὶ μὴ συνεχῇ πεποίηται τὴν γενεαλογίαν, ἵστησιν· οὐ γὰρ ἀποδεκτέον Εὐδήμου λέγοντος ὅτι ἀπὸ Ὠκεανοῦ καὶ Τηθύος ἄρχεται [ Ὠκεανόν τε θεῶν γένεσιν καὶ μητέρα Τηθύν]· φαίνεται γὰρ εἰδὼς καὶ τὴν Νύκτα μεγίστην οὕτω θεόν, ὡς καὶ τὸν Δία σέβεσθαι αὐτήν· ἅζετο γὰρ μὴ Νυκτὶ θοῆι ἀποθύμια ῥέζοι. ἀλλ’ Ὅμηρος μὲν καὶ αὐτὸς ἀρχέσθω ἀπὸ Νυκτός. Ἡσίοδος δέ μοι δοκεῖ πρῶτον γενέσθαι τὸ Χάος ἱστορῶν τὴν ἀκατάληπτον τοῦ νοητοῦ καὶ ἡνωμένην παντελῶς φύσιν κεκληκέναι Χάος, τὴν δὲ Γῆν πρώτην ἐκεῖθεν παράγειν ὥς τινα ἀρχὴν τῆς ὅλης γενεᾶς τῶν θεῶν. εἰ μὴ ἄρα Χάος μὲν τὴν δευτέραν τῶν δυεῖν ἀρχῶν Γῆν δὲ καὶ Τάρταρον καὶ Ἔρωτα τὸ τριπλοῦν νοητόν, τὸν μὲν Ἔρωτα ἀντὶ τοῦ τρίτου, ὡς κατὰ ἐπιστροφὴν θεωρουμένην. τοῦτο γὰρ οὕτως ὀνομάζει καὶ Ὀρφεὺς ἐν ταῖς Ῥαψωιδίαις . . . [ ἐν μὲν τοίνυν ταῖς φερομέναις ταύταις Ῥαψωιδίαις Ὀρφικαῖς ἡ θεολογία ἥδε τίς ἐστιν ἡ περὶ τὸ νοητόν, ἣν καὶ οἱ φιλόσοφοι διερμηνεύουσιν, ἀντὶ μὲν τῆς μιᾶς τῶν ὅλων ἀρχῆς τὸν Χρόνον τιθέντες, ἀντὶ δὲ τοῖν δυεῖν Αἰθέρα καὶ Χάος, ἀντὶ δὲ τοὺ ὄντος ἁπλῶς τὸ ὠιὸν ἀπολογιζόμενοι, καὶ τριάδα ταύτην πρώτην ποιοῦντες· εἰς δὲ τὴν δευτέραν τελεῖν ἤτοι τὸ κυούμενον καὶ τὸ κύον ὠιὸν τὸν θεὸν ἢ τὸν ἀργῆτα χιτῶνα ἢ τὴν νεφέλην, ὅτι ἐκ τούτων ἐκθρώσκει ὁ Φάνης· ἄλλοτε γὰρ ἄλλα περὶ τοῦ μέσου φιλοσοφοῦσιν . . . τὴν δὲ τρίτην τὸν Μῆτιν ὡς νοῦν, τὸν Ἠρικεπαῖον ὡς δύναμιν, τὸν Φάνητα αὐτὸν ὡς πατέρα . . . τοιαύτη μὲν ἡ συνήθης Ὀρφικὴ θεολογία. τὴν δὲ τάξιν, ἣν δεδώκαμεν τῶι σφαιρώματι, οἱ Ὀρφικοὶ λέγουσι παραπλησίαν εἶναι τῆι ἐν τοῖς ὠιοῖς· ὃν γὰρ ἔχει λόγον τὸ λέπυρον ἐν τῶι ὠιῶι, τοῦτον ἐν τῶι παντὶ ὁ οὐρανός, καὶ ὡς ἐξήρτηται τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κυκλοτερῶς ὁ αἰθήρ, οὕτως τοῦ λεπύρου ὁ ὑμήν.]

12. The Theology recorded by the Peripatetic Eudemus as being Orpheus' passed over in silence the whole intelligible [order] . . . and made its beginning from Night, from whom Homer too, even if he has not made the genealogy continuous, starts; for we must not accept Eudemus when he says that Homer begins from Ocean and Tethys ['Ocean, origin of the gods, and mother Tethys']; for he evidently knows Night too as so very great a goddess that even Zeus reveres her: 'for he shrank from doing what would displease swift Night'. But let Homer too begin from Night. Hesiod, when he relates that Chaos came into being first, seems to me to have called the incomprehensible and wholly unified nature of the intelligible Chaos, and to bring forth Earth first from there, as a kind of beginning of the whole race of the gods; unless, indeed, [he means] Chaos as the second of the two principles, and Earth, Tartarus and Eros as the threefold intelligible, with Eros in place of the third, as [the intelligible] contemplated in its reversion. For Orpheus too names it so in the Rhapsodies . . . [In these Orphic Rhapsodies that are in circulation, then, the theology concerning the intelligible is something like this, as the philosophers also interpret it: in place of the one principle of all things they set Time; in place of the two, Aether and Chaos; in place of Being simply they reckon the Egg; and they make this the first triad. To the second belongs either the egg, conceived and conceiving the god, or the shining tunic, or the cloud, since from these Phanes leaps forth; for they philosophise differently at different times about the middle one . . . and to the third, Metis as intellect, Erikepaios as power, Phanes himself as father . . . Such is the customary Orphic theology. The arrangement we have given to the sphere, the Orphics say, is very like that in eggs: for the relation the shell has in the egg, the heaven has in the universe; and as the aether hangs in a circle from the heaven, so does the membrane from the shell.]

13. ἡ δὲ κατὰ τὸν Ἱερώνυμον φερομένη καὶ Ἑλλάνικον, 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 . . . 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 αὐτῶ 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 . . . ὁ Χρόνος οὗτος ὁ δράκων γεννᾶται τριπλῆν γονήν· Αἰθέρα, φησί, νοτερὸν καὶ Χάος ἄπειρον καὶ τρίτον ἐπὶ τούτοις Ἕρεβος ὁμιχλῶδες . . . ἀλλὰ μὴν ἐν τούτοις ὁ Χρόνος ὠιὸν ἐγέννησεν . . . 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 . . . καὶ ἥδ’ ἡ θεολογία Πρωτόγονον ἀνυμνεῖ καὶ Δία καλεῖ πάντων διατάκτορα καὶ ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου· διὸ καὶ Πᾶνα καλεῖσθαι. Ὀρφέως δὲ ὃς καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα αὐτῶν [der Götter] 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 ζώιον δράκων προσπεφυκυῖαν ἔχων κεφαλὴν λέοντος 〈καὶ ἄλλην ταύρου〉, διὰ μέσου δὲ αὐτῶν θεοῦ πρόσωπον, ὄνομα Ηρακλῆς 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 Γῇ· προῆλθε δὲ καὶ θεός τις δισώματος. Οὐρανὸς δὲ Γῆι μιχθεὶς γεννᾶι θηλείας μὲν Κλωθὼ 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 τεισάσθην μέγαν Οὐρανὸν ἀστερόεντα.

13. The [theology] handed down under the name of Hieronymus and Hellanicus, if indeed he is not the same man, runs thus: 'There was water,' he says, 'from the beginning, and matter, from which the earth was solidified', positing these two as first principles, water and earth . . . and that the third principle after the two was born from these, I mean water and earth, and was a serpent having heads of a bull and of a lion grown onto it, and in the middle the face of a god, and that it also had wings on its shoulders and was named unageing Time, and also Heracles. With him was Necessity, who is the same nature, and Adrasteia, incorporeal, her arms stretched out through the whole cosmos, touching its limits. This, I think, is said to be the third principle, standing in the place of substance, except that he made it male-female to show the cause that generates all things . . . This Time, the serpent, begets a threefold offspring: moist Aether, he says, and boundless Chaos, and third besides these misty Erebus . . . Further, in these Time begot an egg . . . and third besides these an incorporeal god with golden wings on his shoulders, who had bulls' heads grown onto his flanks, and on his head a monstrous serpent, appearing in all kinds of animal shapes . . . And this theology hymns Protogonos [the First-born] and calls him Zeus, orderer of all things and of the whole cosmos; therefore he is also called Pan. Orpheus, who first discovered their names [those of the gods] and went through their births and told what each of them had done, and who is believed among them to speak more truly about the gods, and whom Homer too follows in most things, especially concerning the gods, also establishes their first origin from water: 'Ocean, who was made the origin for all'. For according to him water was the beginning of all things; from the water mud settled; and from both was born a living creature, a serpent, with a lion's head grown onto it 〈and another, a bull's〉, and between them the face of a god, named Heracles and Time. This Heracles begot an enormous egg, which, filled out by the force of the one who begot it, broke in two from the friction. The part at its top was made to be Heaven, and the part carried downward Earth; and there came forth also a certain two-bodied god. Heaven, uniting with Earth, begets as females Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, and as males the Hundred-handers Cottus, Gyges, Briareus, and the Cyclopes Brontes, Steropes and Arges; these he bound and cast down into Tartarus, having learned that he would be thrown out of his rule by his children. For this reason Earth in anger bore the Titans: 'And lady Earth bore sons to Heaven, whom indeed they call by the name of Titans, because they took vengeance on great starry Heaven.'