THE ORPHIC FRAGMENTS

OF OTTO KERN

17. ΚΑΤΑΒΑΣΙΣ ΕΙΣ ΑΙΔΟΥ

(DESCENT INTO HADES)

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For links to many more fragments: The Orphic Fragments of Otto Kern.

Λόγος Στρώματα Κλήμεντος του Ἀλεξανδρέως I 21, 131, 3 (Orphic Critical Testimony 222:

τήν τε Εἰς Ἅιδου κατάβασιν Προδίκου τοῦ Σαμίου (εἶναι λέγουσι) . . . Ἐπιγένης (nr. 229) δὲ ἐν τοῖς Περὶ τῆς εἰς Ὀρφέα ποιήσεως Κέρκωπος (Orphic Critical Testimony 174) εἶναι λέγει τοῦ Πυθαγορείου τὴν Εἰς Ἅιδου.

“The Descent to Hades (ed. is said to be the production) of Prodicus of Samos . . . Epigenes, in his book respecting The Poetry attributed to Orpheus, says that The Descent to Hades and the Sacred Discourse were the production of Cecrops the Pythagorean.”

(trans. William Wilson, 1885)

Orpheus Kamarinaios, the Souda (Adler number: omicron 658; Orphic Critical Testimony 176):

Ὀρφεὺς Καμαριναῖος· ἐποποιός, οὗ φασιν εἶναι τὴν εἰς Ἅιδου κατάβασιν

“Orpheus Kamarinaios: epic poet, of whom they say wrote The Descent into the Underworld.”

(trans. by the author)

Compare to Προλεγόμενα τοῦ σοφοῦ Ὀρφέως τοῦ Κωνσταντίνου Λάσκαρη in Marmora Taurinensia Augustae Taurinorum 1743, 98 (Orphic Critical Testimony 225):

γεγόνασι δὲ Ὀρφεῖς ἕξ· . . . πέμπτος Καμαριναῖος Σικελιώτης ἐποποιός, οὗ φασιν εἶναι τὴν εἰς Ἅιδην κατάβασιν.

“But there were six Orpheuses: the fifth the Camarinian from Sicily (Καμαριναῖος Σικελιώτης), an epic poet, who, they say, is the composer of the Descent to the Underworld (Εἰς Ἅιδου κατάβασιν).

(trans. by the author)

Souda (Adler number: omicron 654; Orphic Critical Testimony 223 d):

Εἰς Ἅιδου κατάβασιν· ταῦτα Ἡροδίκου τοῦ Περινθίου (Orphic Critical Testimony 199).

“The Descent to the Underworld (Εἰς Ἅιδου κατάβασιν): these (poems) were written by Îródikos (Ἡρóδιĸος) of Pǽrinthos (Πέρινθος)” (Orphic Critical Testimony199).

(trans. by the author)

λόγος Ἰουλιανοὺ Αὐτοκράτορος VII Πρὸς Ἠράκλειον κυνικὸν 216 (I 281, 2 Hertl.):

Πλάτωνι πολλὰ μεμυθολόγηται περὶ τῶν ἐν Ἅιδου πραγμάτων θεολογοῦντι καὶ πρό γε τούτου τῶι τῆς Καλλιόπης.

“Many tales have been told by Plato, in theological works, concerning affairs in Hades, and before this indeed, by the (son) of Kalliópî (Καλλιόπη).”

(trans. by the author)

Compare to Ὀρφέως Ἀργοναυτικὰ 40-42 (Orphic Critical Testimony 224):

ἄλλα δέ σοι κατέλεξ’, ἄπερ εἴσιδον ἠδ’ ἐνόησα,

Ταίναρον ἡνίκ’ ἔβην σκοτίην ὁδὸν Ἄϊδος εἴσω,

ἡμετέρηι πίσυνος κιθάρηι, δι’ ἔρωτ’ ἀλόχοιο

“And I told you other things which I saw and perceived, 40

when at Tainaros (Ταίναρος), the dark road to Áïdis (Ἅϊδης),

trusting in my kithára (κιθάρα), through love of my wife.”

(trans. by the author)

On the Parian Chronicle (Marmor Parium) ep. 14 (Orphic Critical Testimony 221) nothing seems to have been said about the Καταβάσει εἰς Ἅιδου; compare to Felix Jacoby Marmor Parium 7. Holding a different opinion, see Albrecht Dieterich Nekyia 128 n. 1.

Ἠλέκτρα Σοφοκλέους versus 62 ss. seems to have in view this sort of Orphic poetry:

ἤδη γὰρ εἶδον πολλάκις καὶ τοὺς σοφοὺς

λόγωι μάτην θνήισκοντας· εἶθ᾽, ὅταν δόμους

ἔλθωσιν αὖθις, ἐκτετίμηνται πλέον.

“For often before now I have seen clever men

die in false report; then, when they return home,

they are held in greater honor.”

(trans. Sir Richard Jebb, 1894)

Compare to p. 133 of Nekyia by Albrecht Dieterich ^[1], which Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff refuted in a letter sent to Dieterich (v. Nekyia² XII), it is the words of Sophocles referring to Ulysses (compare to the scholium which mentions Pythagoras and Ulysses), whereas Georg Kaibel in commentary 79 thought, along with Eustathius, from Zalmoxis ^[2] (Ζάλευκος Eust.; Ζάλμοξις Wolff). That Κατάβασιν εἰς Ἅιδου of Orpheus is the same poem as Minyas, Karl Otfried Müller in Orchomenos und die Minyer 12 supposed to be the first, with which many educated men at that time agreed, Wilamowitz Homerische Untersuchungen p. 223 s. and Carl Robert Die Nekyia des Polygnot. XVI. Hallisches Winckelmannsprogramm 1892, 84 (Duemmler Delphika 20 = Kl. Schr. II 145). Erwin Rohde in Psyche I⁶ 302 n. 2 correctly disagreed, Albrecht Dieterich l. l. 128 n. 1, Otto Gruppe in Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher’s Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie III 1, 1130 (Otto Kern Orpheus 25 n. 1).

Translator’s notes:

[1] Dieterich, refering to the above quotation from Ἠλέκτρα Σοφοκλέους, says that knowledge of Pythagorean Hades literature must have been available in Athens at the time of the play, but Wilamowitz-Moellendorff disagreed.

[2] That Zalmoxis, according to Herodotus (Ἱστορίαι Ἡροδότου 4.95.1-5), descended to a cave and reemerged after three years.

Christian Lobeck Aglaophamus I 373 s., II 810-818; Eugenius Abel Orphica p. 213-215 (fragments 153-158); Albrecht Dieterich l. l. 72 ss. 128 and at various places; Ernst Maaß Orpheus 112 ss. and at various places; Otto Gruppe l. l. 1130-1132; Eduard Norden P. Virgilius Maro Aeneis Buch VI p. 5. p. 168 ss.; Gustav Neckel Die Überlieferung vom Gotte Balder p. 188.

Βιβλιοθήκη ἱστορικὴ Διοδώρου Σικελιώτου 1.92.3 refers to a poem of this kind:

διὸ καί φασιν Ὀρφέα τὸ παλαιὸν εἰς Αἴγυπτον παραβαλόντα καὶ θεασάμενον τοῦτο τὸ νόμιμον, μυθοποιῆσαι (μυθολογῆσαι D) τὰ καθ´ Ἅιδου, τὰ μὲν μιμησάμενον τὰ δ´ αὐτὸν ἰδίαι πλασάμενον.

“For this reason they insist that Orpheus, having visited Egypt in ancient times and witnessed this custom, merely invented his account of Hades, in part reproducing this practice and in part inventing on his own account.”

(trans. Charles Henry Oldfather, 1933)

Compare earlier in ΙΕΡΟΣ ΛΟΓΟΣ [ΑΙΓΥΠΤΙΟΣ]. Moreover, the doctrine of the Orphics concerning the Underworld has been discussed in many other writiings v. older fragments, Orphic fragments 4—6 and Ἱερῶν λόγων Orphic fragments 121—125. 222. Vestiges of it occur especially also in the Akhmimian Apocalypse of Peter, of which Albrecht Dieterich advances excellently in his book Nekyia. Beitraege zur Erklaerung der neuentdeckten Petrusapokalypse Lipsiae 1893 and 1913². From which place I report from the recension of Erwin Preuschen in Antilegomena. Die Reste der auberkanonischen Evangelien etc. 2. ed. Gissae 1905 p. 84 ss.:

§ 23 καὶ λίμνη τις ἦν μεγάλη πεπληρωμένη βορβόρου (v. fr. 5) φλεγομένου, ἐν ὧι ἦσαν ἄνθρωποί τινες ἀποστρέφοντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην καὶ ἐπέκειντο αὐτοῖς ἄγγελοι βασανισταί,

“And there was a great lake full of flaming mire, wherein were certain men that turned away from righteousness; and angels, tormentors, were set over them.”

(M. R. James, 1924)

§ 24 ἀνωτέρω τοῦ βορβόρο<υ> ἐκείν<ου> τοῦ ἀναπαφλάζοντος·

“above that mire which boiled up”

(M. R. James, 1924)

§ 31 ἐν δὲ ἑτέρα λίμνηι μεγάληι καὶ πεπληρωμένηι πύου καὶ αἵματος καὶ βορβόρου ἀναζέοντος εἱστήκεσαν ἄνδρες καὶ γυναῖκες μέχρι γονάτων,

“And in another great lake full of foul matter (pus) and blood and boiling mire stood men and women up to their knees”

(M. R. James, 1924)

§ 33 καὶ παρὰ τῶι κρημνῶι ἐκείνωι τόπος ἦν πυρὸς πλείστου γέμων κἀκεῖ ἱστήκεισαν ἄνδρες οἵτινες ταῖς ἰδίαις χερσὶ ξόανα ἑαυτοῖς ἐποίησαν ἀντὶ θεοῦ.

“And beside that rock was a place full of much fire, and there stood men which with their own hands had made images for themselves instead of God”

(M. R. James, 1924)

But take care that you do not drag everything which you find in the Apocalypse to the Orphics, so, for example, that which is found here:

§ 26 ἀγάμοις συλλαβούσαις καὶ ἐκτρωσάσαις

“and these were they that conceived out of wedlock (?) and caused abortion”

(M. R. James, 1924)

where, from this case, contradicting Salomon Reinach in Archiv für Religionswissenschaft Vol. 9, 1906, p. 314, Samuel (Sam) Wide rightly judged (otherwise) in the same periodical vol. 12, 1909, p. 227.*

*Reinach believed that this passage reflected a Hellenized view, where Wide saw it as Jewish influence.

The story of the birth of the Gods: Orphic Theogony.

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