ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 138

OTTO KERN

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

APUD INFEROS POST MORTEM (In the Underworld after his death; v. see also nrr. 59-67. 69-75)

SUMMARY: This testimony, from the Apology of Plato, implies that Socrates thought that the soul of Orpheus is now in the Underworld and that should he die, he could converse with him there.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 138

Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους Πλάτωνος 41 a:

εἰ γάρ τις ἀφικόμενος εἰς Ἅιδου, ἀπαλλαγεὶς τουτωνὶ τῶν φασκόντων δικαστῶν εἶναι, εὑρήσει τοὺς ὡς ἀληθῶς δικαστάς, οἵπερ καὶ λέγονται ἐκεῖ δικάζειν, Μίνως τε καὶ Ῥαδάμανθυς καὶ Αἰακὸς καὶ Τριπτόλεμος καὶ ἄλλοι ὅσοι τῶν ἡμιθέων δίκαιοι ἐγένοντο ἐν τῶι ἑαυτῶν βίωι, ἆρα φαύλη ἂν εἴη ἡ ἀποδημία; ἢ αὖ Ὀρφεῖ συγγενέσθαι καὶ Μουσαίωι καὶ Ἡσιόδωι καὶ Ὁμήρωι ἐπὶ πόσωι ἄν τις δέξαιτ᾽ ἂν ὑμῶν.

“If indeed when the pilgrim arrives in the world below, he is delivered from the professors of justice in this world, and finds the true judges who are said to give judgment there, Minos and Rhadamanthus and Aeacus and Triptolemus, and other sons of God who were righteous in their own life, that pilgrimage will be worth making. What would not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer?”

(trans. Benjamin Jowett, 1892)

σχόλιον Πρόκλου επὶ Πολιτείας Πλάτωνος II 312, 16 and 328, 19 William Kroll; v. Συμπόσιον Πλάτωνος 179 d nr. 60.

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

We know the various qualities and characteristics of the Gods based on metaphorical stories: Mythology.

Dictionary of terms related to ancient Greek mythology: Glossary of Hellenic Mythology.

Introduction to the Thæí (the Gods): The Nature of the Gods.

How do we know there are Gods? Experiencing Gods.