ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 3
OTTO KERN
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For links to many more fragments: The Orphic Fragments of Otto Kern.
SUMMARY: This testimony, from the geographer Pausanias, says there was a wooden statue of Orpheus, created by Pelasgians, in a sanctuary dedicated to Eleusinian Demeter in the district of Theras in the Peloponnese.
ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 145
In the district of Thíras (Θήρας) (of Ταΰγετον) in the sanctuary of Eleusinian Demeter Ἑλλάδος Περιήγησις Παυσανίου 3.20.5 (Λακωνία):
Ταλετοῦ δὲ τὸ μεταξὺ καὶ Εὐόρα Θήρας ὀνομάζοντες Λητώ φασιν ἀπὸ τῶν ἄκρων τοῦ Ταϋγέτου ... Δήμητρος ἐπίκλησιν Ἐλευσινίας ἐστὶν ἱερόν· ἐνταῦθα Ἡρακλέα Λακεδαιμόνιοι κρυφθῆναί φασιν ὑπὸ Ἀσκληπιοῦ τὸ τραῦμα ἰώμενον· καὶ Ὀρφέως ἐστὶν ἐν αὐτῶι ξόανον, Πελασγῶν ὥς φασιν ἔργον.
“Between Taletum and Euoras is a place they name Therae, where they say Leto from the Peaks of Taygetus ... is a sanctuary of Demeter surnamed Eleusinian. Here according to the Lacedaemonian story Heracles was hidden by Asclepius while he was being healed of a wound. In the sanctuary is a wooden image of Orpheus, a work, they say, of Pelasgians.”
(trans. W. H. S. Jones, 1918)
Samuel Wide Lakonische Kulte 295.
Concerning the coins of Alexandria and Thrace see v. B. Pick Archaeol. Jahrb. XIII 1898, 135 tab. X (nr. 33); of jewels see Furtwaengler Antike Gemmen II p. 69. 309.
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.