ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 147

OTTO KERN

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

DEUS (God)

SUMMARY: This testimony consists of two quotations: the first from the Christian Church-father Tertullian says that Orpheus and other writers were supposed to be Gods; and the second quotation, from the Historia Augusta, says that the Emperor Alexander Severus worshipped Orpheus (and others).

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 147

Quinti Septimi Florentis Tertulliani De Anima 2 p. 301 Reiff.-Wiss.:

plerosque auctores etiam deos existimavit antiquitas, nedum divos, ut Mercurium Aegyptium, cui praecipue Plato adsuevit, ut Silenum Phrygem, cui a pastoribus perducto ingentes aures suas Midas tradidit, ut Hermotimum, cui Clazomenii mortuo templum contulerunt, ut Orpheum, ut Musaeum, ut Pherecydem Pythagorae magistrum.

“because in ancient times most authors were supposed to be (I will not say godlike, but) actually gods: as, for instance, the Egyptian Mercury, to whom Plato paid very great deference; and the Phrygian Silenus, to whom Midas lent his long ears, when the shepherds brought him to him; and Hermotimus, to whom the good people of Clazomenae built a temple after his death; and Orpheus; and Musaeus; and Pherecydes, the master of Pythagoras.”

(trans. Peter Holmes, 1885)

Historia Augusta: Severus Alexander 18.29.2 (SHA rec. Peter I 248):

matutinis horis in larario (solario exc. Palat.) suo, in quo et divos principes sed optimos electos et animas sanctiores, in quis Apollonium et, quantum scriotor suorum temporum dicit, Christum, Abraham et Orpheum et huiuscemodi ceteros (Jordan] huius ceteros BP exc. modi add. ex ., hiusce deos M) habebat ac maiorum effigies, rem divinam faciebat.

“In the early morning hours he would worship in the sanctuary of his Lares, in which he kept statues of the deified emperors — of whom, however, only the best had been selected — and also of certain holy souls, among them Apollonius,​ and, according to a contemporary writer, Christ, Abraham, Orpheus, and others of this same character and, besides, the portraits of his ancestors.”

(trans. David Magie, 1924)

(Geffcken Herm. LV 1920, 282, who supposed that it is used here Ael. Lampridium Firmico Materno Mathes. IV prooem. 5 p. 196, 21 Kroll-Skutsch or in another book of the Neoplatonists.

Find Ὀρφεύς ἡμίθεος “Orpheus demigod” within Δειπνοσοφισταί Ἀθηναίον Ναυκρατίου XIV 632 c (14.32; nr. 46).

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.