ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 200

OTTO KERN

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


SUMMARY: This testimony, from the Christian church-father Clement of Alexandria, offers the name Prodicus of Samos as the author of The Descent into the Underworld, but this seems to be a mistake derived from a text which corrupted the name Herodicus into Prodicus.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 200

Prodicus of Samos? (the author of) Εἰς Ἅιδου κατάβασις, (a conjecture by) Clement of Alexandria, which seems to have arisen solely from a poem of Herodicus of Perinthus on the same subject, in having corrupted the name ΗΡΟΔΙΚΟΥ (“of Herodicus”) into ΠΡΟΔΙΚΟΥ (“of Prodicus”) and then with the addition of the ethnic Σαμίου (“of Samos”) (Paul Tannery Revue de philosophie XXI 1897, 192 n. 2). I went astray in Orpheus p.18.

See v. Cercops nr. 174, Herodicus nr. 199, Orpheus of Camarina nr. 176.


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.