ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 201

OTTO KERN

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


ASIAE (Of Asia) (Translator’s note: Miletus, on the western coast of Anatolia, was part of what is called Asia Minor.

SUMMARY: This testimony, from the Byzantine encyclopedia the Souda, says that Persinus of Miletus wrote the Soteria “Poems of Deliverance.”

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 201

The Souda:

Σωτήρια· ταῦτα (Τιμοκλέους τοῦ Συρακουσίου) λέγεται ἢ Περσίνου τοῦ Μιλησίου.

Poems of Deliverance: these poems are said to be (of Timoklís [Τιμοκλῆς] the Syracusan) or by Pærsínos (Περσῖνος) the Milesian.”

(trans. by the author)

Pærsínos of Mílîtos (Μίλητος), whom Obrecht (v. Christian Lobeck Aglaophamus I 359; Erwin Rohde Psyche II6 107 n.) deems --- not unworthy of truth --- to be the same Pærsínos the poet, a relative of (the tyrant) Évvoulos (Εὔβουλος) of Atarnéfs (Ἀταρνεύς) (Poll. IX 93).

v. Timocles of Syracuse nr. 178.

Flavius Mallius Theodorus De metris liber IV 589, 20 K.:

Metrum dactylicum hexametrum inventum primitus ab Orpheo Critias (nr. 106) adserit, Democritus (Hermann Diels Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker I3 66 n. 16) a Musaeo, Persinus a Lino, permulti ab Homero.

“Critias (nr. 106) asserts that the dactylic hexameter is a meter first invented by Orpheus; Democritus (Hermann Diels Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker I3 66 n. 16) says by Musaeus; Persinus says by Linos; very many say by Homer.”

(trans. by the author)

Bergk PLG III4 655.


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.