ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 214

OTTO KERN

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


SUMMARY: This testimony, from the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius, identifies some of the purificatory practices and dietary restrictions of the Pythagoreans (who are thought of as Orphic).

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 214

Βίοι καὶ γνῶμαι τῶν ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ εὐδοκιμησάντων Διογένους Λαερτίου VIII 33 (Alexander Polyhistor Φιλοσόφων διαδοχαί “successions of philosophers”) by an anonymous Pythagorean from the time of the 4th century BCE (M. Wellmann Herm. LIV 1919, 225. 248):

τὴν δ’ ἁγνείαν εἶναι διὰ καθαρμῶν καὶ λουτρῶν καὶ περιρραντηρίων καὶ διὰ τοῦ καθαρεύειν ἀπό τε κήδους καὶ λεχοῦς καὶ μιάσματος παντὸς καὶ ἀπέχεσθαι βρωτῶν θνησειδίων τε κρεῶν καὶ τριγλῶν καὶ μελανούρων καὶ ὠιῶν καὶ τῶν ὠιοτόκων ζώιων καὶ κυάμων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὧν παρακελεύονται καὶ οἱ τὰς τελετὰς ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς ἐπιτελοῦντες.

“Also, that a state of purity is brought about by purifications, and washings, and sprinklings, and by a man’s purifying himself from all funerals, or concubinage, or pollution of every kind, and by abstaining from all flesh that has either been killed or died of itself, and from mullets, and from melanuri (ed. a type of fish), and from eggs, and from such animals as lay eggs, and from beans, and from other things which are prohibited by those who have the charge of the mysteries in the temples.”

(trans. Charles Duke Yonge, 1853)

V. also from the Orpheus of Antiphanes fr.180 K.:

βύστραν τιν’ ἐκ φύλλων τινῶν.

“a plug (ed. like a cork) made of certain leaves”

For comparison Ἡσυχίου Λεξικόν s.:

βύστραι· αἱ τῶν λαχάνων ἐνθέσεις. ἔνιοι δὲ τοὺς ἐκ τῶν λαχάνων ψωμούς.

Lexicon entry: “βύστραι: mouthfuls* of vegetables. But some (say) out of morsels of vegetables.”

*or “insertions.”

About beans see v. nr. 219.


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.