ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 257

OTTO KERN

HellenicGods.org

HOME GLOSSARY RESOURCE ART LOGOS CONTACT

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

IN AMPHITHEATRO (IN THE AMPHITHEATER)

SUMMARY: This testimony, from On the Spectacles by Martial, presents a critique of a play about Orpheus which Martial attended.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 257

Marci Valerii Martialis De Spectaculis Liber 21:

quidquid in Orpheo Rhodope spectasse theatro dicitur, exhibuit, Caesar, harena tibi. repserunt scopuli mirandaque silva cucurrit, quale fuisse nemus creditur Hesperidum. affuit immixtum pecori genus omne ferarum et supra vatem multa pependit avis, ipse sed ingrato iacuit laceratus ab urso. haec tantum, haec res est facta ita, ficta prior.*

“Everything which is said to have been seen on the stage of Orpheus in Thrace, the scene is presented to you, oh Caesar: Rocks crawled, a wonderful forest ran, such as the forest of the Hesperides is thought to have been. Every race of wild beasts were present, intermingled with the domestic, and many a bird was suspended above the poet, but he himself lie dead, torn to pieces by a disagreeable bear. Only this event is fabricated in such a way, (from how it was) originally composed*.”

(trans. by the author)

*Translator’s note: This last line is corrupt and various corrections have been proposed by A. E. Housman and others, but I managed a reasonable translation. The meaning being that the story of a bear destroying the poet is not original to the myths about the death of the Orpheus.

And Marci Valerii De Spectaculis Liber 21b:

Orphea quod subito tellus emisit hiatu, versa miramur?* — venit ab Eurydice.

“Somehow the earth suddenly opened and sent forth a bear, crushing Orpheus; it came from Eurydice.”

(trans. by the author)

*Translator’s note: Another corrupt text: versa miramur was amended by A. E. Housman to ursam mersuram (Classical Review XV 154) but he later rejected that idea and suggested instead ursam elisuram (Journal of Philology, vol. XXX, no. 60) which is how I translated it.

Ludwig Friedlaender Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms in the revision by Georg Wissowa II⁹ 91.

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.