ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 30

OTTO KERN

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

THRAX (Thrace or Thracia) [v. also s. Ὀἴαγρος nr. 23)

SUMMARY: This testimony is a collection of references to the Thracian origin of Orpheus.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 30.

Ἄλκηστις Εὐριπίδου 965 nr. 82:

κρεῖσσον οὐδὲν Ἀνάγκας

ηὗρον οὐδέ τι φάρμακον

Θρῄσσαις ἐν σανίσιν, τὰς

Ὀρφεία κατέγραψεν

γῆρυς

“Nothing avails against Fate (Ἀνάγκη, Necessity)

Neither the Thracian tablets

Marked with Orphic symbols”

(trans. Richard Aldington, 1930 but in the Public Domain)

Ὑψιπύλη Εὐριπίδου nrr. 78. 79;

Ῥῆσος Εὐριπίδου anonymous (authorship debated) 943-4:

μυστηρίων τε τῶν ἀπορρήτων φανὰς

ἔδειξεν Ὀρφεύς, αὐτανέψιος νεκροῦ

“and those dark Mysteries with their torch processions

were revealed by Orpheus, cousin of this dead man*”

(trans. E. P. Coleridge, 1891)

*Ῥῆσος, who was slain, was a Thracian king nr. 91;

Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικός nr. 82.

Ἑρμησιάναξ nr. 61.

Φανοκλῆς nr. 7.7.

ψευδής Ἀριστοτέλης Pepl. 48 nr. 124.

Βίοι καὶ γνῶμαι τῶν ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ εὐδοκιμησάντων Διογένους Λαερτίου· προοίμιον I 4 nr. 125.

And many other writers, both Greek and Roman, v. Gruppe in Rosch. III 1078.

Compare also to Aenium (?) nr. 67.

On the Κίκονες (the Cicones) see nr. 197.

On the Ὀδρύσαι (the Odrysians) see nrr. 103. 160. 198,

...besides which the Souda enumerates also:

Ὀρφεύς βασιλεὺς Φραικῶν ἐφ’ οὗ αἱ Ἀμαζόνες ἐδασμολόγησαν Φρύγας.

“Orphéfs (Ὀρφεύς), king of the Thracians, in the time of which the Amazons exacted tribute from the Phrygians.”

(trans. by the author)

Kern Orpheus 15: Whether there may have been extant the ethnic origin of Orpheus in the inscription on the pedestal of Míkythos (Μίκυθος) at Olympus, is uncertain.

On the small Attic vases showing him Thracian v. in addition to Gruppe F. Weber Platon. Notis. in Orpheus 30;

Vürtheim Mnemosyn. XXIX 1901, 199; Kern l. l.; Robert Heldens. I 411 n. 1.

On a very famous bas-relief see nr. 59;

On the small vases which represent Orpheus in the underworld see nr. 69.

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.