ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 44

OTTO KERN

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


SUMMARY: This testimony claims that Orpheus was taught by Moses, who the Greeks called Musaeus, this idea coming from the Jewish historian Artapanus of Alexandria.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 44.

Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Πολυΐστωρ ἐξ Ἀρταπάνου Ἰουδαίου (Christ Abhdlgn. bayer. Akad. XXI 1901, 464) as summarized in Εὑαγγελικὴ προπαρασκευὴ Εὐσεβίου IX 27 p. 432 a (I 499, 8 Dind.):

ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν Ἑλλήνων αὐτὸν (Μώϋσον) ἀνδρωθέντα Μουσαῖον προσαγορευθῆναι. γενέσθαι δὲ τὸν Μώϋσον τοῦτον Ὀρφέως διδάσκαλον. ἀνδρωθέντα δ᾽ αὐτὸν πολλὰ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις εὔχρηστα παραδοῦναι·

“but by the Greeks he (Moses) was called, when grown to manhood, Musaeus. And this Moses, they said, was the teacher of Orpheus; and when grown up he taught mankind many useful things.”

(trans. E. H. Gifford, 1903)


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.