ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 59

OTTO KERN

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


CONIUGES: (Wives:)

ANONYMAE (Anonymous)

SUMMARY: This testimony consists of two quotations from plays of Euripides which say that Orpheus had enormous skill in poetry and song.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 59.

Ἄλκηστις Εὐριπίδου (performed in 438 BCE) 357 (v. nr. 50):

εἰ δ᾽ Ὀρφέως μοι γλῶσσα καὶ μέλος παρῆν,

ὥστ᾽ ἢ (Reisk.] ὡς τὴν codd.) κόρην Δήμητρος ἢ κείνης πόσιν

ὕμνοισι κηλήσαντά σ᾽ ἐξ Ἅιδου λαβεῖν,

κατῆλθον ἄν.

“Ah! If I had the tongue and song of Orpheus so that I might charm Demeter’s Daughter or her Lord, and snatch you back from Hades, I would go down to hell.”

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

Μήδεια Εὐριπίδου (performed in 431 BCE) 543:

(εἴη δ᾽ ἔμοιγε μήτε χρυσὸς ἐν δόμοις)

μήτ’ Ὀρφέως κάλλιον ὑμνῆσαι μέλος,

(εἰ μὴ ‘πίσημος ἡ τύχη γένοιτό μοι.)

“(Give me no gold within my halls,)

nor skill to sing a fairer strain than ever Orpheus sang,

(unless there-with my fame be spread abroad!)”

(trans. Edward Philip Coleridge, 1910)

A most beautiful bas relief from about the same time: Reisch Griechische Weihgesch. 132; Kern Orpheus 13; Robert Heldens. I 400 n. 4.


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.

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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.

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